[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Fw: [HUNGARY] Poznan Web site/ Project Newsletter Jan-Feb 2007

Thu Mar 1 06:27:38 PST 2007

I received this on another group I belong to and think it would be more use 
to this group.  I don't remember if it had been sent to you but if not here 
it is.   Margaret
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Allen James Krueger" <akrueger at frontiernet.net>
To: <HUNGARY at rootsweb.com>; <GERMANY-PASSENGER-LISTS at rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:33 AM
Subject: [HUNGARY] Poznan Web site/ Project Newsletter Jan-Feb 2007

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lukasz Bielecki" <bielecki at rose.man.poznan.pl>
To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 7:19 AM
Subject: Poznan Project Newsletter Jan-Feb 2007

Dear Poznan Project friends,

It's been one full year since the searchable database was created and no
doubt it's been a great success. The statistics (started in March 2006)
show more than 150,000 queries to the database so far, usually it was
about 500-700 per day. Although such figures can hardly be understood as
the actual number of visits, it is obvious that hundreds of people check
our site regularly and probably many thousands have already tried it.

Also in the last days we have reached 100,000 marriage entries in the
database (even if we don't count the "additional material" from outside
the Poznan Province). This is yet another good moment to thank all of you
who have submitted transcripts of church records. Each contribution is
most welcome, large parishes as much as small ones, but it seems highly
appropriate to express my special thanks to Elyssa Kowalinski and Ed
Price, each of whom having transcribed nearly 20,000 records so far (and
both still sign up for new locations).

Hundred thousand sounds a big result, still there is ca. five times more
material yet to be transcribed to make the project complete. I appreciate
any offer to help with further transcriptions, and please promote the idea
of the project among those who might still not have heard about it.
Reading your comments, I see that the project serves its purpose very
well. It proves useful both to those who still wait for their ancestors to
appear in the search results (if they have not shown up yet, they
certainly will at some point, be it at 20% - 30% - 50% - or 90% of the
database completion, but they will with little doubt), and to those who
are already advanced in their Poznan/Posen genealogical research but the
Project helps them broaden its scope and find many additional links.

Hence, it will still be important to find new volunteers and if those of
you who have already submitted some material, would be willing to sign up
for any/some new parishes, provide scans of microfilms or send donations
for the project's development and maintainance, please do not hesitate to
contact me. The details about the possible ways to support the Poznan
Project, are discussed under:

http://www.discovering-roots.pl/poznan_project/support.htm

Each new parish added to the database potentially helps a number of people
in uncovering their family history.

Obtaining scans of microfilmed records has recently become a potentially
hopeful way of speeding up the project. If it is available to you, I would
appreciate any offer to help in this way, even if you can't index
marriages, but the facility to obtain scanned images is available to you,
it would be an important contribution to scan marriages from the
microfilms you are researching - please email me for details. Many people
would only be able to index records if provided with the scans which can
be read at home.

Four language versions of the search engine are now available and long
term statistics show that the English interface is still used by ca. 60%
of the users, 30% use the Polish version, 8% prefer the German and the
remaining 2% - the French one. The rest of the material presented (project
description etc.) has also been translated into Polish and (in some part)
into German and French. I would like to thank those of you who have helped
me with translating, thus making the service more available to those who
might be interested, regardless of their country origin.

It should also be stressed that after a few years when the Project was
mostly supported by US researchers, recently many native Poles have
become aware of its existence - and started to contribute to its progress.
This is particularly important given the fact that a substantial part of
the records has not been microfilmed and thus can practically only be
accessed at Polish archives and parishes. For a few of localities, the
respective transcripts have already been provided by Polish researchers
and are serving the world's genealogical community. Also, those with
Polish mother tongue are of help to verify the difficult spelling of many
surnames, a nightmare to all volunteers.

In the last two months, material from the following parishes has been
added to the database:

Catholic:
Dziekanowice, Klecko, Kamionna, Poznan - St. John parish, Ludzisko,
Szaradowo, Zydowo (near Witkowo), Gromadno, Pawlowo, Jarzabkowo, Slupy,
Pogorzelica, Nekla, Solec (near Sroda), Biechowo, Gorzyce, Nietrzanowo,
Wudzyn, Slupia (near Kepno), Bialcz Stary, Kobylin, Kostrzyn, Poznan - St.
Margaret parish, Wyrzysk, Kaczanowo, Kazimierz Biskupi, Wasosze,
Srebrnagora, Smilowo, Zabartowo, Michorzewo, Janowiec, Brudnia (33 new
parishes, though for some of them only a "starter" is available).

** We have thus exceeded the number of 100 Catholic parishes in the
database! **

Lutheran:
Babimost [Bomst], Strzelno [Strelno], Wrzesnia [Wreschen],
Inowroclaw [Inowrazlaw], Dzierżążno [Drensen]

In case of a number of other parishes, the database contents have been
extended by additional years which were missing at earlier submissions.

There have been problems as well. Actually, the database runs on a PC in
Maciej's office and its performance has been much decreased in the last
weeks due to its volume and to other projects the server has to perform.
We have thus transfered the search engine and the database to another,
less "overworked" server. This is still a temporary solution, though.

As usual, I remind you of the web address of the Project's site:
http://www.discovering-roots.pl/poznan_project/project.htm

Please feel free to forward this information to any person or forum
potentially interested in the Poznan/Posen genealogy.

Best regards,

Lukasz Bielecki

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