04-Apr-2005 A Labor of Love ! By: Paul M. Kankula, NN8NN Anderson-Oconee-Pickens County GenWeb Coordinator When I moved to Seneca 6-years ago, I was presented with the opportunity to manage the Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead. GenWeb is a world-wide, non- profit, Internet organization that focuses on the posting of information for on- line genealogy research via a Personal Computer. Since January 1999, over 114,000 people have visited my Oconee WebSite. This Homestead has now grown into the largest that this organization has to offer! This was done with the help of volunteers from Alaska to Florida, from California to Virginia. Anderson County GenWeb Homestead can be found at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~scandrsn/ Oconee County GenWeb Homestead can be found at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Pickens County GenWeb Homestead can be found at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~scpicke2/ Not many of us have the physical and mental fortitude that it takes to stick with a monotonous project for over 20-years. Fortunately for Oconee County genealogy researchers, Ann Rogers of Walhalla was equal to that challenge! (Many people laughingly refer to her as the Queen-of-Compiling!) Since the early 1980's, Ann Rogers has been visiting Oconee County cemeteries and recording their tombstone inscriptions - for approximately 250 cemeteries with 35,000 tombstones! Not only did she write these inscriptions down on paper, but she then typed the information on 35,000 index file cards! The Walhalla Library now has the cards in their Genealogy Department holdings. Why? Ann simply wanted to help preserve "the memories of love ones." The tombstones of our ancestors, have always meant to be lasting memorials to the lives of those gone before us. However, these tombstones are suffering the ravages of time. weather and vandals. These grave markers are becoming more & more difficult to read as time passes, and some have already faded to the point that deciphering them is next to impossible. Fortunately, many are still legible. But, of those we can read today, how many will still be legible in another 50 years? This was the driving force that kept Ann going. When I physically saw the horrendous amount of index card work that Ann had done, I was determined that it just had to be electronically preserved, and I could do that by means of the GenWeb Tombstone Inscription Project. I posted a Message Board call for typing help, and Jennie Boggs of Central responded (she didn't know what she was getting into!). I then contacted Bob McCall at the Walhalla Library and stated that I had wanted to electronically preserve Ann's work (with her blessing), and that I would like to borrow his index card file drawers. Well... 1.5 years later, Jennie Boggs is still typing fast-as-ever, and the project end was in sight. Then I put out another call for typing help and Tracy Bergeson, Rudy Northdorf, Vivian Parkway, Carolyn and Rachel Smith responded. With their extra help, the project was completed in 2 years. Ann's tombstone inscription compiling work can be found at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/inscriptions.html After Ann completed her monumental tombstone task, she decided to document 100- years of published Keowee Courier newspaper announcements (birth, marriage, divorce, etc.)! Thanks to Ann, the Walhalla library now has a file of over 90,000 index cards on this subject! At this point-in-time, Ann purchased a Personal Computer and inputted all this information into a word processing document - along with typing up the index cards. Unfortunately, Ann did not know how to backup her datafile to floppy disks... and wouldn't you know it, her PC's hard disk crashed... PC-101: Backup, Backup, Backup, Backup & Backup your important datafiles on a regular basis... Ann's old XT style PC sat on top of her desk for many years collecting dust. While visiting Ann one day, I saw it sitting there. When I asked about this classic PC, she told me her sad story... How sad it was, because were talking about losing the info on over 90,000 index cards - that's a 105' high pile of cards! I took a chance and asked Ann if I could have the PC. "Take the darn thing", Ann shouted. Take it, I did! Ann's Keowee Courier compiling work can be found at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/courier.html I immediately went to see Casandra Simpson, who then owned the WerBAC Computer Company in Seneca. Her Geekness relieved me of the old classic, and promised to give it a electronic enema. What came out, was shockingly, 50% of Ann's work that I really thought was lost forever! I'm happy to say that this "restored information" is now available for on-line researching. However, the lost information will probably never be retyped, because it's just too large of a task for just a few people to do... As of Apr-2005, the Oconee Homestead contains over 40,000 tombstone inscriptions, 20,000 Keowee Courier personal notices and 2,500 church/cemetery images. Thank you Ann Rogers for helping to preserve Oconee County's rich heritage!