ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 3, No. 29, 19 July 2000, Circulation: 638,225+ (c) 1998-2000 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS are free, weekly e-zines. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com Advertising: advertising@rootsweb.com RootsWeb HelpDesk: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ E-Mail Changes: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/address.html Data Submission Form: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html Check New Databases Often: http://searches.rootsweb.com/ IN THIS ISSUE: o News and Notes at RootsWeb (New Searchable Databases; Ancestry.com Databases Free through 31 July 2000; Who's Got the Data?; WorldConnect; WorldConnect Tip; RWR/ML -- Geographic Distribution; Shaking Your Family Tree; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees) o Connecting through RootsWeb o New Genealogy Mailing Lists o New Genealogy Web Pages o GenConnect o USGenWeb Archives o Letters to the Editors o Humor o Reprint Policy; Back Issues; How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB NEW DATABASES AT ROOTSWEB. RootsWeb thanks all of the individuals and groups who contribute their data to share with the genealogical community. See full list of contributors at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/contributors.html New fully searchable user databases added to RootsWeb in the past week and their contributors are: CALIFORNIA LAND PATENT RECORDS 382,527 records; Bureau of Land Management http://userdb.rootsweb.com/landrecords/ MASSACHUSETTS, DUKES COUNTY (MARTHA'S VINEYARD) BIRTH RECORDS 4,960 records; Chris Baer http://userdb.rootsweb.com/births/ MASSACHUSETTS, DUKES COUNTY (MARTHA'S VINEYARD) MARRIAGE RECORDS (1838-1989); 1,415 records; Chris Baer http://userdb.rootsweb.com/marriages/ MASSACHUSETTS, DUKES COUNTY (MARTHA'S VINEYARD) DEATH RECORDS (1843-1997); 5,266 records; Chris Baer http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ POW/MIA RECORDS (KOREAN CONFLICT); 8,206 records Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office http://userdb.rootsweb.com/pow_mia/ POW/MIA RECORDS (VIETNAM WAR); 3,307 records Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office http://userdb.rootsweb.com/pow_mia/ * * * Access to all databases at Ancestry.com is free through 31 July 2000. Among the resources available are the 1890 [U.S. Federal] Census Reconstruction Project, the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), AIS [U.S. Federal] Census Indexes, the [U.S.] Civil War Research Database, Slave Narratives, American Genealogical- Biographical Index, Civil War Pension Images, New York Naturalization Petition Index, 1907-24, Gene Pool Individual Records (20 million names in 5 million records), and Canadian Immigrant Records. Sign up for free access today at: http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/freepromo.asp?sourcecode=A11AC Due to the enormous popularity of these valuable sources and the demand expected to be placed on the servers, you might not be able to access the site the first few times you try. Please be patient and try again later. Good luck with your research. * * * RootsWeb's WORLDCONNECT contains almost 36.3 million names and new GEDCOMs are added daily. Have you searched WorldConnect lately? Have you uploaded your own GEDCOM? Remember, unlike any other GEDCOM database on the Web, WorldConnect allows you to include references and notes. If a researcher wants to add information or leave word for any reason, he or she can append a message to the file using an exclusive RootsWeb Post-em note. Don't delay; upload today. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ * * * WORLDCONNECT TIP: EXCLUDING NOTES FROM YOUR GEDCOM Q: I want to submit my GEDCOM to WorldConnect but my genealogy file contains personal notes about my family members. How can I exclude these notes from my WorldConnect file? A. Create your GEDCOM with the notes intact, then go to the page to submit your GEDCOM to WorldConnect http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igmuser.cgi Create a user code and password, then click on the button for the Standard set-up page. There you will be prompted to provide information about what to include and how to process your file. Item #12 on the Standard set-up page asks whether you want to include all notes, delete notes for the living, or delete all notes. Select "all" and the notes will be removed from the publicly displayed file for ALL entries in your file. The benefit of submitting the intact GEDCOM and allowing WorldConnect to delete the notes for you is that two copies of your GEDCOM are maintained on file -- one for public display that includes only the data you have specified, and a second that is not displayed that contains all the data you submitted. The intact version of your file is available only to you, the submitter, should you ever need to download it to replace lost data on your own computer. It is the perfect back-up. * * * WHO'S GOT THE DATA? Does your state, province, county, parish, or church have a database available that has not yet been placed on RootsWeb and that you think would be of interest to genealogists and historians? Do you have a database that you would like to share that you think would be of value and interest to others? In most cases, RootsWeb would be proud to host them. Please use the new data submission form to tell us about such databases: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html Is it a family tree database? If you created a file using popular genealogy software such as Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Family Tree Maker (FTM), Family Origins, The Master Genealogist, Ultimate Family Tree, Sierra's Generations, Kindred Konnections, Legacy, Brother's Keeper, etc., check the program's manual to learn about creating a GEDCOM file from the data. If you can create a GEDCOM (GEDCOM is the acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, the standard format by which genealogical data are transferred from one genealogy program to another), then it is a family tree database and you can share it via WorldConnect at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ * * * GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF RWR/ML READERS. Last week's issues of ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS were sent to 641,816 online genealogists who, based on their top-level domains, included 589,051 from the U.S.A. (divided among .com, .net, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .us domains), less those who have such addresses but are from the U.K. (virgin.net and BTinternet.com), Australia (bigpond.com), Canada (some .edu), Britain, Germany, and elsewhere (some aol.com and compuserve.com addresses). Added to those were approximately 53,000 addresses that could be identified with a particular country because of their use of an ISO two-digit country abbreviation. Approximately 5,000 of those are from the U.S.A. and are included in the number above, leaving about 48,000 readers in the countries listed below: Australia (12,844); U.K. (11,204); Canada (10,729); New Zealand (3,595); Netherlands (1,496); Germany (1,486); Norway (1,204); France (872); South Africa (705); Brazil (640); Ireland (449); Belgium (383); Sweden (334); Colombia (327); Denmark (326); Argentina (223); Spain (204); Austria (190); Switzerland (175); Italy (169); Japan (156); Israel (155); Mexico (139); Poland (129); Cameroon (125); Niger (124); Oman (109); Portugal (93); Ethiopia (76); Russian Federation (76); Finland (75); Lebanon (57); Cocoa (Keeling) Islands (52); Singapore (44); United Arab Emirates (44); Greece (42); Niue (42); Czech Republic (41); Hungary (39); Dominican Republic (38); Saudi Arabia (38); Bermuda (36); Chile (35); Iceland (34); Tonga (34); Luxembourg (33); Uruguay (32); Malaysia (27); Indonesia (23); Republic of Korea (21); Slovakia (21); Zimbabwe (21); Thailand (20); Romania (19); Venezuela (19); Peru (18); China (18); Costa Rica (18); Philippines (17); Pakistan (17); Slovenia (17); Yugoslavia (17); U.S. Virgin Islands (17); Turkey (16); Ukraine (16); Bahrain (15); Cyprus (14); India (14); Taiwan (13); Bahamas (13); Armenia (12); Christmas Island (11); Guatemala (11); Croatia (10); Trinidad and Tobago (10); Egypt (9); Tuvalu (9); Bulgaria (8); Hong Kong (8); Turks and Caicos Islands (8); Lithuania (8); Malta (8); Estonia (8); Antigua and Barbuda (8); Federated States of Micronesia (7); Latvia (7); Brunei Darussalam (7); Botswana (7); Cayman Islands (7); New Caledonia (6); Paraguay (6); Morocco (6); Papua-New Guinea (6); Ecuador (5); Aruba (5); Gibralter (5); Namibia (5); French Polynesia (4); Qatar (4); Liechtenstein (4); Mauritius (4); Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) (4); Viet Nam (4); American Samoa (4); Belarus (3); Jamaica (3); Kenya (3); Sri Lanka (3); Macau (3); Norfolk Island (3); Nicaragua (3); Cuba (3); Fiji (3); Bolivia (3); Saint Lucia (2); Gabon (2); Bosnia and Herzegowina (2); Mozambique (2); Seychelles (2); Angola (2); Turkmenistan (2); Cambodia (2); Honduras (2); Netherlands Antilles (2); Zambia (2); Vatican City State (2); British Virgin Islands (2); Vanuatu (2); Panama (2); and one each from Cook Islands, Dominica, Algeria, French Guiana, Greenland, Gambia, British Indian Ocean Territory, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Monaco, Moldova, Mongolia, Martinique, Montserrat, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Solomon Islands, St. Helena, Andorra, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Swaziland, Anguilla, Chad, Albania, Tunisia, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, and Congo (Democratic Republic). (Small world, but it looks as if we still will be able to get away with an occasional Antarctican joke.) * * * SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT). Read about two new books, HIDDEN SOURCES and BCG GENEALOGICAL STANDARDS MANUAL, in this week's SYFT column, which is posted at http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/syft/curcolumn.htm Myra Vanderpool Gormley's Los Angeles Times Syndicate SYFT columns are archived by subject and can be browsed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/syft/ * * * ROOTSWEB'S GUIDE TO TRACING FAMILY TREES (RWGuide) Spinning your wheels? Take a short detour with RWGuide. RWGuide was designed with the newcomer to genealogy and to RootsWeb in mind. http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/ ** PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** *************************************************** More than 10,000 German Immigrant QUERIES Search by surname, ship name, locality of origin or destination. Make connections and share information with other researchers. Queries, Books, Links. Genealogy queries about German emigrants and immigrants, throughout the world, any time period. http://www.germanmigration.com/default.asp *************************************************** The July/August issue of FAMILY CHRONICLE is on the newsstands now and is full of articles by top genealogy writers. Articles include "Internet Research Success Stories," "10 Habits of Highly Effective Genealogists," "Using a Palm Pilot Computer as Part of Your Research Kit," "Genealogy Software for the Mac," "Discovering Your Scottish Roots," "A Broader Look at the U.S. Federal Census," "The Origins of Family Names," "Web sites Worth Surfing," Profile of the New England Historic Genealogical Society," and others. Top genealogy columnist Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG writes, "If you haven't discovered FAMILY CHRONICLE, you are in for a treat." You can obtain a free trial copy of FAMILY CHRONICLE by visiting http://www.familychronicle.com/ The June/July issue of HISTORY MAGAZINE is full of social history articles about the conditions that affected the lives of our ancestors. Articles include "Let's Eat, a history of what our ancestors ate," "The Stirrup, considered to be medieval technology's greatest achievement," "The Natchez Trace, a look at an historic route of the Old Southwest," "Costs in New York, the price of goods and services in 1866," "Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin and one of America's great inventors," "The 1900 House, a preview of an interesting new series coming to PBS." Columnist Ann Burton writes, "HISTORY MAGAZINE appeals to people who are curious about the everyday lives that ancestors led." You can obtain a free trial copy of HISTORY MAGAZINE by visiting http://www.history-magazine.com/ ********************************************* FREE TWICE-MONTHLY EMAIL NEWSLETTER Dozens of Books & CDs at Publisher-Only Sale Prices in Each Issue Message "subscribe email newsletter" to heritagebooks@pipeline.com HERITAGE BOOKS, INC. 1540 Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie MD 20715 ********************************************* Kindred Konnections has to be the best Web site I have come across. "I have found more of my family tree here in 2 days than in several years of research." B. Peltier. Over a Billion Names -- World's Largest. http://www.kindredkonnections.com ** END PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. MIRACLES ON THE INTERNET by Karen Blance Thomas blanceth@twcny.rr.com In the late 1970s when I first started trying to unravel the mysteries of my father's family history, the process was very slow and required tremendous patience. Every potential source of information had to be accessed either in person or by mail. Just learning how to locate those sources was a monumental task. Today's genealogist has a tremendous advantage in acquiring family information via the Internet. In the past few years, this fact has been driven home to me in some remarkable ways. My father's BLANCE family originated in the Shetland Islands. My great-grandfather, James William Blance, was the youngest son of Charles and Elizabeth Blance. He left Shetland and entered the Royal Artillery in the late 1840s at the age of 18, and never returned to Shetland to live. However, descendants of some of his brothers and sisters remain in Shetland to this day. After 22 years traveling all over the world with the Royal Artillery, James eventually married and settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died in 1883, leaving a pregnant wife, Helen, and five small children. Helen was very ill when she delivered their last child, a son, Charles, about one month after her husband's death. I have never learned what happened to this son, but did get a copy of his birth certificate. Because Helen was not expected to live, the five older children were placed in the Quarrier Orphan Home in Edinburgh. A year later, in June 1884, the children were shipped to Canada to live with and work for farm families in Ontario. My grandfather, also named James William BLANCE, was only three years old when he arrived in Canada and was the only one of the children who was adopted. He was raised by a HARRIS family and only learned his birth name, BLANCE, after he reached adulthood. By the time I started my research, all five of the children sent to Canada were deceased and the only thing our family knew was that the children had been sent from Edinburgh to Canada after losing their parents. We had never even heard of any BLANCEs except our known family members. Through tedious effort over 20 years, I learned the story that I just related to you about the background of the BLANCE children. I also learned that their mother, Helen, had unexpectedly survived and eventually remarried. In 1910 she tried, via the orphanage, to contact her children in Canada, but there was no way of knowing whether she succeeded in reaching any of them. I located Helen's death certificate, which showed that she died in London, England in 1919. The document also said that her daughter, N. OAKENFOLD, had witnessed the death of her mother, Helen SANDOW. I wondered whether this N. OAKENFOLD was a stepdaughter or a natural daughter, but could find nothing more. I had been at this impasse for a number of years. In the meantime, I had become the unofficial family historian for the descendants of the five children sent to Canada. These descendants started a yearly BLANCE family reunion in 1934 and from that date to the present have never missed a year. I never dreamed that our son's graduation from college and new career in information technology would lead to great changes in the way I conducted my family research and the results I achieved, but that is exactly what happened, starting in 1997. Bryan introduced me to our new personal computer's basic operation and soon I was storing family facts in a genealogy software program and sending and receiving e-mail. Once I learned about how to use the various search engines and all the specific genealogy information on the World Wide Web, the flood gates opened and some truly astonishing things began to happen. I began by looking for BLANCEs in the White Pages listings on the Internet. This gave me the names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and sometimes e-mail addresses of BLANCEs all over the United States. I developed a letter introducing myself and my family's story and asking for their family's story. I mailed these to each of the unknown BLANCEs. Most didn't respond, but a few did. I was pleased to help one of them, Tom BLANCE of Pennsylvania, trace his family line back beyond his great- grandfather to our common ancestor. Sharing this newly found information with my local BLANCE relatives inspired some of them to do some Internet searching, too. One of my first cousins, Edwin BLANCE, discovered via the Internet international White Pages, an Ian BLANCE living in New Zealand and passed his e-mail address on to me. I began corresponding with Ian and his wife, Joy, and we soon traced our lines back to our common ancestor, Peter BLANCE who married Barbara HENDERSON. Soon after we started this correspondence, we learned that their son, John, was going to be married in Canada in August of 1999 and Ian and Joy would attend the wedding. We invited them to stay with us for a week and attend the 65th BLANCE family reunion where they could meet more than 75 new cousins. They agreed and we had a wonderful time together. Next year my husband and I plan to travel to New Zealand to visit our newly found friends/relatives on their own home turf. I learned of a BLANCE descendant living in Florida through Alan Beattie, whom I consider the official BLANCE historian living in Great Britain. Alan Beattie had been unable to connect her great- grandfather, Robert Blance, back far enough to know how her line connected to the Shetland Blances and asked if I could find anything to help her. I was able to find her great-grandfather's ancestors and, thus, our common ancestor. That was the beginning of my close e-mail connection with Robin Stillfried. Eventually she sent me an e-mail with a photo of herself attached and I was amazed to see how strongly she resembled me. Some time later, we held a mini-family reunion at my house and when one of my first cousins walked in and hugged Robin, thinking she was me, we were convinced that the family resemblance was real. After all this you can understand that I was already convinced about the power of the Internet to achieve amazing things, but the biggest miracle of all was about to happen. I frequently looked for the name BLANCE at Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, Familysearch.org, and other resources online. A few weeks ago, I was looking at RootsWeb and found four BLANCE queries. One was my own, one was Robin's, and one was from Alan Beattie. The fourth query was from a Mr. Holloway of New Zealand, who was inquiring about the names BLANCE, SANDAU, and OAKENFOLD. I knew that I had struck pay dirt and was so excited I could barely type my e-mail response. John's grandmother, Nellie, was the N. OAKENFOLD who witnessed the death of her mother, Helen SANDAU, in 1919. Not only was she Helen's own daughter (which made her my grandfather's sister), but also she had two sisters and a brother, who were also Helen's own children. John Holloway's mother, Winifred (who is my father's first cousin), is 82 years old and she had saved nine letters that were written between 1911 and 1915 from my grandfather's brother, John BLANCE (one of the five children sent to Canada) to his mother, Helen, and his sister, Nellie. In addition to these precious letters, Winifred had old photos that John BLANCE had sent in these letters that included pictures of my own father as a child of 4 or 5 years. I have been able to get copies of these amazing letters and pictures and have passed along copies to John Blance's son, Roy Blance, who is 85 years old and thrilled to have these memories of his father. John Holloway's wife, Adrienne, had placed the query on RootsWeb almost a year ago in the hope of connecting her husband to some family because he had never known any cousins. Our family has discovered an entire branch that we never knew existed. Just a few short years ago, I would never have believed that a computer could make all these miracles a reality. * * * * * MAILING LISTS. For an index to most genealogy mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW MAILING LIST REQUESTS. Please request new mailing lists at http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ 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 Weberites, send your SUBSCRIBE request to: Weberites-L-request@rootsweb.com NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS, GENCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS Andis Clayes, Corsaut Earwaker, Edgmon Frater Galt, Gettemy, Guzik Innerarity Lamey, Larmer Matarredona Renkes, Rothon Schiefelbein, Signal VanDresser, Vandervoort, Vifquain Wenner, Willemssen, Wyckliffe Zucchero NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS GERMANY DEU-NAHAUSEN -- FELLWOCK, OERTWIG, SASSE, and other families who lived in Nahausen, Brandenburg, and their descendants anywhere IRELAND IRL-MAYO-CLAREMORRIS -- Claremorris, County Mayo U.S.A. FL-NE-CEMETERY -- Updating northeast Florida cemetery lists NORTH-TX -- Anywhere in North Texas OTHER NEW MAILING LISTS (ETHNIC, SPECIAL INTERESTS) CENSUS-ANNOUNCE -- weekly mailing contains the current census additions and updates made in the last week PACE-SOCIETY-COMM -- PACE Society of America Internet and Technology Committee WEBERITES -- Weberites of Saxe Gotha, South Carolina and elsewhere (religious group) * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Please see the instructions at http://cgi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/acctform.cgi 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. http://www.rootsweb.com/~[account name]. Note that the ~[tilde] before the account name is required. FOR EXAMPLE, to visit the Mitchell County, Iowa Web page, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamitche/ ENGLAND enghfhs -- Hillingdon Family History Society U.S.A. flgso -- Genealogical Society of Okeechobee (Florida) garichmo -- Richmond County, Georgia iamitche -- Mitchell County, Iowa mecoxfor -- Oxford, Maine (city) nelcdar -- LaBelleVue Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (Nebraska) paslhc -- Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center (Pennsylvania) SOME NEW HOMEPAGES AND FREEPAGES CONRAD Family History http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rootdigger/conrad.htm DUGGAN: Bob and Kathleen Duggan Family Registers. DUGGAN, RINGWALD, DUNNEWOLD, HAGLER, KIRBY, LEGTERS, PARKS, PORTER, RENEGAR, SCHREURS. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~duggan/ DUNCAN in the U.S. census 1790-1860; "Some DUNCAN Families of Eastern Tennessee Before 1800," by Mary Ann (DUNCAN) DOBSON, 1991 revision. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dobson NEW YORK. Darci's New York Genealogy Portal. Search for ancestors in the Mohawk Valley of New York. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~darci/index.htm OKLAHOMA. Choctaw County Cemeteries http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~choctawco/directions.htm PLATTNER, WAGNER http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~heldenmut/ VAUSE and ADKINS, FOSTER and SHORES, ATKINSON, PALMER and DYKES, ROBERTSON and JERKINS, STANLEY, REEDY, WRIGHT http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~familiesforever VIRGINIA. SOUTHWEST VIRGINIANS: KEISTER, FOSTER, HOWELL, BURNOP, ROSEBERRY, SUTTON, and others. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~swva/ WILLIAMS, DAVIES, HOUGH, NEWTON, HARRIS, COWBURN, MILBURN, DAVENPORT, GALLOWAY, BARCLAY, RUGMAN, OGLE http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ewfamily/ * * * * * GENCONNECT. RootsWeb hosts many surname GenConnect boards that are in need of people to maintain them. o For a complete list of adoptable GenConnect surname boards http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/surnames/adoptable/ o For the form to request to adopt a GenConnect surname board (the same form is used for surname mailing list requests) http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ Have you found a genealogical treasure, such as a photo album or an old Bible containing a completed family record page, that you would like to see reunited with its family? If so, in addition to submitting a notice for publication in the "Somebody's Links" section of MISSING LINKS or in the SOMEBODY'S LINKS NEWSLETTER, you can read and post notices to the SOMEBODY'S LINKS board at: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/genbbs.cgi/SomebodysLinks/ (Subscribe by sending e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE to: Somebodys-Links-Newsletter-L-request@rootsweb.com ) * * * * * USGENWEB ARCHIVES -- THE ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER contains the current USGenWeb Archives submissions from the last week. Back issues of THE ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER are archived at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/ 17 July 2000 issue http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/2000/july/july17.htm USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE-L is a read-only mailing list for weekly announcements of new updates and submissions to the USGenWeb Archives. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to this address: usgw-archives-announce-l-request@rootsweb.com * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS. Please send to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com [Response to Diane L. Mueller. See RWR 3:28, 12 July 2000] Like you, I have encountered some unkind persons who have found errors in my GEDCOM. The reason we post a GEDCOM is to learn more, because we are aware how error-prone our collected data is . . . I have more than one person who will not reply to my e-mail because of my "errors." Just ignore such people. Let me give you an example of my research. My 8th-great-grandparents, known in my program as "Jacob Jansen Van Etten" and his wife, "Annetje Arians Van Amsterdam," were Dutch and came to America in the mid-1600s. The Dutch did not use surnames until 1825. Translated, their names mean "Jacob son of Jan from Etten" and "Annetje daughter of Arian from Amsterdam." Those names were adopted after the English took over "New Amsterdam" now New York. They had 10 children. They were married in the "Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York. Eight of their children are found in the Baptismal Register (two are missing due to problems in 1600s). When they were married, their names were recorded as: "Jacob Jansen and Annetje Arians." The eight recorded baptisms list six different names for Jacob: Jacob Jansen, Jacob Yansen, Jacob Jannse Van Etten, Jacob Janz Van Etta, Jacob Janse Van Etten, and Jacob Van Etten. The baptisms have seven more names for his wife: Annetjen Ariaens, Annetje Adriaens, Annetje Givens, Annetje Adriaanz, Annetie Adriaanz, Annetie Ariaans, and Annetje Adriaentse Kam. My records on the Van Etten family show more than 50 different spellings of the surname. The problem was that enumerators for the various censuses in U.S.A. and Canada, usually spelled surnames phonetically. Thus Van Etten has been Vanatta, Vannatta, Vannata, Vanetter, Vannetter, and many more. This week I've found a recorded land deed in name of Fanater. My great- grandmother was a Vanatter, also spelled Phynatter in one census. The list goes on and on. So never allow yourself to be put off by people who just do not know any better. Robert A. Jackson rajack@bmts.com * * * This is a note of encouragement to your readers who are trying to muster the courage to create a GEDCOM, upload and submit it. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ I have just done it, after months of reading your newsletters. I read the tips, the FAQs and the directions. I cannot tell you how easy it was and how much I appreciate the RootsWeb site. Every aspect of the site is easy to manage and produces rich results. I worked with my mother for 20 years, researching first her roots, then my father's. My mother died last year and I wish she could see the product of her years of work on the World Wide Web for many to see. She wrote letters and sent SASEs, worked in county courthouse basements and picnicked in cemeteries. Her work was never published and my sisters and I are in the process of preparing to publish. Now that I've learned how easy it is to do, I plan to submit my father's family to RootsWeb. Thanks again for all the work that you do. I love to read the newsletters and learn something every time. Linda Hudson Bailey LWHUDSON@aol.com * * * HUMOR. Thanks to the "Email Joke of the Day." To SUBSCRIBE, send an e-mail to subscribe-joker@send.memail.com Actual reference queries reported by American and Canadian library reference desk workers of various levels. "Do you have a list of all the books I've ever read?" "I need to find out Ibid's first name for my bibliography." * * * * * 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 [author's name, e-mail address, and URL, if given]. Previously published by RootsWeb.com, Inc., RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Genealogy News, Vol. 3, No. 29, 19 July 2000. RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/ BACK ISSUES OF ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS are fully SEARCHABLE at http://search-rwr.rootsweb.com/ and may be DOWNLOADED from ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/ and ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/mlnews/ A paid advertisement in ROOTSWEB REVIEW or MISSING LINKS should not be construed as an endorsement of the product or service. TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the free weekly genealogy e-zines, ROOTSWEB REVIEW and MISSING LINKS, send any e-mail to: rootsweb-review-unsubscribe@rootsweb.com TO SUBSCRIBE, send to rootsweb-review-subscribe@rootsweb.com