Jeff Scism in 1997 began a discussion of 'Black Sheep" ancestors in an AOL chatroom. On January 1, 1998, the Blacksheep@rootsweb.com mail list was opened and the original charter members, numbering about 45, were subscribed. An initial rules set for joining the informal Society were discussed and adopted, and the IBSSG was born. The next year saw a flurry of new memberships and attracted the attention of the media. This attention was intense, with numerous interviews and stories about the group being published in world distributed media, radio, Newspapers, TV, and Magazines.
The average membership for over twelve years was more than 300 mail list members, but many came and went, and many returned. Many of the original Charter members still remain active.
The mail list has expanded to three mail lists, and the website, http://ibssg.org/blacksheep/ has its own domain, and is now a very social group of "sheepies" who are comfortable in discussing many aspects of genealogy, but tied together in a flock, by the common attribute of having Black Sheep in their ancestry.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home