Q. I'd like to volunteer. How do I get started?
A. Well, the first thing to do is send the County Coordinator, an e-mail
letting me know you would like to help. Include the following information:
Evelyn_Sawyer
Contact County Coordinator: See bottom of Home Page
1. Your full name.
2. Your complete postal mail address.
3. Your e-mail address.
4. What kind of work you would like to do.
Q. How do I decided what kind of work I want to do?
A. We have these projects and others ongoing.
- Digitizing Cemeteries - all of them need doing with this new
technology
- Biographical Sketches from 1900 Bowen's History of Grand Rapids
- Early School Yearbooks
- Early Church Records
- Early Marriage Record Index, 1845 - 1929
- Other Miscellaneous Records
If you're not sure what you want to do, we can select something for you.
If you have a particular regional interest, like a town or township,
you might want to try a cemetery. If you like to imagine the lives
of our pioneer ancestors, the biographies would be right for you.Q. Okay, the cemetery records, marriage records arrived
at my house. What do I do now?
A. Transcribe the records by re-typing or OCR-scanning them. EXCEL works
well with column-type files. WORD works with biographical or paragraph
type files. Try and transcribe as exactly as
you can. Do not correct mistakes directly,
even if they are obvious errors. Corrections should be placed in brackets
[], beside the original mistake or noted at the end of the document, and
include your initials. Include your full name or preferred initials at
the end of the document. When you are done, save the document or spreadsheet and
send it as an attachment to the county coordinator. In a few days, the pages will appear on the GenWeb
pages, for other researchers to use and enjoy for years to come. Thank
you!
Q. What if I want to transcribe a cemetery by myself or work from
LDS microfilm or other original records?
A. Wonderful! If you want to give us a head's up when you begin, we'd
love to hear from you, just so we don't try and significantly duplicate
your effort. When any or all of the transcription is completed, send it
to the county coordinator as an EXCEL or WORD e-mail attachment. Be sure to include a full source
information for what it is that you are sending, as well as your full name
-- so we can give you proper credit.
Q. How do I share old Kent County pictures that I have in my possession?
A. Well, it depends on the kind of document. Old pictures should be
scanned, and converted into gif or jpeg files. (Jpeg is better if you know
how.) You then might want to "crunch" them at site like GifCruncher
so they are even smaller. Send them as e-mail attachments to the county
coordinator with explanation of what each image depicts. Pictures submitted
should generally be from before 1950 and preferably depict a place of historical
interest in Kent County, or be older group pictures of families or groups
from the area.
Q. Do you want documents from my own research or my family collection?
A. We're always happy to have any contributions that illuminate families and
communities in Kent County. We have message boards where you can post Bible
Records, Deeds, Obituaries, Pension Records and Wills. We also have categories
for biographies, genealogies and obituaries. Q. There is a link I would like to see added to the Kent County Michigan
GenWeb Project pages. What should I do?
A. If the link is of general interest to the Kent County genealogical and
historical research community, just submit it the county coordinator. Be
sure to include the full URL, the title, and your name. If the link is to
your personal genealogy homepage, which has information on Kent County
families, it will be automatically placed on our list
of Kent County personal genealogy homepages.
Q. How do I provide unique documents for others to type?
A. Contact the county coordinator and describe the document or book
in question. If it is of interest, we can certainly work something out
by getting it photocopied and returned to you, and getting a transcription
of the copies placed online.
Q. What about being a lookup volunteer?
A. This is great way to share unique resources you don't feel comfortable
transcribing, either because of their length or other considerations. If
you would like to become a lookup
volunteer for any kind of resource you think might be useful to Kent
County researchers, please let
me know, and include the name of the resource, all the necessary bibliographic
information, and any considerations, such as how many items you will be
willing to look up or anything else researchers should know about the book.
Q. How much does it cost to be a volunteer?
A. For any of our volunteers who ask to receive records, it is, of
course, free. The documents are yours to keep and are no charge. Volunteers
who obtain records on their own may have to bear the costs of photocopying
or ordering documents, or microfilm, and/or traveling to obtain their materials.
There are built-in costs to all volunteers in owning a computer and maintaining
an internet connection.
Q. Are there other volunteers?
A. Yes! We have a list of people
who have volunteered for, or otherwise significantly contributed to
the Kent County Michigan GenWeb Project. This list is always under construction.
Q. What are some of the independent projects other volunteers are
working on?
A. Check out our Project Registry below to see what people have suggested
they are interested in helping out on. If you would like to help these
folks out, let the County Coordinator know, and we can put you in touch
with them.
Q. What if I have additional questions?
A. Address them to Jana Cortez, the County Coordinator by e-mail at:
janacortez@charter.net
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