ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 2, No. 35, 1 September 1999, Circulation: 354,233+ (c) 1999 RootsWeb.com, Inc. RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG RootsWeb HelpDesk: CONTENTS. News and Notes at RootsWeb (NOC Knocked; Post-ems; Transcription Project Completed; New Community Mailing Lists; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees, Lesson 12: Creating Worthwhile Genealogies: Evidence, Sources, Citation, Documentation; What New Data Would You Like to See at RootsWeb?; Advertisement; Connecting through RootsWeb; Mailing Lists; Web Pages; GenConnect; USGenWeb Archives Project; USGenWeb Census Project; Letters to the Editors; Humor; Reprint Policy * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES AT ROOTSWEB NOC KNOCKED. On 30 August 1999, a power surge caused the power supply to fail at the Network Operating Center (NOC) that houses the bulk of RootsWeb's servers, shutting us down for about an hour. Heroic efforts by the technical staff restored RootsWeb, server by server, and by late Monday evening things were back to normal. During the week before the crash, RootsWeb served a record two million or more page views per day. However, RootsWeb is operating at full capacity and until that is remedied, problems are to be expected. RootsWeb is in the process of setting up its own NOC and purchasing additional bandwidth, but everything is expensive. If you can, this would be a great time to become a RootsWeb sponsor. For details about support levels, benefits, and payment options, visit or e-mail . RootsWeb's mailing address is: RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. Please put your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks. * * * POST-EMs. Now you can attach a message to any of the more than 61 million records in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) at RootsWeb by using a "post-em," developed by RootsWeb's own Randy Winch. Some suggested uses: attach notes to the records of your relatives, providing researchers with a direct link to you; add background information on an individual in the database, such as pointers to other records relating to that individual; or add a correction to an incorrect record. Check the records of individuals of interest to you often. Someone recently might have left a note there for you. To add a note to a record, do a search and click on "Post-em" at the end of a record at: . Post-ems are a another example of your contributions at work. * * * TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT COMPLETED. It is celebration time in Augusta County, Virginia. The project we started almost three years ago, placing online Lyman Chalkley's CHRONICLES OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH SETTLEMENT IN VIRGINIA: EXTRACTED FROM THE ORIGINAL COURT RECORDS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY 1745-1800, is now completed. This three-volume series with more than 1,600 pages of extracts from early court records, was completed primarily because of the dedication of Linda Lewis and Freddie Spradlin, who did scanning and proofing. . Our heartfelt thanks to Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson. Carmen Finley * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES . Do you know the difference between direct evidence and indirect evidence? What is a primary source and why does it matter? Lesson 12: Creating Worthwhile Genealogies -- Evidence, Sources, Citation, and Documentation. . * * * CORRECTION. Last week's article from the Atlanta Branch of the National Archives contained an incorrect e-mail address. Charles Reeves, director, Archival Operations wrote: "The correct e-mail address is archives@atlanta.nara.gov. With four of us looking at the corrected posting before we sent it, we somehow missed that." You can also use * * * NEW COMMUNITY MAILING LISTS. New community mailing lists are listed at as soon as they are established. You can subscribe to a list at that page. Collecting Community POKEMON-KIDS Folklore Community GHOSTS History Community LIGHTHOUSES Literature Community GREAT-BOOKS Nature Community AMPHIBIANS Radio Community OLD-TIME-RADIO Rural Community BEEKEEPING, GOATS Science Community DINOSAURS, METEOROLOGY Sports Community GOLF TV Community TELEVISION Work Community FAMILY-DAYCARE * * * * * WHAT DATA DO YOU WANT TO SEE AT ROOTSWEB? RootsWeb needs your help. Because of your continuing contributions, RootsWeb has a limited budget to acquire data. The first such acquisition was the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), which, because of a RootsWeb-designed high-performance search engine, has become very popular. We ask your help in acquiring further data with the following characteristics: (1) useful to the greatest possible number of genealogists; (2) Modest cost. For example, we purchased an annual subscription to the SSDI for about $4,500 (we consider this to be a major acquisition); and (3) already in electronic form, either ASCII text or digital images. RootsWeb has the capability of reading such data on virtually any media and in virtually any format. In special cases, we might be able to finance the conversion of data to digital form. Likely sources of such data include governments (national, state/province, county, city, etc.), native tribes, churches, genealogy and historical societies, hereditary and fraternal organizations, individual collectors, out-of-print books, etc. We will make this data freely available to RootsWeb users. If such data is not already in the public domain, we will ask the owner(s) only for a non-exclusive license to display such data on the Web. We have the capability within RootsWeb to develop search engines that can make such data most accessible. Please help. Contact your national, state/province, and local governments and your local genealogy and historical societies, hereditary and fraternal organizations. Ask your friends and dig in your attic. Please send your suggestions to RootsWeb's president and CEO, Robert R. Tillman, at . * ADVERTISEMENT * CYNDI'S LIST -- THE BOOK. Due to the enthusiastic response to this offer, the deadline has been extended to 8 September 1999. You've visited Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet . Now you can have CYNDI'S LIST - THE BOOK conveniently available on your own desk. FamilyStoreHouse.com, the online genealogy superstore, regularly sells this marvelous reference book for $49.95, but during this week's sale it can be yours for $38.95 (a 22% saving). Visit or call 1-800-725-5013 and ask for the RootsWeb Sales Department. FamilyStoreHouse.com will donate 10% of all sale proceeds to RootsWeb. * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. I am new to genealogy, having been handed copies of the handwritten family group sheets from my paternal grandparents back for several generations when I was at a family reunion this June, and discovering while there that my cousin, who I thought was compiling the genealogy, had given up without even organizing what we already knew. I got home, looked for the book my late wife had with our family trees, and discovered the sources she used to compile it, including a 100+ page privately printed book covering my maternal grandfather's family. Since I think I'm more than half Norwegian, it makes sense that I would have a number of lines going back to Norway. Because of this, I joined the Norway-L list. Not only have I managed to trace additional generations using the online historical census data, but also I discovered the Norwegian local history books called bygdeboker [rural chronicles or community books]. Since some of the data I had was sparse, I contacted a person who had volunteered to do lookups in the history book for Feiring, an area that included a dozen gards and bruks (rough translation "farms") from my family. It was inevitable. I had multiple family "farm" names from this area (ALNAES, STIGERSAND, SANDVIKEN, TORGENRUD, TOSTERUD, BAEKKEN, SKOMAGERBAKKEN, SANDVIKBAKKEN, BERGER, LANDGAARD, OPPEGARD, and SVENDBY), and the person who volunteered to do the lookups also had multiple lines from this area. The closest relationship we have traced is that my 6th-great-grandfather is their 6th-great-uncle. So far they have sent me GEDCOM data on 1,250 people, with either more information or brand-new names to me, as well as translating passages from the history book that make the family come alive, such as: "Jens Berger 1665-82 (operated BERGER farm at least between). He was summoned to Myrer court on 26/2/1662 for a fight. He must pay in fine 4 mark silver because he had hit Ole Halvorsen Aln`s without grounds, and threw his hat over the roof." They have sent me more than 4,000 lines of translated material through e-mail, and more than doubled the size and completeness of my family database. I am overwhelmed, and this is not the only Norway Lister who has helped me locate new ancestors, just the one who has sent me the most. Eric O. TROLDAHL (TROLDDALEN) * * * Two years ago I returned to my birthplace after an absence of 40 years. I found my grandfather's gravesite while looking for the family plot. He died long before I was born. I wanted to know him better so I went to the local library and looked up old newspaper articles. I learned that he had applied for citizenship in 1906 being a "man from Germany." The newspaper also said that he was a respected dairyman in the community. My sister found a commemoration program from his funeral in a family Bible. This gave us dates of his birth as well as his death. It also told us a birthplace -- Sigriswil, Switzerland. My sister started writing letters to everyone named WILLENER in the Sigriswil, Switzerland white pages phone book to see if we had any living relatives in Switzerland. I sent an e-mail and a postal letter to everyone named Willener in the United States. Many wonderful people eagerly responded. Werner Amstutz, grandson-in-law of one of our grandfather's brothers replied from Schwanden, Switzerland and enclosed names and dates of grandfather's brothers and sisters and their families. Four generations are represented under each of grandfather's brothers and sisters on Werner's family tree. Below my grandfather's name it simply says: "Went to Amerika." We were happy to tell the others that we are filling in the blanks under the name Christian Willener. We are three sons, three grandaughters, three grandsons, and more than 20 great-grandchildren. We posted to many surname lists and I joined RootsWeb and the Switzerland list. A non-related Willener in Tokoyo created Web pages for me in German. Many living relatives saw the postings and corresponded. Joy after joy unfolded as relatives introduced themselves. Just a few weeks ago my sister and I had the pleasure of meeting a Swiss cousin face to face. I can't describe the joy of looking into the eyes of someone and seeing your own eyes looking back and of finally finding those who were lost so long ago. We are now getting to know our grandfather through the stories related by those who loved him too. Janet Willener * * * * * 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. 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, for the County Cork, Ireland list, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . ADOPTABLE SURNAME MAILING LISTS. RootsWeb hosts numerous surname mailing lists that are in need of people to maintain them. Visit: o For a complete list of adoptable surname mailing lists: o For information about maintaining a mailing list: o For the form to request to adopt a surname mailing list: NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS BANNERMAN BENJAMIN-DRAKE BILTCLIFFE BOLAR (includes BOLLAR, BOLLER, and BALLER) COOKSLEY CURBELO (CURBELLO, CORBELLO, COURVELLE, COURVILLE, etc.) DEKLE DISHAROON ELS ERVINE EYE (surname) GAWTHORPE GETTER GUMP HIGHMORE (includes HIGHMOOR) JAEHNE KNELLER KORVER (includes DEKORVER) LAHR MICKLETHWAITE NUNEMAKER (includes NONEMAKER, NONNEMACHER, etc.) PERFECT (surname) PILCHER-GEORGIA-ANN (descendants of Georgia Anna Pilcher) PROFITT SULLICK SZENDREI (includes SZENDREY) WAMPACH YOPP ZELLNER ZOPF NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS IRELAND IRL-CLARE -- County Clare IRL-CORK -- County Cork U.S.A. MO-JEFFERSON-CITY -- Jefferson City, Missouri WALES CARMARTHENSHIRE-FHS -- Carmarthenshire Fam. Hist. Soc. members NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, AND MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS BIBLE-RECORDS -- for sharing information from family Bibles CA-CVGS-CIG-BULLETINS -- closed list for communications from CVGS CIG leaders to CVGS members * * * * * 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. . The ~[tilde] before the account name is required. FOR EXAMPLE, to visit the Isle of Wight, England page, go to . BELARUS blrwgw -- Belarus BELGIUM belghist -- History of Belgium BRAZIL brariogr -- Rio Grande do Sul ENGLAND engbdf -- Bedfordshire engdby -- Derbyshire enghef -- Herefordshire engiow -- Isle of Wight engntt -- Nottinghamshire MOLDOVA mdawgw -- Moldova U.S.A. comesa2 -- Mesa County, Colorado (2) idnezper -- Nez Perce County, Idaho inwarric -- Warrick County, Indiana lagrsno -- Gen. Research Soc. of New Orleans (Louisiana) ohmonroe -- Monroe County, Ohio txecm -- Ellis County Museum (Texas) txpost -- Postmasters and Post Offices of Texas * * * * * GENCONNECT. RootsWeb hosts 65,353 surname GenConnect boards that are in need of people to maintain them. Please visit: o For a complete list of adoptable GenConnect surname boards o For the form to request to adopt a GenConnect surname board (the same form is used for surname mailing list requests) * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- CENSUS IMAGES ONLINE MINNESOTA. 1880 Carver County Census http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mn/carver/images/census/1860/ MINNESOTA. 1860 Faribault County Census http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mn/faribault/images/census/1860/ MINNESOTA. 1860 Steele County Census http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mn/steele/images/census/1860/ MINNESOTA. 1860 Waseca County Census http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mn/waseca/images/census/1860/ SOUTH DAKOTA. 1895 Brule County Census http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/sd/census/1895cens.html SOUTH DAKOTA. 1870 Jayne County Census [N.B. Include everything between angle brackets] USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- OTHER SUBMISSIONS IOWA. Adams County History. ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/adams/history/1882mte.txt IOWA. Allamakee County Cemeteries N.B. Include everything between angle brackets IOWA. Allamakee County Biographies ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/allamakee/bios/1882/ IOWA. Carroll County History N.B. Include everything between angle brackets IOWA. Fayette County Cemeteries ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/fayette/cemeteries/ IOWA. Harrison County History N.B. Include everything between angle brackets IOWA. Lee County Cemeteries ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/lee/cemeteries/ IOWA. Lee County Churches ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/lee/churches/victoria.txt IOWA. Shelby County -- Washington Township Cemetery N.B. Include everything between angle brackets. KENTUCKY. 1860 Butler County Census ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/butler/census/1860/ KENTUCKY. Shelby County Biographies (about 40 new ones) ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/shelby/bios KENTUCKY. Shelby County Deeds ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/shelby/deeds/ KENTUCKY. Shelby County Marriages ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/shelby/vitals/marriage/ OHIO. Ashland County Cemeteries - Updated http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/ohio/ashland.htm OHIO. Williams County -- Clarksville Cemetery N.B. Include everything between angle brackets SOUTH DAKOTA. Great SDGW Census Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/sd/census/cens-images.html * * * * * USGENWEB CENSUS PROJECT -- TRANSCRIPTIONS FLORIDA. 1850 Hamilton County FLORIDA. 1850 Orange County Census Slave Schedule FLORIDA. 1850 Putnam County Census Slave Schedule GEORGIA. 1820 Gwinnett County Census ILLINOIS. 1860 Vermilion County Census (Partial) MICHIGAN. 1860 Muskegon County Census (Partial Dalton Twp.) PENNSYLVANIA. 1790 Dauphin County Census PENNSYLVANIA. 1820 Warren County Census PENNSYLVANIA. 1850 York County Census (Partial - South Ward York Borough) * * * * * 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. Concerning comments in the most recent issue of RootsWeb Review [RWR 2:33, 18 August 1999] about GERMANS TO AMERICA: LISTS OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING AT U.S. PORTS, the series actually goes through May 1891. For the years 1850 through 1855, the selection criteria were limited to German passengers on ships that were at least 80% (not 60%) German. Then the editors changed the selection criteria, and from 1856 on any German on any ship arriving at the ports they transcribed was to be included. The editors did not require the passengers to be "from Germany," and included Germans from France, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, although not from Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, or Russia, which also had significant German populations. The journal "The German Connection" is transcribing the "missing" Germans from that 1850-1855 period, and has gotten to July 1850 so far. GERMANS TO AMERICA transcribes passenger lists only from the five major ports of U.S. immigration: New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans. The minor ports are excluded, such as Galveston, Texas, which for a period in the 1850s had more German immigrants than some of the major ports. A scholarly and comprehensive criticism of GERMANS TO AMERICA can be found at: Steven Dhuey * * * I hope all readers paid close attention to Mike Hardester's remarks about losing data [RWR 2:34]. I have been mucking around with computers for about 20 years and one of the things I have found most distressing when helping others is the complete loss of data that, in many instances, cannot be recovered. A typical example was a case recently in which a publicly supported organization that helps abused women lost more than two years of records. Their computer was stolen. When asked if they had backups for their data, the director replied: "Well yes, we did, but they stole those as well!" It is extremely important to back up computer data on a regular basis and, as Mr. Hardester tells us, it is also important to store the backups off-site. I back up my data onto tape, which takes up almost no room and only takes a few moments. I make duplicates. When I travel I put one tape in my luggage -- just in case I return home and find no computer on my desk. I keep another copy in a fire resistant box, in the basement of my home where it is least likely to burn. The computer industry is partly to blame for ignorance about backups. Install Windows and you get all kinds of useless junk. But do you get a backup program? No, not unless you request it. Read the literature. Does it say much about backups? No. They don't want to suggest that anything will go wrong. But it will. One specification for a hard drive is MTBF. That stands for Mean Time Before Failure! Your hard drive will likely fail. I had a new one fail after only one week. It happens. This cannot be repeated often enough. Back up your data. Keep the backup in a safe place, away from your computer. Harold Tuthill, Aylmer, ON, Canada * * * * * HUMOR. Thanks to JOKES-R-US. Late one night a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs. "Give me your money," he demanded. Indignant, the affluent man replied, "You can't do this! I'm a U.S. congressman." "In that case," replied the robber, "give me my money." * * * * * 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.com, Inc., RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Genealogy News, Vol. 2, No. 31, 4 August 1999. RootsWeb: BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW are available for download from . Back issues of MISSING LINKS are available for download from . TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, send e-mail with only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the message area to: .