RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 25 July 2007, Vol. 10, No. 30 (c) 1998-2007 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Having trouble reading this newsletter? The online version is available at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0725.txt * * * ROOTSWEB HELPDESK: Check here for site maintenance announcements: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ * * * ROOTSWEB NEWSROOM: Check here for the latest RootsWeb news: http://blogs.rootsweb.com/newsroom/ * * * ROOTSWEB STORE: Check here for the latest in genealogy books, software, photos, and more: http://www.therootswebstore.com/ * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES: Check here for previous editions: http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. Family Tree Maker 2008 1b. GeneaSofts 1c. Book Notice (1) 2. Using RootsWeb: XXX 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: I Couldn't Remember the Date 4. Bottomless Mailbag: RE: Yearbooks at RootsWeb and Elsewhere Yearbooks on EBay Permanent E-Mail Addresses Second Cousins 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. New User-contributed Databases 5b. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals 5c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies 5d. New Mailing Lists 6. Humor/Humour 7. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. Family Tree Maker 2008 If you're a Family Tree Maker fan, you'll want to check out the latest version, which can now be pre-ordered for a discount. I've checked it out and love the new interface. Plus, it has other great features, like a new mapping component that uses Microsoft Virtual Earth to find maps of places where your ancestors lived, an enhanced Web search, media storage features, and more. To purchase a copy, go to the RootsWeb store: http://www.therootswebstore.com/ProductDetail.aspx?P=mfsku4454(shops) Stay tuned for "The Official Guide to Family Tree Maker 2008." 1b. GeneaSofts GeneaSofts, a French blog about the latest in genealogy software and technology, has recently come online in English. Author Jean-Yves Baxter is a software developer and avid genealogist. He has often contributed to "La Revue Francaise de Genealogie," the number one genealogy magazine in France. http://geneasofts.geneanet.org/en/ 1c. Book Notice (1) History of the O'Maddens By Gerard Madden If your name is Madden, Madon, Madigan, O'Madigan, or one of numerous other variants, this publication is a must for you. This 205-page, indexed book traces the history of the Maddens since their earliest times and has chapters on their castles, churches, and burial places. It costs $30, including postage. Purchase a copy from the author: Gerard Madden East Clare Heritage Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland eastclareheritage@eircom.net 2. Using RootsWeb: Getting to the Heart of the Subject: Are You Guilty? By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com Have you ever posted a query on a RootsWeb mailing list or message board and gotten absolutely no response? Does it seem like everyone but you is getting the answers and feedback they need while you are shut out in the cold? If so, let's try to pinpoint the reason and improve your odds of making that RootsWeb connection. THE PROBLEM Most people are constantly on the go. They try to "multitask" to cover a lot of ground as quickly as possible. When we scan our inboxes for new e-mails, or search new message board posts, we generally don't read every word of every message. Many of us scan the subject lines and then only read those messages that appeal to us; that is, we read the message if we find a name, location, or fact in the subject line that attracts our attention. Digest mailing list subscribers, especially, are notorious for quickly scanning the subjects in the index of a digest before deciding which messages to read and which to ignore. If we have books at our disposal that allow us to do lookups, we often only read those posts that mention the topics covered by our books. PITFALLS TO AVOID When we encounter a subject line that says "no subject," or a generic subject line such as "Looking," "Searching," "Genealogy," "My Family," or worse yet, "Help!" we tend to disregard the message and move on to the next e-mail. Another red flag for someone perusing a mailing list is the digest subscriber who merely clicks "reply" to a digest message and leaves the digest as the subject of the reply. I think we'd all admit that a subject line of "SMITH Digest, Vol 2, Issue 171" isn't exactly telling us much about the content of the message within. When replying to a digest message be sure to change the default subject to an informative one. A WELL-WRITTEN QUERY IS MEANINGLESS IF IT IS NEVER READ Quite possibly you have drafted an informative, well-written query with the names of the people you are researching, details of the times and places where they lived, and the information you wanted to learn. However, it may still be lost if no one reads your message because of a poor subject line. Your message body should embellish your subject line and provide additional details. THE SOLUTION: CREATING A MEANINGFUL SUBJECT LINE TO ATTRACT READERS Provide concise but specific information about the content of your message. Include the name, location, and time frame of the individuals in your message. Tell us what information you are looking for. In other words, briefly outline your reason for posting the query. If your query includes an interesting story about your ancestor, provide the reader with an indication of the story enclosed so that your message attracts his attention. Some examples of good subject lines follow: --Maiden name needed for Sophie who married John SMITH in 1900 in Chicago, Illinois --Seeking parents of Joseph JONES born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1765 --Looking for Obituary of James JOHNSON who died in Clearwater, Florida, in 1965 --Seeking Descendants of Henricus GEIGER who Died in 1746 in Lembach, Alsace, France --James O'REILLY, born New Jersey, 1830; killed at Battle of Gettysburg, 1863; need marriage information --Morris FRIEDMAN, immigrated in 1900 to Philadelphia, PA, from Russia-- Seeking Village of Origin Note: It is typical to capitalize surnames so that they quickly catch readers' attention. CONCLUSION The success of your query rests largely on your ability to create a subject line that will grab readers. Readers will be more likely to take the time to study your message and consider whether they have an interest or an answer for you. So stop crying for HELP in the wilderness and SEARCHING and LOOKING aimlessly, and start providing specifics in your subject lines. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST GENEALOGICAL LIBRARY ANCESTOR SEEKERS researchers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will search this vast collection for your ancestors from the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, or Europe. Friendly service, affordable prices. For a no-obligation research assessment visit: http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research.rwr/ For help from professional genealogists in England or Scotland visit: http://www.britishancestors.com/ Or join us 30 September-5 October for our NINTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the ideal genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: I Couldn't Remember the Date By Lora M. Lewis-Handiboe This story deals with a brick wall surrounding the death date of my great-grandfather, John M. LEWIS. My great-grandfather was one of my all time favorite people. After the Civil War, his father came to Washington, D.C., out of necessity to earn a living. He owned a little construction company and helped build what is today Florida Avenue. In turn, my great-grandfather took over the construction company. Great-Grandpa often took care of me when I was young, but he was murdered in Washington, D.C., when I was about ten. In those days, they didn't usually allow children in the hospital, and, if they did, you really had to be well-behaved and quiet. However, I remember being allowed in the hospital to see him before he died. My memory of that event has always been a little hazy, though, and I just haven't ever been able to remember exactly how old I was at the time; therefore, while I could estimate his death date, I was not sure-- even of the exact year. After years of research, I discovered a wonderful book that my great- grandfather's father had written about the Civil War ("Recollections from 1860 to 1865"), and I discovered his birth date through a contact I received from a nice lady claiming to be a great-great-great- granddaughter of John's father. However, no matter what I did, I just could not find his date of death. It didn't help that his name was John M. LEWIS. Of course I looked in the "Washington Post" and all over Ancestry.com and everywhere else I had access to, but with no luck. After discovering his birth date, a new cousin, and other information, I told myself that I was plenty lucky enough. But secretly, not having his death date bothered me quite a bit. One day it occurred to me that there was something very obvious here. My great-grandmother had died in the 1940s, quite a few years before my great-grandfather did. My great-grandfather never really got over her death--he was that kind of person. So, of course, I thought, he was probably buried next to her. I remembered that two years earlier, my new-found cousin, who has helped handle the LEWIS list at RootsWeb at various times, had sent me his wife's obituary. I suddenly realized that her obituary could give me one very important clue--where she, and he, were buried. From there I could obtain the date of death. I called the Mt. Olivet cemetery in Washington, D.C., where Mary LEWIS was buried, and the lady there was kind enough to tell me the internment date. Sure enough, I was able to find a tiny mention of a John LEWIS in the "Washington Post" in March 1964. Even when many years pass by--or maybe especially when many years pass by--those that one cared about can seem closer and more important; we want to know about and honor them. Thank goodness that with my cousin's help and many other resources, I now have a pretty detailed sketch of the great-grandfather I knew and loved. 4. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Yearbooks at RootsWeb and Elsewhere By Rex Everage Enterprise, Alabama In the interesting article "Yearbooks at RootsWeb and Elsewhere," published in last week's Review, Mary wrote that at Wabash College, her great-grandfather's Hare and Hound Club members "shared a special yell: Brekety Kek Ko-Ax Ko-Oo, Brekety Kex O, Ninety-two." Did the school offer courses in classical Greek? That yell is lifted and adapted from the chorus of frogs in Aristophanes' play "The Frogs." One sits back and marvels at how much the curriculum has changed during the intervening century. No, I never had a course in Greek, only a good survey course in classical literature. But how many schools offer even that nowadays? Oh, the constancy of change. To read "Yearbooks at RootsWeb and Elsewhere," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0718.txt * * * Yearbooks on EBay By John A. McCall I noticed your mention of yearbooks in the most recent issue of RootsWeb. You might also want to mention looking on EBay for yearbooks. I found just by random luck that someone had advertised a copy of my 1947 high school yearbook from Rantoul Township High School, Rantoul, Illinois. I was the editor of the yearbook. There had been a gap of many years without a yearbook at this school until 1947. I do believe there is still an Eaglet produced each year since that time. This was not a large school, so there would not be too many known copies still in existence. And, yes, I do still have my copy. * * * Permanent E-Mail Addresses By Bill Buchanan http://billbuchanan.clawz.com The message "Updating E-mail Addresses," by Lyndall Maxwell definitely touched a nerve in my case. Too often I have found an interesting posting, or a scrap of information that some contact of mine was looking for, only to have my message "bounce" into oblivion. E-mail address books and contact lists quickly go out of date, stopping the flow of genealogical information. I would like to give my opinion on a partial remedy for this. The usual reason why e-mail addresses get outdated is because many people still post with e-mail addresses from their ISP (Internet Service Provider). Instead, may I suggest you use one of the free web-based e-mail accounts from places like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or Excite. These are independent of your ISP and provide a permanent e-mail address (so long as you continue to actively use the web-based account). They have the additional advantage of being accessible anywhere, without needing to reconfigure your host's computer. They also have generous- sized inboxes (handy for off-site storage of your genealogy databases), and when you change computers or reinstall Windows you don't lose your e-mail archives or e-mail address book. To read "Updating E-mail Addresses," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0718.txt * * * Second Cousins By John Sandy In the "Connecting" section of Volume 10, No. 29, Jean Neale questioned the relationship between herself and her newly found cousin. She indicated that this newly found cousin was the child of the children of her mother's father's brother. The way I figure out the cousin relationship is to identify the siblings (in her case, it would be her mother's father and his brother). Children of siblings are first cousins. The children of first cousins are second cousins, etc. Therefore, this new cousin is her second cousin. To read Jean Neale's article, " How Come We Left It So Long?" visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0718.txt [Editor's Note: You can also think of it like this: Your first cousins are the people in your family who have the same grandparents as you. Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents. Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents as you, and so on. Also, you can easily find relationship calculators online to help you if you get stuck.] 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ------------------------------------------------------------- No New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb 5b. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Can your cousins find your website at RootsWeb? Has it ever been mentioned here or do you have a new, updated, or substantially revised website at RootsWeb (it will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL)? Send the URL, the title of the website, the name of the author, and a BRIEF description of the site, including major surnames, to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com * * * If your genealogy- or history-related site is located somewhere other than at RootsWeb.com, you can add the link here: http://resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/addlink.html * * * No New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals 5c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- No New/Update Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies 5d. New Mailing Lists To Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ------------------------------------------------------------- For information and an index to the more than 30,000 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME LISTS BUCKTON HARBOLD HERBACH HNIDOWICZ JOSEFCZYK MACCABE MACINNIS MACIVOR MACKINTOSH MACMEEKEN MACNAUGHTAN MACWILLIAM MCCARSON MCCOLLOUGH MCCRATE MCCRIGHT MCCUISTION MCDOUGLE MCDUFF MCELDOWNEY MCFADYEAN MCFERRIN MCGAHA MCGARRAUGH MCGAVIN MCGEEHAN MCGIBENY MCGIVNEY MCGLOTHAN MCILROY MCKELVA MCKINNERNEY MCKINNISS MCMEANS MCMORRIES MCPHEETER MCROBIE MCWHINEY MCWILLIAM POTOCKI NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS TX-GREER -- This mailing list is for the purpose of discussing the records, people, and area known as Greer County, Texas, a defunct Texas county. Current site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgreer/ NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS FL-OBITUARIES -- A mailing list for people to post and request obituaries of people who died in the state of Florida. WW1-UK -- For the exchange of information about all aspects of the British military and civilians in the first World War. 6. Humor/Humour Over and over during her lifetime, my mother and other relatives used to share family tidbits. One was that an ancestor had died in a snow bank with his thumb in a whiskey bottle--presumably to protect the contents. Just recently, I found the death registration for my great-great grandfather John Anson of Ontario. The cause of death was listed, "from exposure due to alcohol." I didn't know the story had been about my maternal grandmother's grandfather. No wonder she always adamantly denied the story her daughters told and was horrified that we would think such a thing about any relative of hers. --Thanks to Linda Sherlock * * * Found a funny or "proper name for the job" in old records, or an amusing entry in census, parish, church, or other records? Send them to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com. We also welcome other humorous genealogy-related submissions. 7. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ If you use a spam-filtering program, in order to receive the RootsWeb Review please make sure that you're allowing e-mail from: rootswebreview@email.rootsweb.com The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of The Generations Network, Inc., 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT, 84604 * * * 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. The announcement of books and products is provided as a community service and is not an endorsement in any way. 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 and please include your full name and e-mail address in the text. * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS. Ad Sales Worldwide: Tami Deleeuw, tdeleeuw@tgn.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: 25 July 2007, Vol. 10, No. 30. * * * *