ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative Weekly News Vol. 1, No. 9, 12 August 1998; Circulation: 199,000+ researchers Copyright (c) 1998 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS: New at RootsWeb; Connecting through RootsWeb; Geek Speak; Mailing Lists; Web Sites; Behind the Scenes at RootsWeb: Excerpts from the Staff Diary; Basic Genealogy Records; Humor; Reprint Policy; Authors' Guidelines; Unsubscribe Instructions * * * * * NEW AT ROOTSWEB ROOTSWEB REVIEW : The first issue of RootsWeb Review appears on this new Web page at which there also is a link to the FTP Archives , from which text files of the June and July issues may be downloaded. About the first of each month, the previous month's issues of RootsWeb Review will be made available for download as plain text files. * * * AUGUST ROOTSWEB SURNAME LIST (RSL). Last week's announcement that the RSL with 452,150 surnames submitted by 63,603 researchers is available to be searched at RootsWeb , failed to mention that a milestone had been reached when, on August 3, 1998, the RSL entered its 11th year. Besides the search engine for the RSL, RootsWeb now provides an online form so you can easily submit your surnames for inclusion in the RSL. * * * ROOTSWEB IN THE NEWS. The full text of Ruby Coleman's 22 July 1998 "AntiqueWeek" article, "Genealogists Using the Many Services Provided by RootsWeb," will be available online until 1 September 1998: * * * If you'd like to become a RootsWeb Member or Sponsor please visit: * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Thanks for sharing your stories! First, we have a correction. The e-mail address of the author of "Roots Surname List Aids Search for 1876 Emigration Descendants" was mangled last week. Because readers of RootsWeb Review are by and large as savvy a group as you'll find anywhere on the Internet, several readers caught up with Ken Light anyhow (one cleverly went to the RSL and searched for his entries, thereby obtaining the correct e-mail address). The author, Ken Light , who can be reached by postal mail c/o ACS, P.O. Box 386, Dhahran Airport 31932, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, wrote: "[T]he person who contacted me wrote because she knew I had information on one of her lines dating back to 1901. She had been talking to a cousin of mine in Canada who gave her my name, and then your newsletter arrived!" A few days later Ken wrote again: "Thank you very much for publicizing my search. I have received several e-mail replies already. One of the things that came up is people asking if I had interest in other Downton [Wiltshire, England] families. This was a parish of at most 3,000 people, so everyone was interrelated. All Downton information and genealogies are welcomed." * * * Mark James on 6 August 1998 wrote: "Here's one more story about connecting with "new" cousins. This one shows that connections can happen even in a very indirect way." A woman from Hobart, Australia, contacted me with regard to a family that she was researching, and I did her a small favor. I then told her the story of a nebulous relative on my father's side who had emigrated from Macedonia to Australia during the 1930s, and had corresponded with my aunt when she was a young girl. I gave my Australian contact the name of this man as my aunt remembered it, and at length she found a name in the Melbourne telephone directory that vaguely matched. Since it was nearly Christmas time, I sent a Christmas card to the gentleman in question. He responded with a photograph of my aunt at age 10! He was then more than 80-years old. In the long letters that followed, he described the town of Lagen, Macedonia, where a quarter of my ancestors were from, and filled out a part of my family tree of which I had known next to nothing. The next year, while in New Zealand on business, I visited him in Melbourne and was received like royalty. A whole community of immigrants from Lagen greeted me with delicious spinach dumplings and some foul beverage, and told me stories of Lagen, and of the town before that that was burned by the Turks, and what a little devil my grandfather had been, and how many new cousins I had now acquired on the bottom side of the Earth. My 82-year-old first cousin twice removed was a very happy man that day, thanks to the Roots Surname List and a most helpful woman from Tasmania. * * * Ceridwen Attwood writes: I think I can pretty well assure you that at least part of RootsWeb's increase in use can be traced directly to the RootsWeb Review (RWR). It certainly has made an impact on me. I was already on the Jay-L list (due to which I have developed a lasting friendship with a distant cousin) but after receiving a couple of issues of RWR, I sat down and subscribed to five or six more. (All right, so I'm a glutton for punishment!) I have had interesting replies (and made a couple of connections) through several of them, but I really hit pay dirt with the GARSTs. Within two days, I had an outline of several more generations than I previously had and, within a week, a helpful cousin sent me charts and personal histories of a number of my direct ancestors, all the way back to a sixth-great-greatfather who came to America in 1750 from Schwenkhausen, Bavaria. I checked out some of the Web sites, too -- Cyndi's List is awesome! I am currently hot on the trail of my WOMACK ancestors. My kids think I've gone nuts, pacing and fretting and checking my e-mail ten times a day, but I'm sure having fun digging up the roots of the family tree. I've got my father interested, too, so you can expect your business to keep increasing. I saw at least one new list I simply _must_ subscribe to in the latest issue, as well. Can you tell I'm having fun? And I owe an awful lot of it to RootsWeb. You are all providing an incomparable and invaluable service to the genealogists of the world. Many thanks. * * * Debbie Thomas wrote on 7 August 1998: Since joining the RootsWeb mailing lists back in March, I have been amazed at how my research has taken off. I found someone in Wales to locate a marriage certificate on my JONES line and was able to use that to extend the family back another generation. I was still wondering if our Mary Jones came to America alone since the first we knew of her was her marriage in Illinois in 1879. I knew she had a brother here named Rees, but did not know where or his age. I found him finally in 1900 living in Missouri, stating he'd been born in Pennsylvania. That meant Mary's parents had come too. I found them in Illinois in 1880 with several more children. I went to the Roots Surname List and looked for a JONES with a similar migration pattern -- Wales>PA>IL>MO -- and found someone. When I wrote to her, alas, she said while the pattern was a coincidence, there really was no connection. Imagine my elation today when she forwarded my message to someone she knew and we discovered that we are from the same line! The new contact has tons of information on one of the Jones siblings but knew nothing of the parents. I have tons on three of the other siblings. We both have photos and a comparison of them, online, has proven to be the biggest convincer that we are really connected. With a name like Jones, you get used to disappointment. There are just so many unrelated lines out there. I think it is practically the national surname of Wales ;-)) I am writing today to tell others not to give up! Even with a common name, RootsWeb can make all the difference in the world! I know I have told my story, but there is one more amazing thing that has occurred. My mother's grandfather was married three times. He and his first wife had two daughters, one my grandma. His third wife was much younger and a rift developed in the family. When grandfather died in 1948, everyone lost contact with the third wife and her daughter. This woman, my grandmother's half-sister, found me through RootsWeb while looking for information about her grandfather. So after 50 years, I have a new aunt and we have formed a consortium with another cousin and a researcher to find out about the family. What was the likelihood of us finding each other? I can't even think in numbers that high. Thank you RootsWeb! I am proud to be a sponsor of this fine organization! * * * * * GEEK SPEAK: Here is the first batch of a series of bogus entries supplied by Dale ("Doc") Schneider, RootsWeb's (you'll see). ALPHA GEEK -- The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "Ask Doc. He's the alpha geek around here." CHIPS AND SALSA -- Chips = hardware; salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem is in your chips or your salsa." CRAPPLET -- A badly written or profoundly useless Java applet. "I just wasted 30 minutes downloading this stinkin' crapplet!" * * * * * MAILING LIST REQUESTS. USGenWeb and WorldGenWeb hosts may have FREE locality mailing lists for the areas they host and for that purpose may ignore the "Sponsors-only" warning on the list request page. Please request new mailing lists at: * * * MAILING LISTS: To subscribe or unsubscribe from any RootsWeb mailing list, send an e-mail message with only the word SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the subject and the body of the message to [name of list]-L-request@rootsweb.com (for mail mode) or to [name of list]-D-request@rootsweb.com (for digest mode). For example, if you wish to be added to the mailing list for those researching their seafaring ancestors, send your SUBSCRIBE message to: MARINERS-L-request@rootsweb.com For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit . (PLEASE NOTE: Although all of the new mailing lists mentioned in RootsWeb Review are "live," it might be a few days before they appear on the ~maillist site.) NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS: BRANIFF BRIGHT (includes BRECHT, BRYTE) BUNKER (for genealogists researching families named Bunker, and and affiliated with the Bunker Family Association, a non-profit group organized in 1913 to collect, compile, preserve and publish genealogical data on various Bunker families) BURFORD. COFFIN COOMBER (includes COMBER, CUMBER, etc.) CULBERTSON (Culbertsons of South Carolina) DOYLE FEGLEY FRETWELL GRANTHAM KIRWIN (includes KERWIN, CURWIN) KRUTSINGER (includes CUTSINGER, CURTSINGER, KRUTZINGER, KATSINGER) LOVING MORSE OLIVE PHIPPS (includes PHIPS, FIPPS) ROBLEE (includes ROBBLEE, RUBLEE) SHULTZ (includes SCHULTZ, SHULZ) TARKINGTON (includes TARKENTON) NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS ENGLAND ISLE-OF-THANET -- The Isle of Thanet, Kent, ENGLAND. GERMANY POSEN -- The former Prussian province of Posen/Poznan, and its adjoining areas (especially Silesia) U.S.A. COTELLER -- Teller County, Colorado IACEDAR -- Cedar County, Iowa IACLINTO -- Clinton County, Iowa IADECATU -- Decatur County, Iowa IATAMA -- Tama County, Iowa IAIOWA -- Iowa County, Iowa MNSTEELE -- Steele Co, Minnesota NCCAMDEN -- Camden County, NC. TNJOHNSO -- Johnson County, Tennessee TNMARSHA -- Marshall County, Tennessee TNWARREN -- Warren Co, Tennessee WVWAYNE -- Wayne County, West Virginia VAPULASK -- Pulaski County, Virginia NEW MAILING LISTS (ETHNIC, GENERAL INTEREST, MISCELLANEOUS) CENSUS-ANNOUNCE -- Announcements relating to the USGenWeb Census Project. MARINERS -- Researching seafaring ancestors. GATEWAYS WITH USENET NEWSGROUPS GEN-AFRICAN -- soc.genealogy.african GEN-BENELUX -- soc.genealogy.benelux GEN-HISPANIC -- soc.genealogy.hispanic GEN-ITALIAN -- soc.genealogy.italian * * * * * WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. RootsWeb is caught up on the backlog of creating new Web accounts. However, if you previously submitted a request and have not received your account information, please resubmit. We regret any oversights. To request a Web account please e-mail the information to: accounts@rootsweb.com * * * NEW WEB SITES: Some of these might not yet be accessible. If one that interests you isn't up yet, please check again in a few days or a week. > (the ~[tilde] before the name is required) will work for most of the following. If not, you will find most of them at the USGenWeb Project or the WorldGenWeb Project . For example, if you wish to visit the Louisiana GenWeb site, visit: CANADA qcchatea -- Chateauguay, Quebec skkamsac -- Kamsack, Saskatchewan skkinder -- Kindersley, Saskatchewan sklloydm -- Lloydminster, Saskatchewan skpralbt -- Prince Albert, Saskatchewan skregina -- Regina, Saskatchewan skswiftc -- Swift Current, Saskatchewan IRELAND irlkik -- County Kilkenny SCOTLAND sctkir -- Selkirkshire U.S.A. arvanbur -- Van Buren County, Arkansas carvgs -- Roseville (California) Genealogical Society dcgwarch -- District of Columbia, USGenWeb Archives gasadh -- Georgia State Department of Archives and History ilclint2 -- Clinton County, Illinois (#2) ilclinto -- Clinton County, Illinois ilgalla2 -- Gallatin County, Illinois (#2) ilgallat -- Gallatin County, Illinois ilhardi2 -- Hardin County, Illinois (#2) ilhardin -- Hardin County, Illinois ilmontgo -- Montgomery County, Illinois ilmorgan -- Morgan County, Illinois ilrockis -- Rock Island County, Illinois ilwhite -- White County, Illinois ilwhite2 -- White County, Illinois (#2) lagenweb -- Louisiana GenWeb ncallegh -- Alleghany County, North Carolina ncavery -- Avery County, North Carolina ndmercer -- Mercer County, North Dakota ndmorton -- Morton County, North Dakota ndoliver -- Oliver County, North Dakota okmcgs -- McCurtain County (Oklahoma) Genealogical Society sdmcpher -- McPherson County, South Dakota tnknox -- Knox County, Tennessee tnpes -- Philadelphia (Tennessee) Elementary School Historical Project vtfrankl -- Franklin County, Vermont vtgrandi -- Grand Isle, Vermont WALES wlsden -- Denbighshire MISCELLANEOUS nhsbb -- National Heritage Society Blue Book * * * * * BEHIND THE SCENES AT ROOTSWEB: EXCERPTS FROM THE STAFF DIARY 5 Aug 1998 (Dr. Leverich): I just dropped an order for a Baystack 350T-HD. That's a 10/100 Mbps autosensing ethernet switch with 24 ports, which should be plenty for handling all the FMIS and RootsWeb servers down in the PMC NOC. The really cool thing about the 350T is that it works with MRTG, so we'll be able to accurately monitor how much bandwidth each server is using. That should be great from the standpoint of pinpointing problems and also making decisions like when to move a box out of the NOC and to a collo berth somewhere else. 8 Aug 1998 (Dr. Leverich): The Bay Networks 350T-HD 100 Mbps ethernet switch is here. I'll get it on line in the PMC NOC as soon as I can. We're still waiting for the two Adtran TSUs (CSU/DSUs) that were due in yesterday. Can't turn up the two new T1s in the PMC NOC until those guys arrive. *sigh* 11 Aug 1998 (Dr. Leverich). The NOC installation guru, who has been helping us go rackmounted, will be in Thursday to help us install the new racks. On his advice, I'm going to go ahead and assemble the racks, but we won't actually bolt them to the floor and ladder-rack them to the wall until he's there to supervise. 12 Aug 1998 (Dr. Leverich). RootsWeb got its second emergency generator, this one a 5 Kilowatt monster with lots of surge capacity. And we just brought RootsWeb's sixth T1 on line this evening. It's total bedlam in the PMC NOC, because we've simultaneously got a crew of electricians adding another 120 amps worth of wiring at the same time we're installing five new 7-foot equipment racks. Other tenants in the building are complaining about the noise, the power outages, and the odor. (The odor is a long story.) Cheers, B. * * * * * BASIC GENEALOGY RECORDS by Brian Mavrogeorge Senior Product Development Manager,Palladium Interactive You've exhausted the usual sources of information and Uncle Charlie remains a mystery. It's time to step back a minute and do some analysis. Everyone leaves records of their existence. They lived. Went to school. Had a job. Paid taxes. Participated at some level in the civic affairs of the country. Where is that information? My list of sources includes records of marriage and divorce, civil courts, estates, religious rites, censuses, military service, birth and death, land or property transactions, tax assessments and payments, cemeteries and mortuaries, immigration and naturalization, and newspapers. It is almost certain that one of them contains information about Uncle Charlie. My first step would be to do an individual summary. That is, make a list of everything I know about him and all the people who were involved in his life. Not just relatives, but anyone who participated in events of his life. The list should include the date and place of the event and the names of all the participants with the role they played in that event. For example, John Sennet was his godparent. Ernest Stencil was listed as a resident in Charlie's residence in the census. Susan Adams was the midwife at his son's birth. Next, I would review each possible source of information. Palladium's Family Tutor on genealogy records makes this a snap with its descriptions of genealogy records, where to find them, their content, and actual sample images. I might start with civil court records and as I go through the tutorial, pay special attention to the facts about Charlie as well as all the people involved with him. I know from my summary that a Judge Bonner was his best man and had been Charlie's partner. As I review the topic of court records I keep thinking what court records might there be with Judge Bonner or Charlie? I may decide that I do not have enough information to pursue that source. So I go on to review land, property, and tax records. The important thing is that I systematically review each type of source (what it is, what is on it, how is it generated, and where it is archived) alongside my summary of information about Uncle Charlie and others in his life. Ultimate Family Tree makes my analysis easier with its ability to track everyone involved in Charlie's life and provide an individual summary. By using the Family Tutor I can quickly refresh my knowledge of various sources of information. I had forgotten about dower releases (when a married woman waives a wife's right to property). It was in court records where I found that Uncle Charlie's wife had been married before and learned the name of her deceased first husband. * * * CORRECTION: Last week's article, "Does Ultimate Family Tree Have Roots?," was written by Palladium's Mae Westlake. * * * * * HUMOR: Last week's joke related by Barrie J. Wright of Adelaide, South Australia sparked a flurry of responses, among them one that went far over the heads of your editors. Because it was all his fault to begin with, we enlisted Barrie Wright's assistance as interpreter, with this result: "See below. It's easy really: 'sex' = 'six' = 'sacks', 'tea'=US supper [evening meal] I think this joke has been transposed from a New Zealand context, and is convincing only with reference to the New Zealand accent, rather than the Aussie one, where our vowels are not usually miscontrued with the various American ones. However, the broad Aussie diphthong makes 'day' sound like 'die'. Hence the joke when the Aussie waitress greets the Yank in the grill: "How are you going to 'die'? [day]," he replied, "I hope I'm not going to die by eating here!" "The broad New Zealand accent is famous for reducing all vowels to the 'indeterminate e' [phonetic upsidedown e] which can be confused with 'u', 'a', 'e' or 'i'. 'Fish and chips' becomes 'fush und chups','sex' = 'six' = 'sacks' and vice versa. Their pronunciation of 'sex' creates a lot of humor as you can imagine, e.g., a 'sex pack of beer'. "If it needs that much explanation it's not funny, I guess, unless you know a New Zealander or two!" * * * The stories in question were the following from Bob Hatcher, who said by way of preface, "I've a feeling these may lose something without the appropriate accents, but try them." "On a similar vein to [Barrie Wright's] story [last] week, the tale is told that when the first American troops arrived in the UK, a Texan approached a pretty young lady with the time honoured intention of a young man seeing a young lady. "Pardon me Ma'am. What do we do about sex over here?" "We have tea," was the instant reply. "Similarly, it was always said that 'sex' is what posh people have their coal delivered in." [Ed.'s note: It's clear that English-speakers don't always speak the same language, a lesson it behooves us to remember. Thanks very much to Barrie and Bob for these examples.] * * * * * PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from ROOTSWEB REVIEW is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; (2) full credit is given to RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative and the author involved, in a notice crediting RootsWeb Review (volume, number, publication date, and the address of RootsWeb's main Web page at and the author (name, e-mail address, and URL, if applicable)). * * * AUTHORS MUST ADVISE THE EDITORS AT THE TIME OF SUBMISSION OF AN ARTICLE for consideration for publication in ROOTSWEB REVIEW if their special permission to reprint is required. * * * * * RootsWeb Review is e-mailed on Wednesdays to all RootsWeb Members, subscribers to RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists, submitters to the Roots Surname List (RSL), and others who use the resources provided by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. 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