USGenWeb - An Indispensable Site to All Family Historians

Kudos to the USGenWeb creators and volunteers who have kept this amazing and free genealogy website going all these years. 

18th Century Buildings in Elkton, Cecil County, MD
(source: http://cecilcounty.wordpress.com/2012/03/17

The site includes records from all over the United States, land records, tax records, vital records, cemetery records to name just a few. 

On their home page we read:  "Welcome to The USGenWeb Project! We are a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone." (source:  http://usgenweb.org)

An example of one of their thousands of records that are available free and online is the following Cecil County, Maryland 1783 tax record for residents in and around the town of Elkton (where William and Rebecca lived). Here is an excerpt:

Maryland State Archives
MARYLAND INDEXES
(Assessment of 1783, Index)
1783
Cecil County
MSA S 1437

Andrew Miller. Three Bohemia Sisters, pt, 55 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 10. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Andrew Miller. 55 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 5. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. Sims Forest, pt, 380 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 12. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. Sims Forest, pt, 20 acres. Notes: and Richard B. Ford of John. CE 2nd District, p. 12. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. 390 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 5. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Samuel Miller. CE 2nd District, p. 6. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46

Source:  http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1400/s1437/html/1437ce.html

This is of great value to our Miller-Bradford research. Here's how:  We have been unable to exactly pintpoint when William and Rebecca packed up their children and belongings and left Cecil County for good, traveling "out west" to the wilds of southwestern Pennsylvania (Fayette County). Research indicated that it was probably around 1782 or 1782, but we haven't been able to prove it. 

While several of the above-mentioned Miller's are no doubt related, we can easily see that William is no longer a taxpayer in Cecil County in 1783, making a strong case for he and his family having moved earlier in the year or in 1782. And again, this record was completely free and took me about 2 minutes to find vai my online search just now.

In addition to USGenWeb's wonderful collection of U.S. records, they have started genealogical special projects that might be of interest to you either for research purposes or to volunteer!

For instance, you might balk at the thought of walking through a cemetery, but it's actually a

 great experience!  It gets you out in the fresh air, you will probably find, as my family and I have, that reading the tombstones is fascinating, and your findings could be invaluable to another family historian. Check out this opportunity:  

"The USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project was started to encourage people to walk cemeteries and donate copies of the surveys to The USGW Archives. Many transcriptions are already available online and more are added daily. The Project also provides links to cemetery transcriptions that are not archived in The USGenWeb Archives. These include transcriptions on County web sites and on independent web sites." 
(source:  http://usgenweb.org/projects/index.shtml )

Please visit them at the the above website address for a full list of projects. 

And why don't we all write them a heartfelt thanks for their great service, and maybe even become a volunteer. Contact USGenWeb at:  webmanager@usgenweb.org