GENBRIT-L Archives

Archiver > GENBRIT > 2001-04 > 0986373334


From: Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake <>
Subject: Re: burial ground project & CHALLENGE
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 09:35:34 +0100
References: <3ACA4DF0.E4D07143@virgin.net>


In article <>, Guy Etchells
<> writes
>I fail to see why the idea should be unworkable everyone has overheads
>and costs Family History Societies are not unique in that respect, I
>have not asked for all FHS projects to be made available online for free
>that would be unreasonable and extremely foolish.
>
Just this one! If you had met as many FHS Committee members as I have
you would know that terms like Luddite and conservative are advanced
compared to many of them. The expression 'the thin end of the wedge'
will be employed by them. Many FHSs have yet to embrace the web since
their committees either don't understand it or say they cannot afford
it. And before anyone comments that web space can be had for free in the
UK, these free offers are not appropriate for most FHS sites ( no
commercial activity; no database possibility; no CGI scripts etc.). Many
FHS sites are hosted on University servers that do not allow them to
conduct commercial transactions or advertise, for example the Society of
which I am Chairman. We got their website going because one member had
the time, energy and skill to set it up and fortunately he works for the
Open University and managed to persuade his bosses that it was a
community project worthy of the OU's support. There is a great deal of
free information on the site, but not specifically MI transcriptions
because at the moment all the Society's volunteer effort is focussed on
census transcriptions and other groups have already done a lot of the
county's MIs. The website and the county mailing list (which is not
specific to this Society) do indeed act as magnets to those researching
their ancestry in the county to join. In short, there are many ways of
using the Internet to attract new members besides the one you advocate.
--
Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake

Drake Software web site: http://www.tdrake.demon.co.uk

This thread: