Easterly Family Pages Website
I need to know if the site is doing any good. I can tell by the website reports that it is being used. People
are accessing the site, downloading pages ,etc.
That tells me that at least it is being looked at.
What it does not tell me are your reactions to the data there. I need input back from you, indicating what you think of it. I need to know what improvements are desired. What other feature areas are needed?
The original intent of the site was to make the known data available to everyone who is interested. AND to encourage others to participate in discussions about the families.
Since I put the site up on the net, the activity on this forum has ground to a halt. Why? Is all the infor people want now available on the website?
I see many spots that need more research. When you look at the number of families that the data stops in the
1800's, that tells me that there many families that do not have their individual family data complete and up-to-date.
The data collected and assembled by the various researchers and contributors has grown dramatically over the last few years. It is now available on the net for all to utilize.
My goals of many years ago have been met. We now know very solid information about the three brothers who arrived in the early 1700's. We have information about each of them and the families the commenced and their descendants. The numbers in my files are now over 9000. That includes the fragment files.
Think of it! When John Casper Branner included his few entries in the Branner book in 1913, there were fewer than 150 Easterly entries. He knew nothing of the three brothers who arrived in the early 1700's. He wrote nothing of Conrad Easterly and Catherine Zirkle. He didn't even know that Catharine Zirkle was married to Conrad Easterly before she married Casper Branner.
He did not include her last name of Zirkle when he listed her as the wife of Casper Branner. He did not know that she lived well beyond her estimated date of death (1800, estimated by Branner) to 1817.
We have accomplished a lot over the years. However, there still remains a lot more to be done.
I check a lot of the related family forums ona regular basis. I am dismayed by the lack of activity on many of
them. Some are very active. Some of them are very important to the development of the Easterly family files.
The Branner forum. No activity.
The Kroh forum. No activity. (the only living connections to Hans Georg Easterly).
The family connections developed by our ancestors have to be pursued by us, today, or we will lose track of them.
I just do not want to see our forum fall by the wayside for lack of interest.
"the search goes on"
Frank