ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 2, No. 30, 28 July 1999, Circulation: 341,336+ (c) 1999 RootsWeb.com, Inc. RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG RootsWeb HelpDesk: CONTENTS. News and Notes at RootsWeb (RootsWeb's Pledge to Its Users; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees, Lesson Seven: What is the Question?; Volunteers Sought; New Community Mailing Lists; Support RootsWeb with a Click; Classifieds Boards); Who Pays for RootsWeb?; Connecting through RootsWeb; Mailing Lists; Web Pages; USGenWeb Archives Project; Letters to the Editors; Advertisement; Humor; Reprint Policy * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES AT ROOTSWEB We have had many concerned letters from readers about putting data on the Internet. Some of these people have submitted their family trees to other companies, only to find the data pressed onto CD-ROMs or stored in proprietary databases without their permission. We want RootsWeb to be a safe harbor for genealogical research on the Internet and we're making a pledge to you to back that up. RootsWeb's Pledge to Its Users 1. RootsWeb will neither sell nor charge for access to your genealogical information (for example, your posts to RootsWeb mailing lists or GenConnect boards, your Web pages hosted at RootsWeb, and any datasets you have donated to the USGenWeb Archives) without your permission. 2. RootsWeb will not under any circumstances sell or give away a list of its users' postal addresses or e-mail addresses. * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES ("RootsWeb Guide") . Lesson Seven is "What Is The Question?" Is it "Where do you keep my family tree?" or "Send me everything you have on BROWN"? This brief lesson will help you learn how to approach your research problems, reduce them to manageable sections, determine what you need to know first, and consider how to go about finding the answer. As in the first six lessons, there are hyperlinks to resources at RootsWeb and elsewhere on the Internet that will be useful to everyone. . * * * VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT. The new Greene County, Tennessee Microfilm Transcription Project is looking for volunteers. For details, please visit . * * * NEW COMMUNITY MAILING LISTS. New community mailing lists are listed at as soon as they are established. You can subscribe to a list at that page. Autos Community [new] CARS MOTORCYCLES Family Community ADOPTION Food Community BAKING CHILE-LOVERS CHOCOLATE COFFEE-LOVERS COOKIES DESSERTS Games Community TRIVIA PUZZLES Gardening Community MASTER-GARDENERS Health Community ALLERGY CHRONIC-FATIGUE DIABETES History Community REENACTMENT Hobbies Community MAGIC-TRICKS MODEL-TRAINS Humor Community [new] HUMOR Houses Community [new] REMODELING Literature Community FICTION MYSTERY ROMANCE HORROR Music Community CLASSICAL-MUSIC COUNTRY-MUSIC FOLK-MUSIC ROCK-MUSIC Rural Life Community [new] RURAL Science Community [new] ASTRONOMY Technology Community [new] GADGETS Travel Community ROUTE-66 TRAVEL-AUTO TV Community CARTOONS Writing Community [new] WRITING * * * SUPPORT ROOTSWEB WITH A CLICK. You can support RootsWeb and free genealogy online by going to and clicking on the "Show me commercial banners" option. This activates certain extra commercial banners on Surname Helper, GenConnect, and search-engine pages, which generate revenue for RootsWeb. This in turn enables RootsWeb to obtain the funds for more free genealogical material and to provide better services to online genealogists. Thank you for supporting RootsWeb. * * * * * WHO PAYS FOR ROOTSWEB? Responding to the recent announcements of the new community mailing lists (for the current list, see ), a reader wrote: [W]hen I saw this latest issue of the News I was a little disturbed by the number of non-genealogical related discussion groups which RootsWeb is sponsoring, all of which take storage space on servers, which cost lots of money. How was the decision made to enter other areas, especially when the continuous call goes out for more member support? Don't worry: the new communities will pay their own way. For instance, the non-genealogical mailing lists have commercial tag-lines on each message. The plan is that the new communities will eventually support the genealogical community, not the other way around. Here is the problem, and why the new communities are the Intended solution. When we launched RootsWeb, we assumed that our users would prefer to support us as much as they were able, in exchange for a site open to all, without banners plastered all over everything and without having resources locked up (as is done at other genealogy sites), available only after paying a fee. Instead, people can support RootsWeb for as little as $12 per year. We thus hoped that a reasonable fraction of our users would support us in some way. And because we expected such support from the community, we made promises to projects like USGenWeb that we would freely host them for the good of the Internet genealogy community. We have no intention of reneging on those early promises, but it has been difficult, because the community support we anticipated has not been there. Although people use the site like crazy, a tiny fraction of our users has chipped in to keep things going. The others? Perhaps they're busy, or they're broke, or they won't pay unless they have to, or they don't think RootsWeb is useful. Who knows? But it means that RootsWeb has run at a cash flow loss. In simple terms, Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich have donated not only their time as system administrators but a substantial part of their personal resources to provide the genealogical community with RootsWeb. The rest of RootsWeb's staff has also made substantial contributions. Because RootsWeb's costs exceed its income, we haven't been able to provide all the genealogical facilities we'd like to support. these include online searchable databases of pension records, census indexes, vital records, or countless other valuable genealogical services that we could easily provide -- if only we could afford the staff to support them. We are working to remedy the situation. For instance, we are selling banner advertisements where we can. And as a result, hope to have some exciting announcements of new features in the weeks to come. The new communities will be fully supported by advertising. They will pay their own way. And we can shift some of the costs of maintaining the Web, mailing list, GenConnect, and search engine servers onto the new communities, so that the new communities will subsidize a genealogical community that hasn't been supporting itself. They're also off to an exciting start, with thousands of you already participating. Several new folks are helping with the launch of the new communities, many of whom will be familiar to RWR readers: Andrew Billinghurst, Clare Midgley, Margaret Olson, Bridgett Smith, Joan Young, and Megan Zurawicz. The wisdom they have gained from their experiences in the Internet genealogy community, in USGenWeb, in the Usenet genealogy newsgroups, and on genealogical mailing lists, has already proven invaluable. Although we have been disappointed in the amount of financial support from the genealogical community, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the writer of the letter above and to our other supporters who have helped keep RootsWeb available to the whole community. Without their support and encouragement, there would be no RootsWeb. If you would like to join the folks who are making RootsWeb possible and thus help us bring new genealogical data online, freely available to all, please visit: or send e-mail to: RW-info@rootsweb.com * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. I first added my surnames to RootsWeb when it was still in its fledgling stage. One of the names I was researching was KIESELE. I grilled my father for information, but he couldn't tell me much because his mother died when he was two years old and he had no information on that side of his family. I had his grandma's name, his mother's name, and the fact that the family ended up in Highland Park, Michigan, where my father was born. I checked the 1920 census as soon as it came out (they were not listed in Michigan prior to that) and found my great-grandma (born 1863 in Washington, D.C.) and three sons there. Then -- dead end. I looked for death certificates and finally found those of two of the sons, but Michigan charges $12 for every four years searched and I had a long span of time -- 1920 to ? I decided to do that in stages, and hope. Meanwhile, I was also researching my great-grandfather, husband to great-grandma KIESELE, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and discovered he had died in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. I wrote to several Lutheran churches in the area, and one pastor sent me quite a bit of information on the BRADER family that had attended his church. He went so far as to take a picture of the grave of Charles BRADER and guess what? Right next to Charles's grave was Carl KIESELE, my great-great-grandfather, whose gravestone showed he was a Lieutenant in the D.C. Infantry during the Civil War. The pastor found no other information on him. Of course, armed with this new information, I sent to the National Archives but found nothing. Dead end again. Then, through the Pennsylvania Roots-L, another KIESELE researcher contacted me and spurred me on by telling me that her lineage came from Baden, Germany, and she was researching in Newark, New Jersey records. She helped me determine that that was the place to look for my Carl, and that is where I found his marriage record and the name of my great-great-grandmother. Then, on June 12, 1999, I joined and posted my query to Surnames-German-M@rootsweb.com. On June 15, Udo Stickfaden in Germany sent me an e-mail saying (in German): "I knew there was a local kinship book for Friesenheim. Today, with the census, I saw the local kinship book at the university library in Freiburg and copied some information on the family which interests you. Additionally, I noticed that the year of emigration was indicated in the local kinship book, checked in the tapes of GERMANS TO AMERICA (GTO) and immediately found Karl Kiesele. I believe I remember also seeing his son, of the same name, who emigrated at the age of 20 years in the GTO. I however unfortunately did not note the place of discovery." Then he went BACK TO THE LIBRARY and copied the family information, including the ships that brought my relatives to America, put it into a database and sent it to me as an attachment. This information dated back to 1610 when the name was spelled KUSELIN. To say I am grateful and excited is an understatement. I was able to send my father, aged 83, answers to many of the questions that had been bothering him. Thanks to people like Janet Byrne and Udo Strickfaden, who go out of their way to share information, and RootsWeb who gave us the vehicle to make the miles that separate us insignificant, I pounded a big hole through that brick wall. I gladly share the information I have researched on a Web site, because I believe, as so many others do, that family history is worthless if it isn't shared and passed on. Janet White * * * * * 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. 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 are researching Baptists, send a SUBSCRIBE message to: . NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS ADAMSKI, ADNEYS, AINSLEY, AYNSLEY, AYNSLIE, BACHSCHMIDT, BEARDON, BELLAR, BELLER, BROMFIELD, BEZONA, BICKER, BONIFAY, BONINE, BOOCO, BRILES (variant of BROYLES), BRINKLY, BRION, BROWING, CASTER, CLAYCOMBS, CLODFELTER, COZBY, CROSLEY, CRUIKSHANK, CUELLAR, CUMMIN, DALEMBERTE, DELCHER, DREHMER, DUENNERMANN, DURRENCE, DUTTON-ZACHARIAH (family of Zachariah DUTTON [ca. 1755-1829], Maryland Revolutionary patriot who moved to North Carolina), EDRIS, EIDE, EISENLORD, ELLIFFE, ERDBRUGER, FERNOR, FLEISCHER, FLEISHER, FLESCHER, FORBIIS, FRERICHS, FULLMER, GALATI, GASSAWAY, GERSTER, GINSBURG, GIPPLE, GIUFFRE (includes GUIFFRE), GLATFELDER, GRANTLAND, GROEN, HASWELL, HEIDL, HELVEY (includes HELVY, HELVIE, and variants), HESLAR, HESSLER, HEYDON, HILLEY, HOLLOMAN (includes HOLLYMAN), HORNBEAK, HORRIDGE, HUCCOBY, HUFFORD, HUFSTEDLER, JEFFRES, JEFFRIS, KASTER, KASTOR, KEALEY, KIESTER, KISTARD, KISTER, KLOPP, KUESTER, KUESTERS, KUSTARD, KUSTERD, LANGLANDS, LARNED, LEGGATT, LIVERSAGE (includes LIVERSEDGE and LIVERSTITCH), LOVERSIDGE, MARCOUX, LYNGAR, MACALEESE, MACLEISH, MADAWG, MADDEAUX, MADOG, MARCUE, MARGISON, MATHISON, MATTOCKS, MCMULLAN, MCNEAR, MINNER, MURPHREY, NEVES, NEWE, PLAYER, PLIMPTON (includes PLYMPTOM and PLIMTON), POINER, POTTEIGER, POYNER, REVETTE, RITTINGER, ROUSEY, ROWZEE, ROWZIE, SAHR, SENTMAN, SHANKLES, SHAWLEY, SHENKEL, SHEPLER, SHETTLES, SISNEY, SPICKARD, SWALLOW, SWARTZBAUGH (includes SCHWARTSBACH), TATZKE, TAY, TEES, TOYE, TRAILER, TRAILOR, TRALER, TRAYLER, TRELOAR, VAN_WYE, VANBENSCHOTEN (includes VAN SCOTER), VANHOOSE, VANKLEECK, VARNAM, VERNABLE, VIATOR, VOWEL, WACTOR, WALLES, WAREHEIM (includes WAREHIME, especially those with roots in Maryland and Pennsylvania), WARRENER, WARRINOR, WASDEN, WATTENBARGER, WESSELS, WHITTENBERG, ZEHNER NEW ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTEREST, AND MISCELLANEOUS MAILING LISTS BAPTIST-ROOTS -- Baptist church history and genealogy CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST -- The Choctaw Tribe of Native Americans living in the Southeastern United States, especially Mississippi * * * * * 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 Cameron County, Pennsylvania Web page, go to . CANADA onglenga -- Glengarry County, Ontario onpresco -- Prescott County, Ontario onstormo -- Stormont County, Ontario NEW ZEALAND nzlotago -- Otago PUERTO RICO prsanjua -- San Juan U.S.A. alags -- Autauga Genealogical Society (Alabama) galee -- Lee County, Georgia ilcsdar -- Illinois Cameo Society, Illinois State Organization, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution ilstcdar -- Sauk Trail Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (Illinois) ilsusd -- Illinois Society of the United States Daughters of 1812 ksschs -- Sumner County Historical Society (Kansas) pacamero -- Cameron County, Pennsylvania paelk -- Elk County, Pennsylvania wiburnet -- Burnett County, Wisconsin NEW HOME PAGES AT ROOTSWEB CORSON/COLSON Family History Association ENGLE, HOUPT, FALKENBERG, & GRIEP Family Histories * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- CENSUS IMAGES ONLINE ALABAMA. 1850 Marion County Census Images Index ALABAMA. 1850 Fayette County Census Images Index ARKANSAS. 1870 Mississippi County Census ILLINOIS. 1830 Sangamon County Census KANSAS. 1870 Sedgwick County Census Images Index MICHIGAN. 1850 Kalamazoo County Census NEBRASKA. 1870 Colfax County Census NEBRASKA. 1870 Cuming County Census NEBRASKA. 1870 Dawson County Census NEW JERSEY. 1840 Mercer County Census SOUTH CAROLINA. 1850 Union County Census Images Index USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- OTHER SUBMISSIONS NORTH DAKOTA. McHenry County Bureau of Land Management Records NORTH DAKOTA. McIntosh County Bureau of Land Management Records NORTH DAKOTA. McKenzie County Bureau of Land Management Records NORTH DAKOTA. McLean County Bureau of Land Management Records OHIO. Greene County Cemeteries updated OHIO. Hocking County. Bohner Cemetery bohner.txt> OHIO. Hocking County. Haynes Cemetery haynes.txt> TEXAS. 1870 Stephens County Census VIRGINIA. 1810 Middlesex County Census * * * * * 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. I have some letters written in the 1890s to my great-grandmother by Fannie L. LOGAN that I would like to share with her family. This is what I know of Fannie from her letters: born ca. 1876, lived in Accommodate, North Carolina for a while in the 1890s, attended Saluda Seminary for Young Ladies in North Carolina in the 1890s, and taught school in 1893. Jane W. Waller jww_31786@yahoo.com * * * * * HUMOR. Raising teenagers is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. * * ADVERTISEMENT * * 1999 Additions to Ancestry.com As we move toward the new millennium, more and more people are becoming interested in the past, and in their family histories. They couldn't have picked a better time. With the recent explosion of data on the Internet, the information needed to trace a person's ancestry is becoming more accessible. Ancestry.com is proud to be a major participant in this "data explosion." In 1999 Ancestry has added many large new collections that give its members the ability to search more than 274 million names in more than 1,600 databases. A revised home page and recent enhancements to the Global Search feature make it easier than ever to find information quickly and easily. Here's a review of some of the landmark collections that Ancestry.com has added. o AMERICAN GENEALOGICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX (AGBI). Ancestry.com has acquired exclusive access to the Godfrey Memorial Library's expansive index of millions of names from genealogies and family histories, as well as other genealogical sources. The database, available to Ancestry.com members, covers the equivalent of more than 200 printed volumes previously only available at large libraries because of the prohibitive cost of print copies. o AIS CENSUS INDEXES. The AIS Census Indexes (more than 600 new databases) put Ancestry.com members in a position to make major breakthroughs in their research. By placing an ancestor in a particular location, these census indexes can open up new avenues and resources for further research. o PERSI. The Periodical Source Index (PERSI) was updated both on CD-ROM and on the Web site. Ancestry.com members now have access to more than 200,000 additional citations in the Allen County Public Library's index of genealogy and local history periodical articles written in English and French (Canadian entries) since 1800, bringing the total citations to more than 1.3 million. o AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. The addition of a huge Civil War database thrilled Civil War enthusiasts as well as those with ancestors who served. The project to date has digitized, indexed, and interlinked the roster records of 2,100,000 soldiers (out of approximately four million who served), 2,719 regimental chronicles, 1,010 officer profiles, 3,343 battle synopses, and 1,012 photographs of soldiers. o Other recent additions include: 500,000 Minnesota Naturalization Records, 300,000 Records from Berks County, Pennsylvania, quarterly updates of the Social Security Death Index (the most current version available), Canadian telephone listings (in addition to the U.S. listings), an extensive collection of Irish records, and much more. Visitors to Ancestry.com can also subscribe to its free newsletter (available daily or weekly) to keep up with the latest news and information in the genealogical community, read helpful how-to articles, and find links and addresses to resources that will aid in your search. * * ADVERTISEMENT * * 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.com, Inc., RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Genealogy News, Vol. 2, No. 30, 28 July 1999. RootsWeb: * * * * * BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW are available for download from . Back issues of MISSING LINKS are available for download from . * * * * * TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, send e-mail with only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the message area to: .