USGenWeb Project

An Internet resource that I have not mentioned lately is the USGenWeb Project. This project began as an idea by a man named Jeff Murphy about 1996 as a way to gather important information and data for genealogists into one web site for Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Jeff was quickly joined by others to do the same in each county of Kentucky. As word spread others jumped in to begin other state projects and in early 1996, the USGenWeb Project was in a race to see which state would be first to have a county coordinator for every county in the state.


Around April of 1996, I read an interview of Jeff Murphy in Everton's web page via AOL, I was very impressed and volunteered to be a county coordinator for LaRue Co, KY that was available. I did not know anything about creating & maintaining web sites (I often stated that I did not know my FTP from my HTML). I was taught in about 4 weeks how to make web pages all by email from Holly Fee Timm. It did not take long for every state to have a County Coordinator (CC) for every county in the United States. Although there are some minimum standards required for each county, the CC's put up data as they submit and other researchers submit. So, the information for each county is significantly different. Besides data, you often can learn where to research in the county, hours for the library or courthouse, maybe a list of the cemeteries (sometimes including photos of the tombstones), etc.

Now, that every county is online, the goal is to keep them updated. The project has always been free to all researchers and will remain that way.

Here are links to the project:
USGenWeb Project - http://www.usgenweb.org/
ILGenWeb Project - http://ilgenweb.net/
INGenWeb Project - http://www.ingenweb.org/
KYGenWeb Project - http://www.kygenweb.net/

- Compiled by JGWest

"New Breckinridge Co., KYGenWeb County Coordinator"

Breckinridge County, KYGenWeb Project is under a new County Coordinator (CC). The KYGenWeb Project is part of the USGenWeb and was the fore-runner of the entire concept established by the late Jeff Murphy in 1996. I read an article about his idea in the Everton's Online Newsletter http://www.everton.com/b/index.html and thought that his idea was a great one. I wrote him an email and volunteered to be a CC in Kentucky... LaRue County was available (many of my ancestors were from there, as well as, most of the surrounding counties). I had to learn how to build a web page using HTML coding and learn the code via email from Nancy Trice & Holly Timm, by the end of the summer of 1996, I had my LaRue Co., KYGenWeb page online! The next year, I became the CC of Breckinridge & Grayson Counties, as well, with LaRue & Grayson always seeming to get more of my time and contributions from researchers to add to the sites. As time went on Dana Brown took over the KYGenWeb Breckinridge Co. Archives which was designed basically to collect research data, while the Project page was designed more for resources, queries, and look-ups. Dana has been very successful in getting volunteers to submit and, even better, type data for inclusion in the archives. After about 10 years of serving as a KYGenWeb CC, I knew that it was time for me to give up the CC position and get someone that would be able to spend more time and do a better job... I wanted Dana to take the post, but she was reluctant due to limited web building skills. So, I waited for her to become more experienced. I actually got another volunteer earlier this year who had to back out. I finally decided that it was way past due for me to retire and requested the State Coordinator to put my sites up for adoption. Thankfully, Dana answered the call to become the new county coordinator!!! She has modernized my out-dated web pages with some very nice looking backgrounds and graphics. In just a few days she has added a lot of new material and this site will be one of the best for researchers. I was never into track sports, but I know that when your relay team is in good position, it is really nice to know that you are handing the "baton" onto a faster, better runner. Thanks to Dana our Breckinridge Co., KY team will finish very well in helping genealogical researchers for that area of Kentucky.

Here are links to the Breckinridge sites:

Breckinridge Co., KYGenWeb ~ http://kykinfolk.com/breckinridge/

and the Breckinridge Co., KYGenWeb Archives ~ http://www.usgwarchives.org/ky/breckinridge/toc.html

Go visit both! - Reported by John G. West