MISSOURI STATE GENEALOGICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL



FAMILY-HISTORY ARTICLES ARE ALWAYS NEEDED FOR THE

MISSOURI STATE GENEALOGICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

YOU CAN BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!

The Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal (ISSN 0747-5667) is a quarterly of 64 pages per issue, indexed in PERiodical Source Index (PERSI), catalogued in Ulrich's, and is part of the permanent genealogical literature.

The Journal always seeks good articles, including Bible records, church records, family records, historical articles, educational articles (including case studies and 'how-to' articles), cemetery records, tombstone inscriptions, county records, military records, census indexes, funeral-home records, newspaper indexes, newspaper abstracts, school records (especially 1880-1900), organization records, success stories, and other records of value to Missouri genealogists. Tabular and narrative articles, and ones that are in-between, are sought. Illustrations or other art work that pertain to the article(s) are particularly welcome.

Of special value are articles that concern data relevant to the state as a whole (for example, naturalizations by the Missouri Supreme Court) or to large segments of the State. MoSGA prefers not to compete with local genealogical and historical societies for publishable materials; however, it is recognized that many of the records mentioned are highly local.

Articles of lengths from one to 12 pages (rarely longer) are desired. Articles longer than about three pages are serialized into two to four parts.

The MoSGA Journal seeks also to republish high-quality articles from the newsletters of local genealogical and historical societies that, for one reason or another, do not publish permanent literature (usually a quarterly indexed in PERSI and having an ISSN.) The Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal can provide not only permanence for compilations of data and other articles, but also wider readership of the articles, and publicity for the local societies whose articles are so re-published. It is highly unlikely that more than one article from any local society can be published in any one year.

One need not be a member of the Association, or a genealogist, to have articles published in the Journal.

The pay is great! Non-member authors or submitters are sent a copy of each issue of the Journal in which their work appears.

Submissions by e-mail are encouraged, but, if there is any question as to layout, it is usually better to supply also a copy in .rtf or .doc format, or on paper. Please do not use the word processor's footnoting or end-noting feature; instead, insert reference marks underscored and in parentheses, as, for example, (3) and then attach the same mark to the relevant note at the end. Why? We use end-notes and they fall to the back of the issue instead to the bottom of the article! Articles should be sent to MoSGA Journal Editor, POB 833, Columbia, MO 65205-0833.

Please do not hesitate to e-mail the Editor for details or if you have any ideas for articles, or to submit suggestions or criticisms, or to discuss St. Louis or German genealogical research.

Bob Doerr edits, and researches and writes much of, the quarterly
Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal.
In 2006 he is serving his fourteenth year as its Editor.

This is an effort to match the need for volunteers with the desire of some folks to volunteer. A common problem is that about half the members of any genealogical society live remote from the Society's 'home base', if, indeed there is a home base.

Needs for volunteers vary from society to society, but a common need is for indexing, transcription and extraction of data from various sources, typically from microfilm.

In some instances, an index or collection of extracts will constitute material for publication in a periodical, such as the Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal, but transcription of a large source, say a major part of a microfilm, will probably lead to publication in book form and/or to posting on the world-wide web.

The work of volunteers can be facilitated by such means as providing portable microfilm readers, laptop computers, and microfilms, some of which a society, but not an individual, are allowed to purchase or rent. Ideally, volunteers would have small, easily portable units that consist of a film carrier, light, lens and detector; the unit would be plugged into a computer on which the image would be displayed and/or collected and from which film movement would be controlled. See Microfilm Digitizer

At the 1999 FGS meeting in St. Louis, a speaker stated that volunteers deserve training. Certainly training is appropriate when needed to assure that a job is done correctly and to avoid waste of volunteer's time; RULE 1 is to avoid waste of volunteers' time. Depending on the skills of a volunteer, training may be necessary to explain precisely what is needed, how to read old script, how to interpret old abbreviations, how data is to be entered, etc.

Most volunteers probably prefer to work on materials that may perhaps contain data relevant to their own families. Therefore, it is usually best if the volunteer chooses the material to be processed.