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Update: If you input data on the site and would like to have a copy of all the data from the site, please contact me (karl at zachrys dot com). I can send you an Excel spreadsheet.
If you want some information that was on the site, something small and specific, I’d be happy to see if I can find it. But zachrys.org has no plans to be up and running again.
What was zachrys.org?
It was a site I started in the mid 90’s to learn more about web technologies and in 2001 I rewrote the entire site in a technology called .NET.
I thought I would accomplish two things at once:
- Make the contents of the book, THE ZACHRY FAMILY TREE “SOUTHERN BRANCH” By Clare H. Zachry available online.
- Lean about web technologies.
The site required login to protect people that were still living and registered users could input additional information they found.
The site was based on the GEDCOM data model 5.5. A model that was as popular as it was complex.
How is Karl Zachry in this context?
To start with, I am in the book and was fortunate enough to be one of the individuals that received a book from Clare. I also have managed software development for more than 30 years. While my degree is in Geophysical Engineering I have an aptitude for software development.
After watching many managers that didn’t understand the technologies they managed make colossal mistakes I realized I needed to go back to my technical roots. This was a project that let me combine the desire to understand the technology and provide this information to fellow members of the extended Zachry family.
I will state up front I know technology. I am NOT a genealogist. I know very little about how to gather records and provide proof.
So what happened to the site?
The short version: years ago I lost the source code and then my hosting provider upgraded their network in April 2020 and after that upgrade we could never get the site running again.
Which is understandable since the last release I had (which added the security) was in 2005. I was quite proud that software I write in 2005 was still running 15 years later.
I did managed to download the database before all that happened, so I do have the data. But GEDCOM is not a human readable format.
In addition other things changed in my life. When I started the site I just pushed paper around and needed a project in order to learn. In 2005 I actually moved into roles where I write software on a daily basis, so I no longer am motivated to write even more software in my spare time 
But I did start to work on the site again and when doing research saw how far ancestry sites have come since I started writing that in the 90’s. I suspect that all the content that was on my website is available on other websites with infinitely more resources.
Closing
I would like to thank all those that contributed new information to the site and gave me encouragement. I look back fondly at those times.
Sincerely – Karl
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