RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 11 August 2004, Vol. 7, No. 32, Circulation: 838,091+ (c) 1998-2004 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Certification: http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/ Search and share family trees: WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ Learn how to find your ancestors: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Post and read messages on all relevant surname, locality, and topic Message Boards and Mailing Lists: Message Boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Mailing Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS AND NOTES 1a. Message Boards: Picture This 1b. Editor's Desk: Some Sites Worth Seeing 1c. Tips from Readers: "Compiling Medical Pedigrees" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Breaking Down Brick Walls" 3. New RootsWeb Mailing Lists 4. New Webpages at RootsWeb 5. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 6. New User-contributed Databases 7. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Lighten Up!" "Staying Young" "Learning a Lesson" "Don't Get Mad, Post-em!" "Bloodlines vs. Adoptive Lines" "Changing Colors" "Aviator's Photograph Flies Home" "Correcting Errors in Books" 8. Humor/Humour: "Duly Recorded in Scottish Census" 9. Submissions, Subscriptions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== 1. NEWS AND NOTES 1a. Message Boards: Picture This It's family reunion time again in many parts of the world. Did you make an annual trek to the home village of your SHINDELDECKER ancestors where generations of descendants gathered once again to share family lore, memories, food, and traditions? Family reunions are those special gatherings where you hear comments on just how much little cousin Jeremy resembles dear old great-granddad, Henrich SHINDELDECKER, where you can trade family recipes, and see who can eat the most from the mountains of homemade German potato salad Aunt Sallie always brings to the reunion. Perhaps even your 100-year-old grandaunt Matilda SHINDELDECKER HUNTER was there and took the honors as the oldest family member in attendance. Did the family reunion photo with grandaunt Matilda in the center of the group turn out well? Did you obtain additional old family photos to scan into your computer? Would you like to share these with extended family members who were unable to attend the reunion and do not have access to the old pictures? Information about family reunions and photos would be welcome on RootsWeb's genealogy surname and locality mailing lists, but mailing lists do not accept graphic files or attachments. So, what's the best and easiest way to share your graphic treasures? The answer is: Message boards. The RootsWeb/Ancestry message boards are where graphic files are welcome and can be viewed and shared with all. You may add up to five attachments to any single message. Graphics files will be converted to .JPG or .GIF format upon upload. Go to the surname or locality message board of interest. To add an attachment click on "Attachments: [Add]" when viewing the POST NEW MESSAGE or POST REPLY screen. Either type in the path to the location of the photograph or image file on your computer, or click on the browse button to navigate to the file and then select it for uploading. You did remember to take note of the file names and their locations on your computer when you scanned in the photos, didn't you? After you have located your file or files and the paths are showing in the boxes next to the browse button, click on SUBMIT option to upload the files. Complete your message and remember to click on POST. You also can select PREVIEW if you want to proofread your message before you select POST. The attached files will be accessible when anyone views your message. Be sure to include the three things genealogists always need -- full names, dates, and places. While you're browsing through the message boards viewing messages, always look for the icon -- it's a colorful swirl within a box -- beneath the message. That denotes there is an attachment to that post. * * * 1b. EDITOR'S DESK. Some Sites Worth Seeing Sometime in the late 1970s or very early 1980s a 5-foot-tall statue of Nancy Ward, Ghighau (Beloved Woman of the Cherokees), was stolen from the Arnwine Cemetery, which overlooks the Clinch River, near Liberty Hill in Grainger County, Tennessee. According to families living near the graveyard, it was probably stolen in the summer of 1981. It was seen being taken away in a gray Cadillac with a portion of the statue protruding out the rear of the trunk. They have no idea what could have happened to it beyond that last sighting. Story and picture can be found at "Missing Statue": http://smithdray.tripod.com/nancyward-index-5.html * * * The reconstructed passenger list of the ship "Welcome" when William Penn came to America is now posted on Forrest Plumstead's website. Follow the link from "Quaker Index": http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fplum/ 1c. TIPS FROM READERS: Compiling Medical Pedigrees By Judy Florian, former Registered Nurse When doctors, nurses, and hospital staff ask about medical history of a person's family, they are primarily interested in (in this order): 1. Your own medical history 2. Both of your parents' medical history 3. Your siblings' (but not stepsisters or stepbrothers) medical history 4. Paternal grandparents' medical history 5. Maternal grandparents' medical history Beyond these, medical histories are not considered as important, although some doctors *might* ask you to also include: 1. Aunts' medical history (the full sisters of your father and/or mother) 2. Uncles' medical history (the full brothers of your father and/or mother) 3. First cousins' medical history However, it is unusual for doctors to ask about the health of your aunts, uncles, and cousins. Most adults will know already that the primary organ categories asked about are: Heart, lung, renal (kidney), pancreas, and liver which cover the primary large group diseases such as: HEART: Heart attack (M.I. myocardial infarction), arrhythmia (abnormal heart rate), CHF (congestive heart failure), and hypertension (high blood pressure). LUNG: Asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and tuberculosis. RENAL: Kidney failure, hypertension (high blood pressure, which can affect kidney function). PANCREAS: Diabetes --high blood sugar. LIVER: Liver failure, etc. Doctors also ask for other specific diseases that can affect one or more body organs, such as: CANCER (can affect skin or any organ). ALCOHOL ABUSE (affects liver and changes blood chemistries). CHEMICAL ABUSE/DRUG ABUSE (affects liver; can affect blood and other organs if person has used IV drugs, e.g., "shooting up"). While there are many diseases that are considered hereditary or to "run in the family," there are actually few diseases where it would be any more beneficial to know more than three generations of history. This means you, your parents and your four grandparents. Diseases considered to be truly genetic include those such as blood diseases (example: sickle cell -- important to know if there is African American bloodline in "white" families); blood-clotting deficiencies; rare/true chromosomal abnormalities like in mental retardation, and "orphan" diseases such as Noonan's Syndrome. For the true genetic chromosomal diseases or rare orphan diseases it would be good to know a more extensive history. For more information on rare orphan diseases see: http://www.rarediseases.org/ So, while it is interesting for families to know "heart attacks have been frequent in my primary family line for 150 years," doctors for the most part will still only be interested in three generations of medical history. Only when there is a rare diagnosis might an in-depth medical genealogy be worthwhile -- at least in today's medical world. Possibly in years to come, medical research will find a useful way to use the medical genealogies that researchers have compiled -- but authentic medical research must set certain criteria to have the research be valid, so in fact, our medical genealogies may end up still only being of interest to genealogy researchers. One area that will become increasingly important, however, is the question: did you and your children have complete series of childhood immunizations? Many children did not have all or only some immunizations and perhaps booster shots were skipped. There is discussion now about how boosters only protect people for X number of years. Americans, for the most part, do not remember the rampant illness, debility and deaths caused by communicable diseases such as whooping cough, smallpox, and polio. Even measles and mumps can kill from opportunistic infections that can come with a major illness. So while you are collecting your ancestors' medical histories, pull out your children's immunization records and talk to your doctor about what might still be needed. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Breaking Down Brick Walls By James Fort in Canada We each have our brick walls that never seem to come down. We become more experienced in time and our family history grows as problems are solved, relatives are found, families are united, but one spot in the ancestry will not budge, as method after method of seek and search is applied. My wife's great-grandmother stood solid and firm against years of fierce determination to locate her ancestry. In 1989 a genealogical society mailed a bulletin to its membership that contained a family listing of grandparents, parents, and children. In 1999, someone took the middle name of a child and posted the family listing to a RootsWeb mailing list. A family website by that name linked to the family listing in the RootsWeb mailing list archive. In 2004, I tried a dedicated search using the complete four-part maiden name of my wife's great-grandmother and received two hits. One was a query by a known cousin seeking similar information, the other was an unknown family webpage linking to a RootsWeb mailing list. Bringing up the archived message produced the family listing. For the first time known to anyone in the last three generations were the names of my wife's great-grandmother's siblings, parents, and grandparents. Her parents, siblings, and maternal grandparents as listed have been confirmed with other records. RootsWeb records broke through my brick wall. My deepest gratitude for your help. 3. New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Brand-new mailing lists can be found under OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS until moved to their proper categories. For information and an index to the more than 28,300 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS APTER-ENG -- The APTER surname in England BILLIG, BRUNE DEGRUY, DICKBERND, DILBECK, DRESCH EYDEN FAIRBANK GARAVAGLIA, GERNER, GOLLE, GOWELL JOHNSON-NY -- The JOHNSON surname in New York KENNEDEY KIGER-OHIO -- The KIGER surname in Ohio with emphasis on George W. KIGER who married Rachel HUFF MAAHSEN, MACCRIE NEWHOOK PARADISE, PINET SIEKLIK TRAVESS UNLAND VRANIK WRANIK NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS CO-CIVILWAR -- Civil War in Colorado GR-OBITS -- Companion list to the GermanRussian mailing list to be used to post obituaries of individuals who were Germans from Russia KSCCHGS -- The Chautauqua County (Kansas) Historical and Genealogical Society LIGHTHOUSE-KEEPERS -- Genealogy topic of lighthouse keepers NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE -- Eastern Cape, South Africa 4. New Webpages at RootsWeb To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these webpages might not yet be accessible. They are created by volunteers, so if one that interests you isn't up yet, please check again in a few days or next week. http://www.rootsweb.com/~[accountname] Note that the ~[tilde] before the Web account name is required. For example, the Tarentum (Pennsylvania) Genealogical Society website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~patgs/ Australia qldhbfha -- Hervey Bay (Queensland) Family History Association England engcrosl -- Rosliston (city), Derbyshire U.S.A. gapulask -- Pulaski County (Georgia) mncjhcd -- Capt. John Holmes (Minnesota) Chapter DAR moocdar -- Osage (Missouri) Chapter DAR ndmcken2 -- McKenzie County (North Dakota) nyscar -- Society of Children of the American Revolution War (New York) wysmd -- Society of Mayflower Descendants (Wyoming) 5. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- When your new, updated, or substantially revised personal pages located at RootsWeb (they will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL) are up and ready for visitors, please send the URL (Web address), along with a brief description, including the major pertinent surnames and what is available on your site, to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Note: Comments and questions about any of these independently authored webpages should be directed to their respective compilers/webmasters. ABESHAUS. Includes all branches including Abeshouse and Abezgauz. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~abeshausgenealogy/ KENTUCKY. The Magoffin County Historical Society website has been revised and updated. http://www.rootsweb.com/~kymhs/ KING, GOODEN, HEDLEY, WALKER and LANGEVELDT. Tracing the history and descendants of these five families who immigrated to Victoria, Australia in the 1800s. These families are KING from Meath, Ireland; GOODEN from Somerset, United Kingdom; HEDLEY from Ontario, Canada; WALKER from Yorkshire, United Kingdom; and LANGEVELDT from Southport, United Kingdom Site includes old photographs, cemetery details and listings of 1,200 descendants. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rickking/ McINTOSH. This McIntosh family went from Virginia to Kentucky to Tennessee and back to Kentucky. Includes pictures, documents, and list of surnames. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~emcintosh/ 6. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb ---------------------------------------------- Who Has the Data? Does your state, province, county, parish, church, old military unit or alma mater have material available that you think would be of interest to genealogists and historians? Do you have any compiled lists of names or databases -- other than your personal family tree because genealogies can be posted at WorldConnect: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ -- that you would like to share and that you think would be of value and interest to others? In most cases, RootsWeb would be proud to host them. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ The following databases have come online recently. They are searchable, but not browseable. Browse: To view the entire contents of a file or a group of files. Search: To look for specific data or occurrence of text in a file. ITALY. Province of Caserta (Campania Region). San Potito Sannitico; baptism records, 1697-1795; 3,395 records; Larry Sennello, Bill Sennello, Ralph Brandi http://userdb.rootsweb.com/italy/ U.S.A. Military Records: Co. F 4th BN. 2nd TNG. BR., Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Vietnam War; 188 records; Robert O. Nay http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ CALIFORNIA. Merced County. Hilmar. Hilmar High School Class of 1951; 48 records; Hilmar High School Class of 1952; 51 records; Hilmar High School Class of 1953; 44 records; Karl H. Schwerin http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ DELAWARE. New Castle County. New Castle. Gracelawn Memorial Park, Garden of Time section (partial transcription); 21 records; Courtland Yockey http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ IDAHO. Bonner County. Priest River. Priest River High School, underclassmen 1972; 231 records; Lynda Turner http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ NORTH CAROLINA. Mecklenburg County. Charlotte. Newell Presbyterian Church Cemetery (partial); 27 records; S. B. Sloan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ OHIO. Ashtabula County. Index to "Railroading in Conneaut, Ohio," by David Borsvold; 99 records; Donald Pitts http://userdb.rootsweb.com/bookindexes/ TENNESSEE. Gibson County. Funeral Records, 1922-1942; 902 records; Linda Neal http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ VIRGINIA. Nottoway County. Blackstone. Blackstone High School Class of 1927; 23 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ Tazewell County. Bluefield. Graham High School, 1916 Girls' Basketball Team; 10 records; Tazewell. Tazewell High School Class of 1921, 17 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ WASHINGTON. Clark County. Lewisville Cemetery; (selected records); 3 records; C. E. Berg http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ 7. FROM ROOTSWEB REVIEW'S BOTTOMLESS MAILBAG [Editor's note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the editor or of RootsWeb.com]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lighten Up! By Gloria Lee Reeves, Arizona Free Spirit I have to say I agree heartily with Lisa! What is the big deal about sharing names that are hundreds of years old? It's fun to look for ancestors and find people who may be cousins many times removed. I have found several first cousins I knew nothing about. I explore many family trees, check the dates (which are sometimes wrong), add them to my tree, and change them later if I find better information. It's a game, folks, and has nothing to do with the present! Lighten up and have fun with the explorations and new friends that are found. * * * Staying Young By Nancy Garrett I was researching a female ancestor in my family tree. I had her birth and death dates from the family Bible, As I started tracking her through the census records a strange pattern began to emerge. I finally realized this lady knocked three years off the age she gave the census taker every 10 years -- just as regular as rain. Says something about her I think. Don't you? * * * Learning a Lesson By Jerry Riessen I read with interest several of the letters sent in about purchasing old photographs in antiques stores and trying to located descendants of those in the photo. I too enjoy the challenge and have had several successful and happy endings. I have also learned a valuable lesson. Several months after posting information of a particular photograph (subject(s) name, photographer's name and location, etc.) on a RootsWeb mailing list or county query site I received an e-mail from a very excited descendant and promptly mailed off the photo. Case closed, right? Wrong. About two years later, I received another e-mail from a granddaughter of another one of the women in the photograph who had just read my posting. The granddaughter was thrilled to have located a photo to give to her aged mother. The mother had married and moved to a far- off state and had never seen her mother again. She had not even been able to get back for the funeral. Unfortunately I had not kept a copy of the photo or the name/address of the first descendant I had mailed the original photograph to. A not so happy ending, but a lesson learned. * * * Don't Get Mad, Post-em! By Diana Ware While searching through WorldConnect for my family names I recently found one, went to it and quickly discovered that it was not just my family name, but my entire tree posted on someone else's database. I say my tree because, though I was not credited with any of the information, it was word for word the information I have posted on WorldConnect in my database, including my personal notes. Someone who is collecting the names of people who migrated to a specific area in Texas posted this database that has my tree in it. I was surprised at first, but realized this was not a bad thing it was an opportunity. I decided to leave a Post-em Note on each name that is also in my tree to let other viewers know I have additional information. The Post-em Note includes my name and e-mail address so that anyone who comes across those names will be lead back to me, even though they were not searching my database. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before! Now, I plan to go back and add Post-em Notes to some of the databases of other researchers who have done work on families we have in common. When a Post-em Note is added to a database the owner is notified by e- mail. The worst that can happen is that the database owner will remove my Post-em Note. If the owner actually e-mails me, especially one who will not otherwise respond to my e-mail contacts, or who has not updated their database in a while and whose e-mail address is no longer active, well, then I may meet a new cousin. I welcome Post-em Notes to my databases too. I've met several cousins who for whatever reason left a Post-em Note instead of contacting me directly. So, when you see your data in someone else's database don't get mad -- leave a Post-em Note! * * * Bloodlines vs. Adoptive Lines By Carrie S. Sims http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~steafkenfamilybranches/ I have read RootsWeb Review for the last few years. Recently there have been many opinions posted concerning genealogists changing histories for various reasons. I have a question for all of the readers, if I fall into this category. My daughter is from a previous relationship. I was smart enough not to marry her biological father. I met my husband when she was 4 1/2 years old. At the age of two weeks past her 8th birthday, my husband legally adopted her. When she was born she had my maiden name. The only thing that changed was her last name. It was like she was born to my husband. I have asked my daughter's opinion, (she is now 15 years old), on how she wants it listed. She said that she doesn't consider her biological father to be her dad. Her dad is my husband. She knows they don't share the same blood, but that doesn't bother her. She knows she is loved. I have asked her if she wants me to research her bloodline on his side, she said no. She feels that he is not her family. My question that I want opinions on is am I wrong to change the history even though this is what my 15-year-old daughter wants? * * * Changing Colors By Catherine deCuir In response to Kate Hastings' "Dealing with a Dilemma," I would urge her not to leave family members who are passing as white out of your database. They may not be intentionally "passing." My family "became" Caucasian when they moved to California from Louisiana around the turn of the 20th century. In Louisiana, the census lists them as "mulatto." Ten years later, in California, they were "white," and sometimes said they were born in France (and once, in Tennessee) instead of in Louisiana. My great-grandmother's death certificate lists her race as "Creole." My grandparents, who must have feared that anti-miscegenation laws would stop their wedding, wrote "French" and "German" under race. But I didn't know any of this until I was in my forties. I was told that my generation was "1/8 Cherokee Indian," and got interested in genealogy through trying to prove my elderly dad's membership in the Cherokee Nation. Actually, we're a quarter Creole, and are somewhere between 1/8 and 3/16 African-American. (A few ancestors are still missing.) I kept running into the initials "fwoc" and "fmoc" after my ancestors' names. One relative told me there were two sets of people by each name -- by which, I guess, he meant there was one black and one white family. That might have kept me searching in the wrong direction. But another (Internet) relative asked, while checking Louisiana church records, "I find fmoc -- is that right?" I told her yes, before I even knew what the initials stood for, because dates I remembered matched. I finally discovered that both my great- grandfather and my "Cherokee" great-grandmother were born free people of color before the Civil War. They were descended from French-speaking planters and African-born slaves. These ancestors' stories could not be more fascinating. My Creole family thought they were doing their descendants a favor by claiming to be from "Marseilles." On the one hand, they really put one over on a racist society. On the other hand, they had to play into that same racism and we grew up without important knowledge of our family's culture. I'm grateful to know it now. You mentioned that you can't ask your relatives, but if they are at all interested in family history, you might send them some of your records. Knowing our true heritage has answered personal as well as genealogical questions for our family. * * * Aviator's Photograph Flies Home By George Nelson in Fairhope, Alabama Several years ago my wife and I were browsing through an antique shop in Mobile, Alabama, and I spotted the photo of a young aviator standing in front of a P-51 fighter. Upon closer inspection I realized I knew that young aviator. He had been one of the managers of the paper company at which I had worked. I phoned another retiree from the company and was directed to the aviator's daughter, who still lived in Mobile. She dashed out to the antique shop and was thrilled to find an old photograph of her father. So, you can never tell what you might find as you browse through antique shops. * * * Correcting Errors in Books By Lee Aurale Huff Relating to: "Worthless Genealogy," by Mary Harrell, who said, "It is our duty, as genealogists, to note in the pages of these books, our own corrections." PLEASE! As a volunteer in a library dedicated to genealogical and historical research, I have seen a person with a whiteout pencil "correcting" a printed work. Please don't advocate correcting a book already on the shelf by making changes in it. 8. Humor/Humour: Duly Recorded in Scottish Census ------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Margaret Gibbs On the same page of the 1881 census for Aberdeenshire as the entry for my father's paternal grandparents and their (at that time) family of eight, there were several other similarly large families listed on neighbouring farms. One, the Smiths, had six children listed, five of them as Annie, Willie, Alec, etc. The fourth in line, however, was entered, in the census taker's best and most careful handwriting as "Miss Margaret Elspeth Smith" and her age as "5 years old today!" I always imagine the proud child herself standing by his knee, watching as she was suitably recorded for posterity on her special day. In the same census, the list for my father's Aberdonian maternal grandparents' family ends with "Undecided" (in the names column), "Just Born" (in the age column), and "Unknown as yet" (in the gender column). The census taker obviously knocked on the door at a very inconvenient time! * * * Found a humorous entry in census, parish, church, etc. records? Send to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 9. Submissions, Subscriptions, Advertising, Reprints ----------------------------------------------------- The RootsWeb Review does not publish or answer genealogical queries, and the editor regrets that she is unable to provide any personal research assistance or advice. RootsWeb Review welcomes short (500 words or less) articles, humor, stories, or letters, and reserves the right to edit all submissions. All mail sent to the RootsWeb Review editor is considered to be for publication -- send in PLAIN TEXT (please, no attachments) to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Search/download past issues of the RootsWeb Review: http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ * * * SUBSCRIPTIONS. To manage your e-mail communications (i.e. to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, or to sign up for others), visit our newsletter management center any time at: http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of MyFamily.com, Inc., 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT, 84604 * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS. Ad Sales Operations Mgr. Shana Davis sdavis@myfamilyinc.com U.S., Worldwide Sales: Sacha Yenkana syenkana@myfamilyinc.com * * * REPRINTS. 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: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 11 August 2004, Vol. 7, No. 32. * * * *