USGenWeb: Difference between revisions

 [http://www.usgenweb.org/ The USGenWeb Project] (the full, proper name of the project) consists of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.   

Though many project sites were hosted on the RootsWeb server, The USGenWeb Project has never been owned by RootsWeb or Ancestry.com.  Also, despite the similarity of their names, The USGenWeb Project is not affiliated with The WorldGenWeb Project. The USGenWeb Project has been proudly independent since its beginnings back in 1996.  

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The idea&nbsp;that would become The USGenWeb Project&nbsp;was born in March and April of 1996, when a group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database Project. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored. In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index. At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. Since that time, The USGenWeb Project has grown to include sites covering the entire nation. The national site provides links to state sites, which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The USGenWeb Special Projects are another important aspect of USGenWeb's offerings, gathering useful data you can access for free.  

The following article was written on the occasion of The USGenWeb Project's 10th anniversary held at the Boston, Massachusetts 2006 Federation of Genealogical Societies. It is posted with the permission of Linda Haas Davenport. The article was originally printed in Evertons Publishers' Genealogical Helper.