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Bamberg County SCGenWeb

Volunteer Information

The USGenWeb Project is a not-for-profit organization of volunteers, dedicated to free access to genealogy on the Internet.  Each state and almost every county of each state has its own web site.  In addition, the USGenWeb has special projects, such as the Tombstone Project, the Archives Project, and the Census Project. 


How You Can Make a Contribution
The success of this Project depends on people helping people

Welcome!  The door is open for your contributions! 

In considering what items will be appropriate,  please remember that the primary goal is to provide information or enhance the GENEALOGIST'S  experience on this site.  Ask yourself the following questions: (1)  IS THIS GENEALOGY?  (2) WAS THIS BOOK, ARTICLE, OR PHOTOGRAPH PUBLISHED AFTER 1923, AND IS THIS INFORMATION COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FOR WHICH I NEED WRITTEN CONSENT TO REPUBLISH? (3) DOES THIS MATERIAL INCLUDE THE NAMES OR PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIVING PEOPLE, AND DO I HAVE CONSENT FROM THOSE PEOPLE?


You'll find detailed copyright information on this USGenWeb Project page:  http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.shtml

1.  As a Look Up Volunteer  If you have Bamberg County research materials, such as histories, census records, cemetery books, etc., you could offer to do "look-ups" for fellow researchers.  We have a look-up page already established and we sure can use more willing volunteers for this area!

2.  "Adopt" a Town or Topic.    Our goal is to expand the available online history  of Bamberg County.   You would be credited as the contributor or "coordinator" of that particular project.

Here are some ideas for special projects, but you may have an idea of your own:

                                                    Town / Community History
                                                    African American History/Genealogy
                                                    Native American History/Genealogy
                                                    Other Ethnic or Religious Group
                                                    Church/School History or roster
                                                    Industry or Business
                                                    Historic Site
                                                    Other Ideas???

3.  History or Family Association Web Page If you have your own genealogy web page, especially one with historical information or a single surname site, please be sure to let me know!   History pages and Family Associations or Single Name sites will also be listed on the Research page as well as in the Surname Registry. If you find a Bamberg County site that should be listed, please let me know!

4.  Take Photographs If you live in the area or will be visiting soon, please consider taking photographs for upload to the Bamberg County site (you may want to check to see what's already been done).   Please let me know before emailing images, especially if they are a large file size.  If you prefer to mail them on a CD, just e-mail me and I'll give you my mailing address. 

5.  Transcribe Cemetery Records.   Help us get free information on the Internet by transcribing cemetery records.  This can be from actual tombstone transcriptions or from church records.  Be sure to call the church in advance.   If you visit in person, be sure to take a couple of photographs!  See Cemeteries to see which ones have been done.

6.  Transcribe newspaper articles, portions of books, diaries, letters, or town records.   If you have possession of anything like this, or if you'd be willing to visit the public research library or LDS center, anything of general interest would be most welcome!   Generally, if material was published prior to 1924 it is in the public domain (you still must quote your source).  If it was published after 1924, you must have written consent from the copyright holder (usually the author or the author's estate, but sometimes a historical society or town). This is true even of newspaper and company newsletter articles.   If it is an original document that you own, such as a diary, you generally have the right to publish it, but please be sensitive to family privacy issues.  

7.  Post your deeds, wills, obituaries, etc., on the Bamberg County site. If you have slave information on any of these documents, please send me a note and I'll copy them to a separate page for African American research.  You can send them to me as  MS Word documents or just cut and paste to an e-mail. 

8.  Post your GEDCOM to RootsWeb's World Connect & Link to the Surnames Page .   If you have your family tree in any genealogy software program, you should be able to convert it to a GEDCOM and upload it to the internet.    Be careful to record your sources and please don't ever publish information on living persons- it is a serious breach of privacy and security.    I only know Family Tree Maker software, but maybe this will help you convert your family tree into a gedcom file.  Open your family file.  Click on "file" "copy/export".   A window should open, showing your family file(s).  Highlight the file you want to copy to a gedcom.  In FTW, there is a smaller window at the bottom that gives you the option of how you want to save the file.  Use the drop down menu and save as GEDCOM (*.GED).  Your gedcom file will show as a little tree.  Go to WorldConnect and create a user name and password for yourself.  You'll select the options you want to use.  When choosing the source of the gedcom file, browse to your saved gedcom file and click on it.  If you have trouble with your particular genealogy software, a posting to the mailing list should elicit a volunteer to talk you through the process.
 Your family tree can be linked from our Surnames page.
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/

9.  Old Photographs of Places, Towns, or Groups.    Do you have a scanner?   If you have access to any old photographs or postcards depicting town or county scenes, or old  church/school/family groups (providing that they do not show any living people), please consider scanning and contributing the images. In considering what items will be appropriate,  please remember that the primary goal is to provide information or enhance the genealogy researcher's experience on this site.  

You do NOT have to know HTML to transcribe documents!  If you would like to transcribe vital records, cemetery transcriptions, old diaries or letters, or old histories of Bamberg County, as long as it is not under copyright, GO FOR IT! The easiest way for me to convert to an html document is if you transcribe it to a plain text document (not Excel) and attach it to an e-mail, or just type it in an e-mail message.  If you have access to WPA cemetery records (a government subsidized project and therefore in Public Domain), any book or document predating 1924, or any material for which you hold copyright, please consider making a permanent contribution to the Bamberg County SCGenWeb.  Your fellow researchers will greatly appreciate it and so will I!  Thanks !
Pat Sabin.

If you have any transcribed deeds or other records relating to your family on your personal web page, we would like to link to them from this page. Contact Pat to supply a link for this page or submit a transcription of an actual document.  You may also want to contact the SCGenWeb State Coordinator, Victoria Proctor to copy your transcribed deed, bible record, etc. to the SCGenWeb Archives.
 



 
 

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