How did we make a connection between El Centro, California, a city of 40,000 in the southeastern part of California with 60,000-plus folks in Medford--the commercial center of Southern Oregon?  Of course, the Internet makes possible linking people all over the world relatively easily, and in real time.  We're sometimes so busy we don't even realize how much closer everything is because of high-speed and reliable computer networks. 

The Greencity web site has been in existence since 1997--a relatively short time but a long time by Internet standards.  Originally hosted in the Imperial Valley of California, it started as a personal site--a place where the web site owner could "play around" with HTML. But my interests in genealogy and family history compelled an expansion of the site, so I devoted a few pages to the family tree. Then it mushroomed into more information, and soon it develop a second web site for dozens of researchers of the Roblee family and I was asked to develop and manage another site for the hundreds of members of the Bunker Family Association. All are hosted at a leading web hosting service--1and1.com.

Although we have moved from the desert sands of the Imperial Valley to the more temperate climate of Medford, Oregon, Manuela and I have strong ties to the Imperial Valley where most members of my wife's family live. The Internet makes it possible to manage covering the Imperial Valley in El Centro from Southern Oregon, just as I can manage family history electronic mailing lists (Bradt, Brott, Bunker, Detling and Roblee) at RootsWeb in Los Angeles. 

-- Douglas Detling, Greencity founder

Last updated on February 7, 2006 © 1997-2006