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==Welcome to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness Wiki==
The original Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) website was the brainchild of Bridgett Schneider. Shortly before her death in 2011, she had a computer disaster and the site has been down since. Before the RAOGK site went dark, the global organization consisted of over 4,000 volunteers in every U.S. state and many international locations. The RAOGK wiki is dedicated to Bridgett's memory, to continue her efforts, and to provide a service that researchers and volunteers dearly loved and miss.

The way RAOGK worked was that volunteers agreed to do at least one free genealogy research task per month in their local area as an Act of Kindness. The RAOGK volunteers agreed not to charge for their research time; however, researchers were required to reimburse the volunteer for expenses incurred in fulfilling the research request (e.g., copies, printing fees, postage, film or video tape, parking fees, gasoline, etc.).
*On state pages, volunteers would indicate what services they would perform -- e.g., courthouse/public records lookups, library research, tombstone research, etc. -- and what expenses (never their time) they expected reimbursement for.
*Similarly, researchers would locate a volunteer by going to a state page and selecting a researcher from a list of counties and based on the volunteer's description of services they would perform.

[[File:Bridgette_Schneider.jpg|link=http://image2.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2011/315/80304699_132114616235.jpg|frame|<p style="text-align: center">Bridgette Schneider (1946-2011)</p>
Photo at: [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80304699 Findagrave] (posted by Anja van Steel) and [http://nebraskarootsandramblings.blogspot.com/ Nebraska Roots & Ramblings]]]
==='''<font color="blue">Historical Background Info</font>'''===
For now, see the [[wikipedia:Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness|Wikipedia article about RAOGK]].

(''In time, when all the state and international pages are restored, this section can be modified.'')
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80304699 Bridgett Schneider (Findagrave) Memorial]
* [http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/schneider-bridgett-a/article_fc11d44f-73e8-538e-919e-ce6d67df0d1f.html Bridgett Schneider (Obituary at journalstar.com)]
* [http://genealogy.about.com/b/2011/11/12/rip-bridget-schneider-random-acts-of-genealogical-kindness.htm Bridgett Schneider (Obituary at ask.com)]
* [http://nebraskarootsandramblings.blogspot.com/ Bridgett Schneider (Obituary at Nebraska Roots and Rambling.com)]


* [http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art173945.asp Tribute to Bridett and RAOGK]
* [http://www.rootstelevision.com/blogs/raogk/2007/04/random_acts_roots_1.html Bio (Bridgett)]

* [http://www.onegreatfamily.com/newsletters/newsletter-archive/10-05-14/Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness.aspx Kimberly Brown's 2010 article about RAOGK]

* [http://nashua.patch.com/blog_posts/what-happened-to-the-random-acts-of-genealogical-kindness-website#comments_list What Happened to Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness?]
* [http://www.familytree.com/blog/the-closing-down-of-raogk/ Closing Down of RAOGK (FamilyTree article 11 Oct 2011)]


Shortly before Bridgett's death, she posted that she'd had computer issues and the site would be down "quite awhile." Upon Bridgett's death, several of the RAOGK admins created Facebook groups to continue RAOGK's work while the site is down.
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Little/1638050529#!/groups/raogkUSA/ RAOGK USA group (Facebook)]
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Little/1638050529#!/groups/raogkinternational/ RAOGK International group (Facebook)]
* [http://www.facebook.com/groups/33868082803/ RAOGK group (Original]

Volunteers post documents with the research services they offer:
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Little/1638050529#!/groups/raogkUSA/docs/ RAOGK USA Volunteer Docs]
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Little/1638050529#!/groups/raogkinternational/docs/ RAOGK Int'l Volunteer Docs]
* [http://www.facebook.com/groups/33868082803/#!/groups/33868082803/docs/ RAOGK group (Original)] contains about 100 volunteer documents of services being offered
The Facebook groups have a threaded discussion. Researchers can post their research need and members can respond with research help or suggestions.

==Research Request Guidelines==
Before requesting research help from a volunteer, please read the '''[[Research Request Guidelines]]''' page.

==Getting Started at RAOGK==

'''Welcome to the RAOGK wiki, where [[Project:Community Portal|you can contribute]]'''!! Yes, '''you''' can actually edit your entry/information on the wiki page. You can '''bold''', ''italicize'', change the content of your description of services. Any member can fix typos, punctuation, etc. Any member can also add pages to the wiki -- e.g., you may have a cemetery transcription to share and create a page specifically for that information.

'''[http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Special:UserLogin <u>Create a RAOGK account/username.</u>] '''It's free, and is a one-time action. You have greater '''anonymity''' and it's easier for other contributors to ask you questions and help you.
*If you are new to wikis, visit the [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness_Wiki:Community_Portal <u>Community portal</u>] for an outline of main parts of the site and links to pages about editing.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'''Note''': If you can type emails/Word documents and use formatting buttons to bold, italic, underscore, do bullets/numbers, etc ... ''you're already a '''whiz''' at wiki editing''! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It's so easy!! It's as easy as 1-2-3.
:::# Login
:::# Edit
:::# Publish

A wiki allows collaboration between members:
*Discuss any aspect of the site and ask questions either at the [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Index <u>Forum</u>] or on an article's [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Talk_pages <u>"Talk" page</u>.] (The Talk page button is at the top of each page.)
*Communicate with individual members and/or volunteers by leaving a message on their Message Wall.
*Participate in chat sessions.
*Be sure to [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Signature '''sign and date'''] your contributions there, so that readers know "who to talk to" and whether your message is probably still of current interest.
*Click the'''Follow''' button below for pages that interest you. Then, any time the page changes, you'll get an email alert.<br /><br />

To do most of the above, you need to be a RAOGK wiki member:

<ol>
<li>First, create a [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Special:UserLogin RAOGK wiki account] and</li>
<li>Sign in to the RAOGK wiki.

<blockquote>When you login for the ''first'' time (only), you'll be taken to own '''User page'''.</blockquote></li>

<li>[[Modify your User page]] (optional).<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and/or<br />Create a '''sandbox''' page (to play with wiki text) ... in the Search field, type '''User:YourUserName/Sandbox'''<br /></li>
<li>Initially, you'll be prompted to ''Add a Page'' (this is a one-time action) ... click the '''Add a Page''' button.</li>
</ol>
For details on creating/modifying wiki text, see [[Wiki 101 for RAOGK]] and [[Modify your User page]].<br />
(Creating a user page is not required.)
To exit out of the user page, just click the RAOGK name in the masthead.<br /><br />

==='''Wiki Basics'''===

Take the [[RAOGK wiki Grand Tour]]
<br /><br />

==='''Frequently Asked Questions about Wikis'''===
Go to [[Frequently Asked Question |Frequently Asked Questions]] to view answers to questions that people typically ask who are new to wikis.

==Info for Volunteers==

'''Suggestions for Volunteers''': <br />
:* To reduce spam and to keep RAOGK email separate from regular email, volunteers may want to create a free email with gmail, hotmail, or yahoo to use only for your RAOGK correspondence, possibly even creating a username with RAOGK in it -- e.g., '''RAOGK_username@provider.xxx'''. (In creating the new account, do not tie the new account to an existing email account. Thus, if your RAOGK account were to be hacked, the hacker wouldn't have a link to your regular email account.)
:*  Click the '''Follow''' button below the page where your services appear. Then, any time the page changes, you'll get an email alert.
# Create a [http://raogk.wikia.com/wiki/Special:UserLogin RAOGK wiki account] (one-time action)
# Sign in to the RAOGK wiki.

<blockquote>When you login for the ''first'' time (only), you'll be taken to own '''User page'''.</blockquote>

<ol start="3">
<li>[[Modify your User page]] (optional) ... in the Search field, type '''User:''YourUserNam''e''' (the name you chose when you created your wiki account) and press Enter. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and/or<br />Create a '''sandbox''' page (to play with wiki text) ... in the Search field, type User:YourUserName/Sandbox</li>

<li>Initially, you'll be prompted to Add a Page (this is a one-time action) ... click the '''Add a Page''' button.</li>
</ol>

<blockquote>You can practice/experiment with wiki text on your Sandbox page.</blockquote>

For details on creating/modifying wiki text, see [[Wiki 101 for RAOGK]] and [[Update Your Volunteer Information]]

==Digital Archives==
[http://www.facebook.com/groups/raogkUSA/ RAOGK Facebook members], Suzanne Clair and Beverly Harper, started a list of state websites that have digital archives without charge. See their [[Digital Archives]] list.

==Useful Links==
* [http://www.familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Familypedia:Tombstone_Cleaning_Tips,_Tricks,_Techniques Tombstone Cleaning, Tips, Tricks, Techniques]
* [http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1793&country=1 Perpetual Calendar]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~pabutler/javascrp/tombston/ Birthdate Calculator]
* [http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp Fun Birthday Information]


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