Search the Virtual Surname Wall

The following was written by Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society:

We are very pleased to announce the roll-out of the searchable Virtual Surname Wall database, sponsored by the Southern California Genealogical Society.  The Virtual Surname Wall is free and open for use by all family historians and genealogists.  You need not be a member of SCGS to participate.

Although it took a little longer than we anticipated or wished, entries from over a thousand genealogists from around the world are now searchable by family name, by geographic region, and by each participant's Submitter ID. 

Access the Virtual Surname Wall at www.SCGSGenealogy.com.

To see if any of your surnames are listed:

1.  Click on the link to "Search the Virtual Surname Wall."

2.  Search by surname, location, or Submitter ID or any combination of the three. It is a "begins with" search. For example, if you search for the last name Mill, it will return the names beginning with the letters Mill. (i.e. Millan, Millard, Miller).

3.  Be sure to read the search tips that are listed on the search page.

If you haven't yet added your names to the database, or if you want to add more:

1.  Have your family information available for reference.

2.  Click on the link to "Add Your Surnames"

3.  Enter the following information for each surname you are reporting:
        Surnames (including spelling variations).
        Geographic area in which they lived, or the migration path.
                List your geographic information in order by city, county,
                state and country. To avoid confusion, please do not use
                two-letter state abbreviations.
        Time Frame.  Use abbreviations (approx., or abt., or ca.) to indicate approximate time frames.

4.  Submit as many names as you want. Each entry screen will accept up to 10 surnames but you can enter multiple screens. If you get a message that the survey has already been completed, just click "Take the survey again" and continue adding names. You may add ancestors from any geographic location worldwide. 

As entries are added to the database, the Virtual Surname Wall will become an even more valuable resource for family historians and genealogy researchers.  You will not immediately see new entries but will be notified when they have been added to the Virtual Surname Wall.  Check back often to look for a match.

Your participation in the Virtual Surname Wall project is completely voluntary. Your contact information is not displayed online. You have the option of asking SCGS to serve as intermediary, or authorizing SCGS to release your contact information in the event that we receive an inquiry regarding a possible family connection.

Please feel free to forward this email to your cousins, friends, fellow genealogists or others who would be interested in the Virtual Surname Wall project. Genealogy and historical societies are welcome to post this announcement in newsletters or journals.  Reprint permission is granted but please include contact information (phinkel@scgsgenealogy.com).

We thank you for your contributions to the Virtual Surname Wall. Here's to making lots of connections!

Paula Hinkel
Southern California Genealogical Society

P.S. - and while you're at the website, check out the program for the 2008 Genealogy Jamboree, which will be held June 27-29 in Burbank, California!

Comments

[oldtimer]

How is this different than the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL - http://rsl.rootsweb.com/), which has been around for at least 10 years?

Another example of further unnecessary fragmenting of genealogy data on the internet. How many more online trees, blogs, message boards, mailing lists, etc. do we have to endure? Soon genealogy will only be within the realm of someone without a job, because it will take ALL day just to hunt down all of the repetitive sites.

[hdpth-DNA]

hey there "oldtimer" [no pun intended] thanks for the link to the RSL site http://rsl.rootsweb.com/ ... 10 years ? I had almost completely forgotten about that database :) can't ever recall anyone contacting me, that said they seen my listing on that site specifically "/

the SCGS "Virtual Surname Wall" is free, not technically associated with a fee based service and it's your choice if you visit/input your data or not :) no one says you have to endure what you find unpleasant and/or not to your specific likening "/

happy hunting !

Kenny < a real name ...

[Geezer]

I'll agree with Kenny and oldtimer. Surname wall sounds like a near forgotten and pretty much useless RSL. And when I gave up trying to connect to the wall, it was only 16% loaded.

[Margaret]

I tend to agree with both previous posters -- how's that for a split personality?

On the one hand, it does seem like a duplication of effort, when maybe taking pains to point people to rootsweb would save time and bandwith.

On the other hand, people stumble into various sites and find them useful, making connections that they might not have otherwise made, if the database weren't there.

[Bev]

At least it's free! Many of the sites you try to search go back to Angestry.com which is far from free! If you want anything more than just rudimentary info you have to pay their exorbitant membership fee! Not everybody can afford them.

[Happy Dae]

Oldtimer, indeed. What the data reminds me of is the even older TinyTafel system of yore. It allowed you to indicate the priority of each surname, too. I still like it and have mine posted at http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/TinyTafel.htm. I know you were dying to see if we're cousins, right? Well, mayhap this will help.

Happy Dae.

[Paula Hinkel]

Thank you, Dick, for running this announcement. We've seen a tremendous number of entries since the newsletter was distributed.

Oldtimer, I agree that this project is similar to Rootsweb. In fact, Rootsweb's is superior to the Virtual Surname Wall (VSW) in some ways. The RSW submissions are available immediately. There is a lag time for the VSW due to the process that we are following. And as you pointed out, RSW has been there a long time, and has a bajillion more entries than our new project. I have my surnames listed on RSW and have made a couple of contacts. (Heck, I don't know about you but I drop genealogical breadcrumbs whenever and wherever I can!)

Where I believe the VSW serves two unmet needs. SCGS has been collecting handwritten "Surname Wall" entries at its annual Jamboree for many years -- long before the advent of Internet genealogy. Those entries have been published in hard copy but are not in general circulation and are not searchable online. As our volunteers have time, they are back-loading this historical information into the Virtual Surname Wall. It's a small step in bridging offline resources into the 21st century.

We try very hard to remind online researchers that genealogy is not all on the Internet, and we try equally as hard to convince "offliners" that the Internet can be a safe and effective way to connect with cousins.

Here is where the Virtual Surname Wall offers something the RWS doesn't: Our privacy policies allow shy, worried or skeptical offliners to put their information online in a risk-free way. SCGS can serve as an intermediary.

Let's say "Ruth" searches the VSW and sees a possible match with data submitted by "John". Ruth contacts SCGS, who checks the privacy level indicated by John. Based on the privacy level that John selected when he submitted his surnames, SCGS will send Ruth an email with John's email address only, or with full contact information including John's name and phone number. If John has selected the highest level of security, then SCGS will get in touch with John to pass along Ruth's information. It's up to John decide whether to contact Ruth.

In case there's a match with an historic entry, we assume the highest level of security and the request is handled just like any other query contact made to the SCGS Research Team.

We don't limit our service to SCGS's offline genealogists. We distribute hard-copy brochures so entries can be submitted by offline genealogists anywhere throughout the country. The brochure can be downloaded from the SCGS website at the Surname Wall page.

There is a wealth of information that resides in the records and queries of genealogists who came before us. Not all of that information has made it online. Our little project is one way to try to make that happen.

Geezer, I'll be glad to help figure out the issues you were having with the VSW if you'll get in touch with me directly at phinkel@scgsgenealogy.com

Thank you all for the the interest, and Dick, thank you again for helping spread the word.

[hdpth-DNA]

Geezer -

the 16% you seen was for the first page ... click the "continue" button at the bottom of the page ... and you will see it switches to 33 % :) selecting if you want to participate in the Surname Wall submission and clicking "continue" again get's you up to 100% and where you can finally add the 10 surname's that your most interested in :)

give it a try again :)

Kenny -