What
is CubaGenWeb?
CubaGenWeb is an on-line depository of resources and
data dedicated to Cuban genealogy. It is intended to facilitate the search
for your Cuban roots by providing as much information as possible via
the Internet to get you started in your research.
Most of the actual genealogical data is not available on-line but resides
in church and civil records in Cuba and Spain. Some of this information,
particularly for prominent families before the 1950's has been compiled
by genealogists in Cuba and Spain. Some additional information was published
by the Cuban Genealogical Society, based in the United States. Wherever
possible, we have tried to provide indexes to the available data and information
as to where you can look it up. Due to copyright and size reasons, we
are unable to put most of this information on-line.
Trivia for SF fans: Most SF authors completely missed
predicting the PC and Internet revolutions. Harri Seldon's Encyclopedia
Galactica should no doubt have been described by Asimov as a
distributed on-line intergalactic resource instead of residing (in hard
copy?) at one location. If you consider the World Wide Web as an early
beta test local Earth version of the EG; we consider CubaGenWeb as a tiny, but hopefully useful, reference shelf.
Capsule History of CubaGenWeb
During the course of generating our own family history (see below), I
became aware of some of the sources of information available for Cuban
genealogy and the techniques for doing genealogical research. I wrote
up a brief summary of this information and published it in the Hispanic
genealogy sections of the on-line services that I then had accounts in,
namely CompuServe, GEnie and AOL (you can probably still find the files
there, named CUBA.TXT and JARUCO.TXT).
When CompuServe made available home web pages for their subscribers,
I decided to publish the information in web format and did so in 1996.
This allowed me to easily update and add to the published information
and had the secondary benefit of providing me a vehicle for learning first
hand how to publish for the web.
When we became aware of the WorldGenWeb volunteer project,
we decided to provide our Cuban genealogy site as the CubaGenWeb page, part of the CaribbeanGenWeb regional section dedicated
to the Caribbean Islands. When we moved to California in late 1996 and
found out that my new ISP allowed us to host a web site under our own
registered domain name for a small additional monthly charge, we registered
the domain name and thus became "www.cubagenweb.org".
When we moved to Washington in late 1998 and once again changed ISPs to
get high speed ADSL service, we moved our web site to a commercial hosting
service.
Here are some of the key dates in the history of CubaGenWeb:
date |
event |
1975 |
The first micro-computer, the Altair, is announced in December issue of Radio & TV News magazine |
3/14/77 |
We purchase and assemble and IMSAI microcomputer kit (an industrial version of the Altair - featured in the movie "Wargames") |
1981 |
We join the Compuserve on-line service and become a frequent visitor to the Hispanic Genealogy section of the ROOTS Forum, where we create some friendships that will last till the present. |
1994-95 |
We post the files CUBA.TXT and CUBA.NDX on the Compuserve ROOTS Forum software library. These files list resources for Cuban genealogy and provide an index to the multi-volume work Historia de Familias Cubanas (History of Cuban Families) by the Count of Jaruco. |
1995-96 |
Compuserve starts a gateway for Internet service and offers to host home pages of members |
7/4/96 |
We implement a Cuban Genealogy Resources web site on Compuserve with the URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ee/index.htm |
3/25/98 |
Rootsweb implements the WorldGenWeb query board system |
4/07/98 |
We start the cuban surname query board as part of WorldGenWeb. First message is posted by Jose Rivera Nieves. |
4/16/98 |
We register the CubaGenWeb.org domain. We move the content from Compuserve to a new CubaGenWeb web site, hosted by Slip.net, a California ISP (since acquired by FirstWorld Communications, Inc). |
9/16/98 |
We take over the CUBA-L list from Marti Ceijas and reactivate the list. |
10/09/98 |
We move the CubaGenWeb web site to ValueWeb.com, a commercial web hosting service. |
04/2000 |
With the enthusiastic help of a group of volunteers we start the transcription of the database of veterans of the Cuban War of Independence (Mambi soldiers database). |
04/2003 |
We complete our database of veterans of the Cuban War of Independence. |
03/2005 |
We start our database of Passenger Lists to and from La Habana. |
02/27/09 |
We move the CubaGenWeb web site to 1&1.com, one of the largest commercial web hosting servics in the world. |
03/26/09 |
We open an account on Twitter to provide brief update messages. |
06/07/09 |
We migrate our Mambi and Passenger databases to MySQL, this allows much higher capacity and searching of the entire database in one step. |
Where are we?
CubaGenWeb is physically located in the United States.
We have relocated between East and West coasts 4 times since 1996. Currently
our home is in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, in Southeast Florida. CubaGenWeb is
currently hosted by 1&1.com, a world-wide commercial web hosting service with US headquarters in Chesterbrook, PA.
Who are we?
We - or more properly I since "we" is only one person - are an aerospace
engineer, now retired. We work on updating CubaGenWeb in the evenings and weekends, purely as
a hobby. For more details visit our capsule Biography.
Why do we do this?
My family, as many other Cuban families, left Cuba in the 1960's and
dispersed throughout the United States and other parts of the world. Many
of the younger generation grew up in the United States and married non-Cubans.
Some of their children do not even speak Spanish. In time I found that
due to the distances involved, many of the frequent visits and traditional
get-togethers that our families had in Cuba were seldom taking place and
that our family branches were drifting apart with many cousins, particularly
of the younger generation, not even knowing of each other.
When my father died in 1972, I got interested in documenting the family
genealogy, using my computer skills to do so. I was driven by the desire
to reestablish my personal family ties (I am an only son) as well as to
keep the dispersed family branches in contact by corresponding with them
and providing them with a compiled "Family History". The results were
very gratifying. Thanks to the interest generated by the published "Family
History" and the associated correspondence, several family reunions were
held and people came who had lost touch with the rest of the family. Many
of us now keep in touch via e-mail.
The research has paid off in other ways, such as finding and meeting
members of three previously unknown branches of the family still living
in Spain, as well as visiting the towns where the family lived before
emigrating to the new world.
Who pays for all this?
We do, except for the Surname Bulletin Board and the CUBA-L list. These
services are provided free of charge by the non-profit RootsWeb organization. The modest commissions generated by sales through links to our adverstisers help offset the costs of maintaining CubaGenWeb.
Who are we affiliated with?
CubaGenWeb is an independent non-profit Web Site. We
currently participate in the following Internet genealogy projects:
Our affiliation with the non-profit RootsWeb organization
(now part of Ancestry.com),
which hosts the WorldGenWeb, and CaribbeanWeb volunteer projects, has allowed us
to provide additional services such as the Cuban
Surname BBS and the CUBA-L mailing
list. We decided, however to continue hosting the CubaGenWeb on a commercial hosting service in order to maintain full control of
the content and to retain the cubagenweb.org domain
name, instead of becoming a mere subdirectory within rootsweb.com.
Where did our home page photo come from?
Our new home page photo was kindly provided by one of our readers, a
television producer. She took the photo, of the Escambray region of Santa
Clara, during a visit to Cuba while covering the summit meeting of Hispanic
country leaders in Cuba in 1999.
Do we do research for others?
No, we do not engage in research for others.
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