The Queries Team re-invented itself again in 2000! Our new name is the IIGS™ Research Coordination Team. Our new mission will be to serve the IIGS™ membership and Interenational genealogical community with indexed access to a database of IIGS Research Interests Project participants' surnames, web pages, and e-mail addresses (the IRIP). As of November 1998, the old Queries Team lost its last official member and is now being shifted into the Research Coordination Team. This site will report developments as they occur. Should you wish to be a part of discussions concerning the Research Coordination Team or the IIGS Research Interests Project, subscribe to the IIGS-RCT-L@rootsweb.com list.
It will be the mission of the Queries Sub-Team, in order to facilitate communications between individual researchers world-wide, to provide to the Internet community indexed access to a database of information submitted by members-in-good-standing of the International Internet Genealogical Society. This database of members' URLs, members' geographical locations, and members' surname registrations (indicating research interets) will be presented on the web at the IIGS™ site for all web-browsing researchers to search, but only members of IIGS™ may submit their information. That is, this database will give, in capsulated form, an overview of the research interests (surname registrations) and accomplishments (URLs) of the IIGS™ membership. We will use the CCHelper program to mount IIGS™ members' information and research interests. The surnames will be indexed in the new Surname Helper, a world-wide genealogical index mounted here at the Rootsweb Genealogical Data Cooperative.
The Queries Sub-Team may eventually expand their database to include IIGS™ member-only queries in all Roman-alphabet languages thus becoming a major provider for International genealogical queries on the WWW. By fostering sound query-writing practices, providing coding so that International foreign language characters are properly respresented, and using careful attention to detail, the team expects that a quality product will result. IIGS™ Members' queries will not be translated but we will attempt to format them in structured ways so that most researchers can interpret the 'sense' of the queries no matter what language is used. As new ways of indexing these queries (by location?, by given name?) and coordination with other IIGS™ Teams (CGI-scripted searches of the database?, contacting -every- IIGS™ member?) improve their usefulness, other refinements and enhancements will be investigated and/or implemented as needed.
This database, to be managed in CCHelper, will be voluntary, but *only* IIGS™ members-in-good-standing may submit their data. The database will record the names of participating IIGS™ members, their locations (database will be indexed by place in a future version), how to contact them, what lines (surnames) they are researching, and their web pages where you can get find more detail. It will advertise to all web browsers (1) the members of IIGS™, (2) how to contact them, and (3) what the members of IIGS™ are individually researching.
IMPORTANT: This database is not connected to the Membership Database. No information from the Membership Database will be used in the MRI. The MRI is entirely member-contributed. Do NOT contribute any information you do not wish to have mounted on the World Wide Web. If you do not wish to be identified as an IIGS™ member or publicize your e-mail address, do NOT participate in the MRI. Your participation in this project or lack thereof has no bearing at all on your membership in the International Internet Genealogical Society. To repeat, this project is voluntary! If you are not now a member, Join the International Internet Genealogical SocietyTo participate in the MRI, IIGS™ members MUST ...
In addition to their name and e-mail address, IIGS™ members may also contribute the following items to the MRI:
The new program CCHelper ©Patty Lindsay is used to manage and display these queries. CCHelper was originally programmed to assist County Coordinators of the USGenWeb Project of which Patty is a member managing the Greene Co., OH, page. Without such an easy way to manipulate, sort, and index the surnames in the queries in addition to the automatic generation of Web pages, the Queries Team would have found it difficult to produce as nice a product manually. We wish to thank Patty for so generously donating her program for use by non-profit organizations and look forward to the new features under development for the next version of the program. If you wish to read more about the program, visit the CCHelper Web site -OR- read the article The CCHelper Revolution in the January 1998 issue of the IIGS™ Newsletter.