ROOTSWEB REVIEW: RootsWeb's Genealogy News Vol. 3, No. 33, 16 August 2000, Circulation: 662,685+ (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: sbrenay@myfamilyinc.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 New Databases (check often): http://searches.rootsweb.com/ IN THIS ISSUE: o News and Notes at RootsWeb (SSDI Update; New Searchable Databases; Who Has the Data?; In the News; Treasure Hunting with BlackSheep; WorldConnect Tip; Shaking Your Family Tree; RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees; MyFamily.com Online Family Reunion Contest) o GenConnect o Connecting through RootsWeb o New Genealogy Mailing Lists o New Genealogy Web Pages o USGenWeb Archives o Letters to the Editors o Humor o Reprint Policy; Back Issues; How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe RootsWeb's WORLDCONNECT contains more than 39.4 million names and new GEDCOMs are added daily. Search WorldConnect and upload your own GEDCOM(s) to http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX (SSDI) UPDATE. The July 2000 SSDI update is in place at RootsWeb and has 64,197,584 records (up from 64,039,763 in the June 2000 version). http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi SSDI CODES. Codes shown in the "Last Residence" box, other than the recognized state abbreviations, are internal Social Security codes, the meaning of which is unknown to us. * * * NEW SEARCHABLE DATABASES AT ROOTSWEB. RootsWeb thanks all of the individuals and groups who contribute their data to share with the genealogical community. See the full list of contributors at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/contributors.html NEW YORK, GENESEE COUNTY. ALEXANDER CEMETERY 1,160 records; Leilani Spring http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, GENESEE COUNTY. EAST BETHANY CEMETERY 397 records; Leilani Spring http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, GENESEE COUNTY. MAPLEWOOD CEMETERY 510 records; Leilani Spring http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, GENESEE COUNTY. WHEATVILLE CEMETERY 149 records; Leilani Spring http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, GENESEE COUNTY and WYOMING COUNTY. 5 CEMETERIES 1,399 records; Leilani Spring http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NEW YORK, RENSSELAER COUNTY. CEMETERY RECORDS 93,498 records; Jerry McClellan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ OKLAHOMA, MCCURTAIN COUNTY. HARRIS CEMETERY 190 records; Mary M. Thomas http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ PIERCE FAMILY ALBUM, Vol. 1 (Birth Records) 94 records; Ellen Seebacher and Tim Pierce http://userdb.rootsweb.com/bookindexes/ VIRGINIA, PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY. SHEVA CHURCH OF CHRIST CEMETERY SHELTON and MOTLEY (surnames); 53 records; Dean Ab-Hugh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ * * * WHO HAS 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 data submission form to tell us about such databases: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit.html * * * IN THE NEWS "Ancestry.com . . . is working on posting by mid-September digital pictures of all U. S. census records from 1790 to 1920," wrote Janet Kornblum in USA TODAY on 15 August 2000. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/jk081500.htm See Ancestry.com's press release about its imminent online launch of census records containing more than 450 million names: http://www.myfamilyinc.com/pressroom/censusannounced.htm * * * TREASURE HUNTING WITH BLACKSHEEP. "Dead men tell no tales," or do they? "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, 16 men on a . . ." The International BlackSheep Society of Genealogists (IBSSG) has unveiled its latest pages, teeming with treasure and treachery: SHIPWRECKS AND TREASURE http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/shipwreck.htm PIRACY http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/piracy.htm One of the links on the Piracy page leads to a site where you will learn probably more secrets than it is safe for you to know about such blackguards as Anne BONNY, R. BARTHOLOMEW, M. BENIOWSKI, Edward TEACH, Henry MORGAN, John RACKHAM, Jean LAFFITE, Mary READ, Samuel BELLAMY, Sir Francis DRAKE, Stede BONNET, and William KIDD. In IBSSG's new SCRAPBOOK, you'll discover some of the places its members have been seen in recent years. Alcatraz? Afraid so. http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/scrap.html * * * WORLDCONNECT TIP: WorldConnect now has the capability of accepting zip file uploads. Zip files are compressed GEDCOM files ending in the file extension .zip. Zipping a file will be most useful for those who wish to upload large GEDCOMs, and can cut the time needed to complete the upload by nearly one-half. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ WorldConnect Tips: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/tips/ WorldConnect Suggestion Board and Help http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/genbbs.cgi/gedcom/ RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: USING TECHNOLOGY TO DIG UP ROOTS. Ideas for making the best use of today's technology to help you with your genealogical research. http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson3.htm * * * SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT): With the help of a prominent historian and genealogist of Dutchess County, New York, Frank J. Doherty traced the deed for his house (once owned by the writer Pearl Buck) back to the first sale, but he discovered much more along the way. What at first was just curiosity about the early settlement in this so-called "graveyard of genealogy," became a 27-year obsession and challenge to gather data and write about the people who tamed the wilderness and established many of the farms that exist today. Your ancestors may be in his valuable collection. See this week's SYFT column 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). Have you wondered WHY YOU CAN'T FIND YOUR ANCESTORS? All is revealed at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson8.htm NOTABLE KIN. http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/notable/elvis.htm Elvis Presley died in Memphis, Tennessee on 16 August 1977 at age 42. It has been 23 years. Where did the time go? * * * ENTER THE MyFamily.com ONLINE FAMILY REUNION CONTEST. It's not too late to plan a family reunion this summer. Get the whole family together without even leaving your house. Do it online, with the MyFamily.com Online Family Reunion. Get the most family members chatting and you could win digital cameras for the whole family. http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=text_ofr_rootsweb ** PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the No. 1 Source for Family History Online. Search more than 600 MILLION NAMES and trace your family tree today. Go to: www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11GC * * * The August/September issue of HISTORY MAGAZINE is on the newsstands now and is full of social history articles about the conditions that affected the lives of our ancestors. Articles include "The California Gold Rush," "Development of Photography," "The Underground Railroad," "History of the Insurance Business," "Highlights of the 1690s Decade," "History of the Shakers," and many others. Columnist Ann Burton writes, "HISTORY MAGAZINE appeals to people who are curious about the everyday events that affected the lives of their ancestors." You can obtain a free trial copy of HISTORY MAGAZINE by visiting http://www.history-magazine.com **************************************** NEW ONLINE GENEALOGICAL LIBRARY http://www.heritagebooks.com/library/ Try it Today! HERITAGE BOOKS, INC. 1540 Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie MD 20715 **************************************** 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/ * * * "I have just spent the last few hours on Kindred Konnections and have found loads of info on 3 family lines. Thanks so much for this site." G. Blanton. Search over a Billion names. Find pedigrees, submitters, notes. http://www.kindredkonnections.com ** END PAID ADVERTISEMENTS ** GENCONNECT. Have you run into the proverbial brick wall on your ancestors? Don't let them stonewall you. Try GenConnect http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/. GenConnect is a network of message boards, which you can use to post and peruse queries. The locality and surname query boards are the most popular, but don't overlook the others. You might start by trying GLOBAL SEARCH. Just type in your surname of interest and search an entire country or the entire world of these boards. The Global Surname Search form allows you to tailor your searches, for instance by limiting the time frame in which the messages to be searched were posted (one day, two days, one week, or two months, for example); the type of board to be included (all, biographies, Bible records, deeds/ land, obituaries, pensions, or wills); and the country. For example, I could limit my search for Vanderpools to the U.S.A. and only for those messages posted in the past month. Then I would check the results and see if there are others with whom I can exchange information. Can't find anything? Then limber up your fingers and start posting more detailed queries on the surname queries and appropriate localities query boards. The best way to find others researching the same and/or connecting lines usually is in the county message boards. While you might find a missing link by posting to the North Carolina general queries board or to the England general queries board, your chances are greatly enhanced if you narrow your search and post queries on the Orange County, North Carolina and Cornwall, England boards (assuming your ancestors once lived in those places). Always include full names, a time frame, and specific localities in your queries, and don't be picky about the spelling of your names. If you are, you might never find those elusive ancestors. There were no spelling rules about names -- your ancestors might be hiding under almost any spelling. Use the Soundex option when you do a Global Surname Search. It might take a little longer, but the results might be just what you need to scale that brick wall. 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/ * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB. Thanks for sharing your stories. LOOKING FOR WOMEN'S NAMES: ANOTHER WRINKLE by Margaret C. Lew mclew@netcom.com Thank you for making the California death index (1940-1995) http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi available at RootsWeb. It gave me the opportunity to search over and over again and at last find the death record of my mother-in-law. My husband and I had just about given up hope, after having the records searched in the two counties where his parents had lived in the early 1940s. The search began when we visited his mother's gravesite and read the stone -- recorded in Chinese -- which revealed only the year of her death. No surviving family members could help us with any further information and we were disappointed when neither the San Francisco nor Alameda County records produced a death certificate. The clerk in Alameda County forwarded the request to the State of California for further search but no record was found there that matched what we has submitted as her name. One evening while browsing through the RootsWeb site, I saw that the California death records were available on line. Now I had the chance to try every combination of names for my mother-in- law without wearing out the patience of a clerk. Here is the name of my mother-in-law: "LAW Tuey" (her clan name then given name -- in the Chinese style) Here is the way that she was known as a married woman in some records: "LAW Shee" (her clan name, Shee indicating she is a wife) Sometimes you see LEW LAW Shee -- Lew is the husband's surname. (Her gravestone shows this form of her name.) Here is the way she was recorded on the death certificate: "SHEE, Law" Evidently, when her husband had been asked for her name, he had given it in the Chinese style and the clerks entered it as they would have done with any other name. Not only was the name transposed but also the married woman's title, SHEE, had been used as the surname. It is rather like filing all married women under Mrs. In my search I found that many Chinese women had been entered in the records in this way. Fortunately, the woman's surname seems to be recorded in the place of the given name, so there is hope for those looking for records of a Chinese mother or grandmother. (My husband reminds me that I also found his maternal grandfather's death record in the same way -- name reversed using his given name as the surname.) Researching Chinese ancestors is a wonderful challenge. Thanks for helping us make some progress in the California records. * * * DON'T OVERLOOK THE OBVIOUS by Barbara "Clifton" Guinn Katy BarbGuinn@yahoo.com http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rootdigger/conrad.htm I had to write and tell you about the lost family of my great- great-grandfather, John Henry CONRAD (1841-1915), to encourage researchers never to overlook the obvious, to look at all spellings of a surname, and even though the document may seem strange and your family says, "No way, not our relative," to go for it. I did, and now I have a wonderful history with lots of new cousins, and I have learned a lot about digging just a little bit deeper when searching for my roots. My great-aunts had been gathering bits and pieces of family history for as long as my mother can remember. When I started researching our family six years ago, I had something to start with. The biggest mystery was John Henry CONRAD, whose parents died in 1849 before he reached age nine. The family had only memories, my great-aunts knowing that they and their parents were born in Illinois. I almost gave up before I got started because the 1850 federal census of Illinois had more than 30 people named John CONRAD. Not knowing in what county to look, I set aside this research. In the past year I started researching the female lines in my grandmother's family. She was born in Burt County, Nebraska, and lived in Craig, population 250. I asked a contact on the Burt County, Nebraska USGenWeb page http://www.usgenweb.org/ for information about our BROKAW, RILEY, and CONRAD families. When I received her response, I was overjoyed with all the information, but the marriage license for a John H. CONRAD, age 50, that gave his parents' names, had the family baffled. No one knew that he had remarried -- he had been a widower for many years. The family concluded that this had to be someone else and could not be "our" John. In a town with a population of less than 300, we all knew there was not another John CONRAD. With the new information, I thought all I had to do was look for a Jonas CONRAD in 1840, but I could not find a Jonas on any 1840 census and so I was back to square one. My luck changed again when I received a newspaper clipping from my uncle. "Our" John CONRAD had given an interview to the CRAIG ADVERTISER in 1907, telling about his Civil War experiences, being the oldest surviving Civil War veteran in the area. At the beginning of the article was my clue. He told the reporter, "My name will be found upon the muster roll as John H. COONROD." Note that after the fact some family members did say, "Oh, yes. [We] remember stories that the name used to be . . ." Armed with this information, I did find Jonas COONROD in Morgan County, Illinois in 1840, but still could not find Henry CONRAD/COONROD in 1850. After several months of research I have finally pulled the family together and, yes, did find our missing John living with a John and Mary SMALLWOOD. Mary was his first cousin. She and her new husband raised him. Mary's mother was Mary (CONRAD) VANGRUNDY, Jonas COONROD's sister. The family name has been spelled various ways in census and land records. My John Henry CONRAD descends from an Ulrich CONRAD (CHURET), who arrived in America in 1749 from Attiswil, Bern, Switzerland and settled first in Virginia. * * * * * 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 research in Kings County (Brooklyn) New York, send your SUBSCRIBE request to: NYKINGS-L-request@rootsweb.com NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS, GENCONNECT BOARDS, AND CLUSTERS Agoitia, Aris, Asdell Beetham, Berghuis, Bongiovanni, Boris Cayton, Clipstone, Courtright Doe, Dormer, Dunks Exline Falin Hesterly, Hoefler, Hucks Kuck McElroys, Milholland, Moff, Morr Nienhaus, Nunez Pacelli, Pels, Pfeifle, Piechorowski, Pstrong Randazzo, Reeves-UK Savidge, Scheck, Schlotman, Serres, Small-UK, Spero, Stalker, Stern, Sternes, Swango Tarasi, Tickle, Trenary, Twilla Valens, Vannostrand, Veregge, Viereck, Vieregge Weavil, Whitecotton NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS AUSTRALIA AUS-VIC-LINDENOW -- Lindenow, Gippsland, Victoria ENGLAND ENG-IRONBRIDGEGORGE -- Ironbridge Gorge Community Archive, Shropshire, England. Now a part of the new town of Telford, it was originally part of Coalbrookdale, but since the world's first cast iron bridge was built in 1779, the area is generally referred to as Ironbridge. GERMANY (DEUTSCHLAND) DEU-CATHOLICFRANCONIA -- the Catholic parts of Franconia IRELAND IRL-CO-KILDARE -- IrelandGenWeb (IGW) list, County Kildare IRL-DONEGAL -- IGW list for County Donegal IRL-FERMANAGH -- IGW list for County Fermanagh IRL-LEINSTER -- Province Leinster IRL-MUNSTER -- Province Munster IRL-ULSTER -- Province Ulster U.S.A. NYBRONX -- Bronx County, New York NYCMETRO -- Metro New York Genealogy & Computer Group for members' announcements of monthly meetings and events NYKINGS -- Kings County (Brooklyn) New York SE-KENTUCKY -- For counties that border Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia, and surrounding southeastern Kentucky counties VATICAN-CITY -- Vatican City located in Rome, Italy ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS CA_RODEO - sports community; for youth who participate in rodeo/roping CDBOOKS -- The Archive CD Books Project reproduces on CD old and rare books, such as county directories and parish register transcriptions. Discussion will include the overall project, the indexing projects, and suggestions for more books to be included. Archive CD Books Project Web site is http://www.archivecdbooks.com/ TSALAGI -- cultures community; open discussion of Cherokee culture, genealogy, history, and anything Cherokee * * * * * NEW WEB ACCOUNT REQUESTS. Please see the instructions at http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ 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 Web page for Butler County, Alabama, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~albutler/ INDIA indrajas -- Rajasthan, Jaipur U.S.A. albutler -- Butler County, Alabama gadgs -- Delta Genealogical Society (Georgia) lapehgs -- Pointe de l'Eglise Historical and Genealogical Society (Louisiana) masgi -- Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Inc. mnchisag -- Chisago County, Minnesota okgcghs -- Greer County Gen. and Historical Soc. (Oklahoma) SOME NEW HOMEPAGES AND FREEPAGES ARKANSAS. Pope County. Includes families of Mahlon BEWLEY, Benjamin LANGFORD, and Jackson J. BOWDEN. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jblaney/ BREAKEY. Some illustrations, history, horticulture, geography, arms, family histories, name/place of origin; genealogies later. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~breakey/ CLULOW. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clulow/ JANET'S Family History. BULL, FRAMPTON, BURBIDGE, PITT, SHORT, PRIDEAUX, HASKELL, FULLER, MARSLAND, all in the United Kingdom. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~janp/ KARPATSKI ROOTS. Galicia, Poland, Rusyn, TOBIASIEWICZ, ORLICKI, STEPIEN, HALUCH. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tobiasiz/ KNIBBS. Descendants of John NIB, born Oxfordshire, England 1572. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~knibbs/ OZARKS. White River Valley. Links for 10 counties of the White River Valley in Missouri and Arkansas, plus items of historical and genealogical interest for the region. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ PACE. Home page of the PACE Society of America. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~psapages/ PRATT and MURPHY. PRATT family of Ontario, Canada, and the MURPHYs from County Down, Ireland. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~prattmurphy/ SCOTTISH ROYALTY. Genealogical help for the research of Scotland's royal families. http://www.rootsweb.com/~txhall/scotland.html TIPPERARAY TO NEW SOUTH WALES (1841-1855). Database includes entries for all emigrants who were "assisted" to travel. Their "native places" and names of parents are included, information that the compiler, Peter Madden, believes is not included in other indexes. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~maddenps/TIPPEM.htm TOWNE. DOWD, MAGUIRE, MAHER, MACCORMICK, FINN, and TOWNE. Scanned photos and documents. Research focuses on Newport, Rhode Island; Isle of Mull, Argyll, Scotland; County Fermanagh, County Galway, County Tipperary, and County Roscommon, Ireland; and Berkshire County, England. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~townefamilyandgenealogy * * * * * 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/ 14 August 2000 issue http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter/2000/aug/aug14.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 as plain text e-mail messages (no attachments or html) to RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com World Connect was wonderful -- now it is perfect! Sammie Birdsall fredsammie@novagate.com Some weeks ago I was reviewing RootsWeb's database for CHEGWIDDENs and came across an entry for a William CHEGWIDDEN, which was submitted by Cameroz@worldnet.att.net. The entry lacked some details but suggested that the person had gone to New South Wales (NSW), Australia in the 1800s. I was looking around a cemetery at Sandgate near Newcastle, NSW, Australia, when I came across a grave for a William CHEGWIDDEN in the Primitive Methodist Section, NE12, Lot 35. I checked with the cemetery people and they only had a name and date of interment, 16 June 1893, which coincided with the information mentioned above. As an added check I also accessed the NSW Births, Deaths, and Marriages Files and found they show two entries only, one at the file date and other a year earlier. The NSW, BDM had no parent entries and neither did the cemetery. No other people were buried in the double family grave plot according to all the records. I don't have a link in my tree for a William CHEGWIDDEN or his parents in my findings so far which date back to 1522. I believe there are approximately four groups of CHEGWIDDENs who came out of Cornwall originally in the 1500s and 1600s, according to a contact in Adelaide. These may or may not be directly related. Our group were mostly Anglican, some early ones Catholic, and a smattering of Methodist later in Australia. The person who placed the file at RootsWeb could not be found, but maybe this snippet of information might help others in their searches. Ken Chegwidden, Australia k_chegwidden@altavista.com * * * I am so glad that I found RootsWeb a few months ago. I don't have a lot of time to do searches, but I always have Monday mornings about 6 a.m. So I'm checking out your latest e-mail and I find the California death index [1940-1995] http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi "Okay" I said, "Let's see what we find." Everyone I've ever talked to about my great-grandmother always says the same thing, that she died somewhere in California. Well, of course it's such a big state, so I'm hoping, and sure enough there she is. Thank you so much. Now I can search for her birth and maybe find her parents. Thank you again for such a GREAT Web site. Tammi Winkfield tjwink20@yahoo.com In RootsWeb Review, Vol. 3, No. 32 Sharon (Miller) wrote: " . . . Keziah apparently had no immediate family living anywhere in Essex. After many months of futile searching . . . I joined the Essex-L mailing list hosted by RootsWeb . . ." I am glad that it worked out this time, but in case any one else is confused, the ESSEX-L list is for the family name ESSEX. The county of Essex in England is covered by the Essex-UK-L list. Please direct any messages about the county of Essex, U.K. to Essex-UK-L@rootsweb.com rather than to the surname list. [For Essex County, Massachusetts, subscribe to ESSEX-ROOTS-L. Eds.] Keith Elmo ELDRIDGE elmo@opsis.fsnet.co.uk * * * * * HUMOR. Here is another of the editors' favorite haiku. This site has been moved. We'd tell you where, but then we'd have to delete you. * * * * * 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. 33, 16 August 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 http://www.rootsweb.com/~review/e-zine.html 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