It all began in Kentucky...

In March and April, 1996, Jeff Murphy headed a a group of genealogists to organize a project called the Comprehensive Kentucky Genealogy Database Project. The initial aim of the project was to identify by location all genealogical data on the Web which related to Kentucky. In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index. The Database Project evolved into the KYGenWeb Project. It was Jeff who set up the first USGenWeb main page with Kentucky. Bill Couch followed in Jeff's footsteps of the KY Project with a similar site for Arkansas.

In June 1996, as the Kentucky Project was was nearing 100% county coverage, interested volunteers decided to create a similar set of pages for all states, establishing The USGenWeb Project. Jeff was the founder and original National Coordinator. He set up a main page for the states that included a template for volunteers to use. Announcements were made to genealogy mailing lists and newsgroups, and news of this Project was spread by email and word of mouth. Volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the efforts for each state, and additional volunteers were sought to create and maintain websites for every county in the United States. By July of 1996 most states were online with state homepages.

Arizona joined the Project in June, 1996. The first State Coordinator was Don Spidell, creating the first AZGenWeb state page and bringing us online by August, 1996. The AZGenWeb project was born. From 1998 to 2004 Mike Jarvis held the reins of AZGenWeb leadership. In August, 2005 Gail Meyer Kilgore assumed the position of State Coordinator, which she still holds today (18 May 2018).

Three notes should be added here:

Jeff Donald Murphy was 54 years old when he passed away in in Gresham, Oregon on May 20, 2001 from complications associated with liver disease. Many researchers consider him to be the "Father" of online independent-linking genealogical projects. 

Donald "The Mad Viking" Leroy Spidell died 23 April 1999 at the age of 56 in Safford, Graham County, Arizona. He was born 21 Dec 1942 in Saint Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri.

Bill Couch still maintains the Original Arkansas Genealogy GenWeb site.