by BARB KELLAMS
16 July 1997, Maquoketa Sentinal
Charlotte Meyer of Maquoketa is one of hundreds of volunteers throughout the state who are preserving the history of the area by inputting genealogy information for access on the World Wide Web.
Meyer serves as the Jackson County coordinator for the IA Gen Web Project, a project that seeks to provide a multitude of important genealogical statistics to anyone with a computer, a modem and access to the Internet.
Meyer said she originally intended only to process queries regarding ancestral information, but said she found the Jackson County Genealogical Society had a computer available with nobody who knew how to run it.
"They had a computer and I knew how to run it, so it worked out just fine," she said.
Meyer said anyone with a computer and modem can access the Web site to gain information from any county in "virtual Iowa".
The project has several aspects, including making public domain records, such as state census, court records, land records, church and military records and local history information, available through the Internet.
Vital records, such as birth certificates, deaths and marriages are also being put into the system.
Each county Web site also has an area where researchers can post queries and surnames, allowing connections with others researching the same family lines.
Up-to-date information on Iowa genealogical societies is also available, plus a bulletin board to post genealogy events in the state, such as family reunions, field trips and society meetings.
Loren Toomsen, (past) coordinator of the state program, said the Web site is "a valuable resource for people doing research in Iowa."
"It provides a massive on-line collection of information that is organized county by county," she said.
Promoters of the Web site say the work being done by volunteers like Meyer is best described as a "labor of love," since the work is done on a volunteer basis.
Meyer said her current project is to update cemetery information for the county.
Computer users who would like to access the Jackson County Web site can contact it through the site http://iagenweb.org/jackson/
For information on other areas of Iowa, the state site can be accessed at
http://iagenweb.org/
(Four column by 5-inch picture of Charlotte Meyer at computer keyboard at the Jackson County Historical Library included.) Caption: Charlotte Meyer of Maquoketa is the Jackson County coordinator for the IA Gen Web Project, a program that provides important genealogical statistics to anyone with a computer, modem and access to the Internet.
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