Again I have to congratulate Tom Weiss for having found vital information
on his step-father's family on the detailed tree Carole Vogel has uploaded
on GENI.
What I still do not understand is why one has to meet Carole [or anyone of
our SIG members] on Facebook. Anyone who reads our messages and looks at
the message archives will know that Carole is an expert on Mattersdorf and
had I a problem in that area, I would have contacted her forthwith and
posted the exciting results on our SIG.
Harold Chipman tells me that younger people prefer Facebook - are there
big Bohemia-Moravia groups on Facebook? Should I sit there and proselytise
for Grossbock and Kolin?
Do I now understand that people no longer read the messages nor use the
Jewishgen message archives for research but find all their links on
Facebook - ie is the lack of messages due to the fact that people have
deserted us for Facebook?
Have they had great success, let's say in find relatives >from Bisenz,
Kremsier, Pilsen, Podiebrad or Ung. Brod?
On the contrary, I tend to think that it is because many of us have
intractable problems that cannot be solved so simply. There are far too
many complex links in Bohemian-Moravian trees to make a Facebook visit a
success story. One has to ferret out every single interconnection.
Facebook would certainly not work for larger places like Vienna or Prague.
Mattersburg/Mattersdorf, Eisenstadt and the Burgenland were special
communities as were some places in present-day Slovakia and perhaps we
should include Pressburg. I can also understand that the Jews of Salzburg
and Graz might find their links more easily in a centralised place - it is
just a great pity that this place is not our SIG so we can all learn
more and have all our data in one place.
And please can someone explain to us why the GENI trees are better than
the FTJP. I have not visited the former - are they much easier to use?
Do we now abandon the latter and upload on GENI - or do we ask Jewishgen
to modernise their trees? Is the JGFF now outdated?
Am I very behind the times? I really would like answers to these
questions.
Celia Male - London, U.K.
