ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 18, 5 May 1999. Circulation: 294,480+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG RootsWeb Main Page: RootsWeb HelpDesk: . Surname Helper: Threaded List Archives: * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb; Connecting through RootsWeb; Mailing Lists; Web Pages; GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Archives Project; Letters to the Editors; Loose ZIPs Can Sink Genealogy Ships; Humor; Reprint Policy * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB ROOTSWEB AT NGS CONFERENCE IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. If you attend the National Genealogical Society's Annual Conference in the States, 12-15 May 1999, hosted by the Virginia Genealogical Society in Richmond, Virginia, please stop by RootsWeb's booth in the exhibit hall. Dr. Brian Leverich, Karen Isaacson, Bob Tillman, Tim Pierce, Ellen Seebacher, Rhonda McClure, "D." from the RootsWeb HelpDesk, and your editors look forward to seeing you there. * * * ROOTSWEB REPORT ON TALKSPOT. Every Saturday between 4 and 6 p.m. Pacific time (midnight to 0200 GMT) Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG gives the "RootsWeb Report" on "Generations -- Find Your Roots" . This week's special guest is "Family Tree Finders" columnist Rhonda McClure. * * * WHO PAYS FOR ROOTSWEB? Responding to last week's announcement that RootsWeb will be launching new hobby communities, a reader wrote: As a contributor, I vote NO to using time and money and hard disk space for hobbies, pets, cooking, and the like. Folks that want to indulge their hobbies can PAY. The new communities will pay their own way. In fact, they will be supporting the genealogical community, rather than the other way around, as the writer of the above feared. Here is the problem, and why the new communities will be the solution. When we launched RootsWeb, we assumed that our users would prefer to support us as much as they were able, in exchange for a site open to all, without banners plastered all over everything and without having resources locked up (as is done at other genealogy sites), available only for fees on the order of $60 per year. Instead, people can support RootsWeb for as little as $12 per year. We thus hoped that a reasonable fraction of our users, perhaps half of them, would support us in some way. And because we expected support from the community, we made promises to projects like USGenWeb that we would freely host them for the good of the Internet genealogy community. We have no intention of reneging on those early promises, but it has been difficult, because the community support we anticipated has not been there. Although people use the site like crazy, fewer than 7% of our users have chipped in to keep things going. The other 93%? Perhaps they're busy, or they're broke, or they won't pay unless they have to, or they don't think RootsWeb is useful. Who knows? But it means that RootsWeb has run at a cash flow loss. In simple terms, Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich have donated not only their time as system administrators but a substantial part of their personal resources to provide the genealogical community with RootsWeb. The rest of RootsWeb's staff have also made substantial contributions. Because RootsWeb's costs exceed its income, we can't provide all the genealogical facilities we'd like to support. These could include online searchable databases of pension records, census indexes, vital records, or countless other valuable genealogical services that we could easily provide -- if only we could afford the staff to support them. And, ultimately, RootsWeb can't even continue to exist if we don't bring our costs and revenues into balance, something we want to have under control before the transition to non-profit status (as opposed to losing money status) is completed. We are doing what we can to remedy the situation. For instance, we are selling banner advertisements where we can. However, this alone will never provide enough revenue to cover the costs of the unbannered volunteer projects which consume most of RootsWeb's resources yet by their very nature produce no direct revenue, even as they provide invaluable content to the genealogical community. The new communities, from their inception, will be fully supported by advertising. They will be paying their own way. We can shift some of the costs of maintaining the Web, mailing list, GenConnect, and search engine servers onto the new communities, so that the new communities will subsidize a genealogical community that hasn't been supporting itself. Although we have been disappointed in the amount of financial support of the genealogical community, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the writer of the letter above and the other 7% of our users who have helped make RootsWeb available to the whole community. Without their support and encouragement, there would be no RootsWeb. If you would like to join the folks who are making RootsWeb possible and thus help us bring new genealogical data online, freely available to all, please visit: or send e-mail to: RW-info@rootsweb.com * * * ROOTSWEB IN THE NEWS. RootsWeb is mentioned in the article "Climbing Your Family Tree," that appears in the May 1999 issue of "The Retired Officer" magazine. * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. RootsWeb is just the greatest site going. I have at least half a dozen success stories resulting from contact through RootsWeb. Here is the latest one. First, may I salute Bob and Fay, those wonderful volunteers in Carroll County, Illinois, who helped me? As I uncovered each new piece of data, I posted it to the DYER surname list. I hit paydirt with a reply from a descendant of my ancestor's brother. The tagline on her e-mail listed not only families she was researching but also her husband's, which included a HOLT-BALLARD-SHORT combination. Sure enough, I have found not only a distant Dyer cousin in Mary but also a distant cousin on a whole different line in her husband. They had no knowledge of any merging of these families more than 200 years later. What fun! Let's all give RootsWeb our financial support as well as our enthusiasm. Bonnie J. Everhart * * * My grandfather, Elias Francis Hodges, started doing genealogy some time in the Thirties. His efforts led him to his eariest known ancestor, Richard Hodges of Ripley County, Indiana. Oh, he believed some old family stories about Richard's father being killed by Indians in South Carolina about the time of the Revolutionary War, but couldn't find any solid information on it. He eventually resorted to asking for help. Violet Toph, a Ripley County historian, looked into it for him in the Fifties. She found the unmarked grave of Richard and information that he fought in the Revolutionary War. She also found a book that led her and subsequently the rest of us astray. She told my grandfather that his ancestor was John Hodges, born in Virginia. There we were stuck. Not only my grandfather's descendants, but also genealogists from other branches were stuck with this false information. We searched in vain for John in Virginia, finding one dead-end after another. A distant cousin in Texas taught college for many years while he researched the family tree. He too was stuck when he joined the Hodges list. Then my second cousin Richard, who lives only four miles from me, joined the list. He got in touch with Al Metts when they compared notes from the list. I came into it when I bought a copy of Family Tree Maker and found Richard and his family. Richard showed me the list. I corresponded with Al Metts and gave him the name and address of our family genealogist. They went to the well with John Hodges of Abbeville, South Carolina, and came up dry. Al was about to give up. When Al gives up, so does everybody else. Then another researcher who enjoys the Hodges list was cleaning out the tons of information he had gathered over the years in paper form. He found a document written by a grandson of our ancestor. This document says that our ancestor's name was Richard and it gives his wife's maiden name. This researcher contacted Al Metts, who contacted the six serious genealogists we know of who have been working on this line. They all took the document apart and came to a consensus that it was real. It was good information, and it agreed with information that Al already had about one Richard Hodges and Elizabeth Jones who lived in Virginia and disappeared about the time the family showed up in South Carolina. Now we are trying to find parents for Richard. Thanks to RootsWeb for the HODGES list that has helped us break through this 60-year-old roadblock. And thanks to Al Metts and the other wonderful researchers who never gave up. Elijah Hodges * * * * * 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 have research interests in Sicily, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ALBAUGH BISHOP BRODESS (and variants) CLAFFEY (CLAFFEY, CLAFFEE, CLAFFY, CLAFFIE, etc.) DAVERN (DAVOREN, DAVERIN, etc.) DUSTIN (emphasis on Hannah and Thomas DUSTIN of Haverhill, Massachusetts) EKAUT (ECKEAUT, etc.) EWALT (EVALT, EWALD, etc.) FURNESS-UK (FURNESS surname in United Kingdom) GELSTON HAGY (HAGE, HAGEY, etc.) LOSSING (LASSEN, LASSING, LASSINGH, LOSSING, etc.; emphasis on descendants of Pieter Petersz LASSEN [circa 1635 - 7 February 1708/09], an immigrant to Dutchess County, New York) MCKERCHER (and variants) NICOL REDFIELD (emphasis on the descendants of William and Rebecca REDFIELD) SHIRLEY-LA (SHIRLEY surname in Louisiana) WATKINS (WADKENS, etc.) WEGER (WAYGER, WAGER, WEAGER, etc.) WILLIAMSON-ALDEN (the genealogy of Alden WILLIAMSON) WINEMAN (WEINMAN, WYNEMAN, WIMAN, WYMAN, etc.; emphasis on the descendants of Christian WINEMAN, who arrived in America from Rotterdam in 1767) WOLFENSBERGER (WOLFENSPERGER, WOLFERSBERGER, WOLFERSPERGER, WOLFENBARGER, WOLFENBERGER, WOLFINBARGER, SPARGER, etc.) NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS ITALY ITA-SICILY -- Sicily U.S.A. ALCHAMBE -- Chambers County, Alabama IAWAPELL -- Wapello County, Iowa (includes Mahaska, Keokuk, Washington, Monroe, and Jefferson counties) KYCARROL -- Carroll County, Kentucky MDWASHIN -- Washington County, Maryland MIIOSCO -- Iosco County, Michigan MIMIDLAN -- Midland County, Michigan WYALBANY -- Albany County, Wyoming WYFREMON -- Fremont County, Wyoming NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS BLACK-DUTCH -- Black Dutch is a phrase handed down in many families, but one that seems to have many meanings. This list is to help define the most common meaning of the term. MEDITERRANEAN-GENWEB -- MediterraneanGenWeb project administrators NATIVEAMERICAN-DELMARVA -- Native American ancestry in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia OTHER LISTS REMOTE-WORK -- For individuals who work at home, want to work at home, and employers who promote telecommuting * * * * * 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 Clans of Ireland, Ltd. Web page, go to . IRELAND irlclans -- Clans of Ireland, Ltd. U.S.A. cofgs -- Foothills (Colorado) Genealogical Society pasisus -- Scotch-Irish Society of the US (Pennsylvania) incarrol -- Carroll County, Indiana inshelby -- Shelby County, Indiana ohgccogs -- Greene County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society pacchsm -- Clearfield County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society and Museum tnruther -- Rutherford County, Tennessee tnvanbur -- Van Buren County, Tennessee vagcgs -- Greensville County (Virginia) Genealogical Society HOME PAGES AYERS/AYRES: Florida pre-1850. BORCHERS Family Genealogy. Focus on surname BORCHERS. GREGORY Genealogy and ROBINSON Roots in West Virginia. Eve KINNEY's: My Surnames. BEZONA, CREWS, JOURNEY, ROUNSEVALL, WAUGH, and WOOD. SCHWARTZ Family Record. SCHWARTZ, STYER, BRIDGEMAN, MIL(L)IKEN, and PARKINSON families, primarily in Illinois and Wisconsin. SOUTH Family Web Site. SOUTHs in Breathitt County, Kentucky. * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 27 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 25 April through 1 May, 1999 as follows: ALHN 5 CANADA 6 USA Ct 1 Ga 1 Ky 1 Mn 1 Mo 7 Mt 2 NC 1 Oh 1 Tx 1 SURNAME BOARDS. 79 New surname boards include the following : Abshire, Arrasmith, Babb, Bezer, Boakes, Borgenson, Breshears, Demaray, Fifield, Gage, Hammerson, Laxton, Marshall, Mayfield, McCall, McComas, McConkey, Petty, Seats, Talbot, Taylor, Thorpe, Viner, Waller, Watkins, Woodlief * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES PROJECT -- CENSUS IMAGES INDIANA. 1910 Pike County KENTUCKY. 1840 Daviess County OHIO. 1850 Stark County TEXAS. 1870 Atascosa County TEXAS. 1920 Waller County USGENWEB ARCHIVES PROJECT -- OTHER SUBMISSIONS KENTUCKY. Bracken County Archives KENTUCKY. 1850 Bracken County Census KENTUCKY. Nicholas County Archives KENTUCKY. 1830 Nicholas County Census KENTUCKY. Ohio County Archives KENTUCKY. 1820 Ohio County Census KENTUCKY. 1830 Ohio County Census KENTUCKY. 1840 Ohio County Census OHIO. 1880 Erie County Census OHIO. Erie County -- History of Kelly's Island -- 10 new files * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS may be posted to the GenConnect board at http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/RWR-LettersToTheEditor or sent to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com. If it's not overworking the discussion begun by Charlie Gardes (RWR 2:14, 7 April 1999), I'd like to add an observation. This passion we share for genealogy is served best if we welcome all comers, no matter what approach they may be employing in their own quest. While I appreciate those who do proper and meticulous recording, I also gain much from newbies and sloppy workers. The first hunts with a rifle, the latter with a shotgun. Larry A Keith or * * * Bravo Chad! You wrote the letter to "Rootsweb Review" (RWR 2:16, 21 April 1999) that was going through my mind the other evening as I was hiking up the mountain behind our house. I am an old geophysicist and I early on formed the rule that "everyone makes mistakes and everyone's work must be checked." I have found that it applies equally to genealogy. When I first contacted Danish genealogists over the Internet a year ago, they handed me a pedigree stretching back to the steward of a castle on Helnęs about the year 1400. (I had already established the identity of about 85 Danish ancestors.) This "Bo" family, it seemed, was well-known and well researched. Upon asking my purported cousin where exactly was the evidence for the connection, I was, somewhat begrudgingly, referred to a 1748 baptism in the Haarby parish register. I had previously searched the microfilm of the same register without finding it. Going back to look at it again, I saw that the name "Gert" had been misread as "Jens." (Considering the style of writing, the mistake was understandable.) My Danish contact was astonished. He said that his only satisfaction was that it had not been his work. Subsequently we found that we were indeed related but on two other lines. I have just finished pushing one of those lines on back to the beginning of the Dreslette register, 1642. One of these years I am going to learn Danish. My great concern is, who will check MY work. Rockne H. Johnson, Honolulu, Hawaii * * * * * LOOSE ZIPS CAN SINK GENEALOGY SHIPS by Brian Bonner Mavrogeorge mavrogeorge@genealogysf.com Internet versions of the Social Security Death Master File (SSDMF) are very popular. Try this new site . One item included is the decedent's last residence. The SSDMF identifies residence by ZIP code. These codes were implemented 1 July 1963. Internet indexes usually convert the ZIP into a locality name. (The U.S. Postal Service provides a file of current ZIP codes and the locations they cover.) This conversion helps illustrate a basic genealogy rule: "know the context in which the record was created." What can be wrong with a ZIP code? (1) it may have been incorrectly recorded or invalid for the time of death -- there have been no Social Security Administration validation efforts; (2) it may have been abandoned and later used for a different location; (3) its zone boundary may have been realigned; (4) it may encompass more than one town; (5) it may cross state boundaries (trivia -- which ones do?); and (6) it may be one of approximately 1.5% SSDMF ZIP codes that can't be converted because it isn't in the U.S. Postal Service ZIP file. A residence name in a Social Security Death Index is a conversion, at the time the index was created, of the ZIP code to a place name. It may not be the actual place. Think of it as a pointer to where you may find the original death record. An infomercial from The Learning Company * * * * * HUMOR: These are a few of the contributions from Susan Birkenseer published on 3 May 1999 in "Joke of the Day" (to SUBSCRIBE, send an e-mail to . BAGPIPE GAGS Q. What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion? A. No one cries when you chop up a bagpipe. Q. What's the definition of a gentleman? A. Someone who knows how to play the bagpipe and doesn't. Q. What's the range of a bagpipe? A. Twenty yards if you have a good arm. Did you hear the one about the bagpiper who parked his car with the windows open, forgetting that he had left his bagpipes in the back seat? He rushed back as soon as he realized it, but it was too late -- someone had already put another set of bagpipes in the car. * * * * * 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. 18, 5 May 1999. Please visit RootsWeb's main Web page at . TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) to: . BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW are available for download from: . * * * * * 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