ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 7, 17 February 1999; Circulation: 266,850+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb (RootsWeb Review Archives; When You Can't Get Through; ISTG; RootsWeb HelpDesk); Connecting through RootsWeb; New Mailing Lists; New Home Pages; New GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Census Project Uploads; Letter to the Editors; A Word from the Corporate Sponsor; Humor; Reprint Policy; Unsubscribe Instructions. * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES. Last week's issue of RootsWeb Review, we discovered to our chagrin (several days after the fact), was not delivered to everyone. If your copy went missing, please download 19990210.txt from . * * * WHEN YOU CAN'T GET THROUGH to a URL mentioned in RootsWeb Review, please try again later. Every week a few readers write to advise that "none of the URLs work" or that a particular site mentioned in the most recent issue of RootsWeb Review "doesn't exist," to which we can only reply, "Yes, they do," or "Yes, it does." RootsWeb Review is delivered each week to more than a quarter of a million online genealogists, many of whom immediately try to access some of the URLs mentioned in the current issue. Most get through, but some do not on the first or second attempt. Strange error messages sometimes appear to indicate that a particular site does not exist. Usually they only mean that, at the moment a potential visitor was turned away, the site was temporarily unavailable due to heavy Internet traffic. * * * ISTG . Transcriptions of passenger lists for 404 ships have been uploaded by the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild as of 16 February 1999. Approximately 500 volunteers continue to transcribe lists that will be uploaded as they are completed. Additional volunteer transcribers will be accepted on a quarterly basis (see the ISTG FAQs for details). The passenger lists are searchable by: (1) Date (1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s); (2) Ship's Name (by country, to date including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, Wales, and the West Indies); (3) Port of Arrival (to date including Baltimore, Maryland; Canada; Galveston, Texas; Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; New Zealand; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Port Jackson, NSW, Australia; Virginia; and Wilmington, North Carolina); and (4) Surname and Captain's Name. * * * GENEALOGY BOOKS. A free service for RootsWeb mailing list subscribers. List used genealogy books you wish to sell at: * * * 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.) * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. Recently, I returned to Seattle from a four-day visit in the Tampa, Florida area with my newly found sister, who was separated from me when I was five years old, 65 years ago, and whose daughter, you may recall, found me via the RootsWeb Surname List on Christmas Day. What a thrill! I believe we hugged and bawled for at least 15 minutes straight in the airport lobby while the rest of her family stood all around us and cried, too. It was a wonderful reunion. Words can hardly do it justice: four days of catch-up, and I had been worried about what we could talk about after 66 years! She finally has her correct birthdate. She had lots of trouble with Social Security and driver's licenses because she did not know it and so she could not get a copy of a birth certificate. I filled her in on all the things I have learned about our family from my search, mainly via RootsWeb Lists and the Family History Centers. Other than the total disappearance of any record of our mother, the only area that remains a mystery is when, and from where in Hungary, our grandparents immigrated. So the search will continue but now it will be sweet work. Again, thank you and all the RootsWeb folks for being God's instruments in this case. Joe Felt * * * In 1967 my father died and I started my search for the family I never knew. For some reason or other, he and his brother Asa had distanced themselves from the rest of the WORTHINGTON family and I had never had the honor or privilege of meeting any of them. My oldest half sister would never share information and, when she died in 1992, I all but gave up hope of finding out anything about my father's family. Then I found you. Four weeks ago, I posted a simple message onto one of the boards asking about anyone who had information on the family of Thomas and Musa Worthington and I left it at that. A few days later I left for England to see our daughter and meet our new grandson. That meant having to use a cyber cafe in the Plymouth City Center to check my mail for three weeks. On my first visit there I managed to shake the place up by shouting "Yes! They really do exist!" Out of curiosity a number of students started to gather and my daughter started explaining to them that, after 31 years of searching, I had found my family. There, on the first line of my in-box, was a letter from my first cousin. He had been searching for me for 30 years and we found each other through that simple message. You have no idea what it was like to speak to him on the phone and to know that he and his family are real and are mine. Thank you so very much for bringing us together. My cousins and I are already talking about meeting and working on the paper trail that we now share. Wanda Worthington Peacock * * * * * MAILING LISTS. 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 "Contrbutors-only" warning on the list request page. Please request new mailing lists at: TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from any RootsWeb-hosted 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 are interested in Australian military history and researching military ancestors from 1788 to the present, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ABBOTT (includes ABBOT, ABOT, ABOTT, etc.) BARR BORDEAUX (emphasis on descendants of Jacques de Bourdeaux (before 1640 - 1699), Huguenot immigrant to Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1680s) BORTON BUSING (includes BUSSING, BUSIG) CAFF CARLE CLEVELAND-SURNAME CROWELL (includes variants; including descendants of John and Yelverton CROWE) DEJARNETTE DOMENY DONOVAN FLOCK (includes FLOCH, FLACH, and other variants) GOGGIN HEINBAUGH JOBUSCH (includes JOBUSH) KISER (includes KEYSER; especially descendants of Charles "Karl" KEYSER) KITCHEN (KITCHEN and variants from Canada, England, and U.S.A.) KLEIN (families that emigrated from Germany, Austria, Prussia, etc. to the U.S.A.) LAWLER (includes all variants of the Irish O'LALOR) LUFFMAN (includes LUFMAN) MARTINDALE MCCANDLESS (includes all variants) MCELHONE (includes MCELHONEY, MCILHONE, etc.) MCMURRY (includes MCMURRAY, MACMURRY, MACMURRAY, all variants) MENARY (includes MANARY, MENAREY, MANEREY, MENEREY) MILLSAP (includes MILLSAPS) MOREY NEWHOUSE NOWELS OCONNOR-TIPP (includes O'CONNOR, CONNORS, CONNERS originating from County Tipperary, Ireland) RAWLINS RINCK (includes RINK) ROACH SAWHILL SONNTAG STRIBLING (includes variants; emphasis on descendants of Thomas STRIBLING Sr. and Elizabeth TALIAFERRO) STROMBERG STURGIS (includes STURGES, TURGES, TURGIS) THURMAN WEATHERS (includes variants) WEHN WEISER (especially descendants of Johannes Conrad WEISER) WELLS-KY (pre-1790 Kentucky WELLS families and descendants) WOODY-SURNAME NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS AUSTRALIA AUS-MILITARY -- Australian military history and military ancestors from 1788 to the present AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS -- history and genealogy of the people of the geographic area loosely defined as the golden triangle of the Victorian cities of Ballarat (Central Highlands), Bendigo, and Maryborough, and their environs GUATEMALA -- Guatemala genealogy, WorldGenWeb PAPUA-NEWGUINEA -- Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, including New Britain (capital city Rabaul) U.S.A. ALMONTGO -- Montgomery County, Alabama AZGRAHAM -- Graham County, Arizona GALINCOL -- Lincoln County, Georgia IDKOOTEN -- Kootenai County, Idaho IDNEZPER -- Nez Perce County, Idaho IDTWINFA -- Twin Falls County, Idaho KYKNOTT -- Knott County, Kentucky KSDOUGLA -- Douglas County, Kansas MABRISTO -- Bristol County, Massachusetts MNNICOLL -- Nicollet County, Minnesota NCONSLOW -- Onslow County, North Carolina NCDOBBS -- Dobbs County, North Carolina (discontinued 1791) NCDUPLIN -- Duplin County, North Carolina NCNEWHAN -- New Hanover County, North Carolina NCPENDER -- Pender County, North Carolina NHMERRIM -- Merrimack County, New Hampshire NMCIBOLA -- Cibola County, New Mexico NMMCKINL -- McKinley County, New Mexico NMQUAY -- Quay County, New Mexico NMSANMIG -- San Miguel County, New Mexico OHGALLIA -- Gallia County, Ohio OKMURRAY -- Murray County, Oklahoma SCABBEVI -- Abbeville, South Carolina TNMONTGO -- Montgomery County, Tennessee TXBRAZOR -- Brazoria County, Texas TXLUBBOC -- Lubbock County, Texas NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS DEARMYRTLE -- "DearMyrtle" genealogy column FRENCH-INDIAN -- French and Indian War GENAUTHOR -- To discuss all aspects of preparing and publishing a family genealogy book; not a general research "how to" list JESSE-JAMES -- For descendants of the friends and family of the outlaw Jesse JAMES KIWIGEN -- Technical support and Web site promotion for members of the KiwiGen Web Ring METHODIST -- For those researching Methodist ancestors POCSOUTH -- People of Color, South ("South" meaning the 13 Southern U.S. states); for African-American genealogists doing Southern U.S. research; the forerunner was "People of Color in Old Tennessee" * * * * * 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 Guatemala WorldGenWeb page, go to: . GUATEMALA gtmwgw -- Guatemala (in Spanish and English) U.S.A. albchs -- Butler County (Alabama) Historical Society arwhite -- White County, Arkansas cavcgs -- Ventura County (California) Genealogical Society iltcghs -- Tazewell County (Illinois) Genealogical and Historical Society mobutle2 -- Butler County, Missouri (2) nctransy -- Transylvania County, North Carolina nyessex -- Essex County, New York okcoal -- Coal County, Oklahoma okpushma -- Pushmataha County, Oklahoma txrockwa -- Rockwall County, Texas MISCELLANEOUS laudc -- Louisiana United Daughters of the Confederacy pajcwfa -- John Conrad Weiser Family Assoc. (Pennsylvania) usfrind -- Genealogical Society of the French and Indian War HOME PAGES CRAGO Connection. Greene County, Pennsylvania pioneer Thomas CRAGO Arlan MAGUIRE's Genealogy Page. MAGUIRE surname. McWH*RTER Genealogy Home Page. All variant spellings of McWHIRTER (including MCWHORTER, MCWHIRTER, MCWHERTER, MCWORTER, MCQUIRTER, MEWHORTER, MAWHIRTER, MCQUARTER) * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 91 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 7 February to 13 February 1999, as follows: ENGLAND 2 GUATEMALA 1 IRELAND 1 USA Ar 1 Ca 1 Co 5 Ia 2 Il 5 In 1 Ks 1 Ky 1 La 6 Mi 6 Mn 4 Mo 11 Ms 8 Mt 1 NC 3 NJ 1 Oh 2 Ok 6 Pa 5 SC 1 Tn 2 Tx 5 Wa 1 WV 8 SURNAME BOARDS. 517 New surname boards include the following : Akins, Alderman, Alverson, Ashworth, Avery, Ayers, Bacon, Baumgartner, Bender, Bilbrey, Blahnik, Bonnell, Borton, Bottoms, Bowers, Britton, Chadwick, Christy, Clemons, Climas, Colson, Condie, Conrad, Cranford, Crofoot, Crowell, Cueni, Cutbirth, Cutright, Daniel, Denney, Desbouillon, Devasier, Devine, Donnelly, Doxsie, Doyle, Driver, Dunton, Dutcher, Earp, Edmonds, Ehlers, Eise, Engbrock, Erickson, Fairhurst, Farmer, Flowers, Force, Fried, Frielinghaus, Gaskill, Geisheimer, Gillis, Goble, Goggin, Graessle, Graham, Grantham, Griest, Hagerty, Haile, Halama, Hampton, Hamrick, Hanna, Hanratty, Harding, Hay, Hommel, Hume, Jackson, Jessee, Kipp, Kitchen, Koehn, Kull, Lafferty, Larimer, Latourette, Lawson, Lebreaux, Lippincott, Magill, Maize, Major, Marsee, Martin, Martindale, McCool, McElhone, McGregor, Meline, Menary, Milam, Milne, Neill, Nicholson, ONeal, Orr, Patzkowski, Phelps, Pigott, Plate, Poling, Poyntz, Quebedeau, Randle, Reinke, Romine, Rook, Russell, Sardeson, Scott, See, Short, Simmons, Southwick, Spainhour, Sponberg, Sprinkle, Styers, Tandy, Tankersley, Titsworth, Toher, Totty, Toy, Traugott, Wehn, Welch, Westfall, Whatley, Wheat, Whitcome, Whitehurst, Willett, Willoughby, Woolfolk * * * * * USGENWEB CENSUS PROJECT ARCHIVES UPLOADS. ARKANSAS. 1880 Sharp County (Johnson and Cave townships added) GEORGIA. 1850 Camden County ILLINOIS. 1850 Hamilton County IOWA. 1860 Benton County (two townships added) KANSAS. 1860 Nemaha County KENTUCKY. 1870 Marshall County MISSISSIPPI. 1830 Simpson County MISSISSIPPI. 1850 Sunflower County NORTH CAROLINA. 1800 Burke County NORTH CAROLINA. 1850 Stanley County [N.B.: URL works as given] NORTH CAROLINA. 1840 Stokes County PENNSYLVANIA. 1870 Somerset County (Lower Turkey Foot township) WISCONSIN. 1850. Portage County. Surname Index * * * * * LETTER TO THE EDITORS. I found two Web sites listing my family information -- current living family, with birth dates, marriage dates, locations, and personal information such as adoption and nursing home placement. I was horrified and irate and felt I had just found a Peeping Tom at my window. When I wrote to the Web person to inquire about the source of the information and complain about the public display, I received a reply that expressed surprise that anyone would complain; he said others thank him for the Web exposure. He was irate that I was irate! Finally, he grudgingly agreed to delete adoption and nursing home information, but no deletion of birth dates for any of these living people. He said "That is just not going to happen." He did supply the e-mail address of the submitter, but no name -- he protects the privacy of the submitter, but not of the victims! In response to my complaint, the person who submitted my information to the Web site I described wrote to say that she has asked the Web manager to delete the information that referred to living persons in my family. I don't know her or how she received my information, but I am grateful for her help. This Web site is supposedly a family Web site, but it is certainly far afield from what I would consider my extended family -- I have never heard of these people. The second Web site I looked at was an individual family site on Family Tree Maker done by a cousin who received information from me about three years ago. She has all the names and birth dates (some were copied incorrectly), but not place names or personal comments about living people, so at least she used some restraint. I would prefer not to have the living people, or at least not the birth dates, listed, however, and will ask her to delete them. I have sent family information -- by Snail Mail -- on three or four occasions to new "cousins" that I met through Web inquiries, and most of those I knew about even if I did not know them personally. There was no implication that this information would be sent to the Web. I like my privacy, and I suspect others do too. I guess I just thought anyone with common sense would understand that it is not in anyone's interest to disperse private information about living people. Even if such information is available as public record, it is not available in such convenient organized form with links to others. We can cut down on public display of information on living persons by deleting it from materials we send to others. Carolyn DeWolfe * * * * * A WORD FROM THE CORPORATE SPONSOR: DATES AND ULTIMATE FAMILY TREE by Brian Bonner Mavrogeorge, The Learning Company Someone asked me how to accommodate BCE dates in a genealogy. We all learn the importance of entering dates word-for-word from the original sources. In genealogy software this is often referred to as the free-form date and the program accepts and prints it exactly as entered. Examples of this are Quaker, Jewish, or "about 15 January 1985" dates. The free-form date also is used to enter double dates such as 3 February 1742/3. When space is limited you need a shorter, more structured form. The software transforms "about 15 January 1974" to ABT 15 JAN 1974. The program may accept any modifier you choose but, when exporting in GEDCOM, the program must confine itself to abt (about), cal (calculated), est (estimated), bef (before), aft (after), bet...and (between...and), and from...to (from...to). Sometimes a date is not truly a date but a sequence number. You know there was more than one child and the order in which they were born, but you do not know the actual birth dates. You need a way to indicate the sequence of events. For this purpose, Ultimate Family Tree uses a "sort date," information which is never printed or used internally except to put events in sequence: child1's sort date could be 11/01/1930, child2 would be 11/02/1930, etc. -- whatever makes sense in the context of the other events for that person. How would you record BCE genealogies? The free-form date will accommodate the proper form for printing. Use the sort date to sequence the events: 450 BCE = 01/11/0100, 423 BCE = 01/12/0100, 310 BCE = 01/15/0100. The actual value of the sort date isn't important -- only the sequence. The trick is to remember that as the BCE date decreases, the sort date must increase. * * * * * HUMOR. This one is making the rounds. We've received it from several sources, none of whom wants credit. One source presented it as a "blonde" joke (but we wouldn't dare). I hope I haven't misunderstood your instructions because, to be honest, this Y to K problem doesn't make sense to me. At any rate, I have finished converting all the months on all the company calendars so that the year 2000 is ready to go with the following new months: Januark Februark Mak Julk * * * * * 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. 7, 17 February 1999. Please 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.