NCGenWeb -  Ideas for your Websites

 

*This page is to give ideas to our members who may be unsure of what records they may want to create for their websites; it is not limited to just these records, and you are welcome to submit other ideas if you wish, too.  It is important for all CCs to keep in mind that *new* data/scanned images can be submissions from researchers/transcribers and NOT  necessarily just something the CC has submitted. However, CCs are encouraged to use some of these ideas for records that you do on your own for your websites. We want to add fresh material to sites, and in this day and age, contributed data is few and far between for most locations. Transcribed records are best to add to your websites since they can be picked up by Search engines and easily found by visitors to your sites. And remember, that the NCGenWeb strictly adheres to the copyright laws and that we cannot post anything that violates it.  If you are unsure what is covered by copyright, visit the Copyright Checks link below. 

Copyright Checks

Is it copyrighted? Check the links below to find out:

https://www.copyright.gov/  ~ under RESOURCES, click "Search Copyright Records"

https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/   (The Online Book Page of copyrights)

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/copyright-research/searching-records/   (A "how-to" page)

Please read our USGenWeb Copyright Information page which details our standards
Cemeteries It is recommended that tombstones with a birthdate only be blacked out. The person is usually still living,

Idea

 Find your List of Cemeteries by County, link to your County: Cemetery Census or  Find-A-Grave

Idea

 Create link or links to individual Cemeteries for your County on Find-A-Grave  or Cemetery Census

Idea

 If you're really adventurous, create links to individual Names in a Cemetery on Cemetery Census or Find-A-Grave

Idea

 Transcribe the W.P.A. Cemetery listings for your County found at the NC Digital Collection
   
Obits Format for obits submitted to your site:
Recommended Newspaper or Funeral Home name and date of obit:
URL of above if applicable:
Name of deceased:
Date deceased:
Age at time of death:
Place of death:
Place of burial:
Date of funeral services:
Place of funeral services:
Date of birth (if given):
Place of birth (if given):
Occupation:
Military:
Recommended Government Sites - NARA Records are great resources - Transcribe, link or attach records for your County
Ideas ---Military-WWII:
 http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/army-casualties/north-carolina.html
  http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/navy-casualties/north-carolina.html

WWI:

 https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2018/11/15/list-north-carolinas-dead-wwi-service-individuals

Korean War:

 https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/korean-war/casualty-lists/nc-alpha.pdf

Vietnam War:

 https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-lists/nc-alpha.pdf
Vital Records NC vital records are a matter of public record. Anyone can request uncertified copies of your birth, marriage, divorce or death information with no questions asked. NC is one of the few states I've come across where this is the case. Restrictions are only placed when making a request for a certified copy.
Recommended

All effort will be taken to avoid posting information concerning living persons.
* The following guidelines applies to Vital Records:
+ Records of births, marriages, and divorce during the last 80 years should not be posted.
+ Records of deaths for any year may be posted, but care should be taken to honor family wishes regarding such postings.
Idea
 FamilySearch.org is a great source of material; NC has a tremendous amount of images of Marriages & Death Certificates which can be indexed or transcribed for a County
Idea
 An index of Surnames in a given year of vital records would be helpful to researchers.
Records of all kinds NC Digital Collection has many records that can be transcribed; Search an individual collection or entire collection by County or Surnames to locate for your website.
Ideas: NC Digital Collection
 Create a listing of Family Bibles for your County, link to individual bible; or can transcribe the info from bibles
  Create a listing of Family Papers Collections linked to collection; see example
Ideas: DigitalNC
 DigitalNC -Any of these you can create links to specific collections for your Location,  Subject, etc., or be adventurous, and include a listing of the Titles found in your Location.   Records in the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center include Yearbooks, Newspapers, Memorabilia, City Directories

Direct link to City Directories:    https://www.digitalnc.org/collections/city-directories/ 

Ideas: Documenting American South

 Documenting the American South has numerous resources for Counties; search by Subject or County to find records to add to your site. Example: North Carolina and it's Resources provides many Subjects by Location to choose from

Ideas: FamilySearch Records:

 Transcribe Wills and Estates or Deeds from FamilySearch at any time for your website, always are appreciated.

Find all records available online for FamilySearch by using the Catalog.

These are All North Carolina County Records on FamilySearch  - click "Places within United States, North Carolina", and the links to each individual County will open.  Records include Court, Deeds, and much more. For instance, Most Counties have deeds online, under the Land & Property databases.  Tip: select records which indicate the Author as government offices, such as Register of Deeds or Superior Court, because they have microfilm images online. Those showing Author as a person are books, and most are not online.

Probate Records, Estate Files

 Create a page with the list of  Names in the specific Collection for your County, with a link to the main page of the NC Estate Files 1663-1979 or NC Probate Records 1735-1970, or whichever one you transcribe from.  Warning, not recommended to use what may seem to be "direct" links to a specific County through FamilySearch, since they regularly change, they are not static. Just use the link to the main collection name as above.

Freedmen's Bureau Records

 Transcribe, or link to any of the info from the Freedmen's Bureau Collections, info including names are best.  Site includes links to many African American Collections on FamilySearch.

NC Freedmen's Bureau Records on FamilySearch
  Transcribe various records for certain Counties in the NC County Records 1833-1970- Records vary: Voters Registrations, Election, School records, Coroners records, Custody records, Slave records, Tax & Census, Estates, Guardianships, Wills, Civil Actions, Marriage records - check for Counties available

Links to FamilySearch Records

Note that when linking to FamilySearch Records Collections, you should only use their official catalog links because the others are not static and will disappear after a short period. Following are permalinks to some of their major NC Collections:

North Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1911121

North Carolina Probate Records 1735-1970:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1867501

North Carolina Deaths 1906-1930:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1609799

North Carolina Deaths 1931-1994:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1584959

North Carolina Birth Index 1800-2000:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1949336

North Carolina Marriages 1759-1979:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1675514

North Carolina Marriages 1762-1979:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1726957

 
North Carolina State Archives Has a County Records Box List with various records available for about 40 Counties. Some are PDF pages listing Names and other details; some are actual transcriptions of the records. You may provide direct links to those PDF's or Pages, or transcribe them for your own County site.  Records include Civil Actions, Coroners Inquests, CRX, Divorce, Estate, Guardians, Inheritance Tax, Lunacy, Marriage, Widows Support, and Wills.  Counties with available records:  Alamance, Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Bute, Cabarrus, Beaufort, Buncombe, Caldwell, Camden, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Columbus, Cumberland, Dare, Davidson, Durham, Forsythe, Gaston, Gates, Graham, Greene, Guilford, Harnett, Haywood, Hertford, Hyde, Jackson, Lenoir, Macon, Martin, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Moore, Northampton, Pamlico, Pender, Perquimans, Polk, Richmond, Rowan, Sampson, Stanly, Stokes, Swain, Wilkes, Transylvania, Washington, Wayne, Yancey

The new NC State Archives Online Catalog  is called DOC -this is the link, includes a page with instructions

Idea: Link to online guide Guide to Research Materials in the State Archives  List of available records by County
   
Library of Congress This website offers many records of all kinds, Browse or search the Collections
NC Postal History Society NC Postmark Catalog  lists by County, can add to your links
Internet Archive Archives.org records of all kinds are free and can be copied or linked to;search for records for your site. This also the link for the Wayback Machine

North Carolina's original LearnNC is now located on the Internet Archive. And has also been moved to a special section of NCPedia called Anchor.  They are both great North Carolina History Resources.

Message Boards Rootsweb Message Boards are now located on Ancestry.com servers, if you wish to guide visitors to places to post queries, you can  link to the appropriate ones for your Counties, as selected from here. Note: the boards are free, but must register with Ancestry for a free account to post:

https://www.ancestry.com/boards/

 
Look ups Need a Lookups recommendation for your site? Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) has a North Carolina page you can link to: 

RAOGK North Carolina Lookups
   

Additional Website Tools

 
Tableizer Have an Excel sheet you want to make into a webpage without uploading the actual sheet or all of the bloated coding?  Use this tool,  it quickly converts Spreadsheets into HTML tables; just highlight & copy the columns in the spreadsheet, then paste into converter. Copy the converted html tables into the coding on your page.  Can convert very large tables, too.
Free Watermark Tools online watermarktool  ~ several options available for watermarking

LUNAPIC  ~ crop, transparencies, watermarking, many editing features

Water Marquee ~ free watermarking tools
Free Links Checker Xenu's Link Sleuth ~ find and fix your site's broken links. Free download
   

Easy coding for your pages:

Copy & paste any of these into your HTML coding section
Last Updated Time Stamp script: Month, Day, Year  Last updated: <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%B %d, %Y" --></b></font>
   
Return to previous page Coding to add to "back" navigation buttons:  javascript:history.go(-1)
REMINDER If you need further ideas, the NC Statewide Information page is always there with Resources and links to records of all kinds for every Subject, which is updated regularly, so feel free to use anything there.