County Site Procedures | NCGenWeb Project

The following procedures are based on the bylaws of the USGenWeb Project, the USGenWeb guidelines for local pages, and past votes and discussion by the NCGenWeb county coordinators. This original version was passed February 27th, 2011. This version was passed September 13, 2011.

For State Project coordinators, the following procedures are particularly applicable: 1, 2, 3, 5e, 6b, 6c, 8a & 8d.

1. Each NCGenWeb, Inc. member (herein referred to as Member) will be subscribed to the NCGenWeb mailing list by the State Coordinator. This is a closed “announce only” list, and is used for internal communication between the State Coordinator (SC) and all other current NCGenWeb Members. It is essential for communication between the SC and the CCs for all CCs to remain subscribed to this list. There is an optional NCGENWEB-DISCUSS mailing list which is also open to NCGenWeb and is used for more casual NCGenWeb discussions. Neither list is to be used for genealogy queries.

2. Approved NCGenWeb logos and USGenWeb logos should be prominently displayed on all county home pages. Each logo should be linked back to the NCGenWeb (http://www.ncgenweb.us) and USGenWeb (http://www.usgenweb.org) home pages. Foreign logos or logos requesting money are not approved for the project. You may not include logos or links to similarly county-based online genealogy projects. Foreign logos or links and/or logos or links requesting money are not approved for the project. You may not include logos or links to similarly county-based online genealogy projects.

a. Only NCGenWeb logos that were approved in Sept. 2009 may be used. NCGenWeb sites that were using older logos prior to that day may continue to do so. If and when those counties become adoptable they are then subject to the use of approved logos only.

b. Any county site that is not on the NCGenWeb server, once made adoptable and established on the NCGenWeb server will remain archived there upon any subsequent adoptions.

3. The name and email address of the NCGenWeb Member(s) should be easily seen and accessible on the county home page as well as appropriate places throughout the site. This can include index pages such as wills, deeds, cemeteries, etc., so that researchers can easily contact the Member to submit materials or to ask questions about information posted. If there is a contact info page, the Member’s name must still be plainly visible on the home page, and the Member should place a hyperlink to either an email address or to the contact info page.

The Member should respond to any and all emails from researchers, submitters, contributors, and Project managers in a timely manner. Even if the Member cannot help them, a timely and appropriate response is and will be greatly appreciated by all (see the Tech Tips page for information on how to add your email address without exposing it to SPAM).

4. Each county site shall have relevant links and information to assist visitors in submitting their own queries.

a. The Member should provide a way to post queries, or provide links to the GenForum and Rootsweb/Ancestry query boards.

b. The Member should provide a page on how to write and post a good query and/or link to the national USGenWeb “How To” page at <http://www.usgenweb.org/research/queries.shtml>.

c. The Member may provide a link to the state’s “Contacting the North Carolina State Archives“.

5. A detailed research information page or pages should be included on each county site.

a. Links or telephone numbers as well as addresses are helpful for the county courthouse, Register of Deeds, local libraries, genealogical and historical societies, etc. If you can, specify who to contact for specific records, e.g., the county recorder, the corresponding secretary.

b. Link to the Consolidated List of North Carolina Resources or you may list and link these resources individually. (Assistance: Resource ideas for your county page).

c. A link to the county mailing list, and/or information about how to join the county mailing list.

d. Names and email addresses of other researchers willing to do research or lookups for others in books, microfilm, libraries, cemeteries, etc. (Assistance: Research-Lookup ideas if you do not have volunteer lookups for your county.)

e. Solicitation of funds for personal gain is not permitted. However, you can provide a list of book titles and magazine articles about your county or North Carolina in general and/or you can link to web sites, stores, and societies that sell books about North Carolina or genealogy in general. Researchers for hire should be listed separately from those volunteering to do lookups and it should be clearly stated that these researchers are “for hire”. Note from the USGenWeb Bylaws Article IX. Section 2.: It may be appropriate to include a disclaimer that the coordinator and The USGenWeb Project do not guarantee the contents of such research materials and/or the expertise of any professional researchers.

6. All county home webpages must have:

a. A “last updated” date on the home page.

c. A search engine available on the home page or linked from the home page of the county site. The search engine is chosen at the discretion of the Member (e.g. FreeFind, Google, etc.)

7. Each county should also include either on the home webpage or a link to:

a. A brief county history.

b. Links to surrounding counties and links to the parent county(ies).

c. A map (or link to the state map) showing where the county is located within the state, and any other information on the county and its formation that will be helpful to researchers working in records for that specific county.

8. All websites, excepting the Historic Counties and Special Projects, should be updated and new material and/or document images posted at least once every six months. (Assistance: Transcribed data or scanned images.)

Quarterly county reviews by the Regional Coordinator will consist of a check for:

a. Logos and logo links

b. Name and email address are to be prominently displayed

c. Copyright notice

d. Surrounding county(ies) links

e. The last updated notice and/or addition of new material.

9. A “What’s New” page, and/or *Updated* or *New* images, or a list on the home page of new material added is required, along with the date the additions and/or new material was added; a link to that new material must be included in either option.

10. All Members are required to supply the SC and their RC with their name, a verifiable home address, home phone number and an emergency contact phone number. (Motion for any member failing to provide contact information)

11. If contact cannot be established in the month following the end of roll call, the site will be considered abandoned and will be made adoptable by another coordinator. (Removal timeline).

12. All original materials contributed by researchers are considered their property and should remain on the site to which they were donated. Should the coordinator decide to leave the project, all materials that have been contributed will be turned over to the new coordinator and will remain on the site. They only exception will be if the original submitter requests that their information be removed. (Removal timeline).

Last Updated: September 27, 2014