ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 5, 3 February 1999; Circulation: 259,950+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb; Speeding Down the Net; Getting More for Less; Connecting through RootsWeb; New Mailing Lists; New Home Pages; New GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Archives Census Project Transcriptions; Online Census Images; Emigrant Records; Humor; Reprint Policy; Unsubscribe Instructions. * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB THE IMMIGRANT SHIP TRANSCRIBERS GUILD (ISTG) IS GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS. When the guild began its work on September 16, 1998, there were 50 volunteers within a week. Now nearly 500 volunteers are transcribing ship passenger lists that will be posted on the ISTG Web site. The guild accepts new volunteers on a quarterly basis. The next group will be accepted in April, 1999, so if you are interested in joining at that time, please read the FAQ under Guild Information. More than 300 passenger lists are now posted at the Web site and new passenger lists are posted weekly. * * * INTERNATIONAL INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (IIGS) NEWSLETTER -- SWEDISH AND DUTCH EDITIONS. Penny Bonnar, editor of the IIGS Newsletter, thanks the volunteer translators and announces that the Swedish and Dutch versions of the January IIGS Newsletter are now available online at: Swedish: Dutch: * * * IIGS INTERNET RELAY CHAT (IRC). For the full schedule of International Internet Genealogical Society IRC sessions, and for information about how to obtain IRC software, visit: . On Monday, 8 Feb., from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S.) Time, DearMYRTLE will host a session on "Using LDS Family History Centers Effectively." Set your IRC software to: Description: rootsweb Server: irc.rootsweb.com Port: 6667 Channel: #DearMYRTLE * * * MANDY SILVA LEAVES ROOTSWEB FOR A BETTER SITE. Within every organization or business there are people who work feverishly behind the scenes. This week RootsWeb lost such a person with the death of Mandy Silva, the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) data entry coordinator. Most of you didn't know Mandy by name, but if you ever submitted information to the RSL or searched the RSL database, you saw the result of her work. Mandy will be greatly missed by her family and by us, her extended family. Karen Isaacson recalls, "She always came through for us, took care of the critters when we traveled, and had a smile even when things were going poorly." * * * HELPDESK TIPS. For answers to most of your questions about using the resources hosted by RootsWeb, please read the FAQs at the RootsWeb HelpDesk: . * * * DONATIONS TO HELP SUPPORT ROOTSWEB ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, please visit: or send e-mail to: . RootsWeb's address is: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please include your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks.) * * * * * SPEEDING DOWN THE NET by Tim Pierce RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative system obfuscator and hack-of-all-trades Delivering 150 million messages a month means that each of RootsWeb's list servers handles about 2.5 million messages per day, or upwards of 100,000 deliveries per hour. To put this in perspective, last December your intrepid senior system obfuscator attended part of the LISA conference in Boston, held each year for large-scale system administrators. While there, I attended a session for mailing list administrators led by John Buckman. Buckman is the CEO of Lyris Technologies, a company that develops and sells commercial high-volume mailing list software. At some point during this session someone asked Buckman about how fast e-mail can be delivered. He quoted statistics for several software systems, and suggested that the "sendmail" package that RootsWeb uses could deliver at most about 10,000 messages per hour. That came as quite a shock to me, since we're already handling about an order of magnitude more mail than that. So there you have it, folks -- RootsWeb delivers 10 times as much mail as the THEORETICAL MAXIMUM for a system in our class, according to a leading expert in mailing-list software. Will wonders never cease? [Dr. Leverich comments: "Because they're lightly loaded at night, I'd guess that the servers peak at more than 200,000 deliveries per hour apiece."] * * * * * GETTING MORE FOR LESS by Leigh Compton You can help to reduce the workload on the RootsWeb servers by always including the full URL for your home page in links. Assume that your home page is "index.html" and your RootsWeb account is txpecos. Links to this page can be written as any of the following: 1. Pecos County 2. Pecos County 3. Pecos County A click on any of these hyperlinks will cause your home page to be sent to the browser. There is, however, more work to be done by the server whenever the incomplete version #3 is used. When the full URL as in #1 is received by the Web server, all that it has to do is read the index.html file from the disks and send it to the browser. If you have coded the URL as in #2, with a slash on the end, the server notices that you have asked for a directory rather than a particular file. So, the server looks at its configuration file to determine which file in the txpecos directory should be used (on RootsWeb both "index.html" and "index.htm" are used as defaults). Then it retrieves the default file (if you have one!) and transmits it to your browser. URL #2 makes the server do a very little bit more work, but it is almost insignificant. In case #3, however, the URL ends in "~txpecos" but has no trailing slash. The server isn't sure how to interpret this, so instead of retrieving the index.html Web page, it sends back a little message to your browser that says "That doesn't really make sense: did you mean `~txpecos/' with a slash?" Your browser gets that message and sends back a new, correctly formed URL. Using this kind of URL means that your browser has to send an extra Web command across the network, and may even need to reconnect to the Web server. That slows you down a lot and increases the load on RootsWeb's systems slightly. By using URL #1 or #2 for your home page, you are helping to reduce the processing needed to view a Web page. Using "index.html" or "index.htm" as your home page is a good idea because it permits you to use URL #2, which is easier for other people to remember. If someone uses URL #2 or #3 to view your Web site, and you don't have "index.html" or "index.htm" in your public_html directory, the server will display a listing of all the available files in your directory. We strongly recommend that you create a file in your public_html directory named index.html or index.htm. You don't have to use this as your home page, but it will prevent someone from browsing through all of your files. * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. Just thought I would write and let you all know that through your site, I have made contact with many of my first and second cousins. I lost my cousins more than 60 years ago because of moving and my parents not keeping in touch with their families. I could remember my cousins, but did not know where they were. Both of my parents passed away, and all I had were photo albums of relations, but no names or dates. In 1990 I figured it was time to start the search for my long-lost relatives. I joined every genealogy society in Nova Scotia, New Hampshire, and Newfoundland, even the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. I mailed many letters and made numerous telephone calls. This was quite expensive. I even sent e-mail to different sites in France. To date I have purchased 22 CDs of the World Family Tree. True, I gleaned information from them, but RootsWeb users are fantastic. Send a message on RootsWeb and get a reply in days, at no cost to me. Through RootsWeb, I have contacted 10 first cousins and six second cousins. I have also found information about aunts and uncles as well as some cousins who have passed on. I decided to remit a check to help you cover some of the expenses that are needed to keep RootsWeb growing. I hope all the other RootsWeb users will do the same. If they would sit back and figure the money that they are saving by being able to use this site to reach out and gather information from untold numbers, I think they would appreciate what RootsWeb is doing. William Pellerin, Exeter, New Hampshire * * * * * 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 have interest in the Strathnairn area of Scotland, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit . NEW 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: NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ALLINGHAM AMICK (includes EMICK, EMIG, EMIGH and AMEY) ARBING ARRINGTON BARTLEY BAXTER BROWNE-CHAD (Chad BROWNE, ancestor of the Rhode Island family who arrived in Boston in 1638, and one of the original proprietors of the Providence Purchase) BUSHONG CARRIER CRIST (includes CHRIST and CRISS) DOLE (emphasis on the descendants of John and Sarah DOLE, who immigrated in 1682 to Pennsylvania/New Jersey from Bristol, England) EARP (includes EARPE, EARPS, ARP, ARPE, ARPS, IRP, IRPE, IRPS, URP, URPE, and URPS) HEDRINGTON HUSSIN KELLAR (includes KELLER) KELLEHER MATHIESEN (Danish surname; includes MATTHIESEN, MATTHIESSEN, MATHIASEN, MATTHYSEN, MATHESEN) MCRAE MIDGLEY PELLERIN (emphasis on the Nova Scotia, Canada lines) ROOT-SURNAME (the ROOT or ROOTE surname) RYDER RYERSON TANKERSLEY (includes TANKERSLEY, TANKERSLY, and TUXHORN) TENNANT VAUGHT VERVOREN NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS ENGLAND ENG-HUNTINGDON -- Huntingdon, England WorldGenWeb; complements GREECE KRIEKOUKIOTES-VILIOTES-DIASPORA -- genealogy, history, and Y2K Reunion plans for Kriekouki (Erithres) and Vilia, Attica, Greece SCOTLAND SCT-SHETLAND -- people, history, and culture of the Shetland Islands SCT-STRATHNAIRN -- an area on the border between Nairnshire and Inverness (four parishes of Nairnshire and Dores, Daviot and Dunlichity, Moy, Croy, Petty, and Ardersier in Inverness) U.S.A. ARMILLER -- Miller County, Arkansas GAJASPER -- Jasper County, Georgia GALAMAR -- Lamar County, Georgia INJOHNSO -- Johnson County, Indiana KSATCHIS -- Atchison County, Kansas KYMONTGO -- Montgomery County, Kentucky MA-HINGHAM-BOOK -- families chronicled in the "History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts," published in 1893 MEPENOBS -- Penobscot County, Maine MSPERRY -- Perry County, Mississippi NECUMING -- Cuming County, Nebraska SC-OLD-PENDLETON-DIST -- South Carolina's Old Pendleton District was formed from Washington District in 1798. This list will cover pre-1798 to 1826, with later focus on Anderson County, South Carolina TXKAUFMA -- Kaufman County, Texas VERMONT -- State of Vermont WVHAMPSH -- Hampshire County, West Virginia NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS CLANS -- Scottish clans: their history, genealogy, culture, and presence in the world today through clan organizations JEWISH-ROOTS -- Jewish genealogy * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Please see the instructions at . 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. . Note that the ~[tilde] before the account name is required and will work for most. If not, you'll find most of them at USGenWeb or WorldGenWeb . For example, to visit the page for Dublin, Ireland, go to: . IRELAND irlnorth -- North Ireland irldubli -- Dublin SERBIA serwgw -- Serbia U.S.A. cajodar -- John Oldam Chapter NSDAR (California) mnstearn -- Stearns County, Minnesota msforres -- Forrest County, Mississippi txguadal -- Guadalupe County, Texas wiwashin -- Washington County, Wisconsin HOME PAGES ALEXANDRA's Family Tree House, Western North Carolina cemeteries; BARRETT, EUBANKS, GALLOWAY, HAMILTON ANTLE. ANTLE research in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Susan CHAMBLESS Family Page. FAWCETT, JOHNS, GAUSS, LINDSAY, DURFEE, GLENDAY, SIMMONS, CHAMBLESS DENA's Homepage. East Tennessee research (emphasis on 1750-1796) HAMMAN Surname Research Center HETRICK Genealogy Page. HETRICK, JACOB, MCALEXANDER, WAMPLER HEDGES Family History Web Site The Pioneer HIBBEN Family. Thomas HIBBEN and Mary ENTRIKEN HOPPES Generations Genealogy Page Elizabeth JACKSON's Genealogy Page. HOBART, RAINEY, SPOTSWOOD, BURWELL Norvan L. JOHNSON Family Page. ADERMAN, BARNARD, GROOM, HAMBRINK, HOBBS, RALPH Larry and Mildred Bearce NOAH's Genealogy Page. NOAH, NOE The PETTIT-TUEY Connection. AMES, BERRY, CORDELL, DUNKIN, GAGNON, MATTISON, PETTIT, TUEY The PITTMAN Data Bank Joan Hapeman SOMERS Family History. BUTLER, SUMMERS, GOETZ, LOGAN, HAPEMAN TERRY's Home Page. LUFFMAN, HARRIS, PARK, BLUE, HENRY WASHINGTON District, NC. Focus on the history and people of the East Tennessee - Third Grand Division, 1750-1796 * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 175 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 24 January to 30 January 1999, as follows: CANADA 1 PRUSSIA 1 USA Co 2 Fl 20 Ga 31 Ia 9 Il 5 In 3 La 1 Mi 7 Mn 2 Mo 9 Ms 4 Mt 3 Ne 8 ND 3 NJ 2 NY 1 Oh 28 Pa 9 SC 2 Tx 18 Va 4 Wy 2 SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Slaves -- Kentucky Windham County, Connecticut. Willamantic Journal News -- 1862 Windham County, Connecticut. Willamantic Enterprise News -- 1877 Windham County, Connecticut. 1889 Bayles History SURNAME BOARDS. New surname boards include the following : Albrecht, Ambrose, Anderlini, Anderson, Arrendell, Arrington, Ashley, Ashworth, Bartlett, Basham, Bearden, Bebb, Beem, Begley, Birchfield, Blann, Boggess, Bonnette, Bordas, Bost, Bowlin, Brant, Brink, Brown, Bryant, Bullard, Burkhammer, Burwell, Bush, Carawan, Cartmill, Cartwright, Cassidy, Causey, Clanton, Coleman, Compton, Congleton, Correll, Corson, Cosentino, Courville, Curran, Dains, Darling, Davison, Deloach, DeSpain, Dewhurst, Dodd, Doran, Douglas, Downey, Dubbeld, Duty, Dyer, Dyess, Earle, Eddy, Ehlers, Eisenmann, English, Erickson, Feltner, Fenn, Frericks, Fruge, Gagne, Gardiner, Gerard, Gesseron dit Broulotte, Giblin, Gillett, Godsey, Godwin, Goldsberry, Goldsborough, Goss, Graley, Gresham, Grieser, Grinstead, Grundy, Guidry, Gustin, Haddath, Haire, Halbach, Halkett, Hargis, Hargrave, Haslett, Hayden, Heinbaugh, Henderson, Hershey, Hertel, Hilyard, Hinson, Hobart, Holtzclaw, Hopkins, Horton, Hoyle, Hubbard, Hull, Hunsucker, Hurt, Inman, Irving, Irwin, Janney, Jent, Jepsen, Joseph, Kannaly, Kellar, Kelso, Key, Kilgore, Kinnick, Kiser, Klingner, Lackey, Lacy, Lange, La Tourette, Laycock, Leathers, Lemay, Linton, Longwell, Lounsbury, Luken, Maguire, Massaker, Mateu, Mathiesen, Mayberry, McCoach, McCray, McDonough, McEwen, McGucklin, McIntosh, McVicker, McWhorter, Meese, Melyn, Myrick, Netterville, Norfleet, Nowlin, Nuckolls, Oden, Odonnell, Oleary, Only, Paramore, Parsley, Patzkowski, Pelton, Penn, Plazier, Poling, Presnell, Preston, Pucket, Purvis, Rainey, Rawsthorne, Reavis, Ridley, Riedl, Root, Rule, Rush, Ryerson, Sartor, Schreiner, Scott, See, Selby, Shankle, Sheets, Shiver, Shoemaker, Shoun, Shroll, Shropshire, Slafter, Spence, Sponberg, Spotswood, Staley, Starling, Starr, StClair, Steger, Stokesbury, Storkson, Strayhorn, Strock, Suggs, Summers, Sumney, Tarrant, Teskey, Tozer, Turman, Turner, Uhl, Upperman, Upshaw, VanHorne, VanPelt, Vasko, Vossinas, Wiggins, Wolfe, Woolsey, Wootton, Worrall, Zeiser Link to GenConnect Fun Facts at: * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES CENSUS PROJECT TRANSCRIPTIONS. These are the transcriptions that were uploaded in the last week. NEBRASKA. 1897 through 1930. Frontier County censuses NEBRASKA. 1897 through 1906. Frontier County school censuses OHIO. Dr. William Lindsay Biography and Journals ONLINE CENSUS IMAGES ALABAMA. 1900 Lamar County MISSOURI. 1880 Howard County MISSOURI. 1880 Randolph County TENNESSEE. 1920 Moore County TENNESSEE. 1870 Obion County TENNESSEE. 1880 Obion County WEST VIRGINIA. 1870 Logan County WEST VIRGINIA. 1880 Logan County * * * * * AND NOW, A WORD FROM THE CORPORATE SPONSOR. EMIGRANT RECORDS by Brian Bonner Mavrogeorge The Learning Company Between 1820 and 1860, 20 percent of America's immigrant population was from Germany, and in the same period the largest group of new immigrants was Irish. Every step of the way through the process of immigrating to the United States, and in some instances to Canada, these people left records and documents. So, if you know where your gateway ancestor lived before emigrating, check for information in the "old country" localities. -- At the national level. In order to emigrate, the person may have had to prove he was released from service to a nobleman (letter of manumission) or that his military service was completed. Then he would have to apply for a passport or "permit to emigrate." These records might have information about birth, residence, parentage, spouse, and children of the emigrant. -- At the local level. Many people emigrating had to use baptismal records to prove their identity. The local minister would issue a certified copy of their baptismal entry with their name, birthdate/place, baptism date, and their parents' names. Often the minister entered into the register something like "went to the New World in 1740" next to their baptismal entry. Sometimes the emigrants simply received a letter that identified them as a member of a specific congregation. Estate and property settlement records in the "old countries" may give information regarding an emigrant's departure. English court records include names of people who committed misdemeanor crimes and were sentenced to serve as the indentured servants of plantation owners and businessmen in the colonies. These owners and businessmen paid for the servants' passage. Many of those court records have been abstracted and published. -- At the ports. North American researchers often check passenger lists for arrivals at U.S. and Canadian ports. But remember that such lists were created at both ends of the journey. While not all lists have survived, a search for both can be worthwhile. In some instances government agents and real estate companies recruited workers, and they maintained lists and recorded the location of the lands they would settle. The lists sometimes contain the emigrant's residence at time of departure, the cost of the ticket, the name of the person who paid the fare, and the final destination. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Tutor that accompanies Ultimate Family Tree , there are more than 3,500 printed emigration sources (and some on CD-ROM). Use those indices as finding aids and to establish where your ancestors came from. Then systematically search that location for the records the emigrants left behind. * * * * * HUMOR. We've heard that U.S. current events were noted this way in a letter to the editor of the Australian newspaper, "The Sydney Morning Herald": "Thank God we got the convicts and they got the Puritans." * * * * * 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) This notice must appear at the end of the article: Written by Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 5, 3 February 1999. You may visit RootsWeb's main Web page at . * * * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW is e-mailed on Wednesdays to all RootsWeb Members, subscribers to RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists, submitters to the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL), and other RootsWeb users. DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES FROM . UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS: If you would prefer not to receive future issues of RootsWeb Review, please e-mail: and put ONLY the word "unsubscribe" (omit the quotation marks) in the subject line and in the body of the message. * * * MISSING LINKS: A Weekly Newsletter for Genealogists, edited and published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, is a free e-zine usually distributed on Fridays. Back issues are available for download from . To subscribe to MISSING LINKS, send an e-mail message that says only SUBSCRIBE to: Missing-Links-L-request@rootsweb.com * * * * * PLEASE NOTE: The editors of ROOTSWEB REVIEW, the staff of RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, and the HelpDesk volunteers are unable to respond to requests for genealogical research help. ____