Anyone else finding this problem?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

I go to a county genealogical website, and find:

1. I have more information on my family than they have (including newspaper clippings and cemetery data--things I have gotten even though I live far away)

2. The information they do have on my family is wrong (I'm talking misspelled names, here)

Sigh. Happened AGAIN this week. Politely emailed the webmaster and expect to have them link to my information--yet again.

I know, I know, I shouldn't complain, because my information is bound to help someone else. But just once it would be nice....

[madinmaryland]

1. I have found that county genealogical websites vary wildly from nearly

non-existent to full of information. The two county sites that I have reviewed have very little information in regards to my family, though we have not really had any presence in those counties in decades.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. At least the last county I checked out

was very grateful for my information. And I found out the webmaster doesn't even live in the state where the county is located! This could be why some sites are so paltry.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Yup.

I got SOOOOOOO lucky with Rock County, Wisconsin, and the Tompkins County, NY.

But like you said, some of them (Marathon County, Wisconsin included) suck. There are a few others I've found that LIST cemeteries, but no transcriptions or anything. For goodness sakes, there are books out there! Contact the compilers of the book, get permission, and transcribe them, SOMEONE, so the info is online! Those of us who are across the country from the archives the book is in aren't helped much by it just sitting on the shelf!

The Tompkins C. site was so fabulous that found oodles of family there from hundreds of miles away, and planned a trip just to follow up what I found there. Then, I transcribed a bunch of extra information I found on my trip up and sent it in to help other people the way they had helped me. A big thing I've found that helps others is... when I copy obituaries, I try to transcribe the info for the unrelated folks who are on the same page with my dead person. I've gotten two or three nice thank you e-mails from people who found their stuff that way.

I think that's the problem. It takes a dedicated owner, but it also takes dedicated volunteers. I try to save whatever I get now and submit it to the sites it pertains to (when I can take time away from my own work, that is!). If no one has stepped up to the plate yet, it makes it harder to get excited about the website. The more contributions, the more excitement, leading to more contributions, and the better it gets.

Hats off to Johnna, Janet, and all the oter folks at the TC website. I adore them.

[Cybergata]

4. I almost have given up on county Website

. . . although I have found some really good ones out there. I found three generations of ancestral grave sites with birth and death dates on the Saunders county, Nebraska website. On some of the very sparse sites, I emailed the person whose email address was given and found a cousin who works on restoring old grave sites in Indiana, a person who, while a teen, mowed the lawn over the grave stones of my great great grandmother and great great great grandfather in Erie county, Pennsylvania. Just like any source, sometimes you are lucky, and sometimes you aren't. Sometimes the information is there, and sometimes the information was never recorded anywhere.