Barbour Co West Virginia Marriages 1843-1900

Alternate Titles

• Early Barbour Co West Virginia Marriage Index 1843-1900

Description

Hunting For Bears Genealogical Society and Library collects and maintains large databases of early (predominantly pre 1900) marriage records from all fifty states. We are currently processing these records and will have them on line as the processing is completed. We do two things with these records: One, we publish these records in County Marriage Records in Books(3,000 to date), on CDs and in various electronic formats. We no longer publish on microfiche but have a fairly complete inventory of our collection up to 1980. To maximize information density, we restrict each marriage to one line of type in each book. Actually each marriage is listed twice in a combined alphabetical listing based on the Surnames and Given names of each party. Two, surname searches of these large computer databases were available to individuals since the late 1960s via the U. S. Postal Service. The surname searches via U.S.P.S. were supplanted with e-mail. Currently, we search our marriage indexes on a state by state basis and provide the results via e-mail. By using the alphabetical listing described above, we are able to search on partial Surnames and partial Given names to limit the number of searches needed to a maximum number of results. The Hunting For Bears marriage data collection as of about 1980, covering 16 states, was bundled with Family Tree Maker(c) and sold in the tens of thousands and was crucial in making an inferior program (FTM(c)) the most popular genealogical software in the world. The same collection combined with other data acquired by questionable means was included in Ancestry's(c) initial data searches, playing a significant role in its rise to the world's premier genealogy data search engine. Not only was HFB's data taken but its business plan was also! That was the 1980 collection, the 2013 collection dwarfs it in comparison. This book is part of that 2013 collection. It is maintained in a data base structure. Each party in the union is included in the alphabetical listing plus the date of the marriage, license or other source document. Using the records in a database format and listing both participants in the alphabetical sort was so unique in 1960 that the U.S. Government granted Hunting For Bears a (c)copyright on the collection in both electronic and print format. Several things we are considering in the immediate future are; e_books to buy, loan or free downloads, books available through instant publication, and books on-line. Oh, the name and logo, Russell, as Nicholas was called in his youth, loved puns. The newspaper genealogy column that he began writing in 1951, Hunting Your Forbearers, quickly became Hunting For Bears and the bear and hunter logo was created.

Description

The format for this series of books was designed specifically to address an extreme weakness in genealogical research methodology as it existed in the later half of the last century. The primary component of this solution was an extremely large data base of records which could be accessed via computer instantly to provide location of additional existent and more complete records needed by researchers. Marriage records were uniquely the form of research in need of this additional research methodology. Several barriers to this project will be lost to the fog of history unless mentioned somewhere so here are a few; A few County Clerks were naturally obstinate. The worst two were Parish Clerks in Louisiana, one of Assumption Parish, who would not allow our elderly collection team any access to the records unless they stood at the counter and hand copied the data. The books containing the dates were in a separate book and to see it required an individual retrieval and put back for each marriage. A neighboring parish, Ascension, arrested and prosecuted my wife and I for conducting a legal bingo (the mayor himself had issued the permit) to raise funds to continue the data collection process when the inheritance my parents had left, had been exausted. Another involves a deceitful lady named "Annie" and the Mississippi Genealogy Society who have no problem with taking the data that HFB paid teams of people to travel to each local court, collect the data, process it and publish it. Annie and MGS then published it on the internet and locally in print form thereby, negating any chance of recouping any of the expenditure incurred in accruing the data. Nick and Dorothy had expended tremendous effort establishing directly or indirectly over half of the Genealogy Societies in Mississippi and Louisiana and had trained and hired these new enthusiasts as team members in their data gathering project. To have several of these "researchers" betray friends, mentors and employers in this manner is inexplicable! There is a corporate "wolf" who has done the same as MGS does does locally on a small scale on a national scale, no an international one. HFB had been approached by a small startup CD producer to make our data available on CDs. He assured us the data would be protected by an unbreakable decryption method. Maybe he was correct, but the "wolf" bought controlling interest in his company, took our data and built the world's largest data repository and search service. All of this was done while I was becoming disabled in the Gulf War, I just love it when people say "Thanks for your service" all the while smiling and stealing everything they can get their hands on. After almost a decade "the wolf" did pay $35,000, half of which was back royalties on already sold CDs to avoid lawsuits (about the cost of gathering data from one state in 1960).

Subjects

Series Statement

• Early West Virginia Marriage Records by Hunting For Bears Genealogical Society and Library