RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine Vol. 7, No. 22, 2 June 2004, Circulation: 838,091+ (c) 1998-2004 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Certification: http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/ * * * Search and share family trees: WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ Learn how to find your ancestors: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Post and read messages on all relevant surname, locality, and topic Message Boards and Mailing Lists: Message Boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Mailing Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS AND NOTES. 1a. Creating Golden Queries 1b. Editor's Desk: Circus Folks; Some Sites Worth Seeing 1c. Tips from Readers: Effectual Subject Lines 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Finding a Not-so-distant Distant Cousin" 3. New RootsWeb Mailing Lists 4. New Webpages at RootsWeb 5. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 6. New User-contributed Databases 7. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "For the Birds"; "Names in the News"; "GPS Possibilities" "Family Bible Lost to Descendants" "Who Am I--Really?"; "BRANCHing Out"; "Paying the Price"; "Practical Side of Baptism"; "Famous Folks Baptized in South America" "Fooling the Web Bots"; "Doing the Math"; "Tombstone Inscriptions"; "Finding Sunken Tombstones" 8. Humor/Humour: Hucksters, Hawks, and 'Huskers" 9. Submission Guidelines, Subscriptions, Advertising, Reprint Policy ======================================================================== 1. NEWS AND NOTES. 1a. Creating Golden Queries You have probably had someone say to you "a penny for your thoughts" many times in your life. But have you ever stopped to think of the worth, the value, of a query you plan to post on a RootsWeb mailing list or a RootsWeb/Ancestry message board? Consider your goal before posting a genealogical query. There is a certain amount of information you already know, and, of course, there's additional information you wish to learn. You can best accomplish the goal of discovering new information if your query clearly and concisely states what facts you already know, and plainly asks for the information you wish to learn. First, consider the audience to whom you want to direct your query. Do not expect the list subscribers to an Ohio County list to be able to answer a query about your ancestors who lived in Missouri. Don't ask about Irish ship lists or which genealogy software is best suited to your needs, on a list devoted to Alsace-Lorraine research. You may be subscribed to one or several lists and feel it won't hurt to ask the list members with whom you have already become acquainted to answer your question about software or ships. You may feel as though your fellow list members are extended "family," but those list members are not the most knowledgeable researchers to be asking questions about subject matter not covered by the lists to which they belong. Find a list or board devoted to the topic of your query in order to find the "experts" on that topic. For lists, you will need to subscribe to post your query, but once you have obtained your answer, you can always unsubscribe when you no longer have any interest in, or need for, the subject matter being discussed on a list. With message boards, you do not need to subscribe to post and, if the board is gatewayed to the corresponding list, you have the added benefit of the list members seeing your query and possibly responding. You can find the most appropriate list for your query starting here: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ and you can find a board starting here: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Once you have found the most appropriate forum for posting your query, your second consideration is choosing an eye-catching and informative, yet brief, subject. Subjects are like an advertising banner for your query -- they either immediately catch someone's eye and draw their interest in reading your message in full, or they result in your query being overlooked -- all due to a dull or poor subject line. Subjects such as "Help," "Genealogy," "Research," or "Looking for Family" tell the reader nothing. On a genealogy list or board everyone is looking, researching, and needing help. Get to the crux of the matter. Put yourself in the place of the unknown reader who is going to find your message in his incoming e-mail or who is going to be browsing through a message board index page. Include the name, dates, places of the people about whom your query revolves -- and avoid abbreviations. Think. Will your cousin in New Zealand, who has your mutual ancestor's 1852 family Bible, know who and what you are talking about? Leave no doubt, spell everything out. Take time to plan and prepare your subject line and query before posting it. Don't rely on impulse. There is no rush to post a query. Your ancestors are not going anywhere -- they will still be here tomorrow if you are not completely satisfied with the wording you have selected for your query today. Review the wording of your query after you have constructed it to be sure you have answered the specific questions regarding the WHO you are writing about, WHAT you are looking to learn, WHERE the family lived, and WHEN they lived there. Ask yourself whether you would understand your query if you were not familiar with this family or ancestor. If you can answer YES to all of the above your query may be ready to post. Take another run-through to check for spelling errors and incorrect dates and for anything that might be extraneous to the basics of your query. If someone responds to your message, you can always flesh out the details about how your great-grandfather built his own sod house on the prairie in a later e-mail reply. Lengthy details that add nothing to the specifics of your query often tend to lose the reader's interest, especially if the reader has no apparent connection to your ancestors. Remember that while YOUR genealogy is extremely interesting to YOU, others may not be engrossed in all the details. If you keep the message brief and get to the point of your query -- perhaps a lookup in the 1900 census -- someone, even someone unconnected to your ancestors, might just keep reading long enough to realize they can help you. All of the above considerations add value to your query. Your choice of words can be worth far more than the proverbial "penny for your thoughts" -- if you take time to plan and prepare. A well-constructed query can be as valuable as gold. * * * 1b. EDITOR'S DESK. Circus Folks; Some Sites Worth Seeing Circus Folks: Finding Genealogy in Unwonted Places By James Mundie of Philadelphia Pennsylvania For several years I have been working on and exhibiting a series of portrait drawings called "Prodigies." The subjects of my portraits are somewhat unusual individuals -- those once unkindly referred to as circus freaks. The series has been exhibited widely and garnered much critical acclaim. Several years ago, I began to publish the works on a website http://www.missioncreep.com/mundie/images/ as a sort of permanent online exhibition that now includes a gallery of historical ephemera related to sideshow performance I have collected. I try to include a bit of biographical information about each of the performers to help viewers understand the context of the portraits. Through the website, I frequently receive e-mail inquiries and comments about my work. Quite an unexpected development is that I have often received letters from relatives of some of the performers I have featured in my series. Usually these are people who have just discovered a famous (or infamous, as the case may be) circus performer in their lineage and are anxious to discover more information. Occasionally, they are able to provide me with more information about their ancestor, which I have used to further flesh out my brief biographical sketches. Through these messages, I have become a conduit for connecting various branches of sideshow family trees. For instance, in just the last two months I have reunited two branches of the family descended from Francesco LENTINI, the three-legged man known as "King of the Freaks"; connected two descendants of Eli BOWEN, the Legless Acrobat; provided contact points for relations of Myrtle CORBIN, the Four-legged Woman from Texas; and started a flurry of e-mails back and forth between several parties related to Dolletta BOYKIN, the World's Smallest Mother. So quite unexpectedly, my artwork -- through the magic of the Internet -- has served to bring together long lost cousins and further genealogical inquiry and research. I never would have thought such a thing was even possible; but now every time I post a new drawing to my website, I wonder whether I might open my incoming e-mail the next morning to find a message from some distant relation of the unusual individual depicted. Editor's Note: RootsWeb has a mailing list pertaining to circus folks. http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Occupations/CIRCUS-FOLK.html * * * Some Sites Worth Seeing History of America's Memorial Day http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/memorial/history.html Normandy: 1944 http://search.eb.com/normandy/ Dear Home: Letters from World War II http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/dearhome/index.html Tips on Preserving Your Family's Old Letters http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/dearhome/preservation.html * * * 1c. TIPS FROM READERS. Effectual Subject Lines By Kate Cunningham in Wellington New Zealand I have been perusing my family tree for 20 years, the last five of these mainly through the Internet. After reading the general article recently in RootsWeb Review where it mentioned thinking carefully about your subject headings when posting to Message Boards and Mail Lists, it made me stop and think about some e-mails that I have received with similar problems. Either no subject at all or something along the line of "HENDERSON family -- please help" or just "Help required." Please people, think CAREFULLY when filling out the subject line on your e-mail. With all the viruses that plague us, if I receive an e-mail with no subject and I do not know the sender it is automatically deleted -- unopened. This is after the said e-mail has passed through my ISP's spam filter and my AV (antivirus) program. As for e-mail with a "please help or help required" subject, it does not arouse my interest, and depending on my mood can either be deleted unread or sit in my "In Box" until I get around to reading it -- eventually. Along this line as well is the subject of attachments. If you see someone's tree at WorldConnect and you start jumping for joy to have found that lost branch of the family, please have the courtesy to send an e-mail (with proper subject heading) introducing yourself and how you are connected first before sending your family information as an attachment. This will accomplish three things immediately. 1. Your interest in this line. 2. Whether the person you are writing to already has the information you have. 3. The recipient knows to expect another e-mail from you with an attachment. If everyone took a little time to think about their subject lines before hitting the SEND button, we just might be able to trust what appears in our in boxes as genuine mail and not a virus or some scam, and you might hear back a lot faster. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finding a Not-so-distant Distant Cousin By Robert M. Henderson in Florida In the 1970s and '80s, I was a field archaeologist in England, working mostly in the southwestern shires, especially Wiltshire. Traveling the countryside on days off I found and fell in love with the small village of Castle Combe, Wilts. It is one of those places where, if one ignores the remarkably scant modern additions, it is possible to imagine you have stepped back in time a few centuries and is generally acknowledged as the most beautiful village in England. In the course of tracing my English ancestors within the last couple of months I have found that one immigrant ancestor's family had lived in Castle Combe in the mid-1100s and remained within a 12-mile radius of there until he came to the Colonies about 1651. That would be some 500 years in the same place. The earliest ancestor associated with Castle Combe was, according to a history of the PLAISTED family, Reginald de DUNSTANVILLE (?-1156), Baron of Castle Combe, whose 3rd-great-granddaughter, Ela BISET or BASSET (ca 1246-after 1270) married Robert de PLESSITIS (ca 1240-after 1270), younger son of John du PLESSIS (1195-1263). Could this be a case of "racial memory"? With 18 generations of ancestors in that area I must be descended from a large number of Wiltshire families. The biggest surprise was yet to come. John du PLESSIS' eldest son and heir, Hugh de PLESSITIS married Ela's sister Isabella and their progeny prospered through the years. As I followed their descendants, I kept coming across surnames and places that seemed oddly familiar until I came to William de FERRERS (1333-1371). From the relationship calculator I found that he was my 4th cousin, 16 times removed. On a hunch I replaced my name with that of another name in my files and found this was William's 2nd cousin, 20 times removed. A very distant cousin? Well, perhaps in one way, but in another way not very distant at all, as I only had to walk some 30 feet to the sun porch to tell my wife she was also my cousin. 3. New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Brand-new mailing lists can be found under OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS until moved to their proper categories. For information and an index to the more than 28,100 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ADDAMS DUMMETT HOLZHAUSEN MINGE ODGERS SOWDEN NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS HI-FOOTSTEPS -- Sharing original Hawaii source material for genealogical purposes NVDATA -- Submitting data files to the Nevada GenWeb archives NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS None created this week. 4. New Webpages at RootsWeb To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these webpages 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. For example, the Green County, Wisconsin Biographies Project website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wigcbiog/ U.S.A. ctlscdar -- Lucretia Shaw (Connecticut) Chapter DAR gaglynn2 -- Glynn County (Georgia) njdar -- New Jersey State Organization, NSDAR scbscbcc -- Big Stevens Creek (South Carolina) Baptist Church Cemetery wigcbiog -- Green County (Wisconsin) Biographies Project 5. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- None reported this week. 6. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ---------------------------------------------- The following databases have come online recently. They are searchable, but not browseable. ENGLAND. Devonshire. St. Mary's Priory Nunnery and Orphan Home, 1901; 121 records; Liza P. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/uki/ LOUISIANA. Bossier Parish. Haughton. Haughton Cemetery. 463 records; Vicki Strickland http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ MICHIGAN. Wayne County. Redford. Redford High School; Class of January 1940; 191 records; Donald R Galley http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NEW JERSEY. Essex County. Newark. South 8th Street School; Class of 1941; 102 records; Joe Cummins http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NEW YORK. Monroe County. Rochester. (Contributed by Cliff Milligan) Riverside Cemetery; Milligan surname; 7 records; http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ Benjamin Franklin High School; Class of 1931; 105 records; Class of January 1937; 214 records; Class of June 1937; 311 records; http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ PENNSYLVANIA. Bedford County. Pleasantville Cemetery; 1,081 records; Mary Riesbol June http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ 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]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For the Birds By Lynnette Wescovich Just thought I'd add my unusual name to the growing list. He wasn't in my line, but I always wished he were because it would make it easy to find him! His name was Huckleberry BIRDCHOPPER. In my own line I do claim Xerxes Zachariah CHIPMAN and Xenophone Alexander CHIPMAN, though. * * * Names in the News By Megan Smith in Las Vegas, Nevada I've read with interest the stories about naming children after famous people. In my Texas line, there are two brothers, children numbers 7 and 8, one named Cole Younger (for the outlaw) and the other Grover Cleveland (for the U.S. president). Famous or infamous, those were names of the day in the news. I also have a line that changed the spelling of HAYES to HAYS--reportedly because of U.S. President Rutherford B. HAYES. * * * GPS Possibilities By Mark Hile in Richmond, Virginia In a recent issue of the RWR, there was mention about GPS -- Global Positioning System. That reminded me of an idea I had and wondered if anyone else had the same idea and has actual tried it. Last year my father was going back to western Pennsylvania where all of his ancestors are buried and so I asked him to go and take pictures of the tombstone of his grandparents, for further proof and verification. After looking at the pictures I thought, "What if I wanted to go and visit the graveyard and the tombstones for myself?" I had no way of knowing where the graveyard was and how would I get to the tombstones? That is when I thought about using GPS to mark the way. The idea being that once we find an ancestor's tombstone and graveyard that we could use the GPS to not only record the location of the tombstone in the graveyard, but to also use the GPS to record every turn to get to the graveyard from a major well-known intersection, such as an Interstate exit in the USA. This way the information could be given to others, enabling them to then retrace the same route using the GPS coordinates to locate the graveyard and then locate the tombstone (provided, of course, that they too had a GPS unit). Possibly this information could be posted on webpages for others to trace our steps and possibly for starting a database of GPS coordinates of graveyard locations. I have not used a GPS unit, so I am not sure how all this would work, but I understand the concept of the technology and was wondering if it would work. Have any of the readers of RWR have done this and how hard is it and how expensive is a GPS unit that has the capability to do this? If this could be done, it sure could many people by enabling others to find their ancestors' tombstones and leaving that information for future generations. * * * Family Bible Lost to Descendants By Bruce Hodgson Regarding "Kindness of Strangers," by Cathy Harmon in the 19 May RWR, I had the opposite experience. At my late paternal grandparents' home, I remember a huge and heavy family Bible with a half-dozen pages of hand- penned information about ancestors, their births, marriages and deaths, all with dates. This incredible volume was to be mine, but not so. After my grandmother's death over four decades ago, my grandfather in a moment of flirtatious forgetfulness gave it on request to an adopted cousin who moved to the other side of the world. At a rare family reunion, I asked kindly if she could photograph the family pages or copy the data for which I would gladly pay her any and all costs. Her response was that flash bulbs would destroy the handwriting and copying was out of the question. To the best of my memory, several generations of about 100 names spanning two centuries of my bloodlines, not hers, are lost forever to my eyes and to that of my children, my grandchildren and their future progeny--a treasure lost apparently forever. I wish for and welcome any change of heart. * * * Who Am I -- Really? By Betty Lipe Living about 300 yards from my church cemetery, where five generations are buried, I thought this was a head start on my genealogy "proof." As it is, on the surface, because Timothy Brooks CRAVEN (private CSA), his son, William Adam CRAVEN, his son Thomas Howard CRAVEN (my grandfather), and Thomas' son, William Foy CRAVEN, are buried in marked graves there. I started there, putting all the information off the markers in my genealogy database. Then, I went to the local register of deeds to get the birth and death certificates that were available (after 1914). To my surprise, the father for William Adam CRAVEN was listed as Lui LOVE, of Stanly County, North Carolina. The informant was my grandfather, Thomas Howard CRAVEN. All of the census records list William Adam CRAVEN living in the household of Timothy Brooks CRAVEN, as a son. Who do I believe? Did my grandfather know something that was not known to others? Am I really a CRAVEN or LOVE descendent? * * * BRANCHing Out By Rosemary Holdredge I read with the interest the discussions in RWR about the difficulty of tracing ancestors with surnames of DIR and LINE. I have one to add to the mix - BRANCH. This is an old Virginia surname, starting with Christopher BRANCH who came to Jamestown in 1622. But Internet searches turn up hundreds of branches of family trees. * * * Paying the Price By Merle Lundy In response to Hugh McTiernan's article about several children being baptised at one time, I have learned that at least some churches required a family to be church members in order to have anyone baptised in the church. There was a financial cost attached to this. Therefore, someone who was not a church member, perhaps because he/she couldn't afford it, joined just to have baptisms performed. Thus, if a family had several children, they could join once, have several baptisms performed at once, then not join again, unless, of course, they needed the same service in the future. * * * Practical Side of Baptism By Julie Armstrong in the UK With reference to Hugh McKiernan's query as to why several children of the same family were baptised "in one go" -- one reason for this is that if a family fell onto hard times and wanted help from the parish, it was often only given if the family had been baptised into the church -- hence a sudden rush to ensure that everyone was eligible to receive such help. * * * Famous Folks Baptized in South America By Mark Hile of Richmond, Virginia My father and mother have traveled the world and one of those places was Brazil. In Brazil, they have a habit of naming their children after famous Americans. To give you example the parents would name a boy George Washington, then use their family name as the last name. So my parents would come back after their trips and tell us about all the "famous Americans" that they had met in Brazil on a particular trip. Like John Wayne, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt and so on. On one of those trips they came back and told us that they were visiting a church in Brazil and on this Sunday part of the service there were some people that were being baptized. These were not babies or infants, but either young people or adults. So they said that on this day they saw Elvis Presley and Billy Graham baptized. Well, we all had a very good laugh about that. They also said that they had a hard time during the ceremony to be serious and not to crack up laughing at the image in their imagination of the real Elvis and Billy being baptized together. * * * Fooling the Web Bots By Quentin Fontana in the UK http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/quentinfontana/ An item that came up recently about posting contact details on websites and it was noted by Alice Mechler that there are search engines out there that harvest e-mail addresses, which results in excessive spam. I recently had to change my e-mail address because of this problem. These search engines look for the particular format of e-mail addresses. However, there are ways of disguising them, for instance using a human readable form such as: "tony dot blair at numberten dot gov dot uk" (I doubt if it is his actual one!). There is an interesting article on the subject at: http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml * * * Doing the Math By Jim Lancaster in Bury, Lancashire, England Our local family history society recently published details of the gravestones and burials in the graveyard of one of our now unused (full of dry rot) Anglican (Episcopalian) churches in Bury, Lancashire. The graveyard was landscaped over 20 years ago and only about 40 stones remain. One has the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory / of / Isaac JONES / born September 21st 1791 / at 20 minutes past 8 o'clock A.M. / Died February 21st 1847 / aged 29,146,960 minutes. / Jane his wife / born July 5th 1778 / Died [blank] / aged [blank] minutes." Clearly, it was not Isaac who calculated his life span -- it may have been Jane to show that she could do arithmetic. * * * Tombstones Inscriptions By David Patterson I recently went to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Editor's Note: See website http://www.amanacolonies.com/historical/ They have buried their dead with only a death date and age since about 1850 until the present day. I asked a descendant of the original settlers why this was and she said she was told that all are equal in death. * * * Finding Sunken Tombstones By Kay Hoover in Sonora, California Regarding Sally's comments on the "sunken" headstones, it does happen. I found empty spots where two ancestors were listed to have been buried in Greenfield, Iowa. I was told they could not do anything with head- stones unless requested by a family member. I'm probably the only family member to visit the cemetery in more than 100 years. I requested that they check to see if stones were buried and sure enough, they turned big ones up and even sent me pictures of them after they were re-set. So ask -- you could see those stones after all. 8. Humor/Humour: Hucksters, Hawks, and 'Huskers ----------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Richard A. Pence of Fairfax, Virginia, who writes: "I just ran across this one in 1880 census of Seward County, Nebraska. "The occupation of the head of the household was "huckster." His wife's "occupation" was "huckster's wife." Apparently, the latter was a full- time job, as their 6-year-old daughter's occupation was "keeping house." (The 5-year-old was "at home.") "Was a huckster then pretty much the same as now: 'A retailer of small articles, of provisions, and the like; a peddler; a hawker.' Other definitions give the term a shadier connotation." [Editor's Note: A huckster is also one who writes advertising copy, especially for radio or television, but obviously there was not much demand for one in 1880]. 9. Submission Guidelines, Changes, 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 TEXT (please, no attachments) to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Search/download past issues of the RootsWeb Review: http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ * * * SUBSCRIPTIONS. To manage your e-mail communications (i.e. to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, or to sign up for others), visit our newsletter management center any time at: http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of MyFamily.com, Inc., 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT, 84604 * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS. Ad Sales Operations Mgr. Shana Davis sdavis@myfamilyinc.com U.S., Worldwide Sales: Sacha Yenkana syenkana@myfamilyinc.com * * * REPRINTS. 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. 7, No. 22, 2 June 2004. * * * *