It took years of combing through dusty files, scouring
yellowed newspaper pages and brushing decades of dirt off crumbling headstones for Alice
McCabe to compile her mammoth record of local deaths since Gwinnett became
a county.
For everyone else, though, the research just got a little easier.
Less than two weeks ago, the Gwinnett
Historical Society began selling McCabe's 750-page book on CD-ROM.
Besides including every record from the 1990 book, plus corrections, the disc allows users
to easily search and sort the data almost instantly.
"They can do a search on the name they are interested in, and can sort it by any
possible way," said McCabe, a local historian and trustee of the historical
society. "I think it's wonderful."
Although the society has published several books, the CD version of "Gwinnett
County, Georgia, Deaths 1818-1989" is its first software package.
Transferring the written word into computer code was the work of Scott Holtzclaw, who
works with the society when he is not helping run a Web site design business in Buford.
Holtzclaw and Tony DiMaio, his partner at Advantage Design Services, wrote the software
program that searches and shuffles the records. There was some talk of putting the
material on the Web, but that now is unlikely, Holtzclaw said.
So far, the society has sold 13 of the CD-ROM's, compared with between 700 and 800 copies
of the book, McCabe said. But as of Sunday, 374 people had visited http://www.gwinnetths.org , the Web site hawking the
$40 disc.
Although transferring the records to a database makes them
much easier to access, that was not the only reason the society made its first foray into
the digital domain. They were running out of the "Deaths" books, and storage
space --- especially rooms where books won't be hurt by dampness --- is at a premium. The
discs are smaller and hardier than books, McCabe said.
"It's a battle to keep the mildew off," she
said. "This is much better."
Copyright 1999, The Atlanta Journal and
Constitution, All rights reserved.
Michael Weiss, Gwinnett Historical Society puts 'Deaths' book on CD-ROM., 03-29-1999, pp. JJ03.
Michael Weiss did a great job on the above article. There were a few misunderstandings that I would like to correct.
GHS has sold 13 copies of the CD-ROM in the first two weeks after release of the CD.
GHS published 700 copies of the Gwinnett Deaths Book in 1991 and as of April 1999 around 600 copies have been sold. That means around 100 are left. If you would like a hard copy you need to order it soon or they will all be sold. Once all of the hard copies are sold there will not be a reprint in the near future.
There was never talk about putting the information on the web. Just putting the CD-ROM on the web for sale. All proceeds of the Books are used to fund the publication of more books pertaining to the history and people of Gwinnett County.
There have been almost 7000 people to visit www.gwinnetths.org There were 374 people that visited the Death Book on CD-ROM page as of March 28 1999
I had the idea to write the program for the Cemetery Database. I asked Tony DiMaio if he would write it. I'm not a professional programmer like Tony. I guess you could say I helped design the layout of the program. I presented it to the Gwinnett Historical Society and they loved it.
We host and maintain the GHS Web site as a service to my home county of Gwinnett. Tony DiMaio and myself are partners at ADvantage Design Services. We design and maintain web sites & write software programs.
I just wanted to correct a few things. Some people may think I'm being picky. I just like the facts to be straight. I would like to thank Michael Weiss again for doing a great job on the story. Reporters have just so much space in the newspaper to put their story. Sometimes a few short cut have to be made.
Scott Holtzclaw
ADvantage Design Services
GHS Membership chairperson
GHS Web Site Coordinator
04-09-1999