Ways to Volunteer
The CTGenWeb & USGenWeb Projects were established in 1996 by a group of genealogists who shared a desire to create free online resources for genealogical research. We are an all volunteer organization, if you support our endeavor consider helping us grow this project by volunteering, contact the State Coordinator or appropriate County Coordinator to express your interest.
Always contact the coordinator before submitting information to see if the material fits the scope of the project, the coordinator will also give you directions for submitting the material as it may differ between Coordinators. If your materials cover the state of Connecticut, contact the State Coordinator. For material that covers a county or town, contact the appropriate County Coordinator.
Our guidelines and policies concerning U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code) can be found at http://usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.html. We do not post photos or information about living individuals.
coordinate an adoptable county
If you have basic experience in making webpages, using FTP software, and an interest in Connecticut History & Genealogy, consider being a County Coordinator. For information on what is expected of a Coordinator visit the CTGenWeb Coordinator Tools page.
be a look-up volunteer
If you have research materials relating to Connecticut or the people that once lived here, consider looking up information for fellow researchers. Types of materials could include: books (biographies/yearbooks/directories), censuses (town/ethnic/military), newspapers (articles/obituaries), compiled family trees, etc. Sometimes volunteers live in the area and visit courthouses, historical societies, or take photos of gravestones for others. The volunteers name, email address, and a description of the offer will be posted on the state website.
offer to transcribe material for a coordinator
Transcribe (type verbatim) books, obituaries or other materials. Notepad or WordPad are the preferred programs used for submitting transcribed material, and save the files as PLAIN TEXT (no formating). Do not use MS Word or similar programs as their code may interfere with the page coding. A Coordinator will give you further instructions based on the type of material being transcribed.
If the material you are transcribing is not supplied by the coordinator, first make sure it is in the public domain (no copyright), and that you cite the source, examples: (books) "Johnson Family Genealogy", by R A Johnson, 1930, 200 pages, printed by Soandso Publishers; (obituary) "the Denver Times Newspaper", Friday, January 16, 1889, page 4, Denver, CO.
donate your family photos, documents & other materials
If your ancestors lived in Connecticut, consider donating photos, documents and your compiled family history. Read "Sending digital photos & scanned documents" below.
survey a cemetery
Transcribe the inscriptions on gravestones & monuments in a cemetery. This is a great project for Girl or Boy Scouts to help earn a badge, or school groups for extra credit. It is always a good idea to get permission from a church or cemetery sexton, sometimes they have burial information & cemetery maps available.
Take digital photos
Live in the area and have a digital camera? Consider taking photos of landmarks around a county, or of gravestones in cemeteries. Read "Sending digital photos & scanned documents" below.
Sending digital photos & scanned documents
Do not embed photos in a document, send them as a separate JPG or GIF file. Documents can be saved as JPG or PDF files. Send photos & documents attached to the email that contains other information about them.
Please name your file something short and specific, you may use upper & lower case letters, but no spaces or special characters. For example, if the photo is of the Johnson Family, save it as 'Johnson.jpg', if it is for Robert A Johnson, save it as 'RobertAJohnson.jpg' or 'RAJohnson.jpg'. Follow a similar format for scanned documents, if it is a death certificate save it as 'RAJohnsonDC; Obituaries as RAJohnsonObit; Military document as RAJohnsonMil; etc.