CHAPTER V. THE CENSUS WARS

~ PART 1: Fits and Starts~

[Note: The following is based on a series of emails between Tim Stowell, Ron Eason, Maggie Stewart Zimmerman, Connie Burkett, and John Jacoby that took place during September 1999. These emails were posted to the USGW Advisory Board's email list BOARD-L in April 2000 as support for Tim Stowell's delinking of the Census Project. They have also been posted to a ListBot Archives.] Apparently all members of the discussion except John Jacoby gave permission to Tim to forward these mails to BOARD-L; although looking at the series of posts, some seem to be missing. Neither Kay Mason nor Linda Lewis was formally involved in these discussions.]

On August 31, 1999 Tim Stowell, then the National Coordinator for the USGenWeb Census Project sent an email to Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman [coordinator for the Archives Census Project], Ron Eason [coordinator for the USGW Census Project] and John Jacoby, initiating discussions for a possible merger of the two Census Projects. Tim asked the participants "to give a brief overview of how you 'see' the Census project being organized in the future. In your comments please try to leave out personalities and speak to data organization and to what will best benefit our 'customers' while keeping the historical integrity of the data."

Maggie Stewart Zimmerman appears to have been the first to respond to Tim's message. In her response, she suggested having the two census projects "compare notes" to prevent having the same census transcribed twice. She suggested having "the State Coordinators for the Census projects doing both projects," in order to "give some needed continuity for the volunteers." She also noted that she would "like to see the data in the archives in the state/county/census/year structure." Ron Eason, in his response, noted the incredible growth of the Census Project and its value to the USGW project. Both he and Maggie stressed their willingness to work toward compromise and their desire for the two projects to merge. However, Maggie noted that she desired "resolution on this issue so that the USGW Archives Census Project can move into the future working together as one entity," and Ron stated outright that "one thing has to be understood by everyone. My idea for the future, is not to have The Census Project, UNDER, any other Project, except The USGW Project." [This difference in perspective has been sticking point throughout the merger negotiations.]

Connie Burkett, Asst. Coordinator for the Census Project [and brought into the discussion by Ron Eason] noted several areas of concern, including limiting access to the census files to the Census Project file managers, searchability of the files, consistency of appearance of text files in the census directories, up-to-date assignment listings, indexing the scanned census images, and communication among project participants. Maggie addressed these points individually and generally positively, noting consistently that many of the ACP file managers had similar concerns and giving ideas of how she was working out similar issues within the ACP. Connie later asked if the census files could remain in their current location and Maggie told her they could not, but "it could be set up that the Census Project Coordinator uploaded it in one place and it appeared in the archives in the correct place." [Maggie is apparently talking about "sym-linking" here, an idea that the CP staff had previously rejected.]

On September 3, Tim summed up for everyone and put forth the following points for discussion that he gleaned both from their responses and from his own knowledge of the issues:

1. Directory control - ie password protected for census FMs
2. Directory structure - hiearchy of the data
3. Duplicate Personel - two folks doing the same census or state FMs
4. TOCs - possibly one for Scanned Images and one for text?
5. Restatement of the Goal of the Census Project
6. Recruitment of Volunteers
7. Handling of partial or surname transcriptions of census records
8. Housing of the Census Project
9. Definition of the Digital Library as mentioned in the Bylaws

Maggie then noted that control of directories and the determination of the directory structure was out of their control as both of these items needed to be worked out by Kay and Linda. She believed the the issue of duplicate personnel could be resolved "by us by allowing/encouraging the Census State Coordinators to work for each of the projects. This would promote continuity and would be a first step toward melding the two projects together." Her statement of the goal for the Census Project was simple: "Goal=work together to get as many of the census records online as possible." She also noted that as far as handling partial transcripts of census records, both Linda and Kay agreed that they should go into the Archives' state/county/census directories. The issue of housing the merged Census Project she again refers to Kay and Linda, since both had very strong opinions as to where the projects should be housed. As for the definition of the "Digital Library" mentioned in the bylaws, she has this to say:

"As I understand it the Archives and the USGW Project were formed at the same time and Linda Lewis requested that the Archives be allowed to use the USGenWeb name as a matter of unity. The real name of the archives is the USGenWeb Archives. I don't really think that a discussion of the Archives is appropriate here except to say that I did an indepth look into the history of the Census project that involved talking to all the folks that were involved at that time (those that would answer my email) and I do have a problem with Kay saying that the Census Project is hers when she was not even involved in it for the first year of its inception and creation."

Ron noted that the CP personnel needed to maintain control over their own files in order to maintain security of the files. He stated that he had no opinion one way or the other as to the directory structure of the census data, "UNLESS the underlying idea is to place or maintain the Census Project under the control of the Archives." On the issue of duplicated personnel and assignments he suggested that the ACP redirect sign-up requests for states without coordinators to the CP. His statement of the goal of the Census Project was this "Goal = work together to get as many of the census records online as possible, "Without compromising quality and standards and uniting as one Census Project, a stand alone Project." He felt that partial transcriptions of census materials should be given to the county coordinators unless they represented a completed township or village. On the topic of the housing of the Census Project, he says this:

"If my history of the Project serves me correctly it wasn't the original File Managers per se that voted on it, but rather those that were actually instrumental in bringing the Archives to life, Linda/Brian/and a few others not in the current picture...And the directory structure works fine for miscellaneous information about a particular county. You know you will find every bit and piece of info. gathered by whoever in the directory under such and such County....But this is the Census Project and there is no need to put our work in the directory under some state and county FM...There is no reason to move the census files into another directory and then link to them....The only reason to move the Census Files is CONTROL....Kay isn't perfect but all she wanted was the freedom to do this Project the best she could."

Regarding the definition of the "Digital Library", Ron noted that Maggie's memory of project history was close, but:

"The premier inception of the USGW however did not include the Archives. In fact the founder of the USGW emphatically did NOT want the archives to be a part of the USGW because it would in fact take away from the validity and need for each County Project...the By-Laws, if read completely treat the AP and the CP as equal entities with the same voice and the same recognition, which is as it should be. The problem with the old idea that Kay didn't have the right to take the Project away from the AP is that when they voted her in as the National Coordinator of the Project they, in reality, gave her the right and the power to do with it as she saw best for the Project...Kay did what she thought was best for the growth and betterment of the Census Project. It may have been unpopular with the AP but she was within her rights."

By September 17, the group was discussing minutae such as whether links would go directly to files or to folders containing sets of census files, and whether indexes of scanned census images should contain the full census info or merely enough information for users to locate the scans they need to view. And this where the discussions apparently left off.

Both Connie Burkett and Ron Eason claim that Tim Stowell offered in mid-September to recap the discussions for the group and then never did so. The group waited around for him and in mid-October Ron emailed Tim asking for the recap and whether or not the discussions were over. Tim replied on October 17, "As far as I'm concerned, no. I'll see if I can't resume them later today." But he apparently never did and the talks did not resume.

On to Merger Talks, part 2!
Back to Chapter IV
Back to the TOC

© 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. The opinions expressed above are solely those of the author; they may not reflect those of the USGenWeb Project or its members. The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board does not endorse this site and is not affiliated with it. The author would like to thank Barbara "Rootslady" Dore, Tim Stowell and Linda Lewis for their assistance with this history, as well as a few anonymous contributors who provided access to their email archives.