WALL-L Archives

From: Tim Walls <>
Subject: [WALL] In support of WALL Paper
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 11:09:50 -0400

Dear WALL and WALLS lists: (Please, do not quote or forward this note in
your replies)

I will weigh in with my own opinion, not as the List Administrator, but
as purely a WALL/WALLS researcher. I started doing serious genealogy
sometime before St. Patrick's Day, 1998, and it is now 5 years since,
and I have spent probably 15-40 hours per week working on genealogy. The
value of my research to others is probably increasing, as I continue to
waste less time doing stuff that leads to dead-ends, and doing more
stuff that leads to concrete discoveries for my own family lines. As I
uncover data that leads to concrete links I have had people come forth
with more data and then find that my data has helped them take their own
lines back generations. In several cases, I took lines back six or seven
generations, just by doing what I enjoy doing, and those were not my
own. Kathy has been doing genealogy for longer than I, and is even more
efficient than I at doing research, even though she works up in remote
Alaska. One has to be a complete fool to not recognize how important
Kathy is to WALL and WALLS research. She does her research out of pure
obsession with this surname, staying up late at night and often working
all day on various families not even remotely linked to her own WALL
line. She is like a precious resource that needs to be cultivated and
encouraged, and I'd support her over anyone who makes such a statement
to her that they will no longer share their information with her. It is
anyone's loss if they do that. I've given her data that I got from other
families closely related to my own WALL line, but only with permission,
and there is no question that Kathy has followed the standard rules of
sourcing, permission, and whatnot in order to publish the data she does.
Any mistakes she made are entirely forgiveable, and I will always give
her the benefit of the doubt.

Let's compare the value of a subscription to the WALL newsletter: $20
per year, for three issues, I believe per year. For one family surname,
this is comparable to other newsletters, but unusually cheap because the
WALL newsletter is printed on high quality paper and uses color on some
pages, and furthermore covers any and all surnames sounding like WALL or
WALLS, such as WALLING, worldwide (but still mostly United States/Canada
data, as most subscribers are US based). Each issue probably takes
Kathy several months, to produce. If we paid Kathy to do this
newsletter, as we would pay a professional genealogist, we'd have to pay
her about $35-45 per hour and also reimburse numerous sub-contractors
who compile and contribute data to the newsletter. Instead, Kathy asks
that we help cover the cost of printing mere copies of the WALL PAPER
and the expenses she incurs to obtain the data, such as driving to and
from the copy shop, parking her car, postage, collation, Family History
Center expenses, library fees, Ancestry.com extra fees, even some
computer expenses and printing ink for her computer. She does not have
enough subscribers to make it even close to worth her while, yet she
keep plugging on out of pure love for WALL research. Just give her the
benefit of the doubt when you give her your WALL or WALLS data.
*Please*. And, furthermore, ask her about her WALL line. See if you
can't find something to help her take her Louisiana WALL line back a
generation. I'd like to see this line posted again, so we can help her
if one of us knows something she doesn't. Many thanks for your support
for Kathy.

Regards,
Tim Walls (my private opinion, not as List Administrator)

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• [WALL] In support of WALL Paper by Tim Walls <>