• Delaware Families Tasks12/6/99
  Here are several ways you can help and you don't need to live in Delaware
  
  

• Families Registered and/or Submitted for the Delaware Families Project
  A list of all persons registered and/or submitted as living in Delaware 1787-1800
  
  

  Focus families likely to be in Volume 1 of Delaware Families 1787-1800
  
  

  To Register Your Families
  Simply send us the names of your "focus people" and, if known,
  

  * their given name and surname
  

  * their approximate birth year
  

  * their approximate death year
  

  * their spouse's given name and surname (maiden name)
  

  * their spouse's approximate birth year
  

  * their spouse's approximate death year
  

  * the hundred(s) wherein they resided 1787-1800 (see also towns and places)
  

  * how they qualify as "focus people", i.e. how named in 1787-1800 record.
  

  * OPTIONAL: page in 1800 census, applies; names and birth dates of children.
  
  You are under no obligation, and you might link up with others working on the same families.
  For further details about the project and questions about qualifications of specific ancestors, write to

  Tom Doherty at tdoherty@delgensoc.org

  or by snail mail to:
  

  Thomas P. Doherty
  

  3321 N. Rockfield Drive
  

  Devonshire
  

  Wilmington DE 19810-3238
  

  Phone: (302)-478-4758
  
  

  Delaware Families Project Qualifications, Description and Sample Entry
  Do you have an ancestor (or information on someone) who lived in Delaware sometime between 1787, when Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, and 1800? If so, you may be interested in sharing information on their life and family with the Delaware Genealogical Society (DGS) for use in our Delaware Families Project. We plan to publish not only the standard genealogical information (birth, marriage, death), but also a short biography about the family: occupation, military and civil service, slave names, documents that establish residency or relationship, etc.

  Each entry will center around a "focus person" who is an adult (husband and/or wife) named in an original record (e.g. census, tax, deed, probate, court, church) made at the time of the event and dated between 1787 and 1800 inclusive, that proves the person lived in Delaware at some time between 1787 and 1800 inclusive. A spouse of a focus person is also a focus person. More than one person from a family, e.g. grandparents, parents, sons and daughters, can be written up as a focus person as long as they meet the above criteria. We encourage such multiple entries. We would like information as far back as the names of the grandparents of the focus person and as far forward as the grandchildren of the focus person.

  Participation in this project may help you contact others who are also working on your line. You do not have to be a member of the DGS to submit an entry. Descendants across the U.S. are participating. We welcome everyone! We expect about 100-200 families per volume with the first volume to published in hard cover by Picton Press in 1997 and about one volume every two years thereafter. We estimate over 15,000 different families lived in Delaware between 1787 and 1800!

  To Submit Your Entry:
  We realize that each entry will require an extensive effort on the part of the submitter, but we will help you get your entry into publishable shape. We may be able to help you find additional information about your families. It should be helpful to consult our format guide and our sample entry when compiling your own entry. We have published several entries-in-progress in our Delaware Genealogical Society newsletters.
  
  We don't expect any submission to be complete or perfect, but accepted rules of evidence [Ref: Elizabeth Shawn Mills: Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian (1997) - published by Genealogical Publishing Company: "Any statement of fact that is not common knowledge must carry its own individual statement of source."] should be followed. For a further discussion of sourcing requirements for a Delaware Families entry, see original records and secondary sources. If you have copies of your referenced pages, please send them to us as we need to confirm all facts in each entry before publishing. We do not need copies of sources from references marked with an asterick (*) [see sources] or from the 1800 or 1810 Delaware census. Our goal is to publish at least one family group from each submitter. After each entry we will list the names and addresses of the contributors [See sample entry.]

  We prefer final entries in electronic format either on a disc, transmitted as binary files via E-mail on the Internet or uploaded to an FTP site with paper copies of documentation sent via snail mail (U.S. postal service). A few entries have been typed on paper, which is OK, but please type use a good ribbon and a standard font without extraneous marks, underlines or superscripts, so we can scan them directly into the computer. Initial writeups may be sent by E-mail for format comments to Tom Doherty at tdoherty@delgensoc.org The final book will be compiled using WordPerfect, Lotus AmiPro or Microsoft Word on an IBM computer; but we can accept entries in a lot of other formats, e.g. ASCII [which can be formed using most any computer word processing software (see your manual)], WordStar*, Rich Text Format, etc. Please write tdoherty@delgensoc.org for details.
  
  

NOTES
[See additional samples in The Delaware Genealogical Society newsletters ]
Format Philosophies: Focus person and spouse (male or female) are treated equally; no sex discrimination!
* Include short bio for focus person and for spouse and only special "tidbits" (e.g. war veteran, Mayflower descendant, European origin, political official, occupation) for others. Slave names, ages, relationships and vital statistics are highly desired.
* Want birth/marriage/death data [date/place] & spousal parentage for all generations except only birth/marriage data for grandchildren.
* Document each birth, relationship, marriage, death and fact or tidbit with date, place and citation with volume, page number, etc.
* Place = DE unless followed by a standard postal state or 3-letter country abbreviation [exceptions: NoC=North Carolina, Elkton]
* Some Symbols: *** = missing reference/page, ______ = name unknown, # = ancestor of submitter, in [when within reference] = cited in
* Abbreviations [generally without periods and mainly for references and children's write-ups]. Hundreds are generally abbreviated using first 10 letters with no spaces or Co: e.g. Appoquinim, Baltimore, LittleCrSX, NoWestFork, WhiteClayC
* References [to be listed in full at beginning of book; short form is italicized and abbreviated to one word; it is followed by page number in text; recommend a one word abbreviation for your own references]

We are not equipped to answer general queries - see Submitting Queries.

© Delaware Genealogical Society - February 5, 2003 - comments to Webmaster Tom Doherty at <