I'm sorry, I still can't correlate the digitalized materials versus
one-on-one communications of the past?

You have to remember that I use to run a Fidonet BBS Hub in Richmond
before the Internet took off.  One of the areas I covered was Genealogy
emails.  Then I hosted 2 GenWeb county sites and participated heavily in
the pre Rootsweb server lists and later Rootsweb ones. I have first hand
seen the downward slope. 

Just because there are digital images somewhere doesn't mean that
everyone has "access" to them. And they don't contain everything for one
reason or another.  You have an aunt Hazel that is not seen on any of
those databases yet someone may have mentioned her name in an email
search years ago and others who would "read" those post could connect.
But if people don't post messages nor their trees online any longer and
that person you seek is out of reach to find, how do you?  Where do you?
It is a Catch 22 frustrating situation especially for those on fixed
incomes or lack the skills.

What I am saying is that 10+ years ago we had a bounty of information
flowing from all directions from distant cousins and strangers alike and
now we don't.  

Homegrown websites are vanishing or extremely outdated. Databases have
become monopolized to a certain extent and so being are pay only and pay
only up front for a year subscription rather than month to month on a
per need basis.  A lot of information can be obtained in one month so
why pay a year if you don't need or can't afford to?  And then you have
data outdated on them especially trees that subscribers uploaded and
haven't updated in years.  People rely heavily first on trees to get a
direction especially when dates, places, or relations are unknown.

Eric


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rondina Muncy
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 10:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Genealgy Future

I'd like to add that lack of color can also affect analysis of a
document that has been digitized. The Sanford Fire Insurance Map
Collection is a particularly good example. The early originals were
created using colored paper which indicated what material the buildings
were made of. This information is lost if they are not scanned in color.

The original discussion was addressing the reason why so many databases
are no longer being updated and questioning whether genealogy was on a
downward slope. I believe that the wealth of original documents online
is the reason. (Although it represents only a small fraction of the
material we
need.)  While online images have the same problems as Barbara stated,
and as microfilmed copies have, I still believe that this is why there
is now a lag in databases being maintained (sans those on major sites).

Rondina 
 
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