The obituary coding system has proven itself useful to genealogists.
When families clip an obituary out of the paper, they rarely think
to jot down the name and date of the newspaper. The date itself
is very important, because the obituary text often refers to the
death date in terms of "last tuesday", or "yesterday",
and even the date of the funeral as "this saturday". Thus,
the coding system records the date of the newspaper into the code
itself, and is placed by the newspaper publisher into the obituary.
The PCGS licenses its coding system to newspapers. To date they
have licensed it to several newspapers in Minnesota, as well as
a few papers in Georgia, Missouri, and Texas.
However, David Dole, 86, the creator and owner of PCGS, must retire
to attend family needs and offer his company for take over. He is
not even selling it. It's free. However, those interested must make
a good faith effort to keep the Obituary Coding System in operation.
Furthermore, it is only offered to 501(c)(3) organizations (non-profit
status).
Dole says that the PCGS can potentially generate an annual income
of $500,000.00, which would greatly enhance operations of most genealogical
societies. If anyone is interested, they can contact Dole at:
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS ! !
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR YOU FROM PGCS -
PUBLISHERS GENEALOGICAL CODING SERVICE.
October 30, 2000
Is one man's necessary departure someone else's opportune entrance?
Is one man's gift your genealogical, history or library society's
challenge and "call to action"? Listen up !
Some six years ago I developed the Publishers Genealogical Coding
Service to help librarians, historians, researchers and mostly
genealogists - so that those obits (clipped without notation of
newspaper, location or publication date) are identifiable, even
decades later, by the PGCS 15-character code placed within each
obit !
But after spending more than $50,000 on PGCS (according to my
tax man), establishing its concept and getting a dozen papers
signed up to use it, I must stop my efforts.
I am 86 years old, my wife needs my care and my personal genealogy
and family history need completion.
I saw this coming. I have offered PGCS as a tax-deductible gift
to appropriate organizations, but have had no "takers". The Association
of Professional Genealogists, the Council of Genealogy Columnists,
the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical
Society all originally "approved" PGCS (for which I was most grateful),
but none of them could see their way clear to accept PGCS as a
gift and arrange to continue it.
Also, PGCS has been turned down:
- by RootsWeb. We felt RootsWeb's conversion to RootsWeb.com,
Inc. and GenSoc.org, Inc. made the latter a "perfect" recipient
and we waited for GenSoc.org, Inc.'s approval as a 501(c)(3).
That finally came through but remained dormant;
- by MyFamily.com / Ancestry.Com which, as of July 1, 2000,
bought RootsWeb.com, Inc.
- by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
- and by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
All of the above are busy operations - no question about that.
And their failure to accept PGCS doesn't necessarily mean they
should not accept it - it just means they ARE busy.
But some group, somewhere
- may be just the catalyst to galvanize its membership in action
to help others
- may feel PGCS is important enough to MAKE room for it in
their genealogical efforts.
And many, maybe most, genealogical and history societies are
IRS-approved 501(c)(3) operations.
Is yours?
If it is, ask them if they want a potential $500,000 (or more)
as a gift?
It is simple enough: if your group is a 501(c)(3) and wants
to acquire PGCS, contact me.
But I HAVE to stop even my part-time efforts for PGCS.
The bottom line is this: Unless someone reading this feels that
PGCS coding MUST be saved and makes it happen, it will be gone!
PGCS will cease operations on Dec. 31, 2000 unless a qualified
organization offers and accepts it as a gift! How about your group?
It is my hope that this message (which appears on the PGCS website,
www.obituarycoding.com ) will develop interest on the part of
some who understand the need and value of PGCS coding of obituaries;
and an appropriate group will offer to accept the gift; and either
now or later continue the PGCS effort.
The long-term income (potentially over a half-million dollars)
takes work but a well-organized effort can bring results.
I felt I had to post this notice and take these steps - for
I cannot continue even the part-time effort which my operating
of PGCS takes.
PGCS deserves a group owner which will be around longer than
David Dole - now age 86!
Thank you for your patience!
I hope you will consider whether YOUR group can offer to accept
the gift of PGCS !
P. S. We suggest you save this postscript which lists the papers
currently carrying PGCS coding.
If the PGCS website goes out of existence by Dec. 31, 2000 you
may want to be able to refer to this later.
[editors note: below is a list of actual obituary
codes in use by these newspapers]
- A 00001 B Northfield News 115 West 5th St. Northfield MN 55057
USA, 5/98 Ph: 507) 645-5615 Fx: 507) 645-6005 Em: tswift@northfieldnews.org
-
A 00002 B Osakis Review 26 East Main Street Osakis MN 56360
USA, 11/98 Ph: 320) 859-2143 Fx: 320) 859-2054 Em: __________
-
A 00003 B Thief River Falls Times 324 Main Street Thief
River Falls MN 56701 USA, 2/99 Ph: 218) 681-4550 Fx: 218)
681-4455 Em:jpmattson@trftimes.com
-
A 00004 B Chaska Herald PO Box 113 Chaska MN 55318 USA,
2/99 Ph: 612) 448-2650 Fx: 612) 448-3146 Em: editor@chaskaherald.com
-
A 00005 M The Family Tree 204 Fifth Street Moultrie GA 31776
USA, 3/99 Ph: 912) 985-6540 Fx: 912) 985-0936 Em: __________
-
A 00006 B Staples World 224 North Fourth Staples MN 56479
USA, 3/99 Ph: 218) 894-1112 Fx: 218) 894-3570 Em: staworld@brainerd.net
-
A 00007 B Anoka County Union 4101 Coon Rapids Blvd. Coon
Rapids MN 55433 USA, 4/99 Ph: 612) 421-4444 Fx: 612) 421-4315
Em: eric.olson@ecm-inc.com
-
A 00008 B Bolivar Herald-Free Press 333 So. Springfield
Bolivar MO 65613 USA,
6/99 Ph: 417) 326-7636 Fx: 417) 326-7643 Em: bhfp@cpimo.com
-
A 00009 B Echo Press 225 Seventh Ave. East Alexandria MN
56308 USA, 9/99 Ph: 320) 763-3133 Fx: 320) 763-3258 Em: echo@echopress.com
-
A 00010 B Tracy Headlight-Herald 207 Fourth Street Tracy
MN 56125 USA, 3/00 Ph: 507) 629-4300 Fx: _________ Em: tracypublishing@headlightherald.com
-
A 00011 A The Daily Tribune PO Box 2450 Bay City TX 77414
USA, 7/00 Ph: 979)245-5555 Fx: 979)244-6908 Em: bctrib@wcnet.net
-
A 00012 B The Crane Chronicle / Stone County Republican,
9/00 Ph: 417)723-5248 Fx: 417)723-8490 Em: stonecountypublishing@tri-lakes.net
