I recently ran across a website for a specific surname that’s goal was to collect all of the information it could and provide it in one easy location. The Rainwater Collection of Genealogy Resources purpose is “to assist serious genealogical researchers in their research by providing an archive of well-documented, accurate and uninterpreted data related to the Rainwater family in America.”
This was similar to something I’ve always wanted to do for the ZALEWSKI surname, so recently I purchased the domain for thezalewskiproject.com. Currently, it just redirects here. My plan is to do something similar, collect data and records related to ZALEWSKI families and individuals and present them in an easy-to-use fashion. I like the Rainwater site and I think it’s organized very well. Though, I want to do it my own way. I want to allow you to view data in different ways, to sort data, etc. Collecting, displaying, and analyzing data really interests me, as I mentioned in my post about why genealogy interests me.
One challenge is that, surprisingly, Zalewski is more popular than Rainwater, though not in the US, but worldwide. The Rainwater site specializes in US info only, though I think I will also add data from outside of the US, specifically Poland. In Poland, Zalewski is very popular which could make for a lot of data.
I’m not sure when I will get the site up and running. I need to find time and I also need to spend time researching how best to collect and display this data so researchers can use it however they want. So, keep an eye out.
The Rainwater Collection is indeed a great site. wow! Best of luck to you in your new endeavor – I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Please contact me when you are ready to collect Zalewski information. My great grandmother was a Zalewski and she was born in 1864 in Zawada, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Poland. Her mother was born in 1824 in Schwarzenau (Szwarcenowo) and her siblings were born in Krotoszyny. Both cities are in Warminsko-Mazurski, Poland.
I’ve already started a bit, though I’m not collecting personal family trees, etc. This site will just be data collected from official sources like census records, death records, etc. We won’t be trying to connect people or anything. This will mainly be a collection of all of the Zalewski data in one place that people can use however they like. I, personally, may be doing some research on the families to try to connect them and I’ll probably publish the info somewhere at some point.