ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 3, No. 37, 13 September 2000, Circulation: 685,335+ (c) 1998-2000 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS are free, weekly e-zines. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com Advertising: sbrenay@myfamilyinc.com RootsWeb HelpDesk: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ Ancestry.com: http://ancestry.com/help/support/main.htm Data Submission Form: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html New Databases (check often): http://searches.rootsweb.com/ IN THIS ISSUE: o News and Notes at RootsWeb (New Searchable Databases; Who Has the Data?; Lost at RootsWeb? WorldConnect Tip; RAOGK Update; Shaking Your Family Tree; RWGuide to Tracing Family Trees) o Connecting through RootsWeb o New Genealogy Mailing Lists o New Genealogy Web Pages o GenConnect o USGenWeb Archives o Letters to the Editors o Humor o Reprint Policy; Back Issues; How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe RootsWeb's WORLDCONNECT contains more than 41.4 million names and new GEDCOMs are added daily. Search WorldConnect and upload your own GEDCOM(s) to http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB NEW SEARCHABLE DATABASES AT ROOTSWEB. RootsWeb thanks all of the individuals and groups who contribute their data to share with the genealogical community. See the full list of contributors at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/contributors.html CALIFORNIA, ORANGE COUNTY. Deceased Vietnam Veterans 336 records; Ray Ensing/Orange Co CAGenWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/pow_mia/ ILLINOIS, COOK COUNTY, CHICAGO. Harrison Technical High School, Class of 1927 Alumni List; 256 records; Katie Bailey http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NEW YORK, MONROE COUNTY, Webster. Webster Union Cemetery [Correction to item published last week] 1,881 records; Melissa Bunion http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, ANGELINA COUNTY. Marriages 1846-1897 2,360 records; Ley K. O'Connor http://userdb.rootsweb.com/marriages/ TEXAS, JASPER COUNTY, Kirbyville. Friendship Cemetery 510 records; Barbara Smith http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, ROBERTSON COUNTY, Wheelock. The Cavitt Cemetery 75 records; Michele Rudasill McNew http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ * * * WHO HAS THE DATA? Does your state, province, county, parish, or church have a database available that has not yet been placed on RootsWeb and that you think would be of interest to genealogists and historians? Do you have a database that you would like to share that you think would be of value and interest to others? In most cases, RootsWeb would be proud to host them. Please use the data submission form to tell us about such databases: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html * * * LOST AT ROOTSWEB? See http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/bob.html * * * WORLDCONNECT TIP: Verifying Recognition by Living Filters As many times as we have recommended that you submit your complete family tree to WorldConnect and allow WorldConnect's unsurpassed living filters to do their job of cleaning or removing data that you do not wish to be made public, there are still those who have reservations about doing so. Q. What if, by chance, information I didn't intend to make public about my living family members doesn't get cleaned or removed by the filters? A. Upload your complete GEDCOM and immediately check the results. An easy way to do this is to make a descendancy report for each of your great-grandparents. Look for descendants who should have been treated as "living" but were not recognized by the filters. Use option #36 on the Advanced set-up page to mark as living any descendants who were overlooked by the filters. Update your GEDCOM options instantly following the instructions found in WorldConnect Tip #7. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/tips/tip-07.html and the updated information for item #36 found in WorldConnect Tip #23 http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/tips/tip-23.html Because WorldConnect's Global Search is updated nightly, you can upload your family tree, check the data, and make any necessary changes in the options, before anyone finds your living family member data in a search. This tip is based upon a suggestion posted to the WorldConnect Suggestions Board by WorldConnect user Terry Dearborn. http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/gedcom/ More WorldConnect Tips http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/tips/ * * * RANDOM ACTS OF GENEALOGICAL KINDNESS (RAOGK). http://raogk.rootsweb.com/ The response to last week's notice about RAOGK was overwhelming with about 500 new volunteers joining the project, bringing the total to approximately 3,000 volunteers. A new mailing list has been created for the volunteers only, to share ideas about how to schedule requests, to ask questions about what is done and what is not, and so on. To join the list, send an e-mail that says only "subscribe" to RAOGK-L-request@rootsweb.com (or to RAOGK-D-request@rootsweb.com if you prefer digest mode). * * * SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT). If you can afford to buy only one how-to genealogy book, which one would it be? See Myra Vanderpool Gormley's recommendation in this week's Shaking Your Family Tree: Dusting off an American Classic. http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/syft/curcolumn.htm SYFT columns are archived by subject and can be browsed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/syft/ * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES (RWGuide) http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/ On the night of 13 September 1814, Francis Scott Key, who was aboard a ship in Baltimore harbor, watched the British attack on Fort McHenry. That experience and seeing the American flag still flying over the fort the next morning inspired him to write the verses to the song that eventually became the national anthem of the United States. For more information about Key, the War of 1812, and how to find and use American military records, visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson14.htm ** PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the No. 1 Source for Family History Online. Search more than 600 MILLION NAMES and trace your family tree today. Go to: www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11HG * * * More than 14,000 German Immigrant QUERIES Search by surname, ship name, locality of origin or destination. Make connections and share information with other researchers. Queries, Books, Links. Genealogy queries about German emigrants and immigrants, throughout the world, any time period. http://www.germanmigration.com/default.asp * * * INTERNET RESEARCHERS. The Sept/Oct issue of FAMILY CHRONICLE is a special "Doing Your Research on the Internet" issue. Now on the newsstands or available as a FREE trial copy by visiting http://www.familychronicle.com Articles include "The Real Cyndi Howells," "Shaping up Your Internet Searching Skills," "The Very Best Websites," "The U.S. Census Online," "Effective Use of Newsgroups and Mailing Lists," "Software and the Internet," "Introduction to OneGreatFamily," "Four-Year Article Index to FAMILY CHRONICLE," "The Internet's Most Powerful Tool" by Mark Howells. This is a must issue for Internet researchers and you can obtain a free trial copy at http://www.familychronicle.com/ **************************************** FREE COMPLETE CATALOG 1,000+ BOOKS & CD-ROMS all published by Heritage Books, Inc. Request Catalog #150 heritagebooks@pipeline.com HERITAGE BOOKS, INC. 1540 Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie MD 20715 **************************************** The August/September issue of HISTORY MAGAZINE is full of social history articles about the conditions that affected the lives of our ancestors. Articles include "Poliomyelitis, the Rise and Fall of an Epidemic," "History of the Insurance Business," "Development of Photography," "The California Gold Rush," "The Underground Railroad," "Highlights of the 1690s Decade," "Wigs, once a Fashion Rage," and many others. Columnist Ann Burton writes, "HISTORY MAGAZINE appeals to people who are curious about the everyday events that affected the lives of their ancestors." You can obtain a free trial copy of HISTORY MAGAZINE by visiting http://www.history-magazine.com * * * MyFamily Money MyFamily.com announces the launch of MyFamily Money, a brand-new area devoted to helping families manage their money wisely, from saving for retirement to the kids' allowance. MyFamily Money focuses on financial issues important to you and your family such as budgeting, planning, and especially saving money. Visit MyFamily Money today to learn, share, spend and save. http://www.myfamily.com/isapi.dll?c=Money&htx=main * * * Some new Web sites http://www.censusmicrofilm.com/ full of links to all the family research items you need. RootsWeb users get a FREE electronic Federal Census Catalog (it has a search engine) and two FREE microfilm take-up spools. Buy four census microfilm priced at $12.95 + express mail and e-commerce also available, FREE U.S. MAPS show changing U.S. boundaries 1790-1870 informative; a $15 value in bookstores at http://www.censusmicrofilm.com/fedcens.htm View the Internet's largest selection of lowest-priced new or used microfilm readers. Test our Soundex Converter. See Catalog to all 60,000 Soundex Microfilms. Research Services offer Census Index/Soundex Searches, census copies, or e-mailed digital images. This is a Web site worth surfing. Librarians will want to view our selection of Canon microfilm reader printers, used but like new. These are must see and bookmark Web sites. You'll like em! Also linked at http://www.genealogy-mall.com ** END PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. Seventy-Three Years by Darrell H. Jackson treecoin@uswest.net My mother and her four siblings were put in an orphanage about 1926 when their father died. It is thought he died in a mining accident. She was about 8 years old at the time, second oldest of the children. In 1927 or 1928 her mother got her and her oldest sister out. Three remained in the orphanage and the oldest sister ran away from home at the first opportunity. None of them were ever heard from. As a result, my mother grew up without a father or siblings. Due to family's and the local and national economic conditions there were no means to search for them. At about 19 she married my dad, had three children and moved across the country. Seven years after her marriage she was divorced and lost custody of us kids. She chose to return to her original home and never visited or communicated with us. We were too young to wonder or do anything about that. I was able to find her in 1967 on a flying trip through her part of the country. I had to leave after a two-day visit and she never answered my mail. My next opportunity to look her up was in 1988 when she was 70 years old and living with her 93-year-old mother. Between the two of them I got my grandfather's name, year of death, names and approximate years of birth of her siblings and a sketchy story of the orphanage. Since then I have been searching for her four siblings and the origins of her father and the circumstances of his death. On 12 May 2000 I went to a RootsWeb county query site that I hadn't visited in about two years. Using the search feature and his name I got more then a page of hits. This was normal since his is a common name. The difference this time was the second query on the list. It gave the facts of his life, the children and orphanage, as I knew them. Peeling myself off the ceiling and holding my breath I looked at the date of the query. It was 16 months old. Thanks to RootsWeb for maintaining query files indefinitely. With my heart in my mouth I beat out a response on my keyboard, hitting the send button without even using the spell checker. What were the chances that the e-mail address would still be good after 16 months or that the person who posted the query was still alive or interested or, or, or . . .? I made myself leave the house. Then I made myself eat. What I ate had just as well been sawdust. Still I was afraid to check my mailbox. How long should I wait, 30 minutes? An hour? Overnight? Most of you know the feeling and how many times the wait results in disappointment. I waited a little over an hour then I checked my mailbox. Miracle of miracles, there it was, a positive answer. After an exchange of e-mails, but still in less then an hour, I was on the phone with my new cousin, the only child of my mother's youngest brother. What a moment and such emotions. I had found a part of my mother's family 73 years after they had been separated. This was only two nights before Mother's Day. I knew that such a string of good luck would not continue. Sure enough. My uncle had died three years ago. My new cousin knew nothing of her dad's natural family so I am still searching, but now I have the help of my new cousin. By Mother's Day we had scheduled a reunion for early July with my 82-year-old mother in Tennessee -- three families, one from Iowa, one from Kentucky, and one from Washington state. Not bad for short notice. But, sadly, two other families could not make it. My mother was sad that her little brother had died before they could reunite but glad that now she knows of his happy fate. My mother has a portrait hanging on her wall now in a place of honor. It is of her little brother as a mature, handsome, and successful man. As an unexpected bonus she now has a niece and grandnieces in her life where she had none before. On returning home I received an e-mail from my new cousin. In it she says, "I really feel like I finally belong and a kind of peace has settled over me." What more could a family researcher ask for? * * * BRICK WALL CAME CRUMBLING DOWN by Karl Blust k727407@fwi.com I cannot thank RootsWeb enough. Thanks to the combination of free access to WorldConnect, message boards, and free Web site hosting at FreePages, I tore down a 22-year-old brick wall in only four days. Yes, four days, and that includes independently verifying information. At age 13 I started researching my family tree, after the death of my grandfather, Pike "Mac" McFall THOMSON, and inspired by Alex Haley's ROOTS. It took me about two years to learn who my grandfather's grandparents were. He was named for his mother's maiden name, Lecho Nellie McFALL. The McFALL family remained a complete mystery for about five years until I found Lecho in the Soundex Index for Missouri in the 1900 federal census. This led me to Oregon County, Missouri, far from my grandfather's native Saline County, Missouri. From the 1900 census I learned Lecho's parents were William O. McFALL, born February 1859 in Iowa, birthplace of father Indiana. and Annie T. _?_, born October 1867 in Kentucky, both parents born in Kentucky. William O. was a "Conductor" (I assume railroad conductor). They had four children, three of whom were then living: Lecho N. born 1887 in Nebraska, May G. born 1888 in New Mexico, and Nadine C. born 1894 in Kansas. For nearly 15 years, this is all the information I had. I checked WorldConnect and other databases periodically, but nothing ever turned up. Sitting up late one night, I thought "I will try just one more time." Nothing turned up. So I tried with just the surname McFALL, birthplace Indiana, death place Iowa. The very first listing was for David McFALL, born in Bartholomew County, Indiana, died in Mahaska County, Iowa. Looking through the "Notes" section on David McFALL, I found his children listed. David had married Charlotte BROWN in 1856, and William O. was the second-born child (no date). David was born in Indiana, and they also had daughters named Nellie G. and Lottie May. Several strong coincidences. In the "Notes" area, I also found source names, where I found Judy BISHOP. While searching message boards for David McFALL, I found a posting from Judy BISHOP, and e-mailed her and the GEDCOM owner for more information. We went back and forth for about three days. On the fourth day, I had the day off work, and had to go into Fort Wayne, Indiana for errands. I had 1-1/2 hours to spare, and decided to visit the Allen County Public Library to find out if this was a match. After about an hour, BINGO! David and Charlotte (Brown) McFALL's son, William O., was born 23 February 1859 (Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, Chapman Bros., Chicago, 1887). After I returned home, I found that Judy had e-mailed me the same information I had found at the library. Thanks to RootsWeb, Charles Lanz, and Judy Bishop, my brick wall fell down and I've added four generations. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~blust/index.htm In April 2000, I uploaded my first GEDCOM to WorldConnect, hesitantly, I must admit. It was the best thing I ever did. In less than six months, I have met more than a dozen distant cousins who found "my site" at RootsWeb. Many have added information to my files, sometimes several generations. Your information can always help someone else out, even if you think it is of little value. * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to most genealogy mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW MAILING LIST REQUESTS. Please request new mailing lists at http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ 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 are interested in Ukrainian genealogy, send a SUBSCRIBE request to: UKR-GENSEARCH-L-request@rootsweb.com NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS, GENCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS Aikin Balsom, Bastianelli, Berkheimer, Bernotas, Binney, Bung, Burzynski Cauthen, Cobham, Cowick Daffron, Determan, Durie Ercolani Finkill, Frkovich Garvie Hagenbuch, Harbourne, Hillery Kinlock, Krabal Laine, Leel, Legallais, Lort Phillips-North (the Phillips surname anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line, including Canada), Prager, Profazi Raaff, Randleman, Reijngoud, Reingoudt, Rozon Schramel, Shellnutt, Southall, Starkovich, Stoutjesdijk, Stumph Uridge, Utenbogert Verwey Wagley, Whitcher Yurky Zdziarski NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS AUSTRALIA AUS-VIC-MINERS-RIGHTS -- Australian gold mining claims IRELAND IRL-CO-DONEGAL -- research in County Donegal, Ireland IRL-MAYO -- research in County Mayo, Ireland UKRAINE UKR-GENSEARCH -- Ukrainian genealogy U.S.A. FLSVGS -- Suwannee Valley Genealogical Society, Florida KS-CEMETERIES KY-CEMETERIES MD-BALTO-CUL -- History and culture of Baltimore, Maryland OZARK-RESEARCH -- For those with roots in the Ozark region PA-BUCKS-CEMETERIES PA-CARBON-CEMETERIES PA-MONTGOMERY-CEMETERIES TN-CEMETERIES WI-CEMETERIES WORLD WORLD-CEMETERIES ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS RAOGK -- Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (see also http://raogk.rootsweb.com/ ) TREETOPS-NEWS -- Mailing list for Tree Tops, the free family tree service seen on British TV. Researchers from Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and U.S.A. cannot see the screen, but submit messages which appear on Sky TV Text and Channel 5 (UK). The service has been running for five years. See http://freespace.virgin.net/tree.tops/ * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Please see the instructions at http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ 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. http://www.rootsweb.com/~[account name]. Note that the ~[tilde] before the account name is required. FOR EXAMPLE, to visit the Web page for Lanarkshire, Scotland, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~sctlks/ AUSTRALIA ausqld2 -- Queensland CANADA abflagst -- Flagstaff, Alberta onlanark -- Lanark, Ontario SCOTLAND sctlks -- Lanarkshire U.S.A. cocemete -- Saving Colorado Cemeteries flisdc -- The International Society of the Descendants of Charlemagne (Florida) fltgs -- Tallahassee Genealogical Society (Florida) kylinco2 -- Lincoln County, Kentucky macnahan -- Nahant, Massachusetts (city) mecvassa -- Vassalboro, Maine (city) mslawren -- Lawrence County, Mississippi mslincol -- Lincoln County, Mississippi nhcsomer -- Somersworth, New Hampshire (city) nydcha -- Delaware County Historical Association (New York) okbhs -- Bixby Historical Society (Oklahoma) okitghs -- Indian Territory Genealogical and Historical Society (Oklahoma) SOME NEW HOMEPAGES AND FREEPAGES BRAZIL, CAMPO CEMETERY. Prepared by Betty Antunes de Oliveira of Rio de Janeiro. http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/foreign.html ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/wggenweb/brazuk/cemeteries/campo/txt COLORADO. History, genealogy, current events, sports. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/colorado.htm GODSEY. Descendants of Gilbert and Elizabeth (HARTSOCK) GODSEY. Also BALES, COOKSEY, ELLIS, HOVIOUS, KENDRICK, MILLER, STUCKY, and WHISENAND. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gilbertgodsey/ HALES and WINANS Family Ties. Genealogies from England, Ohio, New York, California, and Missouri. Includes related families. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~statler/hales/ IOWA, Jasper County. Sugar Grove Cemetery (First burial 1859. The goal for every burial is to have the individual's name, birth, death, marriage, children and parents, photo, and an obituary or biography. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sgcemetery/index.html KENTUCKY. 1830 Lawrence County, Kentucky Census http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~churn/1830law.html KENTUCKY. 1823 Lawrence County Kentucky Tax list http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~churn/taxlist.html KENTUCKY. Lawrence County, Kentucky genealogy, history and origins. Companion site for the mailing list KYLAWRENCE-HISTORY-L@rootsweb.com list providing census, historical, map, and genealogical information. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~churn/ KING. King family of Suffield, Connecticut. English ancestry and American descendants. Related families FULLER, SHELDON, SIKES, HATHAWAY, KENT, REMINGTON, AUSTIN, BREWSTER, and EMERSON. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~worths/king/ MURPHY. MURPHY, MURPHEY, CRANE, CREWS, HENDRIX, HOUX in Maury County, Tennessee and Hill/Navarro County, Texas http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~freshnup/markmurph/ SNYDER. SNYDER, HOOVER, HOPKINS, PEARSON, MOUGHTON, WOOD, KINGSNORTH, MANSELL http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rcs3612/mygen.htm WYOMING. Wyoming Homepage for the American History and Genealogy Project. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/ahgp.htm WYOMING. Big Horn County history, genealogy, cemeteries, census http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/bighorn.htm WYOMING. Wyoming maps, gazetteers and atlases http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/wymaps.htm WYOMING. Wyoming veterans -- information and resources http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/veterans.htm WYOMING, Fremont County. Riverton Reclamation Project. List of registered landowners in September 1933. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/fcland33.htm * * * * * GENCONNECT. RootsWeb hosts many surname GenConnect boards that are in need of people to maintain them. o For a complete list of adoptable GenConnect surname boards http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/surnames/adoptable/ o For the form to request to adopt a GenConnect surname board (the same form is used for surname mailing list requests) http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ 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 an e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to: Somebodys-Links-Newsletter-L-request@rootsweb.com ), you can read and post notices to the SOMEBODY'S LINKS message board at http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/genbbs.cgi/SomebodysLinks/ * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- THE ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER contains the current USGenWeb Archives submissions from the last week. Back issues of THE ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER are archived at www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/ 11 September 2000 issue www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/2000/sept/sept11.htm USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE-L is a read-only mailing list for weekly announcements of new updates and submissions to the USGenWeb Archives. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to this address: usgw-archives-announce-l-request@rootsweb.com * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS. Please send as plain text e-mail messages (no attachments or html) to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com For quite a few years I've been searching for information about my paternal ancestors in Alabama. Most of the time it's been slow and dead stop. Thanks to WorldConnect, my search went from dead stop to picking up speed. I searched and was startled to find myself! http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ I sent an e-mail to the contributor questioning how he had information about me. Well, we are cousins, and he sent me a GEDCOM file of the information he has. What a thrill. I knew nothing about him or his connection even though we grew up in the same city. I now not only have additional information about my grandmother and her parents but also a host of new cousins. WorldConnect is an asset worth its database in gold. My heartfelt thanks for making it available to all of us. Sally Wisdom wordsfromwisdom@nctimes.net I researched the GOODWILL family name for about six years prior to publishing a book in 1985. I suffered burnout that lasted many years, with only cursory interest in the name. Within the past several months, I have developed renewed interest. It is directly related to the search engines you have provided on RootsWeb. How I wish I had had this wonderful resource earlier. I cannot fully appreciate the amount of work you must do to maintain the site, since I am not the one doing it, but I think your work is terrific. Hopefully, we can get more searchable databases to add to the beauties you have for California and Texas. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thomas J. Goodwill tgoodwill@earthlink.net RootsWeb, thank you for the CA birth and death indexes. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/birth/search.cgi http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi I have been able to find out my grandmother's name and the lady I knew as grandmother, Noreen King Daly, not knowing that she was my step-grandmother and too finding that she was born in New York. I found my grandmother was a Maude Vesta Nickerson, and my father didn't even know her name because she had died when he was very young. With that I have found a NICKERSON Association that has given me my line on her back to the 1500s. Wow! Wow! What a gift. Thank you. Harry Johnston johnston@caltel.com I am in awe of the many volunteers who work their hearts out. One volunteer at Ida County, Iowa is absolutely the greatest. I don't want to blow her cover but Conley Wolterman has found more information for me than I could relate here, and Judy Wallace White is an exceptional jewel. Conley supplied me with the first photo I'd ever seen of my great-grandfather, Thomas CRANE. I had all this information but a big gaping hole remained as to when and where my grandparents were married. Wolterman found it and sent it to me today. I simply cannot express in words my gratitude. All I can say is, get out there, share your information and thank God for the volunteers. Blanche Thurman bt@crosstel.net I love RootsWeb. After sending a list of World War I medical corps (Edgewood Arsenal) doctors' discharge papers, I received nearly 30 responses. Some folks wrote just to wish me good luck on getting my book published or to thank me for taking the time to list them in [MISSING LINKS, Vol. 5, No. 32, 9 August 2000]. Genealogists are the best people. Martha Rowe Vaughn mrvaughn@surry.net After 2+ years of receiving ROOTSWEB REVIEW, I just had to write and tell you my story. What a wonderful thing they are doing over at USGenWeb http://www.usgenweb.org/ with the tombstone project. I sent a query about finding my great-great- grandmother's grave marker in Fremont County, Colorado (cemetery unknown) and in less than 2-1/2 hours I had a picture. A huge thank-you to Mary Ann. I just can't believe the luck I had in finding such a wonderful person to do the legwork for me. Beth Hancock Cross recross@pacifier.com My 3-great-grandfather Nicholas NATHAN was reputed to have been a Hessian soldier in the Revolutionary War. I spent countless hours searching for facts to corroborate that vague story. Thinking the name NATHAN was more English than German, I even turned the name around and searched for Nathan NICHOLAS. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for finally finding my Hessian, but one day another NATHAN researcher had the good sense to investigate AMREV-HESSIANS-L@rootsweb.com , RootsWeb's Hessian mailing list, run by John Helmut Merz, who sent us information that our Nicholas was actually Private Nikolaus NOEDING, of the Hessen-Kassel Regiment, commanded by Colonel Rall, and was captured at the battle of "the Crossing" at Trenton, New Jersey, on 26 December 1776. RootsWeb did it again. Beverley Wood bjwood@iwvisp.com * * * * * HUMOR A string walks into a bar and the bartender says, "We don't serve your kind around here, so you'll just have to leave." So the string walks out of the bar and sees two young ladies walking down the street and asked one to tie him in a knot and the other to kinda fluff him out a little with her comb. After thanking the ladies the string goes back in, sits down at the bar, and asks for a beer. The bartender says, "Aren't you the same string I just told to leave?" And he replied "No, I'm a frayed knot." * * * * * 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 [author's name, e-mail address, and URL, if given]. Previously published by RootsWeb.com, Inc., RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Genealogy News, Vol. 3, No. 37, 11 September 2000. RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/ BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS are fully SEARCHABLE. Search all or download a specific issue by following the links at http://www.rootsweb.com/~review/e-zine.html A paid advertisement in ROOTSWEB REVIEW or MISSING LINKS should not be construed as an endorsement of the product or service. TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the free weekly genealogy e-zines, ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, send any e-mail to: rootsweb-review-unsubscribe@rootsweb.com TO SUBSCRIBE, send to rootsweb-review-subscribe@rootsweb.com * * * * * Visit http://www.MyFamily.com to connect with your family on the World Wide Web