ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 13, 31 March 1999 (second Blue Moon of 1999) Circulation: 283,940+ worldwide. The Sun Never Sets on RootsWeb. (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb (Searching RootsWeb; RootsWeb Response to Infoweb.com article; RootsWeb Report on TalkSpot; HelpDesk Tips); Connecting through RootsWeb; Letters to the Editors; Mailing Lists; Web Pages; GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Archives; Humor; Reprint Policy TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) to: . LETTERS TO THE EDITORS should be posted to the new board at: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/RWR-LettersToTheEditor BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW are available for download from: . * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB SEARCHING ROOTSWEB. We have moved searches.rootsweb.com to a bigger and faster box and also placed it on our "Big Pipe" connection. This will help with all the searches of both the mailing list archives and USGenWeb Archives. Dale ("Doc") Schneider System Administrator and all-round guru for RootsWeb RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative To our request for a translation, Doc replied: The "BIG PIPE" is the Concentric cluster of ours. It has a super fast connection to the Internet. A 10-megabit connection, something on the order of 6 or 7 T-1's -- in other words, it is "wicked fast!" What this means for RootsWeb users is a faster return on their search queries. Randy Winch is also working on recompiling our Isite suite (the actual search engine we use for most of the searches) to allow it to keep up with the increased demand. * * * ROOTSWEB'S RESPONSE TO 19 MARCH 1999 INFOWEB.COM ARTICLE, "IBM will take a 'wait and see' attitude toward desktop Linux." We are puzzled by Tony Occleshaw's claim of 19 March that "no one runs large, million-hits-per-day Web servers on Linux." The RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, which provides data and research services to genealogists on the Internet, regularly logs more than a million hits on each of its Linux-based Web servers each day, including several hundred thousand CGI hits and database queries. Additionally, our mail servers, which run on FreeBSD, deliver five million e-mail messages per day. In the last two years, we have had no complaints about stability, robustness, or performance. These free operating systems deliver extraordinary computing power on modest Pentium-II class servers. The simple truth is that system administrators have no incentive to pay thousands of dollars each year for an AIX license when Linux is already capable of handling even severe loads on a busy Internet server. Tim Pierce, senior system administrator RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative * * * ROOTSWEB REPORT ON TALKSPOT. Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG will be on the TalkSpot Generations interactive show for genealogists every Saturday giving the RootsWeb Report. The show runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time (midnight to 0200 GMT) and can be joined at any time . Show host is Elon Gasper and each week there are different guests -- some in the studio, some are interviewed by phone -- and, at the same time, listeners are typing away in a Chat Room that everyone can see. Like a radio talk show, you can just sit and listen in. Like a TV talk show, you can see the hosts and guests and other images, and like any talk show, U.S. participants can call in to an 800 number with questions and comments. This week's topic is "The Future of Genealogy" with guest Dick Eastman of "Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter," plus tips on special methods in French-Canadian research. Trouble with figuring time zones? Check out World Time Zones: or . * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS BOARD SET UP AT GENCONNECT. A Letters to the Editors board has been created where readers may post their comments. The board is linked from the ROOTSWEB REVIEW page at or post directly to: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/RWR-LettersToTheEditor Letters should be exclusive to ROOTSWEB REVIEW. Because of space limitations all published letters are subject to abridgment. Although we are unable to acknowledge letters that we cannot publish in ROOTSWEB REVIEW, we value the views of those who send us their comments. * * * HELPDESK TIPS. For answers to most of your questions about using the resources hosted by RootsWeb, please read the FAQs at the RootsWeb HelpDesk: . * * * DONATIONS TO HELP SUPPORT ROOTSWEB ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, please 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.) * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Please send your "Connecting Through RootsWeb" stories to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com. Prologue: In 1989 a friend in California asked me, since I live in Utah, to go by a Family History Center (FHC) and do a lookup. I wasn't into genealogy and I was told that the FHC didn't have records on living people. End of story. Later: I got hooked on genealogy. Thanks to the same FHC, the International Genealogical Index (IGI), and especially the helpful people on the RootsWeb lists, after 20 months I have many of my lines back before 1600 and some back into the realm of myth. So, I remembered my friend's request and gave her a call. She had the names of some family members who had lived in Texas 60 years ago whom she had never met. It seemed a small matter to find if any were still living and get their addresses. I posted to the lists for Bell County, Texas and the proper surname. A researcher at the Temple, Texas library immediately got back to me with some information. Then a package arrived from my friend. She had known she was adopted, but when her mother passed away her brother dropped by and handed her her original birth certificate. A young lady from Texas had traveled to California in 1936 to handle a problem quietly. The lady subsequently married and raised a family in California. I passed that back to the researcher in Texas. I'm happy to say this: I think she went nuts. Never have I heard of any researcher doing so much work for a total stranger. She left no stone unturned (which I'm sure was a nuisance at the local cemetery). It wasn't an easy search: the family had a common name and mostly daughters. The names we started with were born between 1882 and 1913. I searched the Internet, the national phone books, and the census films while the lady in Texas searched newspapers, the cemetery, and the local libraries. Each time we exchanged information it gave the other more clues for their end. The story really got exciting when the Texas researcher discovered that mother and daughter were both artists, even though they had had no contact since 1936 and the mother wasn't an artist at that time. We now knew the mother had passed away but had two more children. We were slowly narrowing the list of possible names from the 275 million we started with down to 20, then six, and then, finally, after six weeks, I have just given my friend her sister's telephone number. I wish I could see the results, when the two younger (mid-50s to early 60s) siblings discover they have a sister. Thanks, RootsWeb! And, the next time I lose a family member, I just hope it's in Bell County, Texas, where there is a world- class genealogy researcher who may now be able to go back to her own life. * * * After only a few images for the Blair County, Pennsylvania 1850 census microfilm were uploaded to the USGenWeb Archives, Fred Lauver made an incredible discovery. He said: This is unbelievable, but the first name on the first file I clicked on was my great-great-grandmother, Rachel RORABAUGH, who in 1850 was just an infant. I had nothing prior to this on her family members. It appears that her mother may have been a widow since there was no male head of household shown. Thank you for all your work in getting this online. This seems like the beginning of a new era of online research when we will be able to discover primary records when we cannot easily get to court houses and archives. Fred Lauver This is one of the advantages of the USGenWeb Archives. Thanks to thousands of volunteers who have submitted data, researchers can visit virtual "courthouses" from all over the world. while never leaving their homes. Linda Russell Lewis * * * Through RootsWeb I have located a portion of my husband's family that he didn't know existed. He had a half brother and sister and through my entry on RootsWeb one of his nephews contacted us. After sending photos back and forth and comparing information on his father we are pleased to say the family has grown considerably. Thank you so very much, Marleen Slaymaker * * * Tuesday evening, 30 March. RWR editor Myra Vanderpool Gormley wrote: "I saw a post (automatic copy comes to me) from the Muskogee County, Oklahoma (GenConnect) page -- someone looking for a kid that I knew was in my class. I shot a quick e-mail to the inquirer and asked if the person might have been in my class (she didn't give enough information for me to figure out his age). She replied, "Yes." Turns out her husband moved from Muskogee years ago and was trying to find his old friend -- my classmate. Ah, the irony of it all. We used to live about a block from each other when we were in 4th grade. I sent her the name and phone number of our class reunion secretary in Muskogee, who keeps track of us. Wednesday in the wee hours, 31 March. [That was fast.] Francis wrote to Myra: "Thanks to you we found Bobby. I called Sammye and she gave me his phone number. We called him and he and Allen caught up on a "little" of the past. They are planning to get together soon. We couldn't have done it without your help. A million thanks! Allen went to West Jr. High and Muskogee Central High before moving to Texas. We're planning to attend the 2002 class reunion, so maybe we will meet you there." * * * Many, many, many thanks to RootsWeb for helping me break through the brick wall that has plagued me for almost two years in my research on my husband's family. Through answers to my queries posted at RootsWeb, I have finally found the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of my husband's great-great- grandfather, John Raney Fields. Because he used the name "Renny," which I didn't know, I had been unable to connect him to family. But responses from Patricia Hoyt (who deduced that Renny was somehow connected to the Connely family in Illinois, since they had a son named Constantine, and Renny also had a son named Constantine, which was an unusual name back then) led me to his wife, Mary (Polly) Connely. I had known his wife was named Mary, but did not have a last name for her. Then Lucille Wattles sent me the information I had long searched for, giving me Renny's parents, Robert Fields Sr. and Nancy Williams; Robert's parents, Jeremiah Field and Mary; and Jeremiah's parents, William Field and Lida/Ann. I can't tell you how excited I was to finally find success. I am recommending RootsWeb to anyone who is interested in finding their ancestors. Lynn Fields * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS. Please post letters to the editors at: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/RWR-LettersToTheEditor * * * I just wanted to say thanks for the pleasant reading and the information. My time is so limited that if I had one free hour a day, I would use it to sleep -- resulting in one hour's sleep out of 24 hours. It is just about that bad. I am so far behind that it appears to me that the only hope I have is to toss all of this accumulated paper and work in the dumpster and forget about it. My dad is 90, my Mom is 87. I figure, as in the love poem, that if I let all this work go, anything important will come back to me. I will then be able to file it neatly and not be constantly lost in it. And, bless that which does not come back. My point is once I get my head above the paperwork problem, and can maintain my income on less than 23 hours a day, I intend to spend my leisure time learning the ins and outs of how to go about learning everything I can about my family. Twenty-three hours each day would be a slight exaggeration, but I am drowning in it. For now, I visit sites like yours and find them wonderfully informative and interesting and wanted to take a minute to say thanks. I am not super Net savvy, but you must surely put a lot of time into this. I'll be researching the REYNOLDS, RAINS, and HILL families of Whitley County, Kentucky. Where they were prior to that I don't know. So, please wish me luck. Actually, I feel a need to rush into this as there seems to be a lot more information in my dad than there is in the records. What an amazing man he is. J * * * Myra's article on privacy was right on the mark. I think a big part of the problem stems from the fact that so many genealogists do not document their data, and can't remember whether they got their information from a public source or from "Aunt Mary." Using a fixed point in time, such as January 1920, would eliminate much of the problem, but there would still be a residue of events where precise dates are not known that would require careful consideration. While the Internet has been a boon to genealogists in many respects, it does seem to be leading to some "dumbing down" of genealogy, and the propagation of misinformation at the speed of light! Laird Towle * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit . IF YOU DO NOT HAVE WEB ACCESS but would like to know if a RootsWeb-hosted mailing list exists for a particular surname, send a SUBSCRIBE request in accordance with the instructions below, filling in the desired surname where the example shows [name of list]. If the list exists, you will receive confirmation that your address has been added to the list. If the list does not exist, your message will bounce back to you with a message advising there is no such address. Try alternate spellings. For example, there is no list for KLINE, but there are KLEIN and CLINE lists. You have nothing to lose but the time it takes to prepare and send the SUBSCRIBE request. 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 "Contributors-only" warning on the list request page. Please request new mailing lists at: TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from any RootsWeb-hosted 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 would like to subscribe to the "The TXGenWeb Project News and Review Newsletter," send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS BAIRD-SCOTLAND (Scottish BAIRDs) BOSCHEE CARNES (includes variants) DOUSMAN FERRIN GARY (includes GARRY, and variants) HAMER JARMAN KENNEDY-ROOTS MCBRIEN MILES NIBLACK (includes variants) ROLOFF (includes ROLLOFF, ROHLOFF, and variants) ROSZELL (includes ROZELL, ROSSELL, and variants) SCOTHERN SHERD (includes variants) STRUNK TUTWILER WETHERELL WOOD NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS CANADA CAN-ONT-WENTWORTH -- Region of Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, formerly known as Wentworth County U.S.A. CAMONO -- Mono County, California CTHARTFO -- Hartford County, Connecticut GACAMDEN -- Camden County, Georgia. Related Web page: GAMUSCOG -- Muscogee County, Georgia IDONEIDA -- Oneida County, Idaho LAORLEAN -- Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Related Web page: MI-CCGS -- Cheboygan County (Michigan) Genealogical Society MSHANCOC -- Hancock County, Mississippi. Related Web page: NVCHURCH -- Churchill County, Nevada WAWHITMA -- Whitman County, Washington NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS LDS-GENEALOGY -- For the end user of the LDS Church's Family History centers and library. TXGW-NEWS -- The TXGenWeb Project News and Review Newsletter * * * * * 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. FOR EXAMPLE, to visit the Selkirkshire, Scotland Web page, go to . CANADA onttbogs -- Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society SCOTLAND sctsel -- Selkirkshire U.S.A. alblount -- Blount County, Alabama alstclai -- St. Clair County, Alabama colgs -- Longmont Genealogical Society (Colorado) ctclyme -- Lyme, Connecticut (City) cthartfo -- Hartford County, Connecticut ctnewlon -- New London County, Connecticut gacatoos -- Catoosa County, Georgia gamvhs -- Marble Valley Historical Society (Georgia) ilbcgs -- Bureau County Genealogical Society (Illinois) ildgs -- Dwight Genealogical Society (Illinois) kybracke -- Bracken County, Kentucky kyfayett -- Fayette County, Kentucky lawashin -- Washington Parish, Louisiana mimcgs -- Muskegon County Genealogical Society (Michigan) moafram -- African Americans in Missouri mobshs -- Blue Springs Historical Society (Missouri) nephotos -- Photos Project, Nebraska txbchc -- Bell County Historical Commission (Texas) txwbgs -- West Bell Genealogical Society (Texas) vaccgc -- Carroll County Genealogical Club (Virginia) valchs -- Lunenburg County Historical Society (Virginia) * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 113 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 21 to 27 March 1999, as follows: USA Ar 6 Ca 2 Co 1 Ct 7 Fl 4 Ga 13 Ia 2 Il 4 In 1 La 6 Mi 1 Mo 25 NY 4 Oh 6 SC 8 Tn 1 Tx 14 Wi 8 SURNAME BOARDS. 117 new surname boards include the following : Albertson, Bartley, Bilyeu, Boschee, Bratcher, Caflisch, Calhoun, Colby, Dilley, Draper, Furr, Goggin, Grieve, Kennedy, Kitchen, Lisle, Norton, Oden, Redwine, Ross, Rowley, Shepherd, Shofner, Timberman, Tutwiler, VanDyke, Vestal, Watts, Weaver, Whitacre, Woody, Wynn * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- CENSUS IMAGES INDIANA. 1920 Pike County LOUISIANA. 1840, 1850 Calcasieu Parish LOUISIANA. 1810 Opelousas Parish LOUISIANA. 1820 St. Landry Parish SOUTH DAKOTA. 1900 Yankton County TENNESSEE. 1910 Giles County * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- OTHER UPLOADS IN THE LAST WEEK KENTUCKY. Nicholas County. 1810 census index KENTUCKY. Nicholas County. 1810 KENTUCKY. Martin County. Wills (numerous new wills uploaded) MISSISSIPPI. Jefferson Davis County World War I Registrations -- Birth information, 1917-18 MISSISSIPPI. Lamar County World War I Registrations -- Birth information, 1917-18 * * * * * HUMOR. Thanks to who posted this poem (with the introduction "Why it is easier to be a Blacksheep") to , from which we rustled it. NO FOOTPRINTS IN THE SANDS OF TIME (Author unknown) It's nice to come from gentle folks Who wouldn't stoop to brawl, Who never took a lusty poke At anyone at all. Who never raised a raucous shout At any country inn, Or calmed an ugly fellow lout With a belaying pin. Who never shot at a revenuer Hunting for a still, Who never rustled cattle and agreed with Uncle's will. Who lived life as they ought without uncouth distraction, And shunned like leprosy a thought of taking legal action. It's nice to come from gentle folks Who've never known disgrace But oh, though scandal is no joke It's far easier to trace! * * * * * PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from ROOTSWEB REVIEW is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Written by Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 13, 31 March 1999. Please visit RootsWeb's main Web page at . * * * * * MISSING LINKS: A Weekly Newsletter for Genealogists, edited and published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, is a free e-zine 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 ____