ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 6, 10 February 1999; Circulation: 263,300+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb (Where Have All the RootsWeb Admins Been?; Cyndi's List; IIGS February 1999 Newsletter; RootsWeb HelpDesk); Connecting through RootsWeb; New Mailing Lists; New Home Pages; New GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Archives Uploads; USGenWeb Archives Census Transcription Project Uploads; Humor; Reprint Policy; Unsubscribe Instructions. * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB WHERE HAVE ALL THE ROOTSWEB ADMINS BEEN? RootsWeb users may have noticed that, for about the last six weeks, RootsWeb's system administrators have been hard to find and generally a bit wild-eyed and stressed when they appeared in public. The reason is that the load on our servers jumped immediately after Christmas. For example, mailing list traffic we handle jumped from about 119 million deliveries in November to about 154 million pieces in January. That's almost a 30% leap. Although we haven't run the Web statistics for January yet, we suspect Web traffic jumped a similar amount. Since December, to handle the load, RootsWeb has brought online: o A new and much faster main Web server. o A new FTP server. o A new and much faster GenConnect server. o A new and much faster Surname Helper server. o A new and much faster RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) and Obituary Daily Times server. o A new server for the FreeBMD British records project. o A new server for providing personalized search engines for the Webmasters of genealogical sites. It has been a Herculean task to bring all those machines online in just a few weeks, and we aren't through yet. In the next few weeks we need to: o Upgrade the "lists2" listserver's processor and memory (costs $2,000). o Build a new "lists3" listserver (costs $4,000). o Build a faster server to carry most of the load currently being handled by the "searches" search engine server (costs $12,000). o Add a fast "RAID" disk array to the GenConnect server (costs $6,000). We mention the costs because these needed upgrades and new servers currently are not funded. By making a financial contribution to RootsWeb, you can help us provide more mailing lists, more searchable data files, and more GenConnect boards for the whole community to use. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, visit: or send e-mail to: . RootsWeb's address is: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please include your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks.) [Ed.'s Note: "Online Onslaught," an editorial by David Ignatius, in "The Washington Post" (February 10, 1999, A23) notes that two major problems on the Internet last week (broker E-Trade's software crashing three days in a row and millions of potential visitors being unable to access the Victoria's Secret fashion show advertised during the Super Bowl) "documented one of the dirty little secrets of the Internet age: The technology . . . sometimes doesn't work, especially when the traffic gets heavy." Further, "[F]or the people who have to keep the giant Web sites running, the limitations of technology are all too obvious -- and painful. These are the people who struggle every day to patch system flaws with what one calls 'the three Bs: Band-Aids, bubble gum and bailing wire.'" An unnamed "techie" is quoted: "We're sick of staying up all night. We don't want to die here." RootsWeb's SysAdmins can relate.] * * * CYNDI'S LIST OF GENEALOGY SITES ON THE INTERNET. Cyndi's List has had more than six million visitors since it opened in 1996. There are now more than 40,000 links organized into more than 90 categories at the site. Visit the links about viruses, cookies, hoaxes, privacy issues, and spam that are collected under "INTERNET STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW" . If we all were aware of the material covered here, the amount of junk e-mail everyone receives would be drastically reduced. If you already have your own home page on the Web or if you are thinking about creating one, you'll be delighted with the collection of links you'll find at CYNDI'S GENEALOGY HOME PAGE CONSTRUCTION KIT . For those who would like to widen their circle of Internet acquaintances and increase their contacts on the Web via chat, the Cyndi's List category "CHAT & IRC" is for you. Here currently there are 92 links to genealogy chat and IRC channels listed by network/server, genealogy chat and IRC home pages, and general IRC software and how-to guides. * * * INTERNATIONAL INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (IIGS). The February 1999 issue of the IIGS Newsletter is available online at: . Articles include: "Step by Step through the National Archives," "What Our Ancestors Took with Them to America," "The Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, Iowa," "Genealogical Holdings of Interest," "Where To Find Language Aids Online," and "IRC: Your Connection to Genealogists Worldwide." * * * HELPDESK TIPS. For answers to most of your questions about using the resources hosted by RootsWeb, please read the FAQs at the RootsWeb HelpDesk: . * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. An elderly and distant cousin sent me a copy of the tattered program from the "Sixth Annual BURT Family Reunion" held in September 1900 in Paulding, Ohio. What made this document spectacular was that the 330+ attendees from 30 states were listed with their families and sorted by state, county, and town. I began trying to identify the attendees. Using RootsWeb and other resources I have connected with relatives of a number of these people and we are scratching our heads over the relationships. The Burts seemed to be aware of cousins from lines that connected as far back as the mid-1700s. There are many other surnames represented and though the majority of attendees were from Ohio, states from Florida to Washington were represented. I've put the document on my Web site at and hope people who might have relations will have a look. I've begun annotating it after a two-day trip to the National Archives and having received a lot of mail from newly discovered cousins. Jane Peppler * * * * * MAILING LISTS. To subscribe or unsubscribe from any RootsWeb mailing list, send an e-mail message with only the word SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the subject and the body of the message to [name of list]-L-request@rootsweb.com (for mail mode) or to [name of list]-D-request@rootsweb.com (for digest mode). For example, if you are interested in New Zealand research, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit . NEW MAILING LIST REQUESTS. USGenWeb and WorldGenWeb hosts may have FREE locality mailing lists for the areas they host and for that purpose may ignore the "Sponsors-only" warning on the list request page. Please request new mailing lists at: NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ANGEVINE ARCHER (especially those who settled in the Indian Territory of Arkansas and Oklahoma) BACON BALSLEY BARRON BEAM (includes BEEM, BOEHM, and variants) BECKETT BESSEY (includes BESSE) BETHUREM (includes BETHURUM and variants) BIDWELL (includes BEDWELL) BIGHAM BIRDWELL (includes variants) BRATVOLD BRUMBELOW (includes all variants) BUCK BURNHAM CETNOR CHAMBLESS CHRISTY (includes all variants) CONINE (includes CONYN, KONYN, CANINE, CORNINE, and variants) CRAGO (includes CRAIGO) CREASON (includes CREESON) CRITCHLOW DEWALD ECROYD EPPING EUDY FITZHUGH (includes FITCHEW) FORQUER (includes FORKER) FROGGE GASKILL (includes GASGOYNE and GASGOIGNE) GAUSS GLENDAY GOBLE (includes GOBEL, GABLE, GOBBLE, GOBELL, and variants) GOLDER GOODE (includes GOOD) GRABANSKI (includes GRABINSKI) GRUBEN HALBACH (includes HALBACK and variants) HATLEY HERLIHY (from County Cork and County Kerry) HINSON (includes HENSON) KEMPERS (includes CAMPERS and variants) KOEHN (includes KAHN, KAEHN, and KOHN) LEITZELL (includes LEITZEL) LINDBERG LINEBACK LIPPINCOTT (includes LIPPENCOTT) LOFTUS MAIZE MAPES MARION (includes MARIEN, MARRION, MARRIEN, and MARYION) MAYER (includes MAIER, MAHER, and variants) OGLETHORPE ORANGE OTT PALLARDY (includes PALARDY, PALARDIE, and PALLARDIE) PLOWS REICHERT REMALEY (includes RAMALEY, REMELEY, REMLY, and R540 Soundex variants) REPASS RETTIG (includes RETTICH) RIMELL ROUM ROVER RUBOTTOM RUGGIERS (includes RUGGIERO and RUGGERS) RUGGLES SCHEIG (includes SCHEIGS) SHANKLE (includes SCHENKEL, SHANKEL, and SHANKLES) SHARROCK SICKLES (includes SICKELS, SECKEL, and variants) SINTON SOUTHWICK STRAYHORN TEAS (includes TEASE, TEES, TICE, and variants) THERRIEN (includes TERRIEN, THERRIAN, THERRAULT, and TERRIAN) TOSSELL TUXHORN TWADDLE UNBEHAUN WAKELEY (includes all variants) WASSON (includes WASON) WEIDOW (includes WEIDA) WELCHEL NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS NEW ZEALAND NEW-ZEALAND -- New Zealand research NORTHERN IRELAND NIR-DERRY -- County of LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland. Web site: Derry, IrelandGenWeb U.S.A. ALAUTAUG -- Autauga County, Alabama. Web site: AZAPACHE -- Apache County, Arizona AZGREENL -- Greenlee County, Arizona AZNAVAJO -- Navajo County, Arizona CAMERCED -- Merced County, California CTMIDDLE -- Middlesex County, Connecticut IDTETON -- Teton County, Idaho INBROWN -- Brown County, Indiana INPORTER -- Porter County, Indiana KYPULASK -- Pulaski County, Kentucky KYROBERT -- Robertson County, Kentucky LALAFOUR -- Lafourche Parish, Louisiana MOLIVING -- Livingston County, Missouri NCJONES -- Jones County, North Carolina. Web site: NEHAMILT -- Hamilton County, Nebraska NMDONAAN -- Dona Ana County, New Mexico OGS-AZ -- Ohio Genealogical Society-Arizona Chapter ORDESCHU -- Deschutes County, Oregon TXBREWST -- Brewster County, Texas VALOUISA -- Louisa County, Virginia NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS BARUG -- Bay Area Roots Users Group (San Francisco Bay Area, California). For sharing information about Ultimate Family Tree (formerly Roots) genealogy software and related subjects. Web site: GLOBAL-GAZETTE -- The Global Gazette, Canada's Genealogy & Heritage Online Magazine NJHUDSON-PROJECTS -- For the project team to converse about the Hudson County NJGenWeb site. * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Please see the instructions at . NEW WEB SITES. Some of these might not yet be accessible. If one that interests you isn't up yet, please check again in a few days or a week. . Note that the ~[tilde] before the account name is required and will work for most. If not, you'll find most of them at USGenWeb or WorldGenWeb . For example, to visit the page for Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada, go to: . CANADA nbken -- Kent County, New Brunswick U.S.A. casfbagc -- San Francisco Bay Area Genealogical Consortium (California) coboulde -- Boulder County, Colorado comorgan -- Morgan County, Colorado flgadsde -- Gadsden County, Florida fljackso -- Jackson County, Florida fllibert -- Liberty County, Florida gagreene -- Greene County, Georgia iapcmigs -- Pierce/Charter Memorial Internet Genealogical Society (Iowa) idoneida -- Oneida County, Idaho mnpgs -- Prairieland Genealogical Society (Minnesota) ncmadiso -- Madison County, North Carolina ncswain -- Swain County, North Carolina nctransy -- Transylvania County, North Carolina ohrichla -- Richland County, Ohio txscgs -- Stephens County Genealogical Society (Texas) wifloren -- Florence County, Wisconsin HOME PAGES Sylvia's Tracing Our Ancestors Page. BASFORD, BLAGDON, HERSUM, and SAWYER. * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 121 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 31 January to 6 February 1999, as follows: ARCHIVES 11 CANADA 1 ENGLAND 2 USA Al 21 Ar 7 Ca 1 Co 2 Fl 10 Ia 1 Il 11 Mn 2 Mo 1 Ms 8 NC 2 ND 1 Oh 1 Ok 3 Or 3 Tn 2 Tx 14 Ut 3 Vt 1 Wa 6 Wi 6 WV 1 SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Florida State Hospital -- inmates in the late 1800s SURNAME BOARDS. 290 new surname boards include the following : Alwood, Auvil, Bagwell, Bartlett, Bayles, Bedford, Belcher, Borowski, Burnham, Byers, Cyganowski, Douglas, Dry, Earp, Edwards, Evans, Farthing, Fergus, Fitzer, Frogge, Fry, Gerren, Gildersleeve, Giles, Glover, Goble, Goode, Gregory, Hadath, Hadley, Hanna, Hanratty, Hawley, Hawman, Herman, Holder, Hopper, Horn, Hovatter, Hunter, Isaacs, Jay, Johnston, Jones, Joy, Kilgore, Landkammer, Livermore, Maier, Mettler, Mogar, Moss, Norstedt, Paschal, Plott, Pool, Prince, Replogle, Sargent, Sewell, Shiflett, Sook, Speese, Spencer, Springer, Stafford, Steinbach, Stembridge, Stokes, Szilvasi, Thompson, Ting, Tinnin, Tolley, Ultz, VanNorman, VanWert, Vaughan, Winfrey, Young * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES. RECENT UPLOADS. OHIO. Biographies with Ohio connections. VIRGINIA. "Report on the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War at the Second Session Thirty-Eighth Congress," includes testimony of Civil War generals of the Army of the Potomac on battles including the Battle of Petersburg, the Red River Expedition, the Massacre of Cheyenne Indians, and others. (link) (the file itself) WISCONSIN. Manitowoc County. Indices to plat maps for 1872, 1878, and 1893 for all the townships. WISCONSIN. Ozaukee County Biographies. ONLINE CENSUS IMAGES MISSOURI. 1900 Howard County MISSOURI. 1910 Howard County MISSOURI. 1900 Phelps County VIRGINIA. 1880 Patrick County * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES CENSUS TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT UPLOADS. The following files were uploaded to the archives this week. ALABAMA. 1850 Madison County GEORGIA. 1870 Haralson County GEORGIA. 1850 McIntosh County IDAHO. 1870 Oneida County ILLINOIS. 1850 Schuyler County INDIANA. 1850 Warren County KENTUCKY. 1850 Nicholas County -- surname index MISSISSIPPI. 1850 Bolivar County -- surname index MISSISSIPPI. 1850 Pike County MISSISSIPPI. 1830 Simpson County MISSISSIPPI. 1850 Sunflower County MISSOURI. 1850 Carroll County NORTH CAROLINA. 1840 Cherokee County NORTH CAROLINA. 1830 Stokes County TENNESSEE. 1850 Overton County -- corrected files TEXAS. 1880 Coryell County -- corrected surname index TEXAS. 1850 Goliad County -- surname index WISCONSIN. 1900 Portage County * * * * * HUMOR. Thanks to Karen Harris , who wrote on 4 February 1999, "I received the following funny this week and thought the other readers would enjoy it." CANADIANS On the sixth day God turned to the angel Gabriel and said, "Today I am going to create a land called Canada. It will be a land of outstanding natural beauty, it shall have tall majestic mountains full of mountain goats and eagles, beautifully sparkling lakes bountiful with carp and trout, forests full of elk and moose, high cliffs overlooking sandy beaches with an abundance of sea life, and rivers stocked with salmon." God continued, "I shall make the land rich in oil so to make the inhabitants prosper, I shall call these inhabitants Canadians, they shall be known as the friendliest people on the Earth." "But Lord," asked Gabriel, "don't you think you are being too generous to these Canadians?" "Not really," replied God, "just wait and see the neighbors I am going to give them!" * * * * * PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from ROOTSWEB REVIEW is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED (1) The reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes. (2) This notice must appear at the end of the article: Written by Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 6, 10 February 1999. You may visit RootsWeb's main Web page at . * * * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW is e-mailed on Wednesdays to all RootsWeb Members, subscribers to RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists, submitters to the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL), and other RootsWeb users. DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES FROM . UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS: If you would prefer not to receive future issues of RootsWeb Review, please e-mail: and put ONLY the word "unsubscribe" (omit the quotation marks) in the subject line and in the body of the message. * * * MISSING LINKS: A Weekly Newsletter for Genealogists, edited and published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, is a free e-zine usually distributed on Fridays. Back issues are available for download from . To subscribe to MISSING LINKS, send an e-mail message that says only SUBSCRIBE to: Missing-Links-L-request@rootsweb.com * * * * * PLEASE NOTE: The editors of ROOTSWEB REVIEW, the staff of RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, and the HelpDesk volunteers are unable to respond to requests for genealogical research help. ____ Julia M. Case Co-Editor of ROOTSWEB REVIEW Editor-at-Fault of MISSING LINKS To subscribe, send SUBSCRIBE message to RootsWeb-Review-L-request@rootsweb.com Missing-Links-L-request@rootsweb.com ROOTSWEB GENEALOGICAL DATA COOPERATIVE P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798