ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 4, No. 10, 7 March 2001, Circulation: 780,923+ (c) 1998-2001 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/ Data Submission Form: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html New Databases (check often): http://searches.rootsweb.com/ IN THIS ISSUE o News and Notes from RootsWeb (Searchable Databases at RootsWeb; Who Has the Data?; SSDI Update; Password Central; Postcards from RootsWeb; WorldGenWeb Project; Ancestry World Tree and RootsWeb's WorldConnect; Shaking Your Family Tree; Ask a Genealogist; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees) o Connecting through RootsWeb o New Genealogy Mailing Lists o UK Place Names o Finding and Documenting Locations 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 59.4 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 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 FLORIDA, Nassau County. Pigeon Creek Cemetery (near Balounge) 116 records; Leigh Nelson http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ GEORGIA, Wayne County. 72 Cemeteries 12,957 records; Sara Reynolds http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ INDIANA, LaPorte County. 7 Cemeteries 1,348 records; Deanna West, County Cemetery Preservationist http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ MARYLAND, Carroll County. Bethany Cemetery 162 records; Michael Padilla http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ MARYLAND, Carroll County. United Methodist Cemetery 161 records; Michael Padilla http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEVADA, Clark County. 8 Cemeteries 1,683 records; Patricia A. Scott http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, Nassau County, Hempstead. Oldest Burial Grounds 700 records; Sue Montgomery-Cook, Denton Family Genealogy http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ OKLAHOMA, Payne County. Olivet Cemetery 347 records; Sherian Kennedy http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ PENNSYLVANIA, Huntingdon County. St. Paul's Reformed Church and Cemetery; 212 records; Jane Curci http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ SOUTH DAKOTA, Hanson County. 9 Cemeteries 2,198 records; Mary Smith http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TENNESSEE, Gibson and Obion counties. 17 Cemeteries 677 records; Milton Webb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, Ellis County. Boren Cemetery 178 records; Denise Maddox, Boren Reagor Springs Hist. Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, Polk County. Midway Cemetery 525 records; Bettie W. Sarver http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, San Augustine County. McCauley Cemetery 17 records; Shelia Burk 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 other than your personal family tree (personal genealogies are best posted at WorldConnect http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ ) 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 * * * SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX (SSDI) UPDATE. The January 2001 SSDI update is in place. 231,045 new records were added and the new total is 65,305,429. See http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ * * * PASSWORD CENTRAL: One-Stop Memory Bank -- Not Just for Passwords http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/ At Password Central lost or forgotten passwords can be retrieved for most RootsWeb services that require passwords. Also, you can obtain (1) a list of all the RootsWeb mailing lists to which you are subscribed; (2) a list of the GenConnect message boards to which you have posted notes; (3) your RootsWeb Guestbook ID number; and (4) the URLs (Web addresses) of Post-em Notes others have attached to your WorldConnect family tree. * * * POSTCARDS AT ROOTSWEB. Send free electronic greetings to online family and friends from http://postcards.rootsweb.com/ Cards are available for all occasions and most holidays. Find ST. PATRICK's DAY CARDS at http://postcards.rootsweb.com/sd.htm * * * WORLDGENWEB PROJECT: TRANSLATORS S'IL VOUS PLAIT http://www.worldgenweb.org/ The WorldGenWeb Project is seeking volunteers to help translate its home page into several languages, especially French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese. If you are interested in helping with this project, please contact Nathan Zipfel at nate@gte.net * * * Ancestry World Tree and RootsWeb's WorldConnect have grown from less than 40 million names to more than 130 million names combined in just one year, creating between them the largest collection of searchable family trees online. Search for your surnames in both databases at http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT) by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG. Read this week's SYFT column about a long-awaited event that has genealogists excited. It will happen when the American Family Immigration History Center opens its doors (and records) at Ellis Island and on the Internet. 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/ * * * ASK-A-GENEALOGIST AT ROOTSWEB. Subjects covered this week are surname variations, where to post obituaries, contacts in Cyprus, roping in a Wild West Show ancestor, and Indians [Native Americans] in the censuses. http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ask-a-genealogist.html Before posting a new query, please read the GUIDELINES at http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/askguidelines.html Perhaps your question has already been answered -- check at http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/askarchives.html * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES (RWGuide) http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Irish, Scots-Irish, and Scottish http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson21.htm ** PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** SCOTTISH WEDDINGS are famous the world over. Add a touch of Scotland to your wedding with our fantastic range of silk and wool tartans and Celtic jewelry. Order our made to measure skirts, kilts and trews in your own tartan. View more than 300 tartans online. Join many satisfied RootsWeb customers and take a look at the wide range of Scottish products at http://www.shopscotland.net/ World-wide airmail shipping direct to your door. * * * The March/April issue of FAMILY CHRONICLE is on the newsstands or you can obtain a FREE trial copy by visiting http://www.familychronicle.com/ Articles include "Favorite Internet Research Tips," "Cemetery Records Online," "Naturalization Records," "How to Get the Most Out of Newspaper Research," "Family History Writing Contest," "Web Sites Worth Surfing," "How Genealogy Societies Really Work," and many others. Top journalist Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG has this to say: "If you haven't discovered FAMILY CHRONICLE you are in for a treat." Find out how you can obtain a FREE trial copy by visiting http://www.familychronicle.com/ ****************************************** ONLINE LIBRARY HISTORY & GENEALOGY Books & Manuscript Records 1. visit http://www.heritagebooks.com/ 2. click "Online Library" 3. read the brief description 4. click "Search" to explore HERITAGE BOOKS, INC. 1540 Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie MD 20716 ****************************************** U.S. FEDERAL CENSUS IMAGES. Have you seen the U.S. Federal Census Images at Ancestry.com? Now you can view original documents online! Ancestry.com continues the census images project with 1920 postings for parts of MI, MA, MN and NM. Get access for only $39.95. Go to: http://www.ancestry.com/search/io/about/main.htm * * * The new HISTORY MAGAZINE is now on the newsstands but you can obtain a FREE trial copy by visiting http://www.history-magazine.com/ Articles include "How the Subway Transformed Cities," "Highlights of the 1770 Decade," "Tea, The Brew of Empires," "How Pigeons Became War Heroes," "Typhoid, a Disease That Devastated Our Ancestors," and many others. HISTORY MAGAZINE articles cover the social conditions that affected the lives of our ancestors. Check out our Web feature "This Day in History" by visiting http://www.history-magazine.com/ * * * Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the No. 1 Source for Family History Online. Search more than 750 MILLION NAMES and trace your family tree today. Go to: www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11GC ** END PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. RANDOM ACTS OF GENEALOGICAL KINDNESS by Ruth Rowlands rowlands@ctv.es I started searching for my Italian grandfather's background about nine months ago. I soon found RootsWeb and the amazing amount of information it holds, but I had no luck in finding long-lost relatives and very little information about the surname DESIO. I knew where my grandfather was born (Como, Italy) and my mother gave me his birth date, but I had no information on his brothers and sisters -- only that some went to live in the U.S.A. early in the 1900s. As I live on a small island just off Spain, and with no other way to look up information except via Internet, I began to think I was going to have to give up my search. Then, one day on the RootsWeb home page, I saw "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness" (RAOGK) http://raogk.rootsweb.com/ and thought I would take a look. I found a wonderful lady who was offering to do look-ups at the archives and sent her an e-mail. She answered almost straight away and said she would have a look next time she went to the Family History Center. I expected some time to go by before I would hear from her, but within a week or so she had gone and found my grandfather's birth certificate and that of a younger sister. The certificates arrived last week. When I went to the post office to pick up my post and I saw that the letter had arrived, I started to shake with excitement and even left my keys behind in the post box. What a joy to see his name in writing, after having so many doubts as to whether he did really come from Como and the way his name was spelt. But my story does not finish here. It turned out that this lady's grandparents originally came from Spain, she has a lot of certificates, but not her grandfather's birth certificate. I have since been able to speak to the registrar for that area and hope to receive a copy of his birth records soon. If I had not looked up the RAOGK page, I would not have found a way to get my grandfather's birth records, and I most certainly would not have come across such a wonderful person (thank you, Carol), who I now feel is a friend. I have written this so that all of us who are searching for our family tree realize how important it is to offer to help others with their searches also. I am now included in the acts of kindness and I think that a lot of us could do a lot more than we realize to help others. FAMILY CONNECTION by Sherri Souleyrette Hall ldrbelties@earthlink.net I would like to express my appreciation for the great volunteers and submitters to RootsWeb. I recently requested a couple of obituaries and death certificate transcriptions from the NORCAL list. Although I had not tied these two individuals into our family tree, the surname was rare enough that we hoped they would also fit. When I received the information, I was overwhelmed by what was listed. These individuals had died in 1979 and 1980, and their ages were 88 and 98 respectively. A surviving daughter was listed, as well as a city of residence. I figured that there was no way that we would be lucky enough that the daughter was still alive, so we would probably have to start searching for surviving grandchildren. Just in case, I checked both the Social Security Death Index http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ and the California Death Index http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi . Neither listed the daughter. Holding out very little hope, I checked the online addresses and phone numbers. I located one that might possibly be a match, and another family member called the number. I received the following message that evening: I just called Mrs. Ray Zimmer. She is in her 80s, but so alert and smart. She was so excited to learn anything about the QUENON genealogy. She wants to trade info with us. Her daughter has e-mail, and will e-mail me. I will forward you a copy when she does. Mrs. Zimmer is going to write down any and everything she can think of, and will send pictures of I believe she said John and Sophie QUENON, and Perfy and Josephine. We just caught her in time. She is planning to move to Hawaii. She has other things she will send copies of. She said they were coal miners in Belgium. Anyway, just wanted to let you know, we are making progress, thanks to your efforts. None of this would have been possible without RootsWeb and the great people who volunteer and share information. * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to the more than 21,000 RootsWeb- hosted genealogy mailing lists, 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 a RootsWeb-hosted mailing list, send e-mail 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 Scottish research, send e-mail to SCOTLAND-ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS, GENCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS Aisquith, Amond Balles, Bass-Esau (descendants of Esau BASS), Blotner, Bordelon, Boschet Cabler, Chettle Dallmann, Dunihue Finch-Eng-Durham (FINCH surname in the area of Durham, England), Fitt, Fogl Guin Handiboe, Hannen, Hemm, Herniman, Hesbrook Ivester, Ivester-JW (descendants of J. W. IVESTER and Margaret Emily CARNAHAN) Keeble, Koren, Kornelson, Kumpakiske Lafond Mantz, Markin, Mathews-Lodowick (descendants of Lodowick MATHEWS), Mendel-Valentine (descendants of Valentine MENDEL and Anna Maria GALLATIN) Oldland Pennyfather, Pleau Rochefort Sandever, Schwarze, Sharrard, Stecher, Stecker, Stromquist, Sulouff, Spraker Tomporowski Upjohn Watros, Watrus, Weinheimer, Weyhrauch, Wonch Yolland NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS AUSTRALIA AUS-PT-JACKSON-CONVICTS -- all convicts transported to Port Jackson 1788-1842 CANADA CAN-NS-GUYSBOROUGH -- Guysborough County, Nova Scotia ENGLAND ENG-CORNWALL-MORWENSTOW -- Morwenstow, Cornwall IRELAND IRELAND-ROOTS -- Irish genealogical research IRL-KILKENNY -- County Kilkenny SCOTLAND SCOTLAND-ROOTS -- Scottish genealogical research SCT-GLASGOW -- Glasgow area U.S.A. CA-SLO-HS -- San Luis Obispo Senior High School HI-PUNAHOU-HS -- Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii ME-CIVIL-WAR -- Maine Civil War genealogy SC-PICKENS-VOLS -- Pickens County, South Carolina volunteer transcribers UT-GEN-EVENTS -- genealogy events in Utah -- seminars, classes, workshops, user groups, etc. ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS ADVANCED-RESEARCH -- research techniques for the intermediate to advanced researcher AUS-ROMANI -- Romani (Gypsies) in Australia CSGA -- California State Genealogical Society CIRCUS-FOLK -- researching ancestors who were with a circus LOST-COLONY -- Raleigh's lost Roanoke Colony [North Carolina] GEN-COMP-TIPS -- basic computer operating tips and troubleshooting guidelines for genealogical researchers GEN-FRIENDS -- general chat including genealogical research NAPOLEONIC -- historical and genealogical interest in the Napoleonic Wars, especially the Peninsular Wars POLISH-TRADITIONS -- Polish cultural list TREETOPS-OVERSEAS -- In conjunction with the existing Free Family Tree & Meet Again Service supported by Treetops-News-L@rootsweb.com, this new list is for the new, free service offered by Tree Tops for those researching overseas, or those who are not able to see the Teletext on British TV. UK-ROMANI -- Romani (Gypsies) in the United Kingdom WEBPAGE-ANNOUNCE -- weekly read-only mailing list for notices of additions/updates to RootsWeb-hosted www accounts, freepages, homepages, and community pages; submit notices to wpa_rw@yahoo.com WN -- Waves National, for women who have served in sea service * * * * * U.K. PLACE NAMES David Lamb wrote a useful article ["U.K. Place Names," RWR 4:9] pointing out how easily abbreviations of English and UK geographical names (towns, counties, etc.) can be [confused]. In the 1881 UK census, the place of birth is sometimes only given as a county, which can be confusing when the main town has a similar name to the county; for example, Bedford and the county of Bedfordshire. However the county names often end in -shire, and these are generally abbreviated to "-s", so in this case, Beds; or Cambs for Cambridgeshire; or Yorks for Yorkshire. In the specific case that Lamb quotes, the RootsWeb address is correct, as the GLOS stands for Glos., the common abbreviation for Gloucestershire. Incidentally, English counties which do not end in -shire are generally known as the County of X (e.g., the County of Kent) rather than the American format of Kent County. Hope this helps those readers who are trying to trace UK ancestors and are puzzled by our quaint expressions. Ian Clark, London, England ianclark@csi.com * * * . . . [I]n England the "County of Gloucester" and "Gloucestershire" are different ways of saying the same thing. Most counties (or shires) have a County town after which they are named in the same way (e.g., County of York/Yorkshire, County of Cambridge/Cambridgeshire). Jim Emerson j.p.emerson@qmw.ac.uk * * * David Lamb is quite right about the need for accuracy in interpreting place names in the UK. In addition to counties or shires, I also confirm whether I am dealing with a parish or village/town(land). Parish names are not normally used in U.S. place names, and sometimes people don't know where to put them in a database: they are likely to be in the field normally reserved for town, village, etc. Kathleen Cooper kathleencooper@bigfoot.com * * * * * FINDING AND DOCUMENTING LOCATIONS David Lamb's plea for accuracy rings all sorts of bells for me. I have seen, in reference to a single birth, the same town placed in two different counties, and in the same county, assigned once to England and once to Scotland. This suggests that people are just not getting their maps out and doing reality checks; or that they are getting maps out and finding a place with the same name as the one they mean, but in a different locality. For UK places, I always add a National Grid Reference to every place name, everywhere it occurs. If there's no NGR, it means I haven't yet found the place (and I keep a list of every place name I haven't yet found, with as many clues as possible, along with references to the sources from which the name came). You don't have to own a full set (204 sheets) of 1:50000 maps to do this -- use your local reference library! For individual farms and the like you might need 1:25000 or even 1:10000 maps. For towns, the NGR might be just a two-letter, four-digit one (just a 1 km square), whilst for a burial which I have visited, it might be a full reference down to 1m precision (probably only 5m accuracy) from a GPS. That helps a subsequent researcher find the grave, even if the burial ground has been extended and paths moved about since your visit - something that even the most detailed set of directions won't allow for. Outside the UK, use your national system, a UTM grid or even Latitude and Longitude. For those really detailed locations, make sure you record the map datum you used - it may not be obvious just by knowing which country you were in, and sometimes people use the wrong datum, which can cause errors of up to a few km. If your source uses the name for a place from centuries ago and it has now changed, quote both the contemporary name and the present-day name as well as a grid reference. Whatever you do, if you know where somewhere is, make sure your readers can identify it uniquely too. If you don't know exactly where somewhere is, make this clear too -- [otherwise] your readers might draw invalid conclusions. Andy Waddington family@nospam.pennine.demon.co.uk * * * * * 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 Oklahoma Lawmen and Outlaws, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~oklawmen/ IRELAND nirtyr3 -- Tyrone irlmun2 -- Munster irllen2 -- Leinster U.S.A. alobits -- Alabama Obituaries Project gabrantl -- Brantley County, Georgia ksnorton -- Norton County, Kansas mocharit -- Chariton County, Missouri necedar2 -- Cedar County, Nebraska necemete -- NEGenWeb Project Resource Center Cemeteries (Nebraska) nsdeq -- National Society Descendants of Early Quakers nyhchs -- Herkimer County Historical Society (New York) nyjcdar -- Johnstown [New York] Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution ohcuyah2 -- Cuyahoga County, Ohio okctwc4c -- Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, Capt. Thomas W. Custer # 4 Camp oklawmen -- Oklahoma Lawmen and Outlaws schorryh -- Horry Herald (South Carolina) SOME NEW HOMEPAGES AND FREEPAGES BETTANS and KURTS Genealogy. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bettans/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kurts/ McCANDLESS. Lucian MCCANDLESS and Samuel Harper MCCANDLESS families. Includes HARPER, REED, GANDY, SIMPSON, BAKER, CHOLVIN http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mccandless/ MILLER. VALENTINE, FULLER, SCHUSTER, KLEINHOLZ, STUTZMAN, KUHNS, TROYER, RABER. MILLER, RABER, STUTZMAN, EICHER, EGLY, and more Mennonite/Amish Mennonite descendants. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~annwhite/ ORPHAN'S HOME WEBSITE. Purpose of site is to aid researchers with ancestral orphans via transcriptions and citations of orphan listings from all United State and Canadian censuses, orphanage information (addresses, those not reporting to censuses, location of records), orphanage rosters as obtained, message boards, and more. Visit, search, post, and contribute. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~orphanshome/ STEWARD and ROBERTS Genealogy. STEWARD from Kentucky, Illinois, and Kansas; ROBERTS from Tennessee, Illinois, and Kansas. Other surnames: PEACOCK, COURBOT, COURTNEY, LANDES, PENDARVIS, ROBERD, WRIGHT, and FOWLER. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~veragenes/ * * * * * 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/ * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES. THE ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER contains the USGenWeb Archives submissions during the last week. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/index.htm USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE is a read-only mailing list for weekly announcements of updates and submissions to the USGenWeb Archives. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE-L-REQUEST@rootsweb.com DAILY-UPLOADS-L is a read-only mailing list that announces every file uploaded or changed in the USGenWeb Archives. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to DAILY-UPLOADS-L-REQUEST@rootsweb.com * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS. Please send letters and all submissions as plain text e-mail messages (no attachments or html) to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com To the people at RootsWeb, what can I say? I'd been researching my HINSON family history for some 18 months and had reached a dead end. Then I sent an e-mail to an address I found on one of your pages and, to my amazement and to keep it short, I hit the jackpot. The person I e-mailed was a cousin in Ohio and through him I have also met cousins in the UK and now in Canada. Cousins Galen, Pat, and Margaret had already researched the HINSONs from Cambridge, England, and they had no idea what had happened to Henry, my great-great-grandfather, who came to Australia. I was able to fill in the Aussie gaps and they in turn filled in the English history for me. We have just recently made contact with cousins in Canada. I expect we will find more and more as time goes on. What a small world it is now with the computer age and sites like RootsWeb to help us all find each other. Thank you. Vicki Lowe vicalowe@hotmail.com Just a note to say thank you for the stories people submit and you publish. Most of them bring tears to my eyes. I have many times on my own become overwhelmed and often there is no one to tell it to because I am in a lonely cemetery or buried in a basement of old books. This one is about somebody else. I don't know his name, but I am glad I was there. One day a young man and I were alone in a basement room of a library in Shelby County, Indiana. I said "hi" as I entered, and then we were both busy going through books for a couple of hours. Then I heard a rather hesitant voice ask, "Is it all right if I tell you something?" Of course, I said yes and he told that he had been looking for some of his family for several years and he had just found several generations here in this basement. He said he just had to tell someone. I shared his excitement with him and wished him well in his further pursuits. We've never met again, but for a few moments we were one family -- the huge genealogy family that your newsletters brings to us each week. Thanks again. Lora Short ashortnote@psbnewton.com I can't agree more with the recent article about utilizing newspapers ["Newspaper Research," by Homer Thiel in RWR 4:9, 28 February 2001]. I recently was in contact with someone from the Trenton, New Jersey, Library who did a look-up on my great- grandfather. She was able to find two articles. In each were mentioned his military service, where he went to school, the undertakers, cemetery, my grandmother's half sister's name (which none of my living relatives ever mentioned) and more. I was able to contact most of these places and received wonderful information that filled in many gaps. The funeral home was most helpful. Also, I now have copies of his school report cards. Michelle Cox MACChilly@aol.com [See RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees, Guide 20: City Directories and Newspapers http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson20.htm ] * * * * * HUMOR. The winner of this year's Bulwer Lytton Contest (held by the English Department of San Jose State University [California]), wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel, is: "The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, `You lied!'" * * * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS do not answer or publish queries. You can subscribe to the relevant surname and locality mailing lists http://lists.rootsweb.com/ and then post queries to those lists. You can do searches of all of RootsWeb's resources by starting at RootsWeb's main page http://www.rootsweb.com/. You will also want to search the WorldConnect database frequently, as new material is added daily (that database now contains more than 59.4 million entries). Any letter, story, or article submitted for consideration for publication in MISSING LINKS or ROOTSWEB REVIEW should be sent as a plain text e-mail message to rwr-editors@rootsweb.com 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. 4, No. 10, 7 March 2001. 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://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ 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