Phase III.
Make an active effort to find newer descendants since the
book's publication (i.e. those born after ~1935) and add that information
(by hand) to the above GEDCOM files.
GATHERING NEWER INFORMATION ABOUT DISTANT ANCESTORS IS NOT THE FOCUS OF
THIS PROJECT!
Discovery of modern descendants will require continued on-line postings,
mailings, phone calls etc. Hard to know when or where to cut this off,
but I have allowed 3 to 4 years. This search will gather only basic
demographic information to establish precise identity and family lineage.
Personal information such as street address and phone number will be
excluded from the final output. (Most major archiving services would
exclude this anyway.)
Comment: The more working on this aspect the better. My number of on
line Bieber/Beaver contacts from lineages mentioned in the book after one
year* of only casual effort has been positive but not spectacular.
Problem is - people interested in this type of endeavor are mostly 60+ in
age who are not much into computers or on-line communication. The few
younger ones I have found have heavy work and family responsibilities and
could not contribute much personal time. May have to fall back on the
Rev. I.M. Beaver method of compiling the data - personal letters,
searching records etc. (sort of like hand-to-hand combat). There are
about 1500 to 2000 listings in phonebooks for BIEBER and about 3 times
that many for BEAVER, if the website
Switchboard is to be believed. I
might be willing to support one mass mailing to BIEBER, but doing the
same for BEAVER and other major name groups listed in the book would be
beyond my time and financial resources. As an offshoot to this phase one
could add more ancestors of non BIEBER/BEAVER spouses which the book
doesn't try to do very much.
*I can now make the observation, after two plus years of effort, that
contributions from new on-line contacts are variable. Most new contacts
from this Bieber/Beaver lineage are enthusiastic about helping out, for
which I am grateful. A few others disappear after the first request for
information. John Bieber has suggested a common website, or information
depository, for those interested.
We live in a more paranoid society than IM Beaver, whose respondents gave
all their personal data including addresses etc. They (his contributors)
were willing to be indentified as part of this heritage! For those that
contribute new data I am willing to return my final compilation by CDROM
(private publication) or similar. It's a matter of commitment and trust.
Phase IV.
Sending the compiled data (GEDCOM) file to some (and all)
major organization for permanent archiving. My vote is (at least) for
the Family History Center in Salt Lake City.
Comment: I have personally visited the Family History Center in Salt
Lake and was profoundly impressed with their commitment to gathering,
storing, and making available this information for future generations.
Other suggestions I have received include the Library of Congress and
World Family Tree (run as an offshoot of Broderbund Software Co.). I
don't know much about the Library of Congress, but should have time to
get details. As to Broderbund, their effort is laudable. Newer players
are also emerging but will they be around 100+ years from now?
The Family History Center supported by the LDS church is in a class by
itself. If I were to try to reconstruct my lineage one hundred years from
now, I would start with their records.
There are also many societies etc, esp from Pa., Pa. Dutch etc., that
might accept it for safekeeping, but none have the stature or
accessibility for genealogy researchers that the LDS group does.
Ultimately one could send many copies to anyone who will take them, but
the rules of the acceptor should be kept in mind as data is organized.
NOTE: Recently the
Family History Center went online. I had done a search through their older
CDROMS (dated 1992 and 1993) and found only about 25% of names using a
trial sample from the book. After visiting this new site I now find
about 90% of names of those born before about 1895 have been entered by a
researcher using the Bieber/Beaver Book and submitted in 1997. A very
enterprising individual and I have duplicated efforts to some extent.
However the data entered there (In the 'Ancestral File' section) is
without correction of some errors contained in the book. I will make
corrections as well as additions supplied by those who wish to contribute
their information.
Final Comment. This is the last window in time that the survivors
mentioned in the book will have to contribute to the update of the
monumental effort by Rev. I.M. Beaver. I am sure that he would be the
first to tell us that the best source of family information is a living
person.
We are fortunate to have the additional tools of computers and mass on
line communication that he did not. One hundred years from now, many of
our descendants will want to know who WE were!
William P. Bieber
San Francisco, California
December 27, 1996 ... Revised May 29, 1999
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