Using This Site

Welcome toyour portal to Puerto Rico Genealogy!
This page provides guidance on how to get the most out of our website:

• Browser Compatibility
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• Incoming E-mails
• Navigation
• New to Genealogy
• Privacy Statement
• Running This Site
• Search Facility
• Spanish Characters
• Surnames/Queries
• Virus Warnings
• Volunteers/Contributors

• Why do I have several browsers open?
• Why isn't the back button working?
• Where can I send a comment/questions?
• I am new at this.  Can you help me get started with my research?
• What can I do to help the site?
• Do I give up ownership of the data when I contribute to this site?
• Can you do research for me?
• What can you do for me?
• If I tell you what I have about my family can you check your files for me?
• Looking for a particular topic (i.e., cemeteries)?
• Why haven't you answered the message I sent you 4 days ago?

Because everyone browses the Web according to personal preference, our site provides a variety of pathways to find the information you seek.

Sitemap

An online sitemap details the organization of the main website here atand lists the individual files included in the site. You can navigate from there into any page of the site.

Searching

A link to our search engine is located on the top of every page of the SFOR Site.

Navigation

If you prefer to access a single list of pages of the site by category, then this will be the one you will prefer. You can find it on the left hand side of the homepage under my parents wedding picture.

Essential Tools

At the top or bottom of every page of the SFOR site, the following selection of essential tools appears:

Home   |    Login   |  Logout   |  Publications    |   Sitemap   |   Help Desk   |   Forum   |   Search

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Most of our visitors use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to view our web pages. Other users may prefer Mozilla's Firefox or Safari (Mac) or another browser and that is ok. However, our pages are designed to be best viewed with Internet Explorer 6 and later versions or Netscape 6 and later versions.

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Usually, I work on the site 4 to 5 hours each day, 6 days a week and on the 7th I rest.

Many things need to be done to keep the site current, running and trouble free. Here are some of them:

• About once a month,  I run a program on the site that checks links to be sure they still work and are accessible. Then spend a few hours updating the affected pages.
   

• Many typing hours are logged in. Excluding the US Federal Census Project, everything else on a page starting with the design of it and then the data is transcribed in house by just one person, me. Once again, our thanks to all those volunteers the spend numerous hours transcribing the census data that sometimes can be so challenging.  Do remember that I do the proofreading all by my lonesome.
   

• Reading and extraction of data from newspapers and books is another area that takes a lot of time.
   

• Look for and develop new projects. Here you can help me by sending your ideas or topics that I have not covered.
   

• At least once a week I work on my pet project the transcript of the 1910 Puerto Rico US Federal Census.
   

• Answer the many daily E-mails and requests for assistance.
   

• Help the volunteers with their questions and concerns.
   

• Classification of new data and possibly design of the new page.
   

• Announcement and uploading of new data to the site.

Sure it takes a lot of hard work but the rewards are many and I am having a lot of fun. Have discovered a few new relatives and made Great new friends in the process. What else can you ask for!

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Although most of the data published on this site is in the public domain, the work to collect and transcribe it represents many hours of hard work please respect our copyright.

On the other hand, if you are going to ignore our copyright and will go ahead and "borrow" the data presented on this site to enhance or create your own, at least have the courtesy to let us know.

Any data submitted by contributor's to our site, remains in their ownership although it will be permanently hosted with us.

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While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information presented on this site is accurate, let's face it, accidents and typos happen. You should not assume that our service is error-free. We will not be responsible for any damage or injury that you suffer as a consequence of obsolete, outdated, omitted or incorrect data.

Our service provides hyperlinks to many other sites and organizations on the Internet. Because we have no control over such sites and information, we make no warranty as to their accuracy, content, currency, or objectionability. Our links to such sites should not be interpreted as an endorsement on our part for such sites, and their activities.

The ideas presented here are the recordings of data as I found it. I'm just the keeper around here, a history technician, not a historian, so it will be up to you to draw your own conclusions from the facts presented here.

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Did you know that 99% of the viruses you hear about are just a hoax or a chain letter?

Remember that it is NOT possible to get a virus in an E-mail message. It is the attachment file that might carry the virus and in order to active the virus in your computer you would have to run the file.

The best thing you can do is protect yourself against viruses by running your virus scanning software at ALL times. We have ours running in the background at all times and so far so good. So, although we appreciate your concern, please DO NOT send us or forward any E-mail virus warnings. I rather spend my time working with new data for you than reading the many warning messages that circulate on the web.

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We don't collect any information from our site visitors. We respect your privacy.

It is also our policy to protect the rights and privacy of our living relatives. We strongly encourage all involved to do their best not to place information on the Internet about anyone who is still living, unless you have their express permission to do so. If you care enough about your family to search for ancestors, please care enough to protect the descendants.

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By popular demand, this site will make minimal use of the special Spanish characters like diaeresis (¨) or accent (´). Also note that these characters will never be used in people's names or surnames.  In addition, the use of the connecting "y" between the father's and mother's surnames will not be used.

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I use to help out others all the time but as the site continues to grow, it demands more of my time and I am finding less and less time to help individual visitors.

To make up for this, I created the Beginner's Corner. There, you will find lessons, tips and hints, databases, outside links to other resources and more to get you started.

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Incoming E-mails

Incoming E-mails are answered on a first come first serve basis and as soon as possible. Due to the increase of messages as well as the constant demands of a growing site, I will not be able to answer the following type of messages:
 

1. Requests for help on specific topics. See the Sitemap page instead. If you don't see what you are looking for there, then we don't have it yet.
    

2. Requests for personal research help, advice, tips, lookup of specific names. See Beginner's Corner  page instead or post your question on our forum.  There you will probably receive answer to your question or guidance.
    

3. Requests for obituaries that are NOT posted on the site. Visit a newspaper repository instead.

Thank you for understanding that my time can be much better spend updating the web site and typing new records for you to review.

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What does a volunteer or contributor do?

Anyone can be a volunteer for as much or as little as they want. You can volunteer for whatever you have time or willingness to do, and you may quit at any time.

Volunteers are the heart and back bone of this genealogy project so if you have access to Puerto Rico resources, and can give a few hours of your time to collect, organize or type the data, we will be happy to host it permanently on our site.

Here are a few of the things you can do to help make additional resources available:

-- Share a graduation program with us.
-- Transcribe old documents. Especially does that have lots of names.
-- Help with the 1910 US Census project by transcribing a barrio or a town.
-- Have you transcribed some grave stones from a cemetery and want to share?

The above are just but a few of the projects that you could be involved with. Maybe you've got an idea of your own. If that is so, don't be shy please check with us, chances are we will be able to use it.

OOPS, I almost forgot to tell you that for some of the above you could earn some free membership time that will allow you access to our Members Only Area.

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Although we have a forum that you can use to post your query, we also have a section we called Ancestors/Researchers. There, you complete a form to post a complete family unit of one or more of your ancestors. Make sure you visit when you get a few minutes.

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A: Let us know what you find; it may be that something useless to you but very useful to someone else.

Here are a few things you can do to help:

• Point out errors that you see while browsing the pages.
   

• Contribute the listing of a yearbook or graduation program from your family.
   

• Bring to our attention the address of a site that you think can help others.
   

• Have old personal memorabilia that would like for others to see?  Let us know we can probably host it for you.
   

• If you like this site, spread the word to your friends. The more researchers that know of us, the more resources that we can bring together.
   

• You can join the Online Cemetery Records Project.  The goal here is to transcribe as many cemetery markers as we can.  This project is a field project and a fun one. Please contact us at priscolon@gmail.com for further details.
  

• You can join the 1910 US Federal Census Project.  This is a project to partially transcribe the Puerto Rico 1910 U.S. Federal Census in a standard format for the benefit of all the genealogical researchers on the Internet.  Please contact us at priscolon@gmail.com for further details.
   

• Have any ideas of your own? Just contact us at  priscolon@gmail.com

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A. The data submitted tosite remain the property of the submitter although it will be permanently hosted with us. Contributor's have the option of submitting the same data to other sites for hosting if he/she chooses to do so. All our pages have a copyright statement at the bottom of each page that will have your name as the contributor.

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A: Some links go to external web sites (such as in the  Beginner's Corner section.) A new browser is launched to make it easy to view the other site while still keeping our site open. When you have finished with one site, you can close it by choosing the X symbol in the upper right corner of the browser window. This will close the window.

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A: If you are viewing an external site on the Internet, you may have launched a new browser session. In the background, you should see that is still active on your desktop. In order to get back to our site, simply close the new browser by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner.

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A: If you have a question/comment about a particular page/section of this site, you are more than welcome to write to me at  priscolon@gmail.com.  I will respond as soon as time permits.

Due to the increase of messages as well as the constant demands of a growing site, I will not be able to answer the following type of messages:
 

1. Requests for help on specific topics. See the Sitemap  page instead. If you don't see what you are looking for there, then we don't have it yet.
    

2. Requests for personal research help, advice, tips, lookup of specific names. See Beginner's Corner  page instead or post your question on our forum.  There you will probably receive answer to your question or guidance.
    

3. Requests for obituaries that are NOT posted on the site. Visit a newspaper repository instead.

Thank you for understanding that my time can be much better spend updating the web site and typing new records for you to review.

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A: Unfortunately, no.

While I have the experience and knowledge, I do not provide professional research services for others, not even for a fee. I am sorry, but there are just not enough hours in my day. Work on this web site is my priority and it is my way of helping you with your research.

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A: So far, I have located, transcribed and made available to you lots of old documents as well as other stuff that will help you in your research. We are commited to keeping the site current and with a continue flow of new transcriptions and useful things.

I am 62 yrs, in 2007, so God willing I have a few more productive years to continue with this effort.

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A: Sorry I can't.  However, you can do that yourself using the search engine on our site or browsing through the pages.

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A: I would love to be able to help others as I have done in the past, but I just do not have the time. Suggest you check out the sites found under Beginner's Corner on this site.  There, you will find lessons, tips and hints, databases and more to get you started.

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A: I am certain that if you look through the sitemap and familiarize yourself with each of the categories you will be able to answer the question yourself. You can also use our search engine to do a quick check.

I you don't find the specific topic on my site, then I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm adding new records and data to the site as quickly as I can.

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A: On average, I receive between 50-60 messages per day. After I delete all telemarketing, chain letters, virus warnings and such, I am left with about 20-25 messages that truly required by attention. To be fair, I answer my mail on a first come first serve basis and depending on what the request is, I can service someone in just a few minutes while others take a little bit longer.

Rest assure that your mail will be answered. Just remember that because I work on this all by my lonesome, it takes me a little bit longer than normal to reply.

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As the site continues to grow and I with it, I am 62 yrs young in 2007, I find less and less time to run the place. In order to continue with this passion of mine, I need to free up some of my time so, if the answer to your question is available on this page, we will NOT respond to your E-mail.

Due to staffing limitations (just me), we are unable to respond to E-mail requesting personal genealogical research assistance. Thank you for not asking