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The Genealogy Exchange & Surname Registry, simply put, is a genealogical data exchange where visitors and researchers alike can go to find specific persons, and exchange specific data with one another. The GenExchange is one of the two or three largest non-commercial genealogy projects on the internet and is a community effort where visitors and project volunteers can contribute data for the free use of others.
The mission of the GenExchange is to further our goal of ensuring permanent free access to as much raw genealogical data as possible. For more information about what the GenExchange is, and how you can get involved, please visit our FAQ Page , and read the back issues of our monthly newsletter--the Exchange .
for the most up to date information, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter by using the easy subscription form located on our mailing lists page
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Why and how was the GenExchange started??
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This is really an involved question. The GenExchange was begun in 1996 as a small experiment in combining online databases and genealogy. At that time dynamic web content was in its infancy, and it was an extreme rarity to find any web site offering what we wanted to do. In fact some of the largest Genealogical web sites on the internet were dead set against offering this level of search capability, but rather forced you to submit records as text documents. Running searches against those text documents produced links to text documents that held information you sought, and required you to visually scan the text document for the information you sought. Not only is it time consuming to scan static text documents; but it's also much more difficult to find the specific information you're looking for.
For more in-depth answers to this question, please read our FAQ , and read the back issues of our monthly newsletter .
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What Data Does The GenExchange Provide?
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The GenExchange is dedicated to bringing free raw genealogical data to the online genealogical community. You can find nearly any type of data on the GenExchange, though the amount of any given type of data vary from state to state. The amount of data to be found is only limited by the number of contributions by visitors and volunteers. Anyone can quickly and easily contribute data using our easy submission forms found in each section of the GenExchange.
You will find records ranging from birth records, to death records and full obituaries. You will find census records to indexes of school yearbooks; lists of churches, to lists of funeral homes. In short set out to provide as much data as possible for anything that can be of genealogical interest. If something can pinpoint a specific person to a specific geographic location at a given time, we seek to put it online. Genealogy is a very important hobby. Tracing our family roots helps to define who we are and where we came from; and the the GenExchange will work with anyone in our attempt to further that goal.
In short, anyone can help! There are really two ways in which you can help. During the course of searching the GenExchange, you can use the entry forms found in each search section to add your own data (add as much or as little as you like), or you can become a full project member as a Project Member Volunteer, or as a State or County Coordinator for one of the State GenExchange sites, or one of the County GenExchange sites.
If you are really not interested in becoming a full project member at this time but still wish to help in some way, you can simply start off by visiting each of our search sections (birth, death, marriage, etc..) and using the entry form to enter some of your personal data. The GenExchange has helped many relatives find each other over the past two years, and that is a direct result of people just like you pitching in and providing data for others to research.
If you are interested in becoming a Project member please read the section titled I want to become involved Also, you can find additional answers in our FAQ page .
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| I want to become involved |
Involving yourself and becoming a Project member, either as a volunteer, or as a State or County Coordinator is easy. You simply need to love genealogy, and simply need to believe as we do that access to genealogical data should be free.
There are essentially three types of GenExchange project membership--volunteer, county contact, and state contact.
Project Member Volunteer
Volunteers are members who wish to participate but may not have the time to run a web site and mailing lists. Volunteers participate by donating their time to transcribe records, or entering addresses and phone numbers from their phone book into the GenExchange directories for local churches, museums, schools, libraries and court houses to name a few. In many ways, the Project Member Volunteers are the most important members of the GenExchange Project; and is why we have a dedicated section to honor their input and accomplishments. To read about some of the wonderful volunteers who have worked with the GenExchange over the past years, please visit our Wall of Honor . Soon you'll be able to read short write-ups about the volunteers who have had such a positive impact on our cause to ensure free permanent access of genealogical data on the internet.
- Sign up to be a Project member Volunteer
- Read our FAQ
County Coordinator (CC)
The county web site forms the basic organizational unit for the GenExchange Project and as such requires the most dedicated of persons to administer it. Each County web site is administered by a County Coordinator. To be a GenExchange County Coordinator you really have to love genealogy and feel very strongly that genealogical data should be freely available online for permanent free access. There are also a few basic guidelines that must be agreed to prior to adopting a county web site. To read about the guidelines, and to volunteer to be a CC please use the link below. The County Coordinator (CC) is responsible for administering the county web site they've adopted; will run the county mailing list if one exists; will work with the project Member Volunteers for their county; and will be responsible for setting up projects and gathering genealogical data for that county.
- Volunteer to be a CC
- Read our FAQ
State Coordinator(SC)
The state web site forms the intermediate organizational unit of the GenExchange Project and requires dedicated persons to administer them. Each State GenExchange web site is administered by a State Coordinator. As with the County Coordinators, there are a few basic guidelines that must be agreed to before adopting a state. To read about the guidelines in more depth please use the following link--and to volunteer as a SC. The State Coordinator(SC) is responsible for administering the state web site, the unknown counties web site, the state mailing list (XX-ROOTERS), and the County Coordinator list (XX-Exchange) which is used to coordinate with the County contacts for that state. The SC is also responsible to assist in finding County Coordinators for unadopted web sites and assisting the County Coordinators with problems and setting up mailing lists.
- Volunteer to be a SC
- Read our FAQ
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