ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 15, 14 April 1999. Circulation: 286,750+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG * * * * * CONTENTS. News and Notes from RootsWeb (Threaded List Archives Available -- Thanks to Marc Nozell; RootsWeb in the News; Funding RootsWeb; HelpDesk Tips); Connecting through RootsWeb; Mailing Lists; Web Pages; GenConnect Boards; USGenWeb Archives Project; Letters to the Editors; Humor; Reprint Policy TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) to: . BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW are available for download from: . * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB THREADED LIST ARCHIVES ARE NOW AVAILABLE. Now you can read 122,813 messages from 877 mailing lists using your Web browser by visiting . All those messages are from just three months of beta tests -- watch this archives grow with its public debut. This is a remarkably comfortable way to browse through the posts that have been made to the lists. Be sure to use the integrated search engine to find what you are looking for. To use the Archiver you will need to pick a user name and password and you will need to accept a cookie. The reason for passwords and cookies is to keep spammers' e-mail address harvesters *out* of the archives. Because of this password-and- cookie feature, listowners can set up lists to be archived with confidence that they are *not* exposing posters' addresses to spammers. We encourage all RootsWeb listowners to visit the Archiver and then include their lists in the archives. The next step is to start making old list messages available. Thanks to Marc Nozell for implementing the threaded archives. It's great work. * * * ROOTSWEB IN THE NEWS. It was a great week for RootsWeb and some of the projects, Web sites, and mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb. TIME MAGAZINE. Genealogy is the cover story of the 19 April 1999 issue of TIME, which hit the newsstands on Monday, 12 April 1999. Sites mentioned include RootsWeb , the USGenWeb Project , and Cyndi's List . The online version is available at: . MSNBC posted an article on Monday, 12 April 1999, that includes links to numerous genealogy Web sites including RootsWeb-hosted projects and Web pages such as Cyndi's List, the USGenWeb Project, the USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project , the USGenWeb Kids Project , the USGenWeb Lineage Research Project , and the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists . THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, 14 April 1999, has a long article that includes mention of the USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project , started three years ago by Pam Reid. According to L.A. Times staff writer Renee Tawa, "So far, volunteers have documented thousands of cemeteries in 44 states, with the permission of cemetery officials, who sometimes provide records." The article may be read online at: . GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. The March 1999 issue has an article about finding your roots online that reports tell us also takes favorable notice of RootsWeb and the USGenWeb Project. * * * FUNDING ROOTSWEB: Many folks don't realize how expensive RootsWeb is to operate and how high the costs are of adding new facilities. For example, the new threaded archives for our mailing lists (announced in this edition of the RootsWeb Review) cost us about $4,000 for the new server, and the bandwidth it will use will probably cost us the better part of a thousand dollars each and every month. More than anything else in the world, the staff and volunteers at RootsWeb want to continue adding new facilities for genealogists. Our vision and goal is to provide genealogists with access to the equivalent of a first-rate genealogical library from the comfort and safety of their own homes. And we're committed to making that library supported by voluntary contributions. We don't intend to have mandatory subscription fees or "pay-per-view" charges. We hope the genealogists who can afford to support us will do so -- RootsWeb would close down if it weren't for the support of our users -- but we intend to make all our resources freely available to all genealogists, regardless of their ability to contribute. If you haven't joined but can afford to do so, please visit or write . RootsWeb is also working to reestablish a commercial sponsorship and we're taking other measures to try to increase our revenues without unnecessarily commercializing the site. Regardless of the success of those measures, though, the support of our users is crucial: user contributions fundamentally determine the rate at which we can bring new facilities online. Dr. Brian Leverich RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 * * * HELPDESK TIPS. For answers to most of your questions about using the resources hosted by RootsWeb, please read the FAQs at the RootsWeb HelpDesk: . * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. I have always been interested in my own family line, but have never delved into the study of genealogy. Recently, the professional side of my husband's and my life lead us to do intensive work with the Dutch. In our first meeting they asked where his family had originated. It was the push I needed. Since that fateful day, I have been overwhelmed with the extensive generosity of people who have literally put their life's breath into researching these lines. Not only my husband's, but my own cousins have shared, and continue to share. In a time when we have both doubted the existence of true family values, to the point of relocating to a small unknown island in the South Pacific, you and your kind have given us an opportunity to smile. Thanks to you all. Kathryn Kendrick-Vanderpool * * * Thanks to RootsWeb, I have found distant cousins on eight different surnames for my husband's family by receiving responses to queries I posted on county lists. Other cousins I have found by responding to queries posted or surname(s) listed for a particular county. . . On my own line, I have had much success, also. I am happy to have found more fourth and fifth cousins. Two couples with German surname databases have helped me prove how my grandparents were fifth cousins by reading, transcribing, and entering the names of German Church records of a small region near Hanover, Germany. I have enjoyed reading Rootsweb queries and helping where I could. Thank you for all the efforts of good-natured people who enjoy participating in this research. Kay M. Diers * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit . IF YOU DO NOT HAVE WEB ACCESS but would like to know if a RootsWeb-hosted mailing list exists for a particular surname, send a SUBSCRIBE request in accordance with the instructions below, filling in the desired surname where the example shows [name of list]. If the list exists, you will receive confirmation that your address has been added to the list. If the list does not exist, your message will bounce back to you with a message advising there is no such address. Try alternate spellings. For example, there is no list for KLINE, but there are KLEIN and CLINE lists. You have nothing to lose but the time it takes to prepare and send the SUBSCRIBE request. 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 "Contributors-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 have research interests in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ANSTINE ASH BADGEROW (includes BADGRO, BADGERO, BADGROW, and BADJERO) BAMFORD BIRMINGHAM BOUCHER BRANNON-CARON (descendants of Caron BRANNON) DESENTIS (includes SENTIS) EADS (includes EADES, EDES, and EDDS) ENDERS ETHEL (includes ETHELL, ETHALL, and ETHOLL) HURLOCK KNOWLES LAFAYETTE (includes LAFEUILLADE, LAFEVILLADE) LAKEMAN LEA MARRS MCROBERTS (includes MCROBERT, MACROBERT, MACROBERTS, and variants) PAREDES (includes PAREDEZ and related surnames) PARKS-CANADA (includes PARKE and variants) in Canada PEVEHOUSE POWSON (includes POUSON, POWSONS, POWSONNE, POWSSON, POUSSON, POUCIN, POUSIN, and POUSSIN) SOUTH-SURNAME (SOUTH, the surname) VAISEY (includes VACEY, VASY, VESEY, and variants) WALSTROM WELDON WOJCIEHOWSKI NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS CANADA CAN-ONT-NORFOLK -- Norfolk County, Ontario DUFFERIN -- Dufferin County, Ontario U.S.A. ARIZARD -- Izard County, Arkansas IDGOODIN -- Gooding, Lincoln, Camas, and Blaine counties, Idaho KSGRAY -- Gray County, Kansas MOSTODDA -- Stoddard County, Missouri NEBOXBUT -- Box Butte County, Nebraska NESCOTTS -- Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska OKGRANT -- Grant County, Oklahoma UTDUCHES -- Duchesne County, Utah UTIRON -- Iron County, Utah WACLARK -- Clark County, Washington WYCARBON -- Carbon County, Wyoming WYNATRON -- Natrona County, Wyoming WYTETON -- Teton County, Wyoming NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, and MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS FREEBMD-SYNDICATES -- The FreeBMD project mailing list for communicating with the transcribing syndicates * * * * * 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. FOR EXAMPLE, to visit the Dufferin County, Ontario, Canada Web page, go to . CANADA ONTARIO onduffer -- Dufferin County U.S.A. gaahs -- Athens Historical Society (Georgia) ksscgs -- Sumner County Genealogical Society (Kansas) mifarmgs -- Farmington Genealogical Society (Michigan) ncpcfr -- Pitt County Family Researchers (North Carolina) ohmontgo -- Montgomery County, Ohio ohresrch -- Ohio Research Exchange pamchs -- Mifflin County Historical Society (Pennsylvania) tnwarren -- Warren County, Tennessee vanrhs -- New River Historical Society (Virginia) vasoutha -- Southampton County, Virginia HOME PAGES Sonny VANDERPOOL's Home on the Web. The goal is to record every known descendant of Gerrit van der Poel (born 1590 in Holland), whose son Wynant (1620-1699) came to New Netherland about 1644, and who is the gateway ancestor for most of the Vanderpools in America today. Thomas Tolley WORTHINGTON Family History and Genealogy Page. Devoted to research of Thomas Tolley Worthington's genealogy and family history in Mason County, Kentucky. * * * * * NEW GENCONNECT BOARDS. 314 new regional GenConnect boards were activated 28 March to 10 April (two weeks), as follows: ARCHIVES 20 IRELAND 1 MALTA 1 NORWAY 1 USA Al 14 Ar 5 Ca 17 Ct 13 Fl 14 Ga 13 Ia 9 Id 1 Ky 12 Mi 9 Mn 7 Mo 7 Ms 20 Mt 30 Ne 6 Nv 6 NC 23 NJ 20 NY 1 Ok 5 Or 1 Pa 1 SC 4 Tn 1 Tx 35 Wi 1 WV 1 Wy 6 SURNAME BOARDS. 230 New surname boards include the following : Amidon, Antrobus, Badgerow, Boggess, Broadwater, Burbey, Burt, Chowen, Clifton, Crain, Crandall, Crow, Dennis, Dicken, Downs, Flowers, Gossman, Gower, Grimm, Guidry, Guinsler, Hainer, Hall, Hawkins, Hobson, Holten, Howlett, Hullender, Karbowski, Karrick, Landon, Lassiter, Leatherman, Lintner, Malcolm, Matney, Mattingly, McCulley, McMains, Murney, Nixon, Peckham, Picheloup, Pickerill, Poff, Ragsdale, Rehmet, Rowan, Scarlett, Scothern, Scudder, Selcer, Simmons, Stanhope, Stelck, Storer, Storm, Strait, Strickland, Tagg, Thornton, Thurman, Toms, Trefz, Troutman, Votaw, Walters, Wilder, Wisweh, Wolfskill, Youngblood * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES SUBMISSIONS IN THE LAST WEEK (Everything between the angle brackets must be included, so you will have to type in or cut and paste long URLs, rather than click and go.) ALABAMA. 1850 Dale Co. Agriculture census COLORADO. 1876 Denver City Directory OHIO. Cuyahoga County history files (Updated) OHIO. Portage County Ohio history files (Updated) OHIO. OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Archives (Updated) * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS may be posted to the GenConnect board at http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/RWR-LettersToTheEditor or sent to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com. Your editors' mailbag overflowed with comments about the letter from Charlie Gardes (Vol. 2, No. 14) responding to Laird Towle's (Vol. 2, No. 13). Here is a sampling of them. (Gardes reported after a few days that he had received 94 personal responses which were, like those we received, largely favorable, with a few notable exceptions.) * * * Thank you, Charlie Gardes, for your commentary regarding proof. I wish there were more commentaries like yours out there for people to read. . . When a researcher lives and breathes the ancestors, believe me, the proof and accuracy of information become personal. How would we like it if our great-grandchildren messed up our own information? We would be upset that they didn't take the time really to know us. . . Romona Dunlap * * * Charles Gardes is absolutely correct when he challenges "computer genealogists" to do the hard, generation by generation, documented research . . . However, my experience indicates the present generation is not the only generation caught taking shortcuts in this field . . . Suggestion -- lightly regard even the best claims until the research is in hand. Doug Park * * * I just wanted to respond to the note in RootsWeb Review from Charles Gardes. I understand one's wish to keep things a certain way, but I also remember being taught certain things as facts from history books in elementary school that are now openly challenged by people who may not have had access to the power of the pen, or who see facts from other points of view. A date or a piece of paper is not always truth or fact. Even records stamped with official seals can later be found full of errors by viewing other records or speaking with eyewitnesses. People choose to pursue their interests (including genealogy) for a variety of reasons, and not all reasons will require the same type of documentation in order for a person to receive benefit. I am happy to see the Internet open up the world of research and sharing to so many people. I understand that we'll all have to wade through a lot of mistaken identities, dead-ends, lost data and rude awakenings. But many of us are also finding new friends, learning the art of sharing and trading clues and information, and gaining new enthusiasm for history itself as we dig through all the *stuff* out there. I do agree that we need to be careful about accepting everything handed to us as fact -- but isn't that true in every walk of life? Common sense and tact will create an atmosphere of learning for each of us, as long as we try to follow the Golden Rule. If we forget that, all we have are lists of a bunch of dead people anyway, and we have lost sight of a much bigger picture. I'd like to see us leave room for everyone with an interest to find his or her place in genealogy. I'd rather deal with some wrong information here and there than dampen anyone's enthusiasm for this wonderful activity by being too much of a purist. Deb Thompson * * * I'm only 22, but I started my genealogy a decade ago, with a project in junior high. I didn't get that far back, but four generations of my father's family were in the neighboring county, so I had access to tombstones, records, and census microfilms in the library. Two years ago, I started my genealogy again, only this time I found the Internet and forgot how to research, I guess. I found all sorts of new branches to my family line, everywhere I looked! I found one maternal surname back to the 16th century in England in one fell click of the mouse. I was really excited to link up with one researcher, who gave me another researcher's data which had a paternal surname overseas to Germany. I got into contact with her, as the original descendant list was a bit out of date and we kept in minor contact. Well, one day I got an e-mail from her. It seems that the last two generations on her list were wrong. Hans Heinrich, the person I had told all my family about, turned out not even to be related to us. His son wasn't linked to us either. Instead some new person named Johann Christian took his place. I was shocked. It turned out to be a researching error (the person thoroughly does her research), that could have happened to a lot of people and which wouldn't have been discovered if she hadn't been diligent. But that e-mail opened my eyes. I had all these names in my database and nothing to back them up with. I still wonder today, how many WFT CDs have that erroneous information. And then I had a researcher on another paternal surname e-mail me and ask for data. He hadn't contacted our branch in 15 or so years and wanted an update. I had surnames back a couple of centuries, but I didn't even have dates and places of births for most of my cousins, siblings for my maternal grandparents, anything. I was embarrassed. What did I do? I stopped using my main database. I still have it for reference, but names, events, and dates will no longer be entered into my new database without verification. My research has slowed down almost to a crawl because, being a college student, I don't have a lot of time for extra research, or money to order records, but any research I do from now on will be solid. I only wish others believed the same way, as I have heard a lot of unbelieving comments from people on why I'm doing it this way. Joanne Meyer * * * I can not tell you how much I enjoy each and every newsletter that I have received. They have been informative, amusing, eye- opening, and on some occasions frustrating. But never boring. . . . For those wonderful people who believe that they are indeed a part of my family tree, well, I am happy to include them on my charts and programs. But, I keep two sets of records, the verified names and dates on one, and ones still to be researched on the other. By keeping them on record in my computer I can then reference these easily so I don't get sidetracked a year or two down the road by the cousin of the cousin of the original person looking for a connection. I know that I am far from being a pro at genealogy -- only at it for four years now -- but one thing is for sure, I know the mistakes and traps I've gotten caught in, and don't plan to get stuck in the same hole twice. Not recording people I have contact with can be a pitfall too. At the same time I have had a very wonderful success story or two arise out of the Web pages, and now have some unbreakable bonds with these new-found family members that I would not give up for the world -- finding out that they knew my grandfather, or went to barn dances with my great-grandmother, and tipped over outhouses with my mother in the Twenties. After all, it is these stories, that we, I believe, cherish and desire -- not just the names and dates of random relatives, but knowing WHO they were. S. P. Gitchell * * * Mr. Gardes and the others he quotes make some sound points. All conscientious genealogists should decry the lack of careful documentation that is seen in so much that passes for genealogy these days. But let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. The crux of the problem comes where Charlie writes: "Unless she was given substantiating data with all the names and dates and she has verified that data...." My problem is not with the first part of this sentence, but the part about verification. In other words, "trust nobody but yourself." If we followed this advice we would be "reinventing the wheel" over and over again. Are we all such dunces that we are incapable of appraising the quality of the work done by another person? Genealogy is a science, and like any science it builds upon the discoveries of those who have preceded us. If a physicist were required to duplicate every experiment in basic physics that was ever done, he would never get anywhere. The same principle applies to genealogists. . . A distant cousin of mine has literally spent the last 25 years of her life and upwards of a quarter of a million dollars researching the THAYER line back to a John TAWIER who was born about 1500 in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England. Must I now duplicate all the work that she did to acquire these data, which she has so graciously shared with me? Hardly. I have neither the time nor the money to do so. I am happy to incorporate her carefully researched facts, gleaned from thousands of hours spent at the FHL in Salt Lake City and elsewhere, into my own database. Carefully annotating, of course, exactly where they came from. If a careful researcher gives me a birth date and place for an individual with the notation that it is based on a photocopy of the birth certificate, I am not going to insist that this person supply me with a copy. I will enter the data into my files with the note: "Source: copy of birth certificate in the possession of ________." Yes, all genealogical data should be documented. Undocumented facts are worse than useless. But it is not necessary that all sources be reverified by every genealogist who receives a copy of some data. It is only necessary that the sources be adequately documented along with the data they support. Copying genealogical records without including the sources that the supplier relied on is simply stupid, and it is certainly bad genealogy. But not accepting any data except those one has personally verified is equally dumb. It would mean that every genealogy that has ever been printed is worthless. G. David Thayer * * * * * HUMOR. For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism. * * * * * 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: Written by Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 15, 14 April 1999. Please visit RootsWeb's main Web page at . * * * * * MISSING LINKS: A Weekly Newsletter for Genealogists, edited and published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, is a free e-zine 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 ____ ROOTSWEB GENEALOGICAL DATA COOPERATIVE P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798