[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Educate yourself about using the Lublin database

[Karl Krueger]

This is a general message sent to anyone who has interest in using the data publically available on the SGGEE Lublin database.

First it appears many people have submitted money to the church in requesting specific records. At this time it seems only the pastor is able to fulfill those requests, however, he is often very busy, travels often, and may require extra time to fill requests. We will try to notify him of these concerns and possibly suggest if he can have someone else take this responsibility. They will take any donation if you wish to contribute to the church. There is no set fee for records although we ask that you be considerate in the service they will provide you.

Secondly it is clear many people are going to the SGGEE web page for the Lublin database:

http://www.sggee.org/research/parishes/lublin_records/lublinsearchinstruct.html

Based on many questions that are arising it also appears many users are simply entering the box at the top left to begin searching the database without reading the rest of the page or associated links. The left box is there not as a place to start but for convenience for those already familiar with this site. EVERYONE who uses this site should FIRST read the text below on that page. After that it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that users study all links in the right box. These resources provide an in depth description of what can be found in the digital archive and its ongoing progress as new data is entered into the database.

Most records from this digital archive are quite different than what you will find on typical films from your FHC. Users should be familiar with what they may expect to encounter.

- If you do not know what a compilation table or alegata is then the links on right box are mandatory reading for you.

- Do you know the significance of the Kamien parish and how that may impact on the likelihood of finding a record of interest for you in this archive? 

- What does it mean if you find hits that indicate a person's name is "Living"? 

These kinds of questions are all answered on this site but users need to do their homework and educate themselves before having fun at searching the data. Before driving a new car you want to be familiar with all the controls on the dashboard. The same reasoning holds for this database.

Please note that this entire subdivision of the web site has German pages. It appears from our discussions with the German users that they are familiar with the various aspects of this data indicating they tend to read "the instruction manual" before using.

Thank you for your consideration.
Team Lublin