ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 4, No. 16, 18 April 2001, Circulation: 812,453+ (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 Data Submission Form: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html New Databases (check often): http://searches.rootsweb.com/ RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees (methods and sources) http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ IN THIS ISSUE o News and Notes from RootsWeb (Milestone Three Million; Searchable Databases at RootsWeb; Who Has the Data?; SSDI March Update; Shaking Your Family Tree; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees; Ellis Island Records) o Connecting through RootsWeb o Digging up Bones 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 about 64 million entries and new GEDCOMs are added daily. Search WorldConnect and upload your own GEDCOM(s) to http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB MILESTONE THREE MILLION. The Humboldt County (Nevada) Newspaper Indexing Project contributed the three millionth record to the User Contributed Databases hosted by RootsWeb. Jeff Marcinik, the Assistant Director of the Humboldt County Library (HCL), Winnemucca, Nevada, contacted RootsWeb about HCL staff member Judy Adams's work transcribing the information and the efforts of Debbie Sanders to make it available online. RootsWeb staff member Joan Young handled the negotiations with HCL, HCL mailed the disk to RootsWeb's Vicki Lindsay Thauvin, who converted the old (Mac) Claris Works files to usable text files and sent them to RootsWeb programmer Pam Durstock, who worked her magic. It was a great team effort. Debbie wrote to Joan on 17 April 2001: "Please send my thanks to everyone who was involved in getting the Humboldt County, Nevada Newspaper Index online. We thought it was impossible since it was on such an old Mac program. You have a few geniuses there! A special thanks from me for making Judy's dream come true. The look on her face when I told her the indexes were online -- I'll never forget it. Priceless! Happy, happy day! Debbie :)" 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 ALABAMA, Jefferson County, Birmingham. East Lake Methodist Church, Senior Citizens Christian Assoc. Roster - 1973 and 1974; 180 records; Janet E. Rowan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ ILLINOIS, St. Clair County. LEBANON ADVERTISER Newspaper Index 2,108 records; Cindy Davis http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ MISSOURI, Jasper County. Registered Voters listed in the CARTHAGE WEEKLY BANNER, 1868; 1,645 records; Ruth E. Browning http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ MISSOURI, Livingston County, Chillicothe. Grace Church 3,241 records; Kathleen Somerville http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ NEVADA, Humboldt County. Newspaper Indexing Project 96,192 records; Judy Adams for the Humboldt County Library, Winnemucca, Nevada http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ OHIO, Cuyahoga County. People mentioned in the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, 23 June 1935; 85 records; Lyn Jacobson http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ LAWSON Births -- Scotland (addition to LAWSON ONE-NAME STUDY) 2,021 records; Gerald Lawson http://userdb.rootsweb.com/studies/ PATRICK/PATTRICK Surname 16,600 records; Colin Pattrick http://userdb.rootsweb.com/studies/ PENNSYLVANIA, Adams County. Benders Lutheran Church, Cradle Roll October 1921 - January 1929; 41 records; Melinda Carter http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ TENNESSEE, Hickman County. Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Membership list; 408 records; Penny Russell Boyer http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ TENNESSEE, Macon County, Red Boiling Springs. Church of Christ, Lady's Bible Study Class Lists, 1974 and 1990 81 records; Judy Bohanan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ TEXAS, Colorado County, Frelsburg. Trinity Lutheran Church 2,268 records; Martha Prince http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ TEXAS, Hunt County. Newspaper Indexes 589 records; John J. Armstrong http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ * * * 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 March 2001 SSDI Update is in place. 214,603 new records were added and the new total is 65,733,190 records. See http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ * * * SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT) by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG. Do you know what the three most important things for a successful family reunion are? Find out in this week's SYFT: "Successful Family Reunions Don't Just Happen" 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://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Guide 8: Why You Can't Find Them http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson8.htm * * * Ancestry.com celebrates the opening of the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island with a new resource that provides users with multiple tools to help trace their family's history. Visit http://www.ancestry.com/. With the opening of The American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island and its simultaneous Web debut at http://www.ellisislandrecords.org , passenger records of the more than 22 million people who entered the United States through Ellis Island are available. Key data available on immigrants includes name, gender, age on arrival, marital status, ship name, port of origin, and last residence. ** PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** Teach yourself genealogy with Karen Clifford's COMPLETE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO GENEALOGY, THE INTERNET, AND YOUR GENEALOGY COMPUTER PROGRAM http://www.genealogical.com/item_detail.cfm?ID=1046 Get the lowdown on immigration records with AMERICAN PASSENGER ARRIVAL RECORDS -- THE guide to passenger lists -- now available at 50% off the hardback price at http://www.genealogical.com/item_detail.cfm?ID=8700 Browse our catalogue of 2,000 reference books and CDs. Order one or more titles at full or sale price through 4/30/01 and pay only a penny more to cover postage and handling. * * * How did our ancestors cope amid the trials and tribulations that history records? The new HISTORY MAGAZINE from the creators of FAMILY CHRONICLE carries articles on just this kind of historic social issue. Recent articles include "The Black Death," "Glittering Misery...Army Officers Wives on the Frontier," "The Influenza Pandemic...that Killed More People than World War I," "The Long Struggle...the Fight for the Female Right to Vote." HISTORY MAGAZINE is on the newsstands or you can obtain a Free trial copy by visiting http://www.history-magazine.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 ****************************************** Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the No. 1 Source for Family History Online. Search more than 700 MILLION NAMES and trace your family tree today. Go to: www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11GC * * * 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/ * * * 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 new images from the 1880 census for parts of Arizona Territory, Arkansas, Connecticut, Dakota Territory, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Get access for only $39.95. http://www.ancestry.com/search/io/about/main.htm ** END PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. FOUND MY FAMILY -- AFTER 59 YEARS by Lloyd Grishow legcne@yahoo.com I was put into a foster home in 1942. I had one small document from the court that had my birth name (Kenneth Auburn LASLEY), my approximate birth date and a case number printed on it. I never wanted to search for my family, until recently. Because I am getting up there in age, I wanted to obtain my birth certificate. I didn't know where I was born or exactly when. I had heard rumors that I may have been born in Missouri and that my father may have worked for the railroad. A few years ago, I sent a request to Missouri for my birth certificate. I gave them what little information I had. They came back with a birth certificate that looked promising, but it had no given name printed on it and the birth year was earlier than what I had celebrated as my birth year. The actual birth month and day of the month were the same. When I went for information to the county mentioned in the court document, I found that they had destroyed all of my records. This seemed to be a real roadblock. I didn't know the name of my father or my mother, not to mention the names of any brothers and sisters I may have had. Then I found RootsWeb. I searched around in various databases and on several message boards, but found nothing. One day I searched the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) http://ssdi.rootsweb.com for the name of the father that was on the birth certificate (Auburn Merle LASLEY) and found a listing. This man lived and died within 30 miles of where I lived and retired from the railroad. This was really promising. I sent to the county for his death certificate. There was very little useful information on it, except for one entry, which would not normally be there. This man had been cremated. His remains had been shipped to a surviving son and the son's address was listed. This gave me hope. I could not find a telephone listing for this person and it had been a few years since this happened. He may have moved. I did find a listing for a name similar to my birth name in the area that this person lived. Thinking that this might be a relative, I tried this number, but it was a dead end. I searched RootsWeb for the name of the person listed on the death certificate. There were three listings. I thought I would send a letter to the original address of the surviving son listed on the death certificate before pursuing these other entries, which I did. A few weeks passed. I was ready to give up and move on to the other leads when my wife received a telephone call. I was just pulling up in the driveway, when she came running out of the house shouting, "It's your brother. You found your brother." He had moved, but the post office forwarded my letter, after five years. Thank you people who work for that post office and kept his new address. My brother said he recognized my name immediately and remembers me. Later, he would say that he was there when I was born and later on when I was named. He remembers feeding me my cereal and my turning the bowl over on my head. This was wonderful. My dream come true. I found my brother, Edwin Keith LASLEY. It turns out that both he and our sister, together, had also been put into a foster home at the same time I had been, but not the same foster home. Because they were older, they were able to keep in touch with our father, eventually returning to live with him. My father, my brother, and my sister tried to find me but were told that I had been adopted and the court records were sealed. Little did they know that my foster parents had moved out of the state and changed my name. Later, we returned to about the same general area. My brother, at one point, lived within three blocks of the retail store I managed. He knows that he went into that store many times. I may have waited on him for all I know. He, too, worked for the railroad. In his search for me, he had also called that same person previously mentioned (the one who had a similar name as my birth name) that I had called. We almost crossed paths, again. My sister, Jane Jeneva (Lasley) MATTHEWS, and her son remain out there somewhere. My brother lost touch with her a few years ago. I have many living relatives back where I was born (Purdy, Missouri). Someday, maybe I will visit my relatives who still live there in my grandparents' (Joe LASLEY and Ivey WALTERS) farmhouse. Thanks to RootsWeb, I have found my family. CONNECTING WITH COUSINS by Patricia Christa Matthews-Mohorn patriciamohorn@yahoo.com On January 16, 2001 I began researching the MORANT family from Vicksburg, Mississippi. I was introduced to RootsWeb.com and Ancestry.com. I pulled up all the MORANTs under the Social Security Death Index http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ , and that gave me a start. I remembered that my great-grandfather published a book, MISSISSIPPI MINISTER, by Jno. J. Morant, B.D., D.D. I requested a copy from the Warren County Library in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a few days later received the book, and have been making progress ever since. My great-grandfather was an AME minister and his brother was as well. I started sending out letters to MORANTs all over the U.S. and through the Internet, a woman gave me some names of MORANTs who once lived in Vicksburg and now reside in Lake Providence, Louisiana. I called them and we tried to make a connection but I wasn't quite there yet. All of the names of my relatives were the names of their relatives except it was a different generation. I started noticing how the names were being passed down from generation to generation. I finally spoke with a minister in Greenwood, Mississippi, who put me in touch with a cousin 89 years old who lives in Jackson, Mississippi. I called her and her caretaker sent me obituaries, pictures, marriage certificates, death certificates, etc. I finally made the connection. The Rev. David Richard MORANT was the brother of the Rev. John James MORANT. There we were, the MORANTs in Lake Providence were the great-grandchildren of the Rev. David Richard MORANT. I am planning to visit the Vicksburg area in May to meet my family and also to visit the church that my great-grandfather constructed, Bethel AME Church! Words cannot express my gratitude to RootsWeb for putting me in touch with my cousins. Thank you so much. * * * * * DIGGING UP BONES by P. J. Little little@gcinet.net Are you barking up the wrong tree or are you digging up your ancestors? If you are lucky you are doing the latter. The key to successful digging is provable facts. My primary surname is LITTLE. There are about 45,000 families in the United States with this surname. Entering LITTLE in a search engine yields results such as: "Little Betsy's dog died" or "the little lake at Rochester." This isn't much help to someone searching for an ancestor who migrated from Scotland to New Jersey about 1700. Neither are compiled genealogies (in any format) that have no sources. Even primary sources may contain erroneous information. Here is an example: Benjamin LITTLE b. 1770-1790 d. 1860-1880. This Benjamin, son of Theophilus LITTLE and Maria POLHEMUS, died on the same day he was born in 1780. His parents' names were correct but certainly not the dates. I traced this Benjamin LITTLE for almost a year before I received the correct information from a cousin I met on the Sullivan County, Pennsylvania GenConnect message board at RootsWeb. Sullivan County, Pennsylvania was once a part of Lycoming County. According to one source I found, Sullivan County was formed in 1803. According to the Sullivan County historian, it was formed in the mid-1830s. [According to Ancestry's RED BOOK and Everton Publishers' THE HANDY BOOK FOR GENEALOGISTS, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania was formed in 1847 from Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Eds.] Benjamin LITTLE married Sarah WISNER in 1815 in Pennsylvania. Both families lived in Lycoming County, so it is a good bet that this is where they were married although I've never been able to prove it. Sarah's parents were Benoni and Agnes WIESNER, according to estate documents filed in Moreland Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in 1831. I found the same data in two different databases. Benoni is spelled Benio and in both cases Agnes is shown as a daughter married to Benjamin HOLMES, who was actually her daughter's husband. The only correct information is the estimated birth dates of Benoni and Agnes. I have tried to contact the submitters. One has not responded and the e-mail address of the other is not available. [Post-Em Notes are useful in such cases. Eds.] I have often suspected a tie between the English LITTLEs and my Scottish family. When I found a database that contained a common first name in both lines I contacted the owner to inquire about his Scottish connection. His reply stunned me. "I'm only related to one person on the English LITTLE side," and he thoughtfully included the lineage. "I don't know anything about the other names." I wanted to scream, "Why are these names in your database?" After more than a year of intense research I can honestly say that without the Ancestry and RootsWeb databases and RootsWeb's GenConnect message boards I would not have found the links to my LITTLE and WISNER families. I would also not have found my MILLER, COONS, POLHEMUS, HORN, WARFIELD, MARTINDALE, PIERCE, or HARPER families in Fulton County, Illinois. Cousins I did not know existed, as well as total strangers, contacted me with new data. I was elated. My family was finally getting a face. One very special lady in Champaign County, Illinois has selflessly given countless hours of her time to search court documents and cemetery records to uncover Benjamin and Sarah's son John Wisner LITTLE, who married Charlotte COON, and his heirs. (His brother Tobias LITTLE married Nancy Coons LANCE.) Through the efforts of the RootsWeb editors I have come to realize that genealogical research is much like medicine: it is an imperfect science. And, much like forensic science, it takes a lot of time and hard work to dig up bones and reconstruct an ancestor's pedigree. Grandmother LITTLE b. 1889 used to say "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is especially true of family facts. Every ounce of provable data that contains a name, a date, and a county and state or a country of birth leads us one step closer to learning where the bones are buried. It also helps us sift through the pounds of inaccurate information we encounter during our quest. * * * * * 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 the surname VALENCIA, e-mail your request to VALENCIA-L-request@rootsweb.com . NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS, GENCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS (See http://lists.rootsweb.com/ for an index to the 21,000+ RootsWeb-hosted genealogy mailing lists) Amberg, Anglea Biswell, Boudeman, Bresch, Brinlee Cleery Derkum Fesler Gallatin, Gardler, Grissell Harpham, Hawkins-UK, Hawksley, Henckel, Herbison, Hestilow Lauff, Lorio MacDermid, MacDiarmid, MacLaughlan, McPadden, Musty Ocleary, Orbits, Otterstedde, Otterstedt Poapst, Prueter Raeside, Reilley, Rothera Sallans, Shand, Streeper Tippitt Valencia Worz NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS ENG-LANCS-YORKS -- The Lancashire/Yorkshire border and folks who moved back and forth PA-Pittsburgh -- searches focused on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS NA-NEWBIES -- People new to Native American genealogy * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Go to: 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 the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~chebe/ BAHAMAS bhswgw -- Bahama Islands CANADA nsantigo -- Antigonish, Nova Scotia NETHERLANDS nldnh -- Noord-Holland (This replaces the nldnoord account announced last week. There is more than one Noord-xxx in the Netherlands, so this was done to avoid confusion if accounts are requested for the others.) POLAND polwarmia -- Warmia-Mazury SWITZERLAND chebe -- Canton Bern U.S.A. arrchgs -- Randolph County Historical and Genealogical Society (Arkansas) coclearc -- Clear Creek County, Colorado cogilpin -- Gilpin County, Colorado flmanate -- Manatee County, Florida ilbureau -- Bureau County, Illinois nmsodar -- State of New Mexico National Society Daughters of the American Revolution SOME NEW HOMEPAGES AND FREEPAGES BENEDICT, BLACKMAN, BURCH, HOLLEY, MORRIS, NEWBERRY, SMITH, STEPHENS. Early New York pioneers believed to be of Native American descent/mixed blood people in early 1880s began migration westward to Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Iowa. http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~hannahslife/ BOSHART, EICHER, ERB, JANTZI, LICHTI, MILLER, ZEHR, and many other Mennonite surnames; includes several thousand Swiss Mennonite descendants of John BOSHART and Anna Maria MULLER. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dflanagan/ CLARKE FAMILY. James CLARKE and his wife, Susanna MEREDITH, emigrated about 1853 from Queens County, Ireland to Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sharonmh/clarke/ DUTCH APPLES. Genealogical and historical research materials of New York State, 1609-1790; New Netherland and beyond; also Revolutionary War lists and information on VAN BURENs. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dutchapples/ FENIAN INVASION: NOVA SCOTIA'S STORY 1866-1870. Dedicated to telling the story of the men who were called to arms in Nova Scotia in the summer of 1866 and 1870. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~prospect/Fenian00.htm HOLT. RAY HOLT'S HOME PAGE. HOLT, CROW, ROBERTS, MIMS, MARTIN, REDDISH, HARMAN, CLARK, PIERCE, HALL, ANSLEY, NUTT, etc. descendancy charts. Comments and corrections are welcomed. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rayholt/homepage.htm SONGER WAR MEMORIAL. SONGERs and members of extended families of SONGERS who fought in wars from 1812 to modern-day peacekeepers. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~davisong/ VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. Index to and the actual images of the 1917 Medical Dept. commencement program, 13 June 1917. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~censusresearch/ Vanderbilt/vanderbilt.htm [TWO-LINE URL] * * * * * GENCONNECT. RootsWeb hosts many surname GenConnect boards that are in need of people to support 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 in 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 For an online version, go to http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE/ 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 as plain text e-mail messages to rwr-editors@rootsweb.com . Thank you for including an item in MISSING LINKS about my Gunmakers and Allied Trades Index. I had more than 80 enquiries in the first four days. I have acknowledged all the messages except for a batch received on 17 April which had been corrupted -- the text was readable but none of the messages had the address of the person who sent the enquiry. Names I recall were Vivienne Simkins, Louise Clark, and Tricia (all mentioned "gunmakers"). One message had an attachment,* which I cannot identify and have removed. No bug or virus has been found. [*An attachment might not be well-received by those not expecting it or whose software can't read it. It is a good idea to ASK before sending an attachment. Eds.] Stan Cook cookgunfh@btinternet.com Quainton, Bucks, England I would like to thank RootsWeb for WorldConnect http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ . My 4th-great-grandfather, Vivian BECK, had been a stumbling block for 20 years until WorldConnect came along. Vivian was born in Loudoun County, Virginia about 1813 (census data). He married there in 1834 to Emily Ann HUFFMAN. His daughter, Martha Virginia (my 3rd-great- grandmother), lived to be 95 and was by her 1930 death the original lead to Vivian. I did my homework and started with census records and found the family in St. Joseph, Michigan in 1850, living next door to an Isaiah BECK. I assumed they were brothers (yes, I know a dangerous thing in genealogy). However, they were nowhere to be found in 1860, 1870, or 1880. I knew that some of his children were born in Ohio, but as this was my first effort at genealogy, I did not have a clue as to how to proceed. So, for 20 years, Vivian and his family sat on a shelf. My cousin sent me the URL for WorldConnect and I began trying all the family lines on which I had brick walls. There were very few hits, but what a gold mine. I now have two new cousins, Paul HUFFMAN who sent me a copy of Samuel BECK's will proving Vivian was his son, and Jeff BECK who supplied other information. Though there is still a lot of work to be done to prove Samuel's father was Vivian BECK, son of Edward and Ann (PRESTON) BECK, I feel confident that the break will come. Thank you, RootsWeb, for giving me two new cousins and for opening the door. Susan Edvalson sbe@lanset.com Having just received my 2001 Census form, can I suggest that United Kingdom readers of your most enjoyable review consider putting a photocopy of the completed Census form with their family papers before they return it after 29 April 2001, so that family historians of the future will not have to wait 100 years to look at it. Gerald D. Burton gerald@burton.demon.co.uk * * * * * HUMOR. VIEW FROM THE COURTHOUSE: Abstracts of Lawrence County, Missouri, Circuit Court Documents, 1858-1869 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~judysstuff/ by Judy Reustle judy@netfocus.net Great-granny*(1) was acquitted! (She thought those sheep were hers.) If the livestock ain't been branded, Who can tell if they are yers? Great-grandpa*(2) went a'gambling With his little brother John*(3) Their Pa*(4) would go and bail them out But his patience was soon gone. *(1) Sarah SMITH (maternal great-grandmother) State of Missouri v. Sarah Smith, grand larceny. Bundle #120. *(2) William Perry JOHNSON (paternal great-grandfather) State of Missouri v. William JOHNSON and John JOHNSON, gaming. Bundle #184. *(3) John Randolph JOHNSON (paternal great-great-uncle). Ibid. *(4) Oliver Perry JOHNSON (pat. great-great-grandfather). Ibid. * * * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS do not publish queries and the editors regret that they are unable to provide research assistance. You can subscribe to the relevant surname and locality mailing lists http://lists.rootsweb.com/ and then post queries to them. You can search all of RootsWeb's resources by starting at RootsWeb's main page http://www.rootsweb.com/. Search WorldConnect frequently, as new material is added daily (WorldConnect now contains about 64 million entries). AN ARTICLE, STORY, OR LETTER SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION FOR PUBLICATION IN ROOTSWEB REVIEW OR MISSING LINKS 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. 16, 18 April 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 to ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, e-mail: rootsweb-review-subscribe@rootsweb.com