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V O L U N T E E R   O P P O R T U N I T I E S

Whether you live in or near Robertson County, across the state, or on the other side of the country, opportunities abound for you to help bring valuable information online & preserve the history of Robertson County and its people.  Select one of the three categories identified below or suggest a volunteer project of your own.
Your assistance is needed to help this site realize its full potential.  Please VOLUNTEER TODAY!

T H R E E   E A S Y   W A Y S   T O   B E C O M E   I N V O L V E D

Share Information

You and other family members may have genealogy files; family bible information; church records; cemetery burial information; copies of rare, out-of-print, unpublished books or master's theses; pictures of old houses and commercial buildings; high school yearbooks; or other information that would make valuable additions to this site.  These may be gathering dust in your attic or mildew in your cousin's basement.  If you don't take steps to preserve the information you and others possess, it could be lost to the ages.  While all information is welcome, there is a particular need for information and pictures relating to the following special collections: New Baden, Polish, African American, Wootan Wells, Camp Hearne, & Italian Collections. Please consider sharing information you have with others TODAY!  If you have materials you'd like to share, contact William Kent Brunette.

DONATE BOOKS & ANNUALS

Name Of Book Description Where Needed
Cemeteries In
 Robertson County		 By Verna Corn Floyd & Vernelle Corn. 1980, D. Armstrong Co., Inc., Publishers & Printers, Houston, Texas, 303 pages, index, 53 cemetery lists, some pictures.  Many cemetery lists are online. Website Needs A Copy Of This Book
The Men & Women
 In World War II From
 Robertson County		 A copy of this book was loaned to this site by Clarence and Margaret Petty Adams.  Volunteer Jo Ella Snider-Parker (SPJPVine@aol.com) retyped this work.  It is at World War II. Carnegie Needs A Copy Of This Book
Franklin High
 School Chaparral
 Yearbooks		 Copies of pre-1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, & 1939 Franklin Chaparral yearbooks are needed to help complete the Franklin High School Library's yearbook collection and for placement online at this site. Franklin High School Needs Copies
New Baden
 School Yearbooks		 No yearbooks from the New Baden school are in local libraries or online.  Records from this school are needed to complete the Franklin High School Library's yearbook collection and for placement online at this site. Franklin High School Needs Copies

Copies of the books identified above are needed for placement in the indicated places.  If you have a copy of any of these books, please consider donating it to (a) this site, (b) Genealogy Collection at the Carnegie Center Of Brazos Valley History in Bryan, or (c) Franklin High School Library.  If you have one of these works but don't want to part with it, would you be willing to copy portions of it or allow someone else to copy it and return it to you?  Do you know where one of these books can be purchased?  To donate books, please contact William Kent Brunette.  Your generosity will allow a book's information to be shared with countless others.

VOLUNTEER YOUR SERVICES

Volunteer Need Description
Census
 Record
Indexes		 Nine years of handwritten census records are online at 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 Veterans, 1900, 1910, 1920, & 1930.  Surname indexes to all nine of these need to be created.  Volunteers are needed to help go through this data and write down the last names and page numbers where information on Robertson County's families appear.  At present, the only way these records can be accessed is for website visitors to go through each census year line by line. 
Shutterbugs Volunteers are needed to take photographs of historic structures (public buildings, bridges, schools, churches, businesses, houses, barns, etc.) in Robertson County.  There is a particular need for pictures of old buildings that are not in use, are falling down, & may soon vanish.  Photographs of cemetery entrances, interesting tombstones, & cemetery statuary are also needed. One major project is photographing the sites commemorated by the 70+ historic markers in the county.  These pictures could be made with digital cameras or scanned & placed online.
Towns &
 Communities		 Over the years, quite a few names of different towns & communities have appeared on Robertson County maps. For the many populated places that still exist, the names are familiar. Since other towns & communities have been renamed, previous names may not sound so familiar. Still other towns & communities have moved or vanished from present-day maps. Towns/Communities is the beginning of an attempt to identify all towns & communities that have existed in Robertson County. Additions & corrections are welcome.
Special
 Collections		 The following six special collections have been placed online: New Baden, Polish, African American, Wootan Wells, Camp Hearne, Railroad*, & Italian* Collections. Two additional collections - Hispanic* & Irish* - may be placed online if interest warrants. Volunteers are needed to contribute relevant materials to all of these collections; those collections marked with * need to be adopted. Churches, civic & fraternal leaders & groups, historians, family griots, & public-spirited individuals are all encouraged to volunteer to help preserve online the important contributions made by these special ethnic & racial groups and historic places.
Cemeteries Lists for many Robertson County cemeteries have been created by numerous volunteers. These can be found at cemeteries. Many cemeteries have already been adopted by people who have relatives buried in them. Some cemeteries are still available for adoption.  Activities might include walking a cemetery to confirm accuracy of information, updating lists with burials since 1980, posting meeting dates for cemetery association meetings, & serving as an e-mail contact for people needing additional information about a cemetery. See Adopt A Cemetery for additional information.  A list of yet-to-be-identified or yet-to-be-located cemeteries is found at Find That Cemetery. Volunteers are needed who know the names of any of these cemeteries, can identify where they are located, have a list of who's buried in them, or know of other Robertson County cemeteries that aren't listed.
School Yearbooks
  & Pictures		 School yearbooks provide a great deal of valuable genealogical & historical information.  A Yearbooks section has been started.  Its success is going to require a great deal of volunteer effort.  If you've got some yearbooks from your school years, those of your parents, aunts & uncles, grandparents, & children stashed away on a bookshelf, in the attic, or sitting at the bottom of a closet, dig them out & share their information with others at this website.
Volunteerships Since this website is a volunteer operation & has no funding, any & all volunteer assistance is appreciated.  This site welcomes the involvement of anyone -- high school & college students, stay at home moms & dads, people who work part-time (or full-time), senior citizens, civic & fraternal organizations, cemetery associations, church & school groups, individuals, families, etc.  Volunteer activities can be on a project basis or for a set period of time (e.g., one afternoon a week for a month).  As a volunteer, you decide what you do, how & when you do it.
Computer
  Tasks		 Assistance is needed with computer-oriented tasks, including:  checking out other genealogy sites, finding sites with local connections, registering site with different search engines, getting the old Robertson County site de-listed at GeoCities, combining two old surname lists into one, designing interactive computer programs, retrieving & downloading files, & helping design web pages in Microsoft FrontPage 2002.
County
 Records		 Only a small fraction of available government vital statistics & other information relating to Robertson County & its citizens is posted online at this site. Volunteers are needed to help collect & transcribe birth, marriage, death, probate, property, & other records either at the Robertson County courthouse or by copying information that is available on microfilm or microfiche at other locations.
Divorce
 Records		 Cornelia Starkey, Robertson County District Clerk, has computer files that contain all of the divorce records for Robertson County.  She is anxious to place them online at this site.  These extensive materials consist of a master index as well as actual records.  A volunteer who knows how to transfer large computer files (some of them may be in "Q&A" format) & upload them to a website is needed to bring these records online at this site.  The technician who created these files is available to assist with general instructions that could be implemented by someone who is computer-savvy.
Church
  Histories		 A number of published and unpublished church histories are known to exist. Published histories include: And The People Said: The History Of The First Baptist Church Bremond, Texas; Henry Prairie Baptist Church, Franklin, Texas, Church Membership Records And Minutes; A History Of The First Baptist Church, Calvert, Texas, 1869-1972; The First One Hundred Years, 1872-1972: A History Of St. Mary's Catholic Church, Hearne, Texas; A History Of The Grace United Methodist Church Of Bremond, Texas, And Reminiscences, 1861-1978 (all of these are in Baylor University's Texas Collection). Unpublished histories include: Easterly Baptist Church & New Baden Baptist Church (in private collections). Volunteer Need #1 Volunteers need to obtain church permissions to place these histories at this site. Volunteer Need #2 Copies of these works need to be purchased from Baylor University or obtained from a private collection & donated to this site. Volunteer Need #3 Volunteers are needed to scan or type these works for online display.
Retired & Senior
  Volunteer Program		 The Robertson County Historical Commission is establishing a local worksite for participants in the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).  These volunteers will soon be assisting in bringing important genealogical & historical materials online at this website.  For more information on the local RSVP program, contact Richard Dysert at 979.779.3743 (ext. 218) or rdysart@bvcog.org at the Brazos Valley Council of Governments (www.bvcog.org/programs/rsvp800x600.htm).
Look-Ups Volunteers who have Robertson County-related books or access to other materials are encouraged to provide look-up services.
New Baden Interested in New Baden-related volunteer opportunities? Go to New Baden Collection.
 

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