Franklin Family Researchers United - Purpose

Franklin Family Researchers United

Last updated 1 Feb 2017

Charter

Purpose: To unite and assist those researching families with the surname of Franklin

Miscellany

I want FFRU to be the product of the collaboration of the largest possible audience of Franklin researchers.

These web pages are as plain as I can make them. I do not put unrelated graphics, decorations, backgrounds, "music", etc. on these pages. These pages are about information, not eye candy.

Regarding conflicting information, I do not arbitrate disputes, and I will do my best to not promote or contribute to them. The single best way to resolve disputes is by collaboration and sharing of source documents. Researchers can then weigh the facts and present their reasoning and conclusions based on the preponderance of evidence. This is a very important function of this group.

If you would like to make suggestions regarding FFRU policies, I would be glad to hear them. In addition, your contributions of research are vital to the success of this collaborative project. I pledge to do my best to further your research and to help you arrive at well-documented conclusions. Good luck in your research!

Correspondence and Queries

I respond to hundreds of Franklin-related queries each year. In addition to the queries themselves, I publish some of these responses, in the FFRU newsletter as space affords. The queries are also found on the Query Page.

I may or may not have time to research and answer all of your requests. Please understand, that in general, it usually takes several hours to research and intelligently respond to a query, even if I don't find anything.

A query should consist of at least three elements: name, place and date. In the case a Franklin query, the maiden name of a non-Franklin spouse can be particularly helpful. For example, I probably have 50,000 records pertaining to "Thomas Franklin", but only a few hundred for "Mary Smith"...

Use genealogy format for dates.

Please spell out placenames. Locations in the US should include the name of the county. In many locales, a significant number of records are kept at a county level.

If you do not know a name, place and date, then you are asking about the wrong generation.

It will be difficult, if not impossible, for your research to progress as long as you expect me (or anyone else, for that matter) to be more interested in researching your line than you yourself are. One obvious indicators your interest is how carefully you compose your correspondence.. If you are too busy to carefully compose a query, it will be better to wait until you can.

Remember that if you ask about living Franklins, I will probably not have information about them. FFRU concerns Family History and Genealogy. It is a not a Missing Persons Bureau. Most contributors and sources suppress information about living people for privacy reasons, so I neither solicit nor retain information about living people.

If you ask me about someone who died in the U.S. after about 1910, I will ask you what the death certificate says. For instructions to order death certificates, go here. I will also ask you if you have interviewed all of your elderly relatives. If you don't do this soon, you will certainly regret it.

If you ask me about Franklins that lived in the U.S. sometime during 1850 - 1910, I will ask you if you've checked the various census.

Donations

If you wish to donate materials, such as books, CDs, or other Franklin information, I will do my best to share them at broadly as possible (with permission of the author). I have a good scanner and am experienced at using it in conjunction OCR software to capture typed and printed documents.

If you wish to donate money, it will be used to acquire more Franklin materials. I will not use it for my personal research or any other personal purpose.

As stated above, donated materials and materials purchased with FFRU funds are the property of the FFRU Library, and not my personal property.

How your money was spent in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. As of 2004, more than half of the FFRU annual budget is from my own pocket, and is therefore not worth reporting to you.


History of FFRU

Elaine Franklin Giddens established FFRU in 1991 and published the Charter Issue in January 1992. She diligently served the community of Franklin researchers until the end of 1997. At the beginning of 1999, she decided to turn it over to me, Ben Franklin. Elaine’s selfless hard work, dedication and service to the community of Franklin researchers is greatly appreciated and sorely missed.

I have been doing genealogy for nearly 40 years. I have extensive experience in research, teaching new genealogists and promoting genealogy.

I have collected Franklin data from many sources, including:

* The US Census 1790-1930 includes about 250,000 Franklins. I am in the process of transcribing and annotating all of them.

(+)Sadly, the majority of these GEDCOM files do not have proper source citations, meaning that this data is little, if any, benefit to researchers.

This collection constitutes many millions of names, with many duplicates, of course. I have made numerous trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and have copied thousands of pages of original court records, periodicals and other Franklin materials from there.

This forum provides Franklin researchers with a place to collaborate and serves as a repository of their (our) research. I do this, as did Elaine, without profit to myself. Any donations or income derived from this activity are reinvested in Franklin-related research materials of benefit to the entire Franklin community, and not my personal research. Any manuscripts or books donated to the FFRU Library are property of the FFRU Library and not my own personal property.

Budget

How your money was spent in 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999. As of 2004, more than half of the FFRU annual budget is from my own pocket, and is therefore not worth reporting to you.

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Contact Information

Ben Franklin
5847 Sandstone Drive
Durham, NC 27713-1925
Email: [email protected]