The new Biography & Family History Board is designed to permit you to submit various biographies or family histories (with a Darke Co. connection only, please) that you find or have in your own collection. Sources are always important, but we realize that many have clippings and/or photocopies in their possession which no longer have any information about the place or date originally published. You may still submit these, but please indicate what you know as YOUR source. For example, if you found them in the family Bible, use that as your source. Most biographies are found in volumes of county history or dictionaries of biography.

Unlike obituaries, which are published on the occasion of a death, biographies and family histories can be written and published at any time. You may even write your own biography of a relative or recount the history of your own family (be cautious about submitting anything about the living that invades their privacy!). Just BE CERTAIN that you indicate who the author was (for example, "written by [your name or relative's name]") when you know and/or where you found the biography/family history.

Copyright restrictions also apply. Anything published in America before 1923 is in the public domain and can be typed up and submitted here. What YOU write yourself is YOURS to submit here unless you signed away your rights to have it published elsewhere. DCOWeb assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of information presented here nor for verifying whether copyright law has been violated. All responsibility for such matters rests with the submitter.

The Biography & Family History Board is set so that all posts are listed in alphabetical order, sorted on the surname. When you try to change viewing preferences you can only choose to limit the time period for when a post was made or select that posts are sorted in reverse alphabetical order. It is also a Moderated Board so that when you make a post the Board Administrator has to verify that it follows acceptable formats and that the subject is set so that it sorts correctly. There may be as much as a week's delay before a post might show up in the Message Index or you might be contacted in e-mail for more information.

When you are ready to post yourself, please follow these few guidelines for Obituary posts to make your visit more productive for yourself and others.
(these are still under construction and may change)

• Explain the connection to Darke Co., Ohio, if it isn't obvious in the biography or family history. Maybe the person's parents were from Darke Co. or they lived in Darke Co. for a significant time in their lives. Family Histories should start or end in Darke Co., that is, some members of the family should be born or have died in the county.
• Always provide -your- name and e-mail address to protect the 'chain of evidence' about the biography. Who submitted it might be the only clue as to its truth. If you know the submission was pubished in a book, give the name of the book and its date of publication.
• For the subject, use the last name of the person, comma, and given name(s). Put maiden names in "(...)" parentheses.
• Irrelevant or offensive posts will be removed without notice.
• Some posts may be shared with the DCO Discussion List for wider distribution.
• If you change your e-mail address, contact the Board Administrator to change it.

YOU own your posts and we have left you the option to delete your post at a later time if you wish. However, you must provide a password for that post at the time you make it. Without your password, you will have to contact the Board Administrator to get a post removed or corrected. Be aware that if you remove your post, you may not remove the replies that were made to it. Every separate individual owns their own posts. DCOWeb is merely the custodian making your posts available for viewing.