RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 08 August 2007, Vol. 10, No. 32 (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/2007/0808.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. English Research: A Website Worth Looking At 1b. The Official Guide to RootsWeb.com 1c. Book Notice (3) 2. Using RootsWeb: Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Family Found in the U.S.A. 4. Bottomless Mailbag: Nominative Determinism Continued Clarke County Historical Association Catalog Goes Online New Rotary History Project FamilySearch Indexing 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. English Research: A Website Worth Looking At "Expert Links: England Family History and Genealogy" is a new page on the Price and Associates Genealogical Services website. It organizes nearly 400 important websites for English genealogy in one place. Categories include sites where you can obtain civil registration files and indexes, vital records, probate records, emigration records, and more. Links are organized by national sites first, then by county in alphabetical order. For-a-fee sites are set apart with a different color. http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html 1b. The Official Guide to RootsWeb.com If you missed our earlier announcement about "The Official Guide to RootsWeb.com," which came out earlier this year, you may want to look into purchasing a print or electronic version for yourself. Written by former RootsWeb Review editor Myra VanderPool Gormley and the author of "The Official Guide to Family Tree Maker," Tana Pedersen Lord, this guidebook gives you a great look at RootsWeb's history and the many features it has available for you. I learned a lot by reading it, as did other RootsWeb staff members I've talked with. http://www.therootswebstore.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=mfsku4406(shops)&Shop=All&Terms=the+official+guide+to+rootsweb 1c. Book Notice (3) Three published books by Eva Joann Caravito: FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST: CRUISE AND RELATED FAMILIES (2001) Hardbound, fully indexed, 320 pages, some photographs. Families of Virginia. Surnames: CREWS, CRUISE, MARTIN, BELCHER, HARRIS, HYLTON, WADE, BALLENGER, DAVIS, FOLEY, LAWSON, COCKRAM, PEDIGO, ELKINS, BOYD, WARD, HELMS, WILLIAMS, WHALING. (Available on CD only.) FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST: HALEY AND RELATED FAMILIES OF DUNKLEY, SHELTON, AND CLIFTON (2005) Hardbound, fully indexed, 333 pages, some photographs. Families of Virginia and North Carolina. Surnames: HALEY, DUNKLEY, SHLETON, CLIFTON. Cost: $40.00 plus shipping. FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST: WIGINGTON, WIGGINTON FAMILIES (2007) Hardbound, fully indexed, 332 pages, some photographs, WWI registration information, and Pocahontas descendants. Families of England, Virginia, and North Carolina. Surnames: WIGINGTON, WIGGINTON, WILSON, BOLLING. Cost: $40.00 plus shipping. Order from: Eva Joann Caravito 2912 Eldon Drive Uniontown, Ohio 44685 jocaravito@earthlink.net 2. Using RootsWeb: Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy By Mary Harrell-Sesniak maryh@volunteer.rootsweb.com "Genealogy is not just a pastime; it's a passion." My cousin Dorothy Hudson and I are working on a family genealogy book centered around our Miesse family ancestry. Our research builds upon that of earlier generations, most notably that of Ezra Miesse, Gabriel Miesse, and A. J. Ruble. It's been a wonderful process, but the problem with writing a genealogy is not in finding information; it is in gathering too much. Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, RootsWeb.com and other sites provide data and document images, and if your family was composed of high achievers as ours was, you will find more in libraries and courthouses. And that is the problem. Every day we discover more. Recently we found passenger lists at Ancestry.com. Too bad my family traveled, as now we cannot resist temptation to record when and where. Too bad they were involved in their communities. And too bad they were buried in style. Dorothy and I have made a scavenger hunt of visiting graveyards. When we find an unreadable stone, we apply a nontoxic, colored, wetted sand to the crevices, which allows us to read the epitaph. What a neat trick. Dorothy then takes a picture with her 35 millimeter camera, and I wonder why she avoids a digital. Perhaps it is because she sees how I take hundreds of shots at any one time. Processing is a big job, I admit, but it is wonderful to have them on my computer. KEEPING ON TASK As all of you authors know, sticking to a schedule is challenging. We fell behind, but have accomplished a lot. We have published a Miesse database on WorldConnect, and we now have long shelves lined with obituaries; estate and land records; and birth, marriage, and death certificates, not to mention Bibles and those pesky passenger lists that keep multiplying. Our fear is that the project has turned into an encyclopedia. We met last month and agreed to stop gathering items, fully intending to finalize the genealogy. Dates and places would be transformed into narratives, documentation would be checked, and we weren't going to stop until we finished. But there was a problem, a huge problem. Dorothy's computer crashed and about half of her directories were gone. Now those 35 mm original photos and copied documents were important. But there were many documents and digital pictures sent by others via e-mail. Some were backed up and others weren't. I firmly believe God puts people together with different abilities for a reason. As a computer troubleshooter, it was up to me to use my skills to help her. Luckily, there was not a virus or mechanical issue. It was impossible to determine the cause, but the solution was to purchase a recovery program. It identified more than 24,000 deleted files. Most were trivial, but an overwhelming number of pertinent files were restored. In a follow-up article, I will present ideas on backing up and the sorting methodology that helped us cope with the crash. But before I do, I'd like to pass along some tips on using photographs in your family histories. These were written by my colleague, Judy Borich. A GOOD PLACE TO START: USING FAMILY PHOTOS Judy and Bruce Borich run a small publishing house in Fort Lauderdale and are professional photographers. They are popular speakers on publishing and have a wealth of information on photography. I asked for advice on photography and family histories, and Judy sent back her input. Since I couldn't have stated it better, I am including some of her excerpted thoughts. "Sometimes a good place to start with your family history is with your photographs. Put them in chronological order. Do this by using a sticky or a post-it note. Do not write on pictures, even on the back. After you number the pictures, write corresponding captions for them. Sometimes this gives you a better idea of how to organize your book, and it can often help with ideas for chapter titles. Photographs in your book can either run throughout the book, or a more economical way to display them is all together in a section in the center of the book text. "Most web-based publishing companies do not accept word-processing files with pictures placed in them, so if it's an illustrated book you'll need higher-end page-layout software like Quark, InDesign, or PageMaker. Scans should be high resolution (300 dots per inch is a good standard for quality reproduction). Save those scans as TIFF or EPS files. Use grayscale for black and white pictures. Color scanners create RGB files but they will need to be converted to CMYK for printing on a press. If you cannot lay the book out yourself (publishing companies call this typesetting), you can hire this service out, often as part of your self- publishing package. In this case, you have only to approve the final design and provide the artwork. "If you are planning on scanning pictures out of a book, make sure you have the permission of the publisher, or the photographer who shot the picture. Scanning from printed material will need some manipulation because of the dot pattern in the printed material so it is better to scan from the original. "Creative use of documents as images can add historical significance to your story but remember photographs taken off the Internet require the same permissions as any other picture before publishing them in your book. "It is technically possible to completely eliminate all the cracks, tears and signs of wear so the photograph looks new in your book, however, we are talking about historical photographs so think about how you want them to appear. Old pictures look old, so be careful not to go too far with manipulation and color correction. Also, good photo imaging is a skill and if you aren't real familiar with doing this, leave it to the experts." Judy and Bruce Borich's website for the Middle River Press website is located at www.middleriverpress.com. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * GET HELP WITH YOUR BRITISH GENEALOGY BRITISH ANCESTORS will search the records of your English and Scottish ancestors stored in archives throughout England and Scotland, most of which are unavailable on the Internet. Friendly service, affordable prices. For a no-obligation research assessment visit http://www.britishancestors.com/ For help from professional genealogists in finding ancestors from the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, or Europe visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/rwr/ Or join us 30 SEPTEMBER-5 OCTOBER for our NINTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the dream genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb Family Found in the U.S.A. By Guenther Fuhrmann guenther.fuhrmann@web.de For several years I've been researching the roots of my Fuhrmann family and the descendants of the members I can find. I live in Marburg, Hassia, Germany--about sixty miles north of Frankfurt--but my ancestors came from the Posnan area in today's Poland. In 2001 I found a query at RootsWeb asking for a Gottlieb Samuel Fuhrmann who was born 24 January 1819 in Obornick Posen to Johann Benjamin Fuhrmann and Louise Peterson and who immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1843. The name of Johann Benjamin sounded familiar, so I answered. After several e-mails back and forth with a Fuhrman in Wisconsin, and after conducting some difficult research in the church book films of Obornick, I found I was right--his name was familiar. Unfortunately the church books of Obornick are very fragmentary and incomplete. Nonetheless, I was able to discover Johann Benjamin's place of origin and found the connection to our line in Birnbaum (today Miedzychod, Poland). As a result, I found out that Kathy's fifth great-grandfather and my fifth great-grandfather were brothers. So I could add a new branch to our family tree I had never thought of before. And the new-found line in the U.S.A. is much more widespread than my Fuhrmann line in Germany. In February 2006 I wrote to several Brookhiser addresses I found in the white pages and got an answer from a Brookhiser in Burlington, Iowa. As a result I was able to add a large family connected to a member on my tree who had married into the Fuhrmann family. I was also able to give her information on my line, which extends back to 1600 in Dausenau and Obernhof in Hassia, Germany. I am still in contact with the Fuhrmann family in Wisconsin, and on 9 September I'll be in New London for a family reunion. I went to another reunion of theirs in 2004 in Appleton but am looking forward to finding out who I will see this time. Also, for the first time this year I'm invited to the family reunion of the Brookhiser family in Burlington on 16 September. Hope to meet a lot of "relatives" there and hear some good speeches about family and genealogy. And I would be glad if I got new contacts via RootsWeb and this article, so I can add new branches and twigs to the Fuhrmann and Brookhiser family trees. You can see what we have so far on our multilingual homepage: www.familienseite-fuhrmann.de 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- Nominative Determinism Continued By Dale McKinley Several weeks ago, you published a comment by a reader who described the phenomenon by which a person's name matches his or her occupation (e.g., Doctor Payne) as "Nominative Determinism." Another word that I have frequently heard used to describe this is "occuponymous," with the accent on the "pon" syllable. It merges the words occupation and synonymous. To read the article on Nominative Determinism, visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0718.txt * * * Clarke County Historical Association Catalog Goes Online By Mary Morris, CCHA Archivist I thought RootsWeb users would like to know that the Clarke County (Virginia) Historical Association (CCHA) has placed their entire catalog online with Past Perfect. CCHA has tried to make the cataloging as complete as possible for researchers. The catalog includes the historical society's archive and library holdings. It also includes more than 4,000 scanned photographs. Clarke County (County Seat-Berryville) was formed from Frederick County, Virginia, (County seat-Winchester) in 1836. CCHA was formed in 1938 and is housed at 32 E. Main Street, Berryville, VA. www.clarkehistory.org (540) 955-2600 * * * New Rotary History Project By Dr. Ramon "Ray" MacFarlane, Sr. Secretary, RGHF rmacfarlane@wi.rr.com I just wanted to make sure that RootsWeb was aware of the Internet history project of Rotary Global History Fellowship, founded by John Selway, now of Pueblo, Colorado. It has more than 3,000 free pages dedicated to the history of Rotary International, which was established in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, by Attorney Paul "Percy" Harris and others. www.rghf.org * * * FamilySearch Indexing By Ada Eyerly There are many opportunities to help transcribe records or volunteer our services to the family history community in other ways. I wanted to briefly write in about the positive experience I had helping index for FamilySearch this week. Many of us have used FamilySearch's resources for our genealogy. They have been microfilming records since 1984 and have 2.4 million rolls of microfilm. They have now engaged in a massive project to digitize and index most of this information. And, the most exciting part of it, in my opinion, is that it will mostly be done by volunteers. I found their system was very user-friendly and that they give you a very reasonable workload, so you don't get overwhelmed. You download a batch of twenty to fifty names and have a week to complete the transcription. They say it typically takes half an hour to an hour to do it. If you don't finish in the allotted time, the records are given to someone else. To try it out, go to indexing.familysearch.org. You will be asked to create a login and download the appropriate software. Then you watch four tutorials. This whole process took me a little more than an hour. Once you have finished with the tutorials you can start indexing. You can do as much or as little as you want and can work on or offline. I had so much fun indexing this week (I am indexing records from the 1900 U.S. federal census for Arkansas) that I just wanted to let other people know about it. It made me feel like I was giving back to the genealogy community, which has given me so much. By the way, even though FamilySearch is run by the LDS Church, you do not have to be a member of this church to volunteer and the records will be available to anyone, for free, once they are transcribed. 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ------------------------------------------------------------- There are 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 * * * There are 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these Web pages might not be accessible yet. 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/~xxxxxx[accountname] * * * Note that the ~[tilde] before the Web account name is required. For example, the Coffee County (Georgia) website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gacoffe2/ * * * DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution DUVCW = Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War USGW = USGenWeb AHGP = American History and Genealogy Project U.S.A. gacoffe2 -- Coffee County (Georgia) USGW ilbkrm -- Bald Knob Railroad Museum (Illinois) macnorwe -- City of Norwell (Massachusetts) USGW macmario -- City of Marion (Massachusetts) USGW macmatta -- City of Mattapoisett (Massachusetts) USGW mnms -- Manx Society (Minnesota) nccaldwe -- Caldwell County (North Carolina) AHGP ncjackso -- Jackson County (North Carolina) AHGP ncwataug -- Watauga County (North Carolina) AHGP nyjhduvc -- Julia Hibbard Tent 71 (New York) Chapter DUVCW nyotodar -- On Ti Ora (New York) Chapter DAR ohlvhs -- Licking Valley Heritage Society (Ohio) ohnhs2 -- Norwood Historical Society (Ohio) txbrazos -- Brazos County (Texas) USGW txcbduv -- Clara Barton Detached Tent #3 (Texas) Chapter DUVCW txwillia -- Williamson County (Texas) USGW vacraig -- Craig County (Virginia) USGW 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 MAILING LISTS BANGLE BEDNAR BERKING COLLER DAFFIN DOWNALL EALUM ELKERTON ELWARTOSKI FABYAN GLADSEN GODINET GULDEMAN HARKRADER KATONAK KEADY KINEALY LAWSHE LEWES LUCKINGS MOUNTFORD MUNZ SAFFINGS SAM SCITERN SHAKLEE STITTLE TAAFFE TRABUC TRESSIDER TURCOTT VILLACIS WAVERLEY ZACCAGNINI ZURAW NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS No New Regional Mailing Lists NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS DNA-NEWBIE -- A list for those new to genetic genealogy who may find discussion on the Genealogy-DNA list or on specific DNA surname lists to be too technical for their tastes. SCHNEIDER-DNA -- The Schneider-DNA mailing list is for the discussion and sharing of information regarding the DNA projects for the Schneider surname and variations (e.g., Shneider). WINTERS-DNA -- The Winters-DNA mailing list is for the discussion and sharing of information regarding the DNA projects for the Winters surname and variations. 6. Humor/Humour While searching through birth certificates I found an entry asking for the location of the father's and then mother's birthplace. The form read: "Birthplace (state or country) ________." "Country" had been carefully written in as the response. --Thanks to Karen H. * * * While indexing vital records for Somerset County, Pennsylvania, I came across a name that has a sort of humorous ring to it. The name is "Christian Evil." Christian was born about 1789 and married Elizabeth Miller in 1820. I've always wondered what part of his name he most resembled. (By the way, I've also seen some "Evel" names that might be related.) --Thanks to Ora Flaningem * * * 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: 08 August 2007, Vol. 10, No. 32. * * * *