RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 12 December 2007, Vol. 10, No. 50 (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/2007/1212.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. 1911 Census of Ireland Now Online 1b. World War II Photos Online 2. Using RootsWeb: Holiday Gatherings and Debunking Family Myths 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Thanks for Sharing Your Stories 4. Bottomless Mailbag: Rented Connections A Sticky Photo Problem Family History Book 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. 1911 Census of Ireland Now Online The National Archives of Ireland, in partnership with Libraries and Archives Canada, has now put the 1911 census of Ireland online. So far, the website only holds records for Dublin, but the rest of the census should be online sometime next year. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/ 1b. World War II Photos Online Footnote.com has recently released the largest collection of World War II photos online. Footnote is a subscription website, but you can view sample World War II photos and documents here: www.footnote.com/wwii.php 2. Using RootsWeb: Holiday Gatherings and Debunking Family Myths By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com As family gathers for the holidays this year and begins reminiscing, you may hear some interesting family tales that pique your interest. You may have been told that your father is distantly related to Zachary TAYLOR and your mother's family is connected to Benedict ARNOLD. Or that your second great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee princess but the family said they were "Black Dutch" to hide their Native American ancestry. Maybe you were told that your Italian grandfather's surname was changed by the officials at Ellis Island and the family was forced to continue using the newly assigned surname. Or maybe it was that Uncle Henry's wife Hilda had a great-grandfather who fought at the Alamo with Davy Crockett and returned to tell the family all about it. Sound familiar? All sorts of family lore is shared during holiday visits. And some of it may even be true! Remember that family stories need to be verified. You must gather and consider evidence to determine their veracity. (Most likely the stories you hear are exaggerated, but contain a grain of truth.) But how do you separate fact from fiction and family myths from family truths? Well, there may be more resources at RootsWeb and elsewhere on the Web to help you verify or debunk those family stories than you realize. Just about every American TAYLOR or ARNOLD family has stories about being related to Zachary TAYLOR or Benedict ARNOLD. As the volunteer administrator of the ARNOLD list I've heard just about every myth and fact over the years about connections to Benedict ARNOLD. The archives of the ARNOLD mailing list or message board are a great place to start in your attempt to get the facts. Or you can search the many ARNOLD family trees at WorldConnect (but remember that while you may find famous people in online trees all this information needs to be verified too). Begin with the same resources (the TAYLOR mailing list and message board) to verify or refute a connection to Zachary. Some excellent articles to help resolve the issue of the supposed family name change at Ellis Island include the following. (Hint: this is generally a myth.) http://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ihrc/immigration/2007/02/whats_in_a_name.html Using a Google search we learn that Aunt Hilda's family is most likely mistaken about her ancestor fighting at the Alamo alongside Davy CROCKETT (unless he was fighting with Santa Anna): http://www.americanwest.com/pages/davycroc.htm http://www.lone-star.net/mall/texasinfo/alamo-battle.htm We can explore what Black Dutch means (and doesn't mean) by reading a column written by the former editor of the RootsWeb Review, Myra Vanderpool Gormley, here: http://www.ancestry.aol.com/columns/myra/Shaking_Family_Tree04-02-98.htm And begin your search for your "Indian princess" ancestor here. (The term "princess" is likely a red flag that at least a part of the story is mythical--Europeans, not Native Americans, used the word "princess.") http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/heritage/native-american/ancestor-search.html http://www.genealogy.com/90_carmack.html Remember, learning to weigh the evidence and determine the veracity of family lore is just one of the steps you'll need to take on your way to becoming a seasoned researcher. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT 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 plan and quotation visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/ For help from professional genealogists in England or Scotland visit http://www.britishancestors.com/research/ Or join us 13-18 April for our TENTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the dream genealogy vacation! * * * Subscribe to "Internet Genealogy" and get "101 Best Genealogy Research Tips" FREE! Subscribe to "Internet Genealogy" now and we'll send you a copy of our exclusive booklet absolutely free! Visit http://internet-genealogy.com to download a PDF sample copy or to subscribe. Here's what some people are saying about "Internet Genealogy": " 'Internet Genealogy' provides a fun, thorough, and informative look at the world of online genealogy research. I write about Internet genealogy research for a living--and even I learned a new thing or two! " -- Kimberly Powell, "About: Your Guide to Genealogy" ". . . I'll go out on a limb and say that 'Internet Genealogy' will soon become the most widely read genealogy magazine . . . period. " -- Rick Roberts, "Global Genealogy and History Shoppe" "WOW! ['Internet Genealogy'] is stupendous. . . . You've done a great job and I am very impressed!" -- George Morgan, GenealogyGuys.com * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Thanks for Sharing Your Stories By Sue Montgomery-Cook [I wanted a nice holiday "Connecting" piece, so I resurrected this one from a December issue in 1998: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/19981216.txt.] As compiler of a vast amount of DENTON and related family information, and "owner" of the Denton list at RootsWeb, I've been blessed often to be able to help others find their family roots, or at least point them in the right direction. I'll have to say that being able to help others in this way is incredibly rewarding. And now, thanks to RootsWeb, I've received the best Christmas gift imaginable. For forty years, at least, my Montgomery family has been searching for parents for my great-grandfather, Lorenzo Dow MONTGOMERY. He was born in 1826 in Fayette County, Kentucky, and married Mary GUYN in 1843 in Woodford County, Kentucky. "Uncle Dow," as he was known, and Mary moved to Scott County, Indiana, where they lived out their lives and raised a large family. Since the advent of RootsWeb's mailing lists, I have often sent out random queries about Lorenzo Dow Montgomery and Mary Guyn hoping to find information on their parents. I did know that her father was Gabriel Guyn, but only that her mother's name was Mary. Well, guess what. A query this week to the Woodford County, Kentucky, list brought me the following note from Dona Wilson of the Woodford County Kentucky Historical Society. In one e-mail, Dona sent me the names of Lorenzo Dow Montgomery's father and Mary Guyn's mother. "Hi Sue: Since I didn't have a Gabriel Guyn in my marriage bond project for Woodford County, I decided to check the Fayette County marriage bond book that my friend, Melvin Hurst recently completed. I found; Gabriel Gwyn married Polly Hoglin--bond date 21 Feb 1823. Is this your Gabriel Gwyn? This is the only Gwyn listed in Melvin's book. Do you have or need the bond and consents for Lorenzo Montgomery and Mary Guynn? They each must have been under the age of 21 at marriage, since they both had consents. Robert Montgomery, father of Lorenzo gave written consent for him to marry and G. Guynn, father of Mary, gave personal consent. I invite you to share your family research with the Woodford County Historical Society for our family files. Thank you, Dona Wilson" Words simply cannot express my joy at Dona's note. I immediately sent e-mails to my family and presented them all with two new ancestors as a Christmas present. Thanks Rootsweb! Because of these wonderful lists, Dona sent a simple, short note, but full of such important information for me and my family. Blessings to you all for all that you do. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- Rented Connections By Joseph Nelson Arizona The article "Sharing Historic Houses" by Sharon Gray, which was in the 5 December issue of the RootsWeb Review, reminded me of a meeting my mother had with a renter. After all of the children had left home, my parents decided to rent out one of their rooms. One day a lady asked to see it and wanted to stay a few weeks. A short time after moving in, she and my mom were talking about where they were raised and different places where they had lived. This lady mentioned that she had recently lived in Muleshoe, Texas, and had rented a place from a Mr. Frey. My mom's ears perked up and she said she had a nephew with the last name of Frey who lived in Muleshoe. It turns out that the lady had rented from my mom's nephew for several years and knew him and his family well. My mom and her nephew had not seen each other in many years and sadly never had the opportunity to meet again before they both passed away. However, because of this lady, my mom was able to learn a lot about her nephew's family. To read "Sharing Historic Houses," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1205.txt * * * A Sticky Photo Problem By Joy Weaver East Islip, New York I'm sure this is a problem many others have faced. My mother had glued all her photos onto black paper pages of a photo album. I pried them off to see whether any of the people were identified on the backs and found that some of the photos do have writing on them. However, some of the black paper is sticking to the photos obscuring what is written there. Does anyone know how to remove this glued-on paper without ruining the pictures? * * * Family History Book By Sherryl Snow I had a fun genealogy experience this week that I wanted to let you all know about. Several months ago I was able to take a trip to visit my aging grandmother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Before going I decided I would bring my scanner and scan any old photos from her albums that struck my fancy--if there were any. Were there ever! I had no idea the treasure I was in for. I guess I just sort of assumed I'd seen all her photos, but there were pages of pictures I'd never seen--some of her as a baby, a toddler, a teenager, and a young mother. I had only ever seen one photograph of her mother--somewhere back someone told me it was the only one still in existence. But there were multiple photos of her in my grandmother's album. What a wonderful surprise to see my great-grandmother as a young woman for the first time. Also, to see a new picture of my great-great-grandmother. After scanning the photos I wanted to share them with my siblings. They are not really into family history but I knew even they could get excited about pictures--who can't? Instead of just sending them a CD of photos, however, I decided to put the pictures in a book. There are a number of book-making websites out there that make it easy to drag and drop your photos and create professionally bound and printed books for relatively cheap (mine was about $30.00 for a book of thirty-five pages, minus the shipping costs). I won't mention the specific product I used, but here are a few sites you can look into: heritagemakers.com, memorypress.com, ancestrypress.com, and shutterfly.com. You can also use your iPhoto application to make a book if you're a Mac user and I'm sure there are more programs out there for both Macs and PCs. Making the book took several weeks. I added photos and then pasted snippets of text from a brief autobiography my grandmother wrote some years ago. I supplemented it with short bits of text from an oral history interview I also conducted with her on my last trip. I knew that not many people in my family were likely to read the oral history or even the autobiography and would only glace quickly at a CD of pictures--unless I was sitting by them and talking them through it. But this way, I think they will all get a better appreciation for my grandmother and her life--at thirty-five pages the book is not too overwhelming and contains my favorite photos. I also tried to keep the text portions brief enough that they would be engaging and easily digestible. I plan on giving these books to my family for Christmas, and I can't wait to see their reactions. I almost cried when I got them in the mail and saw how professional they looked, thanks to the service I used. I recommend looking into making a short photo book like this for your family. It's a great way to get even the most disinterested family members to enjoy a little family history. 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------- 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/Updated 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 MAILING LISTS BUMSTEAD BURGOS DEJESUS DURALL ESTRELLA FEEMSTER FELICIANO JOHME MCCROCKLIN MCKELLIP MONTES NEGRON RIVAS TEAT TEATER TIPPIE VANADESTINE YAMBO NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS KIRIBATI -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Kiribati, formerly known as the Gilbert Islands and the Ellice Islands Colony. MARSHALL-ISLANDS -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the Marshall Islands. NEW-CALEDONIA -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in New Caledonia. NIUE -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Niue (an island in the south Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga). NORTHERN-MARIANA-ISLANDS -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the (Commonwealth of the) Northern Mariana Islands, which comprises fourteen islands (including the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota). TUVALU -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Tuvalu (formerly known as the Ellice Islands). VANUATU -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Vanuatu. NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS LEWIS-DNA -- This is a mailing list for discussing information regarding DNA research on the Lewis surname and its variations worldwide. MTDNA-HAPLOGROUP-T -- This is a mailing list for discussing information on mtDNA Haplogroup T (T*, T1, T2, etc.) theories and genealogies. VEST-DNA -- This mailing list is for anyone involved in DNA testing with the Vest surname. 6. Humor/Humour While looking for some of my ancestors, I found a census record that really makes me wonder what the census taker was thinking. As I looked in the Saco, York County, Maine, census records for 1880, I found a listing for a George Sutherland on line twenty-four. George was age fifty-five and his wife Elizabeth was fifty. Living with them was a widow named Rachael Scurnmure, age eighty-three, who I assume to be the mother of either George or Elizabeth. Both Elizabeth and Rachael are listed as housekeepers. And what was George's occupation? It's listed as "Too lazy to do anything." I can't imagine that George himself was home the day the census taker came calling. So I wonder why the census taker, C.S. Hamilton, didn't simply write "unemployed" or leave the line blank as he did for others. Did one or both of the women harangue him about George's lazy work habits? Or did the census taker, perhaps with a sense of humor, simply shake his head and sigh, chuckling to himself while writing down exactly what he was told? . --Thanks to Susan Goerke Ball * * * In response to the article from last week, "The United States of Names," by Diana Ware, I have also found some interesting names. My mother-in- law, Amanda Catherine PICKLE, had twin sisters named Ora Virginia Pickle and Nora Tennessee Pickle--they were born near Bristol, Tennessee, where the state line between Virginia and Tennessee ran down Main Street. --Thanks to Nancy Ragan * * * 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: 12 December 2007, Vol. 10, No. 50. * * * *