RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine Vol. 6, No. 27, 02 July 2003, Circulation: 982,244+ (c) 1998-2003 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Certification: http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/ RootsWeb Review is a free weekly e-zine * * * Find your ancestors: Post genealogical queries on all relevant surname, locality, and topic message boards and mailing lists: Message Boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Mailing Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ * * * See Section 9 below for RWR subscription guidelines and instructions If you wish to reach the RootsWeb Review DO NOT use your e-mail application's "REPLY TO" option to this publication. Write to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Do not send any subscription changes/requests to the editor ================================================================= In This Issue: 1. NEWS AND NOTES. 1a. Exploring RootsWeb 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: "Scouting Projects" 1c. SPOTLIGHT ON A SOCIETY: "Tree Talks" 1d. ERRORS FOUND IN RECORDS: "A Slip of the Tongue" 2. Connecting through RootsWeb: "Finding Families Online 3. New Webpages at RootsWeb 4. New RootsWeb Mailing Lists 5. New User-contributed Databases 6. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 7. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Making a Difference" and "Being Your Own Grandma" 8. Humor/Humour: "Chatty Genes" 9. RWR Reprint and Submissions Guidelines; Archives; Addresses; Subscription Modification Instructions ================================================================== 1. NEWS AND NOTES. 1a. EXPLORING ROOTSWEB. Getting started on your family history is easy at RootsWeb. All its services and programs are free. Begin on the RootsWeb homepage and explore the various resources and searches available. http://www.rootsweb.com/ You will find easy links to Family Trees (WorldConnect), Searches (at RootsWeb), Message Boards, Mailing Lists, Web Sites (at RootsWeb), Passwords, and Help (HelpDesk) by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of any RootsWeb page. A few places require that you create your own user name and password. For example, the use of some RootsWeb/Ancestry Message Board features requires registration and logging in. http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Also: --Submitting a GEDCOM to WorldConnect requires creating an account by selecting a user name and password. --Adding Post-em Notes on various RootsWeb databases requires that you establish a password. In all of these cases, the password you use is one that you select for the purpose of keeping the information you post secure, and to ensure that you, and only you, can access that material in the event you later want to edit or delete it. If you request free web space at RootsWeb: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ you will be assigned a randomly selected password for use in creating and maintaining your pages. Security precautions are the reason that these personal web-account passwords, unlike the others, are not user- selected. If you are new to or have some questions about genealogical research, check out RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Explore RootsWeb to the fullest and good luck with your research. * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: "Scouting Projects" Thanks to: Barbara Murray babs10951@yahoo.com A past Eagle Scout of our Boy Scout Troop 880 in Chesterfield County, Virginia chose to clean up a cemetery as his Eagle project. The troop continues to maintain the cemetery as an annual community service project. My son Jonathan recently became an Eagle Scout and there was quite an effort to find the right project. If there are other cemeteries American RootsWeb readers know about which need care, call your local Boy Scout Council. I'm sure there will be an upcoming Eagle Scout who will take it on! [Editor's Note: American Scouts can earn a badge in genealogy. Requirements can be seen found here: http://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/mb/mb056.html Are Scouts involved in cemetery cleanup and restoration in your country? The RootsWeb Review would like to know about them. Send stories to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com ] * * * 1c. TREE TALKS. SPOTLIGHT ON A SOCIETY. Since 1961 the Central New York Genealogical Society, based in Syracuse, New York, has published "Tree Talks" -- an excellent 64-page quarterly. The society abstracts pre-1860 data from 49 upstate New York counties. To make it easier for researchers, the society now has compiled the data published over the past 40 years in "Tree Talks" into "county packets" so that researchers can have complete abstracts of this material -- by county. Most of the sources are those that offer birth, marriage or death information, and may be obscure for those researching from afar. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nycnygs/publications.htm CNYGS members also are indexing the surnames contained in the Tree Talks County Packets and they will be posted on its website as they are completed. See: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nycnygs/index-master.htm * * * 1d. ERRORS FOUND IN RECORDS: "A Slip of the Tongue" By Susan BUCE buce@gorge.net http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~buce/ I've been reading with amusement the various letters about documentation errors. While blame is often passed to the clerk recording the information, I know that it's just as likely that a family member can be responsible for a deliberate error. My grandmother, Ethel Elizabeth BREINING, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Jacob Rahn BREINING, was a good German man and a devout Lutheran. After Ethel married my grandfather, Jack McKinley BUCE, she moved to Oklahoma. Their first child -- my father (now deceased) -- was born in August 29, 1920 in Petit, Oklahoma. Ethel and Jack decided to name the baby Jack McKinley BUCE Jr. after his father. When he was six months old, Ethel took her son home to Cincinnati to meet his grandparents and to have him baptized. I had seen the photos of my grandmother and my father on that trip, but it wasn't until recently that my aunt casually mentioned an interesting twist to the baptism story. It seems that Great-grandpa BREINING made the arrangements to have the baby baptized by the German minister of his church. Since the minister spoke no English, the baptism ceremony was conducted in German, a language Ethel wasn't fluent in. It wasn't until after the ceremony that Ethel learned that great-grandpa had instructed the minister in German to baptize the baby Jacob, after himself, instead of using the name that Ethel and Jack had selected for him. I don't know what my grandmother said to her father when she discovered the deception, but according to my aunt she was plenty mad about it. I am grateful that my aunt remembered that story because I would never have thought to look for my father's baptism record under the name of "Jacob" BUCE. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finding Families Online --Laura (Harper) Hurst wodiandhubby@yahoo.com Over the last few years I have hit the RootsWeb Mailing Lists like clockwork. I have left posts and gone to many websites in hopes of finding out something about my father's family. (Thank you RootsWeb for the free sources and the many helpful volunteers.) Not long after I began to really dig, I found a cousin who sent me a photo (the only one I have) of my grandfather. She also sent me copies of death certificates, marriage licenses, old newspapers and many very old photos of other ancestors and of headstones. This package of information was too much for me to understand and absorb all at once. Though I received this package from Sara HARPER a few years ago, I am still going through it, and now I realize how much work and effort went into it. There is no way I could ever thank her enough. What a sweet woman to share all this with me and my family. I have so many brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews and more to share this with, but I just could not photo all this (for each one) or remember it all, so what was I to do? I decided that I needed to create a roots file and share this information. Having the busy lives that we have today, and not knowing anyone nearby to show me the ropes, I soon gave up on that idea. I began to save as much information as I could (along with the old pictures and some documents) using my scanner and a free and easy website. Then I began to add my mother's family too, and before I knew it I had found so many "cousins" and so many others added old photos and more info, and all wanted to share (thank you so much), and my names and pages have grown to almost a book now. Now I know that I must soon get some sort of software to save all this information. People can be so wonderful and so enlightening. Four years ago, I knew nothing of my BULLOCH and THACKER families. While searching (and getting so much info on my father's family (HARPER) up popped these surnames. The best part of this story is the Internet. About the first of June I got the shock of my life. On the Internet you can type in a name and up pops all kinds of websites (mine included). I did not know that this information I was saving and using for family, cousins and friends was so easily opened and found by knowing just a name. My bother had been promiscuous and carefree in his younger days. He had a few children out there that we did not know about (they did not even know about each other). Now in their twenties, these kids began to search for their dad and his family, and went to a computer and typed in his name, and low and behold up pops my website with photos and family history and more info then they could ever dream of. The kids told me they had stayed up most of the night poring through the information and crying tears of joy. My mother and I both got phone calls and the kids are coming to see their grandmother and the family they never met. We are so happy that they have found us. We have been crying, laughing and talking, and are full of joy daily. There is so much to share and never enough time. We are having a big reunion on the Fourth of July and will have a few days to get to know each other a bit. My message is: Please share your genealogical research and make someone's life a little fuller. ======================= Paid Advertisements ======================== Ancestry Members Special Free pack of 6"x4" Premium Glossy Photo Paper with any order http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4680&sourceid=7108 Print out your family photos for less. Save up to 80% on black and color inkjet cartridges, plus, get a pack of premium glossy photo paper a $7.99 value FREE with your order. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4680&sourceid=7108 * * * Find Old School Friends, Lost Loves or Anyone @ Reunion.com Send e-mail, post on discussion boards, view pictures and more. Find out what your old friends are doing today! http://affiliates.reunion.com/affiliatewiz.asp?BannerID=41&AffiliateID= 2013&Task=Click ==================== End of Paid Advertisements ===================== 3. New Webpages at RootsWeb To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these pages might not yet be accessible. They are created by volunteers, so if one that interests you isn't up yet, please check again in a few days or next week. http://www.rootsweb.com/~[accountname] Note that the ~[tilde] before the Web account name is required. Example: The New Mexico Genealogy, American History and Genealogy Project website can be found at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nmahgp/ U.S.A. innwigs--Northwest Indiana Genealogy Society (Lake and Porter counties) njdlvgc -- Delaware and Lehigh Valley Genealogy Club meets in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey. Covers Northampton County, lower Monroe County and upper Bucks County in Pennsylvania; Warren County, lower Sussex County and western Hunterdon County in New Jersey; maacdar -- Agawam Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts) nmahgp -- New Mexico Genealogy, American History and Genealogy Project txhsp -- Hourglass Society for Preservation (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Focus is to facilitate the preservation of lost and neglected cemeteries and gravesites; document and trace the histories of historically black groups and organizations in Texas and northeast Louisiana. wasacdar -- Sacajawea Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (Olympia, Thurston County, Washington) wassdar -- Washington State Society, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution 4. New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- The following are Mailing Lists, not websites. For more information and an index to the more than 26,900 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and easy subscribing options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS DEU-SAARLAND -- Saarland, Germany LA-GULF-COAST -- Louisiana area of the Gulf Coast (includes Cameron, Vermilion, Iberia, Saint Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and Saint Bernard parishes) NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS CT-VETERANS -- Connecticut military service (genealogical focus) NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS BAILEY-UK -- The BAILEY surname in the United Kingdom BOCKS COOTS DAWSON-AR -- The DAWSON surname in Arkansas DAWSON-MO -- The DAWSON surname in Missouri DAWSON-TN -- The DAWSON surname in Tennessee DAWSON-TX -- The DAWSON surname in Texas GAZE, GROOMBRIDGE LIKENS MCMAINS-Robert -- Genealogy and descendancy of Robert McMains (first wife Sarah; second wife Lavinia O'NEILL). Website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hewes/ PALMATEER, PLILEY, POLMATEER SEMONES, SHARPING, STRIEKER STEWART-non-USA -- The STEWART surname outside the United States TOTTMAN 5. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The following user-contributed databases have come online recently. They are searchable, but not browseable. SCOTLAND. Marriages, 1868-1875, MAXWELL surname; 6 records; Paula Ritchie http://userdb.rootsweb.com/uki/ WALES. Burial records from Llanelltyd Bishop's Transcripts, 1733-1836; 838 records; Alwyn ap Huw Humphreys http://userdb.rootsweb.com/uki/ WALES. Census transcriptions, 1881-1901, Dolgellau and district; 10,625 records; Alwyn ap Huw Humphreys http://userdb.rootsweb.com/uki/ U.S.A. Book Indexes: Index to Lewis and Clark Journal, May 1804 through September 1806; 57 records; Robert Bellamy http://userdb.rootsweb.com/bookindexes/ Military Records: Various; 14 records; Paula L Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Military Records: Various; 107 records; Paula L Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Military Records: Roster of Company F, 146th U.S. Infantry, World War I; 405 records; James G. Valle http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Military Records: Roster of Dedicated C-130 Crew Chiefs (DCCs-C-130 Hercules "Flying Crew Chiefs") of Charlie Branch, 62nd Organizational Maintenance Squadron, 62nd Military Airlift Wing, McChord AFB, Washington, 1 January 1984-31 March 1984; 37 records; T. L. Carpenter http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Military Records: Roster of USS Bosque (APA-135) 506 records; Jerry Cutts http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Death records: Selected, SNELL surname 3 records; N. Behre http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ ALABAMA. Jefferson County. George Cemetery, McCalla. 14 records; Donna Hafner http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ ILLINOIS. Death Records, PHELPS surname and variants, January 1916 through December 1938; 213 records; Tamra Phelps http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ ILLINOIS. Kendall County. Oswego Prairie Evergreen Cemetery, 71 records; Jo C. Hunt http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ INDIANA. Lake County. Roosevelt High School Alumni, 1935, East Chicago; 211 records; Dani Shubert http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ INDIANA. Lake County. Roosevelt High School Alumni, 1937, East Chicago; 176 records; Dani Shubert http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NEW JERSEY. Bergen County. Roosevelt Junior High School, 9th Grade Class of 1955, River Edge; 115 records; Jeanne Noeypatimanond http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NEW JERSEY. Morris County. Holland Mountain Cemetery, 155 records; Joan Peterson http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK. Otsego County. State Normal School, 1935 Alumni, Oneonta, 582 records; Karen Cuccinello http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ OHIO. Cuyahoga County. Glenville High School, 1935, Glenville, 145 records; Kim Overberger http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ TEXAS. Rains County. Death certificates, 1924-1948, 636 records; Rains County Genealogical Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ VIRGINIA. Mary Washington College Alumni, 1954, Fredericksburg, 171 records; Paula L Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ VIRGINIA. Stafford County. Antioch United Methodist Church Cemetery Records; 46 records; Paula L Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ WISCONSIN. Saint Croix County. Index to "A Woman at the Turn of a Century:Raising a Midwest Family 1895-1916"; 200 records; Roxanne Munns http://userdb.rootsweb.com/bookindexes/ WISCONSIN. Saint Croix County. Index to "Hudson Diary, 1896-1900: Ellen (GIBSON) ANDREWS"; 480 records; Roxanne Munns http://userdb.rootsweb.com/bookindexes/ 6. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages at RootsWeb -------------------------------------------------- Note: Comments and questions about any of these independently authored webpages should be directed to their respective compilers/webmasters. When your new, updated, or substantially revised personal pages located at RootsWeb (they will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL) are up and ready for visitors, please send the URL (Web address), along with a brief description, including the major pertinent surnames and what is available on your site, to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com CANADA. Ontario. Funerals announcements and obituaries for Thunder Bay District (aka Fort William and Port Arthur) and rural areas. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jmitchell/obits.html CUESTA. Genealogy charts of CUESTA family as it migrated from Mexico to the U.S.A. Includes: CUESTA, CAJERO, BORROEL, SALDANA, URDIALES, JIMENEZ, and CUELLAR. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cuesta/ DESMOND. A family history of the DESMOND family who emigrated from Cork (Ireland) in the early 1860s to the U.S.A. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~desmond2002/ ILLINOIS. Iroquois County. St. John's Lutheran Cemetery, Buckley, Artesia Township. This cemetery, about 3/4 mile southeast of Buckley, by way of the Cissna Park Road off U.S. 45, has been in continuous use since 1870 or earlier and is still being expanded with the acquisition of additional land; includes cemetery plot map and names of those who have purchased gravesites but who are not yet deceased. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~loretta/stjohns/cemetery2003.htm LEWIS. All about the Lewis family of Collin County, Texas; http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jimmylewis/ PERRY. "Recollections of an Old Soldier, the Life of Captain David Perry" (1741-1826), who was a soldier in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. He lived in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Killingly, Connecticut, Plainfield, New Hampshire, and Chelsea and Ira, Vermont. Genealogy and information about descendants. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dagjones/captdavidperry/ ROCKWELL. DNA Analysis Project. Report of a 2002 DNA study on four ROCKWELL lines -- three from Connecticut and one linked to ROCKHOLD family out of Virginia and Maryland. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~rootrock/DNAproject.html 7. FROM ROOTSWEB REVIEW'S BOTTOMLESS MAILBAG [Editor's note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the editor or of RootsWeb.com]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Making a Difference By Larry Heffner Lheffner@inetone.net Recent articles have mentioned that many people are declining to volunteer because people just don't take the time to say thanks anymore. I agree wholeheartedly with their statements but when I start feeling down about the poor manners, etc. I remember a query sent to the Ritchie County, West Virginia newsgroup about two years ago from a lady in Austin, Texas. The query stated "Does anyone know how to find the burial site of 'Jane Doe,' who was buried in an unmarked grave in Ritchie County, West Virginia?" It seems that her father, who was now very elderly, had left home at an early age and had gone to Texas. Soon after he left home his widowed mother died. He couldn't return home in time for the funeral and, since she was the last of his direct line, he decided to stay in Texas. Now in his later years he wondered if there was any way to find where his mother was buried. Since he was the last in the family line he also assumed that no one else would have placed a marker and with the passage of 50 years the gravesite was probably lost. Finding an unmarked grave in an old cemetery is almost, if not, impossible but for some unexplained reason I picked up the cemetery book published by the Ritchie County Historical Society and, lo and behold, the grave of "Jane Doe" was listed and all the names, dates, etc. matched. If the historical society had the information then a tombstone had to exist. I e-mailed the lady asking for her snail-mail address. While on a road trip a couple of weeks later my wife and I took a slight detour to the cemetery and spent a few minutes photographing the cemetery including the gravesite. I dropped the pictures in the mail with a note saying the only compensation necessary was a smile and a promise to help some other poor soul. A couple of weeks passed and I received an e-mail from the lady that said her father opened the letter, saw the pictures, and just sat and wept with tears of joy. Yes, some folks do forget to say thank you but then there are the others where you can truly make a difference. Maybe, just maybe, when you volunteer you can put a little happiness in someone’s heart. * * * Being Your Own Grandma By Lois (Remington) Sorensen lois@westernesse.com http://www.thesorensens.net/ I read with some amusement "Knotholes in the Family Tree" by Bob Henderson (RWR:6:26). Here in Rhode Island, as elsewhere in the early days of America, many families married back and forth from generation to generation, so that it seems as if we are all related to each other somehow. Add to that several sets of cousins marrying each other and we have a very complicated network of relationships. Recently I ran a kinship report in my family tree program, and learned that my father is not only my father, but also my 7th cousin 1xr, 7th cousin 2xr, 8th cousin, 8th cousin 1xr, 8th cousin 2xr, 9th cousin, 9th cousin 1xr, 8th cousin 3xr, 9th cousin 2xr, and 10th cousin. It gets even more complicated for my children's generation, because their paternal grandparents are cousins. So, they are related to themselves many times over. 8. Humor/Humour: Chatty Genes -------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Barbara Chaffin chaffin@scottsbluff.net I have been searching the 1880 U.S. census for possible parents for the wife of my great-grandparent's sibling, when I came across this entry that caused me to laugh out loud, much to the startlement of my pet poodle. Listed in the household of Lewis PIERSOL, 59 of Pennsylvania, a farmer, was his mother -- Sarah PIERSOL. Her occupation was listed as: "Ever Lasting Talker." 9. Submission Guidelines, Advertising Contacts, Reprint Policy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The RootsWeb Review does not publish or answer genealogical queries, and the editor regrets that she is unable to provide any personal research assistance or advice. RootsWeb Review welcomes short (500 words or less) articles, humor, stories, or letters, and reserves the right to edit all submissions. All mail sent to the RootsWeb Review editor is considered to be for publication -- send in plain ASCII text (please, no attachments) to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS: Ad Sales Operations Mgr. Shana Davis sdavis@myfamilyinc.com U.S. West Coast: Sacha Yenkana syenkana@myfamilyinc.com U.S. East Coast: Dan Arnold darnold@myfamilyinc.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: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 6, No. 27, 02 July 2003. * * * SUBSCRIPTIONS: Do not send any subscription requests to the editor. We have special e-mail addresses exclusively for this purpose. Send only subscription requests to: RWR-off@rootsweb.com -- this removes you from the RWR Mailing List. RWR-on@rootsweb.com -- this adds you to the RWR Mailing List. * * * *