These forms are here to help make it easy and quicker for us to get records added to the USGenWeb Archives
while also making it easier for the contributors to share their records. 
Utilizing these forms is not mandatory and  will not be suitable for every single record type
You as the file manager will still get files from contributors who do not wish to use the forms or
may have already transcribed the records or for those records where the forms simply just
do not cover the information that they have.

If you choose to participate, please place a link on your county table of contents page so that
contributors can find the forms.
If someone submits a file for your county through one of these forms you WILL receive a copy
of that file in your email and you can edit, rename, etc if you so choose.
If you choose to take advantage of these forms the following is a bit of information which will
help you understand how the form system works.
When someone uses the forms and submits a file, it automatically creates a .txt file formatted
for the appropriate county.  If you have opted to use the auto upload feature, the form will
do four things when they hit the submit button.

1. It will create the .txt file
2. It will immediately ftp that file to the appropriate county directory in the archives_ftp directory.
3. It will immediately send the file manager for that county a copy of that file to their email account.
4. It will immediately send a copy of the file created to the mailing list which is set up to receive the files.

1. It will create the .txt file
2. It will immediatly upload the photo image to the archive_html/county/photos/ directory.
   
3. It will immediately ftp the text file to the appropriate county directory in the archives_ftp directory.
4. It will immediately send the file manager for that county a copy of both files (image and text)  to their email account.
5. It will immediately send a copy of the text created to the mailing list which is set up to receive the files.

Text Files:
The files are created in ascii text format and in most cases are completely ready to go online. They are not
however error proof and it will be necessary to just take a look at the file to make sure the file is appropriate,
check for errors and verify the file is in the correct location. (Someone could post a bible record from the history
form and in that case you might want to move it, or someone could post their own birth record and in that case it would need to be deleted.)
The file naming system gives the file a unique name the first part is the type and number of the
file created,, this is unique and will prevent possible over writing. The second part is an identifier up to 8 characters,
in most cases the surname but in some cases such as newspapers or military the 8 characters will be the first 8
characters in the title of that file.
If someone submits an obituary for McDonough and it's the 1715th obituary created by the forms it will be
names ob1715mcdonoug.txt
If someone submits a newspaper item and it's titled "Tornado hits Colquitt Co." and it's the 250th file created
by the form it would be nw250tornadoh.txt
Exception: Bibles and Church records are created from the same form,, so if someone creates a church
record for Mt. Moriah it would be named bb001mtmoriah.txt  and the same for Wills/Court, these are both
also created by the same form so a court record for Elijah Johnson Administration would be named
wl001johnson.txt
The file naming letters are as follows and the  files are created on the genrecords or poppet servers and kept
for two months as backup should you need them.

Living Indivduals:
These forms have been very well received by contributors as they sincerely love sharing their records. However, though we have placed many warnings on the forms for persons to please not post information on living individuals we do still have some people who want to submit their own birth record or their children's birth records, etc. For this reason we ask that all file managers please look at any file submitted and if there is information on living individuals please do not post those records and by all means if it has autouploaded go into that directory and delete that file.
We do have a block which prevents users from sending birth & Social Security records newer than 70 years and marriages and divorces no newer than 50 years but it's best to check each file.

Mailing Lists:
In some cases the County Mailing List Administrators have requested that files created through these
forms be mailed to the County Mailing List.
In these counties a copy of the  file is sent to the corresponding county mailing list. A list of those
counties which send to the mailing list can be found here.
*Note: Due to size and repetiton Cemetery & Census files are not mailed to the lists*
Birth records are not posted because we need to verify they are not posted for the living.

Auto Upload
 If a submitter chooses more than one county when they submit their files,, that file will ONLY be automatically
uploaded to the FIRST county which was selected.
Example: If someone sends a file to Crisp, Mitchell and
Terrell Counties. The auto upload will ftp the file to the Crisp county directory. It will not be in the Mitchell
and Terrell County folders. If you were the manager for Mitchell or Terrell county you would need to upload
the file to Terrell County or simply create a link on your TOC for the file located in the Crisp Co. directory.
Each file manager for those multiple counties will still receive the file in your email account, but the image
will only be uploaded to the First County.
The auto upload feature is set up to load files created in the directories as structured here.
If in your county folders you were to have a bible folder,, and someone submitted a bible record for your
county, you would then find in your county two folders as the ftp will not send to the bible folder, it will
think the bible folder doesn't exist and create the bibles folder. You would then need to go in and move
the files in your bible folder to the bibles folder and reset all your links on the TOC.
This is something that you can do at your leisure but the directories do need to be updated and maintained
in the following structure. It is not necessary to create the folders if files don't already exists for that record
type as the ftp will create the folder when / if needed. (Exception: Because there are multiple layers
in the military folder it is required that the military folder be there as this system can only create two folders
so if there was a file going to military/civilwar/letters/  it would not be able to post the file if the military folder
is not already there. If the military folder is there, it could then create the civilwar/letters/ folders to drop the
file into.)