UPDATED 12-16-2001

Yes, I realize alot of time has passed and I have not gotten a thing done here. We found out we are going to have a new addition to our family! (And congratulations to my other big brother Joe and his wife on their TWINS!) Between that and moving, among other things, it's been crazy.

Now that things have somewhat calmed down, I hope to be able to devote more time here. I appreciate everyone's patience. WE WILL GET THERE!!! Please read my last update below to see how you can help (or go to the Newspaper Abstracts page).

UPDATED 6-12-2001

A Big THANK YOU goes out to my big brother Clint for supplying me with a small stack of newspapers. These are from the Gideon-Malden (MO) area. His wife Sharon was kind enough to donate some VERY old pictures that were taken in Malden, MO, and I will be posting these as well very soon.

Hopefully this site will be getting back on its feet quickly. I have had some donations from people (who have asked to remain anonymous - but THANK YOU ANYWAY!!), and there have also been quite a few people donating their time at their local libraries transcribing from the newspapers to add to this site. Granted, we have a long way to go, but we are well on our way!

Some have asked what my purpose is for this site. My goal is to build this into accessible databases that are free for everyone. Completely free - always - and that is a promise! I cannot do it alone (I could, but it would take me 100 years or better to build what we all want here!), and that is why I ask for ANYONE's help. On your next trip to the library, take a few minutes to delve into the newspapers and transcribe a couple of obituaries or birth/marriage announcements (don't forget to include the name and date of the newspaper, as well as the city and state). If you have a laptop, take it with you and save the info to a floppy, then email it to me (plain text format). Check with your parents, grandparents, siblings, any family members - see if they have old newspapers in their basement that you can borrow to transcribe. Go to your local newspaper printing office and ask them if they have older papers that you can have (almost all will). Anything from present day on back is fine, because we all need any kind of information we can get our hands on, right? If you have newspapers that you don't want, and don't have time to transcribe, mail them to me and I will reimburse you for the postal expense and return the papers when finished. Email me for details if you would like to do that. (Photocopies are great too!)

Wouldn't it be wonderful to look back and be able to say....
I HELPED MAKE THAT SITE WHAT IT IS TODAY!

Yes, WE are going to build this site into something bigger and better than certain OTHER genealogy sites (I won't mention any names) that charge outrageous fees for access. And WE will offer it for free forever.

Which brings me to my next subject ... I know that Tripod's banner pop-ups are aggravating, but it's free to setup here. Once the site gets built and has an acceptable amount of information contained within it, I will be moving it to another host. I have found several options, one of my favorites being www.123ehost.com - which only charges something like $4 a month. Once the site is to that point, I won't mind spending that little of an amount to keep it on a decent server. Until then, though, all my spare change goes toward obtaining documents and other things needed to add here.

Oh, and once again... Please do not send a lookup request for the obits and such; there's no way I'll have time to do individual lookups. I will post them as I have time. Thanks for checking in, and please visit again soon!