Volunteer Spotlight
RootsWeb.com values each individual and organization that volunteers their time and talents to making our site one of the best on the Internet. We hope you enjoy meeting some of these outstanding volunteers whose dedication have made a difference to RootsWeb.com and other researchers.
Dalice Fadden
Transcriber and Innovative Genealogist
Genealogists rely on transcriptions of original records to locate their deceased family members. The importance of these records is so great that organizations have been established to expand the availability of various sources. In addition to these organizations, there are countless individuals who locate and transcribe records on their own. Dalice Fadden is an example of one such individual. Although not much is known about her personal genealogical quest, it is clear that she spends countless hours working for the benefit of other.
In January 1999, Dalice began posting transcriptions of obituaries from eastern Pennsylvania to the GenConnect "PaObits" board. By the end of 2000, more than 60,000 transcribed records had been posted, and a new medium was needed to accommodate this large number of records. As a result, the Eastern PA obituaries category was created in the User Database section on RootsWeb in January, 2001. The information that had been compiled on the message boards were then submitted to this new category. The especially high quality of these transcriptions allowed for an every name index to be included, resulting in easier searching for researchers.
Although these records were placed in a database, Dalice has continued to add records to the recently created Eastern PA board on the RootsWeb message boards. By posting the information in this medium, she is able to easily maintain the records, while researchers view them before they are added to the Eastern PA obituaries database. Users are able to search these 19,000 additional records by using the search feature on the message board. Researchers simply need to enter a key word — whether it be the name, a locality — or a date related to the individuals being researched. New transcriptions are added nearly every day, and are of the same high quality as the original transcriptions were.
The persistence and dedication of this great volunteer to continuously provide high quality transcriptions for those seeking their Pennsylvanian ancestry makes Dalice a valuable asset to RootsWeb.com users, as well as the entire genealogical community.
On behalf of the genealogical community, we thank you.