ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 2, No. 49, 8 December 1999, Circulation: 378,441+ (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: Advertising: Public Relations/Press: DONATIONS HELP ROOTSWEB HELP YOU AND ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. For details about support levels, benefits, and payment options (check or credit card), e-mail or visit . Mailing address: RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please write your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks.) * * * * * IN THIS ISSUE: o Announcements from the CEO o GenTech 2000 o Postcards from RootsWeb o RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees o Missing Links Holiday Pages o Letter from Our FreeBMD Correspondent o Communities Mailing Lists and Web Pages o New Genealogy Mailing Lists o New Genealogy Web Pages o GenConnect o USGenWeb Archives Project o Letters to the Editors o Reprint Policy, Back Issues, How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe * ADVERTISEMENTS * "How a Vegetable Changed the World," "Life in 1000 A.D.," "The U.S. Plains Cavalry," "Custer, the Boy General," "Glittering Misery or Frontier Lives of Cavalry Wives," "The Recipe for an 1860 Dinner for Eight," "Funeral Practices," "The Rifle," "History of the Hospital." These are a few of the articles in the current issue of HISTORY magazine. Find out how you can get a free trial copy by visiting . * * * AniMap 2.0 for Windows allows the researcher to trace the travel of any ancestor with absolute accuracy. You will be able to identify clearly cities and counties and the changes that occurred over the years. Normally priced at $69.95, this week it is on sale for $59.95. MAP GUIDE TO THE U.S. FEDERAL CENSUS will help you understand the census records you have accumulated. This softbound book contains detailed maps from 1790 to 1920. Normally priced at $39.95, this valuable resource is yours for only $29.95. Place your order for these products on the secure site at , or call the FamilyStoreHouse Sales Department at 1-800-725-5013 and mention RootsWeb. FamilyStoreHouse will donate 10% of the sales proceeds to RootsWeb. * * * * * ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CEO, by Robert R. Tillman o WE NEED GEDCOMS! With 8,259,892 names uploaded to date, we are closing in on RootsWeb's goal of uploading 12 million names to the RootsWeb World Connect Project by year end. Upload your GEDCOM today. Don't risk missing the relative looking to share with you years of priceless research. Remember that, unlike with other Web sites, you can revise or remove your GEDCOM on RootsWeb at any time and RootsWeb will never burn it onto a CD or charge others to access it. Search the names already uploaded, upload your own GEDCOM, or find more detailed answers to your questions regarding the WorldConnect Project at Feel free to share the WorldConnect Project press release with others. o ROOTSWEB ACCEPTS GEDCOMs ON REMOVABLE MEDIA. If you experience difficulty uploading your GEDCOM for any reason, please feel free to send it to RootsWeb WorldConnect Project, 1001 Tower Way, #120, Bakersfield, CA 93309 on a floppy, ZIP disk, or CD. We will upload it for you and send you notification by e-mail of your account name and password. Thereafter, you can change the viewing options at any time by going to o UNLIMITED FREE WEB SPACE ON ROOTSWEB OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED. MORE THAN 4,000 REQUESTS FULFILLED. The beta test of unlimited free Web space on RootsWeb has come to a successful close, with 4,098 requests fulfilled. Now is the time for all genealogical and historical societies, family organizations and individual genealogists to move their sites to RootsWeb. The point of putting your data on the Web is for people to FIND it. Search engines index only a small fraction of the Web, and then only infrequently. Link registries include only a small number of all genealogy sites on the Web. When you move your site to RootsWeb, the largest traffic genealogy Web site in the world, people interested in genealogy and history can FIND it. Your traffic will go up dramatically. In addition, those of you who are GeoCities users can now ditch those incredibly annoying popup advertisements. For free unlimited Web space, please visit . The FreePages Directory (users' pages at FREEPAGES), which includes much helpful information on establishing a RootsWeb Web site, is located at: . GIVE FREE UNLIMITED WEB SPACE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR THE HOLIDAYS. Please send the FreePages press release ) to others. o DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR ROOTSWEB SITE. LINK IT TO THE RELEVANT SURNAME, COUNTY AND/OR STATE RESEARCH CLUSTER. RootsWeb has introduced a wonderful new way to direct EXACTLY the right users to your RootsWeb Web site. Go to and link your Web site to the relevant surname, county and/or state resource cluster. Thereafter, a link to your Web site will appear at the top of whatever surname, county and/or state resource cluster(s) you have chosen. Users specifically interested in the information on your Web site will see this link whenever they use the RootsWeb surname resources at or the RootsWeb U.S. county and state resources at . This feature is ONLY available for Web sites located at RootsWeb. Also, add your Web site at RootsLink -- RootsWeb's free URL registry. Web sites need not be located on RootsWeb to register. Search the thousands of sites already registered and register new ones at . o SOUNDEX (SURNAME) CONVERTER LAUNCHED. Webmasters can use the new RootsWeb Soundex Converter. To obtain the html code for inserting the new search box into your Web pages, see . The Soundex Converter is another great tool from RootsWeb staff member Pam Durstock. o SHOP FOR THE HOLIDAYS AT THE ROOTSWEB MALL. Shop through one of the 76 affiliate programs in which RootsWeb has recently enrolled and RootsWeb will receive a donation of 5% to 20% of what you spend. You pay no more than if you shopped directly with the seller. PLEASE CLICK THROUGH TO THE ROOTSWEB AFFILIATE PARTNER ONLY AT ; OTHERWISE, ROOTSWEB WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT FOR YOUR PURCHASES. o FREE BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH INDEX PROJECT NEEDS U.K. VOLUNTEERS. The Free BMD Project, which transcribes birth, marriage and death records for England and Wales, is experiencing explosive growth since project volunteers received a new scanner donated by RootsWeb. Entries have topped 500,000. You can see a graph depicting the growth of entries at . Now the project needs 100 new United Kingdom-based volunteers, each having access to a microfiche reader. You can download SpeedBMD, transcription software for PC, from . Transcription software for Macintosh is being beta tested. For more information, see . Anyone with English or Welsh ancestors wishing to search the Free BMD can do so at . o BETA TEST OF ROOTSWEB's PERSONALIZED MAILING LIST (PML) CONTINUES. RootsWeb's PML allows a RootsWeb contributor to enter multiple complex search terms and receive by e-mail notification each day of ANY new post that matches those search terms on ANY of RootsWeb's nearly 15,000 archived mailing lists, 140,000 message boards, and 770,000 RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) entries. BE CAREFUL WITH THE SEARCH TERMS YOU ENTER, AS YOU MIGHT BE OVERWHELMED WITH E-MAIL AS THE RESULT OF AN OVERLY BROAD SEARCH. Also, please be patient with us during the beta test period. RootsWeb contributors at the $24/year level and above are invited to beta test RootsWeb's PML at Never again miss an important post on a mailing list to which you have not subscribed, on a message board that you have neglected to check, or on the RSL. To become a RootsWeb contributor or to upgrade your membership to the $24/year level, please visit . o PERSONAL NOTES AND TIDBITS. My personal passion is history. I read the inaugural issue of HISTORY magazine cover to cover and enjoyed it immensely. In my opinion, this is a wonderful publication for those of us who love history. I have not made a personal recommendation before but am making an exception in this case. Try a free copy at I also recommend "DearMYRTLE's Open Letter to Her Grandchildren" as an inspiration for the holiday season * * * CARDS AT ROOTSWEB HANUKKAH CARDS * * * HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Visit the MISSING LINKS holiday pages at * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES Lesson 20: NEWSPAPERS AND CITY DIRECTORIES is available in HTML and PDF formats . * * * * * LETTER FROM OUR FreeBMD CORRESPONDENT [The Free Birth, Marriage, and Death Project (FreeBMD) is transcribing the England and Wales civil registration indexes. For information see ] I am very conscious of ROOTSWEB REVIEW, which I always mistype first time round as RoostWeb, and its arrival every week without fail. Helping FreeBMD progress I would love to be able to produce a scintillating weekly update showing the extra zillions of entries we've managed to transcribe. FreeBMD isn't quite like that. The source is terrible; handwritten, typeset or close typed, then copied onto microfilm or microfiche. It's a miracle the project's volunteers can make any sense of it at all. The scanner provided by RootsWeb can give the clearest possible image of the copies, but there is still a physical limit for its output. For most of the volunteers, a copy of a copy is their best shot. Every week, I wonder whether there's a new something that's happened in the project that your readers would like to hear -- but transcribing these records isn't like that. I know what it's like . . . I've transcribed about 2,000 records myself so far and it's painful. As a transcriber you take pride in those last 50 entries -- 50 entries which, you suspect, won't impress people much. Anyway, this week, we have passed two milestones to be proud of. There are 500,000 in the database, available for searching, all entries submitted in less than a year, the first year, and, the FreeBMD box, which sets somewhere at RootsWeb, has been up for a year without rebooting. Few commercial sites, charging FreeBMD a fortune for those facilities would be able to boast that! Camilla Gemmingen von Massenbach FreeBMD co-Leader * * * * * GENTECH 2000 will take place 28-29 January 2000 in San Diego, California. Visit for information about the conference hotel (Westgate Hotel, San Diego), the conference travel agent (Conventions in America), or to read/print the program brochure. To obtain the program brochure by regular mail, please send your request to: GENTECH 2000, 1997 Alameda Terrace, San Diego, CA 92103-1646. RootsWeb will be well represented at GenTech 2000 by staff members and volunteers. RootsWeb will have a booth as well as a computer lounge for informal demonstrations. At least one RootsWeb member organization, the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists (IBSSG) will be present with a booth of its own * ADVERTISEMENTS * Remember the prom, the big game, opening night, or band camp? Who did you have a crush on? What was your favorite class? The best memories get even better when you share them with friends. Find your old high school friends on ClassMates.com -- your 24-hour, 7-day-a-week online class reunion. * * * Stay connected with your family on MyFamily.com and get FREE family vacation and $20.00 off at the MyFamily store. MyFamily.com is a FUN, FREE and PRIVATE community for you and your family to share and swap stories, upload photos and even schedule live voice chats! Sign-up today! * * * NET DETECTIVE 2000 allows you to find out EVERYTHING about your family, neighbors, employees and your boss! Background checks, get criminal records, locate family members, get a copy of your FBI file, all in the privacy of your home. Start your investigation today! * * * * * NEW MAILING LISTS IN COMMUNITIES. Communities mailing lists and Web pages are listed at as soon as they are established. You can subscribe to a list at that page. To learn which communities lists are up for adoption, visit: . College-alumni Community AL-AUBURN, CO-UCOLORADO, FL-FLASTATE, IL-SOUTHSUBURBAN, IN-IUBLOOMINGTON, OH-OHIOSTATEU, OK-UTULSA, PA-CARNEGIEMELLON Cultures Community APPALACHIAN-LIFE Events Community CAN-ISSUES Family Community TWINS Food Community BARBECUE Health Community PKD Nostalgia Community OH-MEMORIES Pets Community RABBITS Religions Community BAHAI School-alumni Community AL-ANDALUSIA-HS, TX-KILLEEN-HS Science Community GEN-MOD-FOOD Sf Community ELFQUEST NEW WEB PAGES IN COMMUNITIES * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit NEW MAILING LIST REQUESTS. 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, to discuss German genealogy in German, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . NEW SURNAMES MAILING LISTS, GenCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS AYTES BORDERS-SURNAME DANENHOWER (including DANENHOUR) GAVITT KALBACH KNEVITT surname (including KNEVETT, KNYVETT, etc.) KOELLE LIERLE OZIER PETTEY POBJOY (including POPJOY, POPEJOY, POPINJAY, POBJE, etc.) PURPLE-SURNAME SHAIN NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS TUSCOLA-MI -- Tuscola County, Michigan WA-SKGS -- A companion mailing list for the South King County Genealogical Society (SKGS) Web site at NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, AND MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS DEUTSCHLAND -- German speakers and German genealogy * * * * * 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 Canadian Maps Web page, go to CANADA canmaps -- Canadian Maps abmacken -- Mackenzie, Alberta IRELAND irlmahs -- Mallow Archaeological and Historical Society U.S.A. carcsgs -- Root Cellar, Sacramento Gen. Society (California) gagus -- Genealogy Unlimited Society, Inc. (Georgia) gawgs -- Wiregrass Genealogical Society (Georgia) ialcgs -- Louisa County Genealogical Society (Iowa) nycnygs -- Central New York Genealogical Society nymanhat -- Manhattan, New York nysource -- New York Sources * * * * * GENCONNECT. RootsWeb hosts more than 60,000 surname GenConnect boards that are in need of people to maintain them. 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) Have you found a genealogical treasure, such as a photo album or an old Bible containing a completed family record page, that you would like to see reunited with its family? If so, in addition to submitting a notice for publication in the "Somebody's Links" section of MISSING LINKS or in the SOMEBODY'S LINKS NEWSLETTER (to subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to: ) you also may post a notice about it on the GenConnect board at * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- THE USGENWEB ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER contains the current USGenWeb Archives submissions in the last week. See the December 6, 1999 issue at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/1999/dec/dec6.htm USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE is a read-only mailing list for weekly announcements of new updates and submissions to the USGenWeb Archives. It is open to anyone who wishes to subscribe. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to this address: USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- TRANSCRIPTIONS [Note: All material between a set of angle brackets is a part of the URL. In the case of a URL that is longer than one line, it will be necessary for you either to cut and paste the full URL or to type it carefully into your browser.] ALABAMA. Chambers County. Richard Henry Lee Wilkinson Family Bible Record ALABAMA. Chambers County. Ratchford Family Cemetery ALABAMA. Lauderdale County. Greenview Cemetery, Florence/3 parts [also greenv9.txt and greenvb.txt] COLORADO. Denver County (seven new biographies) COLORADO. Denver County. West Denver High School's June 1884 Graduation Program COLORADO. Fremont County (one biography in a new bios directory) COLORADO. Larimer County (two new biographies) COLORADO. Otero County (one biography in a new bios directory) COLORADO. Phillips County. Holyoke Cemetery records (in 4 parts) [also holcemfk.txt; holcemlr.txt; holcemsz.txt] COLORADO. Pueblo County (one new biography) COLORADO. Weld County (five new biographies) LOUISIANA. 1870 St. John the Baptist Parish Federal Census LOUISIANA. Winn Parish. Mount Zion Cemetery MISSOURI. 1830 Howard County Census Images Index NEBRASKA. Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, Vols 1-3 NEW HAMPSHIRE. Belknap County. SMITH MEETING HOUSE, Gilmanton (Deaths 1788-1818) NEW HAMPSHIRE. Belknap County. SMITH MEETING HOUSE, Gilmanton (Marriages Performed by the Rev. Isaac Smith) TEXAS. 1900 Coke County Census Images Index WASHINGTON. Adams County. Cemetery WASHINGTON. Adams County. Bauer Werttemberger Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/adams/cemetery/bauer.txt WASHINGTON. Adams County. Cunningham Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/adams/cemetery/cunning.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Cemetery WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Anatone Cemetery WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Asotin Cemetery WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Cloverland Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/clover.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Craige (Montgomery Ridge) Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/craige.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Green Place Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/greenpl.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Lake Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/lake.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Mountain View Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/mtview.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Silcott Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/silcott.txt WASHINGTON. Asotin County. Theon Cemetery ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/asotin/cemetery/theon.txt WASHINGTON. Island County. Cemetery WASHINGTON. Island County. Langley (Woodmen) Cemetery, Section B WASHINGTON. Island County. Langley (Woodmen) Cemetery, Section C WASHINGTON. Island County. St. Peter Lutheran Cemetery, Clinton ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wa/island/cemetery/clinton.txt WEST VIRGINIA. 1850 Barbour County Census WEST VIRGINIA. 1890 Grant County Census WEST VIRGINIA. 1890 Hampshire County Census WEST VIRGNIA. 1890 Hardy County Census WISCONSIN. Wisconsin Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Database * * * * * 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. I've been enjoying your articles for quite some time now and thought it was high time I thanked you. I am grateful to you for bringing so much laughter, information and entertainment into my life. I think RootsWeb is one of the best things on the Web, clear evidence that the Internet can be used to create community and bring people closer together. I've really filled out my family tree through RootsWeb and have been so impressed by the generosity of other genealogists. I'm ashamed to say that I only just became a contributor, but I intend to continue to invest in this terrific project. Thanks again for your part in this, which is considerable. Johnna Armstrong * * * * * 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. 49, 8 December 1999. RootsWeb: BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW may be read online or downloaded from TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, send e-mail with only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the message area to: .