I also started creating indexes for other genealogists, other organizations, and even a couple of genealogical publishers. Before I knew it, I had a sizeable collection of index entries.   I think this collection should be made accessible to the public, since it now contains over 3.1 million entries, from all kinds of resources.   It's mainly on Kentucky, but there's things in there from all over, including lots from the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia.

A portion of the collection came from friends who were indexing their own books, indexing for others, and a couple even indexing professionally.   All of these, of course, use IXM, my indexing software.   Sales of IXM have underwritten some indexing projects, including the cumulative index to The East Kentuckian, 1981-present, and the cumulative index to the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 1903-present (this is now on CDROM available from the NGS).   Later, I hope to be able to recognize all who have been involved in this project, but for now, let me give special thanks to another good friend, Judy Nacke.

This indexing effort is an ongoing thing, so who knows where this will end up.   Since it contains data from other states, perhaps the name of the project should be something different.   Any ideas?   But the task now is how to make it available to the public.

I've been performing some custom searches for members of the KGS, but that requires a lot of time on my part.   Eventually, I may make it available for searching on the Internet, however, I'd like to be able to charge a small fee for access.   These monies would not go to me, but to an established non-profit organization devoted to history and/or genealogy, such as the KGS, or the Kentucky Historical Society.   These monies would go to help maintain the project, and hopefully, expand it further.   As you can imagine, there is no shortage of old records to work on.

If you're intending to publish a book, then please consider donating a copy of your index to this project.   Your index will be included in any "computer search" that I do against the KGI, for patrons who write in looking for kinfolks.   In the report that I give to the patron, if an entry comes from your book, your name and address will be listed in the report.   That way, the patron can contact you directly, to work out details for getting more data, and perhaps even buy a copy of your book.   And if you need advice on how to publish your book, feel free to contact me.

We already have some huge library catalogs out there, but the KGI is a project is to tell us what's in some of these books.   You just never know where an obscure reference to your surname might provide a major break-through in your research.   My idea is to help you find those needles in the data haystack.   3.1 million entries sounds like a lot, but it's really miniscule, compared to the number of books and records out there.

Much to do in trying to take this project further, so watch Bluegrass Roots, and elsewhere, for announcements.   I would be interested in hearing from you if you have comments, so feel free to let me know via Feedback.

See the KGS web pages regarding my "computer search" on the KGI, which is available only to KGS members.