RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 29 September 2004, Vol. 7, No. 39, Circulation: 827,414+ (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. "Pruning Redundant Branches" 1b. Editor's Desk: Some Sites Worth Seeing 1c. Tips from Readers: "Erin Go Braugh!" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Christmas Arrived Early" 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: "Handling the Photo Collection" "From Another Angle" "Creating Picture Albums" "Scanning to CD" "Divide Equally; Then Deal" "Solving the Picture Problem" "Word of Caution on CDs" "Picturing Other Possibilities" 8. Humor/Humour: "An Uncommon Ancestor" 9. Submissions, Subscriptions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== 1. NEWS AND NOTES 1a. Pruning Redundant Branches When Sam SPEEDWELL found his Uncle Sean O'NEAL's GEDCOM on RootsWeb's WorldConnect his initial reaction was one of joy. He was delighted to find a tree that included his O'NEAL and other Irish lines that lived in Dublin, Ireland and later in New York City, USA. However, his delight at discovering all the research his uncle had done soon turned to confusion and bewilderment as he noted that Uncle Sean had apparently submitted more than one GEDCOM. In fact, there were five of them. There was the one Uncle Sean had submitted to WorldConnect and four other files -- one of them identical to the WorldConnect file and three others that appeared to be older files with outdated information that Sam (and Sean) now knew to be incorrect and incomplete. These duplicate and outdated files had strange-looking usercodes that didn't look at all like the usercode for Uncle Sean's WorldConnect file. The usercode is the ending of the Web address (URL) at WorldConnect where the database is located. These usercodes, or file identifiers, consisted of a colon followed by a string of numbers. How did this happen -- how did these other files get online at WorldConnect, and how could this mess be corrected? Sam was eager to contact his uncle so that the extraneous O'NEALs, not to mention the oodles of O'DELLs, caseloads of CASSIDYs, and redundancies of RYANs, could be removed. But first he set out to do a little research so that he could better explain what he found to his uncle who, after all, had been so helpful in advancing his own research into his family history. The least he could do would be to return the favor and show Uncle Sean how to fix the obvious oopses caused by the outdated and duplicate files cluttering up search results. Sam was a faithful reader of the RootsWeb Review and he vaguely remembered having seen something at one time about duplicate files in WorldConnect and how to remove them. However, he had paid little attention at the time as he never dreamed Uncle Sean would have been so careless as to leave the riffraff and obsolete data on WorldConnect. Sam searched the RootsWeb Review archives: http://rwr.rootsweb.com/ He typed in the words "WorldConnect" and "duplicate" as the terms to be searched and the very first match listed was: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/20030101.txt He found an article at the above site which explained that RootsWeb's WorldConnect was now combined with Ancestry World Tree for searches and display. He also learned that the usercodes that began with a colon followed by numbers represented files that had been submitted to Ancestry's Online Family Tree (OFT) and then published to Ancestry World Tree where they were later combined with the WorldConnect database. A light bulb went on! When Uncle Sean submitted his tree to Ancestry it was a separate database from RootsWeb's WorldConnect, but now the two are combined so that caused the duplicate files. But what about the outdated files? These, he learned, were created by the fact that, unlike WorldConnect where uploading a new file -- using the same usercode -- removes the outdated file and replaces it with the new one, the OFT files were not superseded by the newer data when a new file was submitted. On OFT new separate files are created each time -- unless the old ones are specifically deleted. Now Sam saw how Uncle Sean had inadvertently created the five databases when only one had been intended. With the information Sam found in the old RootsWeb Review he knew he could tell Uncle Sean what he needed to do about removing the duplicate and outdated files so that only his current accurate and complete file would be accessible to the public. Tracing Irish ancestors is challenge enough without having to wade through duplicated files and outdated information. Sometimes it takes more than the luck of the Irish to find the magic four-leaf clover hiding in a field of weeds. WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ * * * 1b. EDITOR'S DESK. Some Sites Worth Seeing BMD TRANSCRIBING TASK COMPLETED. Calderdale Family History Society (FHS), which covers the Halifax area of West Yorkshire, has just completed the mammoth task of transcribing all the baptisms, marriages and burials (BMDs) for the parish church of St. Mary's in Elland. This was one of only three churches licensed to conduct marriages in the old parish of Halifax during the time of the Hardwicke Act, 1754-1837. The records transcribed cover the time from the start of St. Mary's in 1559 up to 1837, with baptisms being taken up to 1850. These are now available in a number of forms: --At Calderdale FHS's research room in Brighouse Library on the society's searchable computer databases. --In booklet form, either or direct from Calderdale FHS or via the Internet bookshop at http://www.genfair.com/ -- Via individual search enquiries through the society's search coordinator. Full information on direct purchase from Calderdale FHS, its search enquiries, and access to the research room in Brighouse can be found on the society website at http://www.cfhsweb.co.uk/ --On the Federation of Family History Societies' "pay-per-View" website, http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/ If your ancestors came from this locality, you may find the ENG-YKS-HALIFAX mailing list at RootsWeb of interest. It is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the ancient parish of Halifax, West Riding, Yorkshire, including the townships of Halifax, Northowram, Warley, Ovenden, Midgley, Sowerby, Norland, Skircoat, Southowram, Hipperholme, Brighouse, Shelf, Rastrick, Fixby, Elland, Greetland, Stainland, Barkisland, Rishworth, Soyland, Langfield, Erringden, Stansfield, Heptonstall, and Wadsworth. http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/ENG/ENG-YKS-HALIFAX.html * * * POLICY UPDATE. On 27 September the RootsWeb Privacy Statement was updated to bring it into closer harmony with the privacy policy of other MyFamily.com, Inc. properties. The privacy statement provides information about the types of personal information that we collect and what we do and do not do with the information you provide. To review the Privacy Policy, go to: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/privacy.html * * * 1c. TIPS FROM READERS Erin Go Braugh! By Terrence H. Seamon of New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA In August, I made my first trip to Ireland, but because of the stories I was told as a youngster by my father, I felt like I was returning to a place I had been to before. My dad, who passed away last year, was the grandson of Elizabeth REILLY, an Irish immigrant who arrived in New Jersey in the late 1800s, became a helper in the kitchen of a wealthy family in Somerset, and married the gardener, Henry SIMON, himself an immigrant who came to America from Ahrem in Germany, a small village near Cologne. (Somehow, the SIMON surname metamorphosed into my last name -- SEAMON.) When my wife and I were planning our trip to Ireland, one of our goals was to do some roots sleuthing. On my side, I was eager to trace the REILLY connection. On her side, she was interested in her mother's maiden name HASSETT. Here's what we knew and what we found out. For my part, I did a lot of research, even reaching out to a few distant cousins who had done some research on the REILLY side. So I knew that Elizabeth REILLY had come from a town called Carnaross in County Meath. Because Carnaross is a little place, it was not easy to find on most maps. But a friend of ours, who had traveled to Ireland a few times, brought out his ordnance survey maps and showed us exactly where Carnaross is located. (Carnaross is northwest of Kells on N3.) On the day we drove to Carnaross from Kells, it was gray and rainy. But my heart was thumping in anticipation. We stopped at the Carnaross Inn, hoping to get some information. When we mentioned to the staff that we were from the States and that we were looking for our REILLY roots, the waitresses flocked around us and could not have been more friendly and helpful. One young girl, in fact, was a REILLY herself, though it was not clear whether there was any connection. Based on my cousin's research, we asked about the REILLY farm and the waitresses referred us to the general store on the corner for directions. So off we went, with a brief stop at a cemetery along the way. We learned that the REILLY farm was "the one at the top of the hill." At the farm, we knocked at the house, but there was no answer. So later we returned to the Carnaross Inn and asked the waitresses to say that we had been there. On the HASSETT side, we did not have much to go on. One of my wife's cousins had done some research but could only offer that the HASSETTs had come from somewhere in Dingle. Though it was the slimmest of threads, we visited Dingle and toured the entire area. We learned that two famous footballers from Kilorglin were named HASSETT and that there were more HASSETTs in County Clare these days than in Dingle. Clearly, we have much more research to do. And at least one more trip to Ireland is in order. * * * Have you solved a pesky research problem? Share it with the RootsWeb Review readers. Send to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Christmas Arrived Early By Marian Presswood I am the lone caregiver for my 92-year-old mom who is in the latter stages Alzheimer's disease. She was never really interested in family history, but she now is unable to speak and the terrible disease has robbed her of any precious family memories that she might have been willing to share. She told me once, years ago, that although she had no pictures of her grandfather John C. PORTER, she saw him a few times as a small child on summer vacation visits and that he was a courtly gentleman with white hair, beard and mustache and always wore a suit with white shirt and tie. As the official county historian, president of the local historical and genealogical society, I had submitted quite a bit of information to online county websites, but had little time to surf the genealogy sites. However, about July of last year I made a quick check of the latest queries posted on the local county site and one jumped out at me that named all my mother's family surnames in bold headlines. Needless to say, it only took me a few seconds to fire off a response to the submitter asking if we were related. It was almost as if she were right there waiting for me and when I told her who my great- grandfather was and that I had never seen a picture of him, she began scanning and sending images -- not only of him, but of my great- grandmother Lucy BROWN, my 2-great-grandmother Amanda BANKS Porter, my 3-great-grandmother, Martha WHISENANT Porter, and letters written by my mother's sister almost 40 years ago explaining the family history with all its mysteries that census records could never reveal. Wow! Talk about Christmas presents! It may have been July, but I don't think I've ever been as excited over any Christmas present I've ever received as I was upon seeing those images appear on my computer screen that night. Thanks Beth! I'm still completely amazed that we met, but I'm so glad that we did. May all of you find a "Beth" out there somewhere as willing to share as I did. * * * Do you have an online "connecting" story to share? Send to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 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 28,500 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS AGENT BRISENDINE BASS-MOSES -- Ancestors and descendants of Moses Bass, born 1800 in North Carolina CAPOROZ CAMPBELL-Obadiah -- Descendants of Obadiah A. Campbell (1843-1918) of Crawford County, Ohio and related MeWhorter or Mcwhorter families DEGLER, DESIMONI GRYDY, GUILFOYLE KERKHAM MARCHYSHYN, MARTLEY, MOGLE ROBENHYMER SAVARESE, SIBBITTS, STRYDOM, STRYDONCK TRENCH WANTLAND, WISKEMANN NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS BUITENPOSTEN -- South Africa-related genealogy topics, primarily in Afrikaans (one of South Africa's official languages) 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 Biographies Project (Louisiana) website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~labiog/ U.S.A. alcoosa2 -- Coosa County (Alabama) alhenry2 -- Henry County (Alabama) caalcdar -- Anne Loucks (California) Chapter DAR gaoldwal -- Old Walton County (Georgia) hihonol2 -- Honolulu County (Hawaii) inspence -- Spencer County (Indiana) labiog -- Biographies Project (Louisiana) mehhs -- Hampden (Maine) Historical Society palanca2 -- Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) Key: DAR--Daughters of the American Revolution DRT--Daughters of the Republic of Texas FHS--Family History Society USD--U.S. Daughters of the War of 1812 5. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- Do you have a new, updated, or substantially revised website located at RootsWeb (it will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL)? 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 CHATER FAMILY HISTORY. Its main focus is CHATERs in India. Other names are ALBURK, ALEXANDER, ANDERSON, BAILEY, CHARLOW, D'CRUIZE/DE CRUZ, D'ROZARIO, DE SOUZA, DORLING, JENKINSON, KURINE, LETTS, MACDONALD, MAUGEY (sometimes spelt MANGEY), PEARSON, RAMAGE, REEKS, ROBERTS, RUSHTON, SHARPE, TAYLOR, TREADWELL/TREDWELL, VAN RISTELL, and WOOD. Also includes many non-related CHATERs http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chaterfamilytree/ IRISH. Destitute Poor from England to Ireland December 1860- December 1862. Includes names, the port of departure in England and the port of arrival in Ireland, number of years each person had resided in England or Scotland and the cause for and date of each removal http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/irishpoor1860-62.htm TONSING, PITTENGER, MARTIN, FARMER, BERNARD, HOLSAPPLE, DAMRON, NICHOLAS, GOSSER, and CHALLISS. "Richard Tonsing's and Margaret Bernard's Family Trees." Localities include Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, Germany, England, and France. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~okrick/ Note: Comments and questions about any of these independently authored webpages should be directed to their respective compilers/webmasters. 6. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb ---------------------------------------------- The following databases have come online recently. They are searchable, but not browseable. Search: To look for specific data or occurrence of text in a file. Browse: To view the entire contents of a file or a group of files. MASSACHUSETTS. Essex County. Salem. Salem High School Class of 1904; 77 records; Margaret L Busteed-Remon http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ OHIO. Cuyahoga County. Parma. Parma Senior High School Class of 1963; 591 records; Joanne B. Auth http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ Mahoning County. Coitsville. Coitsville Presbyterian Cemetery (aka Jackson Cemetery) (partial); 25 records; Heike Mershon http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ TEXAS, Dallas County. Dallas. Dallas Technical High School Class of 1935; 206 records; Mary Maxwell http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ 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/ 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]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Handling the Photo Collection By Toni Gall in Australia When my father in-law died some time ago, my sister in-law, husband and I got together and decided which originals each family would get dividing the collection roughly down the middle. We then worked out which photos we'd like a copy of and had copies made and split the bill in half. Printers have come a long way in three or so years. Now days I would print the photos myself or copy the ones I wouldn't be keeping originals of to CD before passing them on to the rest of the family. We had one advantage in that there were only two siblings involved but my father-in-law was a bit of an amateur photographer so there were a huge number of photos and slides. That's why we didn't just copy all the photos, the cost would have been enormous. I intend to copy every thing we have to two CD so that my two boys won't have the problem in the future. * * * From Another Angle By Jerilyn Marshall I have thought about this from a different angle. What if the person who passes away is an uncle, aunt, or other relative, and that person had no children? What if the surviving spouse is not related to the people in the photos, and may not have ever met some of the ones from earlier generations? Have others found a way to divide the photos? Are they given to siblings of the deceased, or perhaps to the children of the siblings? If there are multiple siblings, which one(s) would get the pictures? Who will make copies for those who would like them? I hope others will be willing to share solutions to this dilemma. In almost any scenario, through the generations the originals are likely to be dispersed, to no longer be a set of photos depicting that one family. * * * Creating Picture Albums By Wendy Whipple Here's how my family has dealt with sharing photos. Years ago, my grandmother made three photo albums for her children. The albums contained photos of them as children, as well as children they had. When there was a single photograph of something all three should have, like a great-grandparent, Grandma had copies made. She also labeled the photos as best she could (some of the photos were 40 years old or more, and she couldn't remember everything). She died a few years after compiling those albums, and we are all grateful to her for having done it. Old photos are precious to everyone in the family. They are also in many cases fragile. I personally believe that a collection of old photos should be scanned and archived on CD anyway, and why not pass out copies of the CDs while you're at it? That way the decision is a little easier. The photos can be divided like Grandma did, with all photos pertaining to a single family member going to that person, and others copied and shared with everyone. * * * Scanning to CD By Donnette Smith I think before you divide family photographs you should scan them into a nice computer program such as FamilyHistoryCD and give all the family members copies. That way everyone will have remembrances of their past. When I told my cousins I am making such a CD program and already have more than 500 pictures of ancestral family members and their homes that my husband and I have collected for about 30 years, those cousins started bringing their old photos for us to include in the CD. * * * Divide Equally; Then Deal By Dorothy Baker We were faced with this problem after my mother passed on. Since the old photographs were in my possession I had every one of them copied. There are five girls in our family, and when the time came to divide them I said "Divide them by five--just because I had all of them copied does not matter--I did that so my children might have them someday." They were divided by five, and with the tall stack of "just snapshots"-- start dealing, like you're dealing cards. Pictures that did pertain to a a certain daughter or her family, of course that person got those. It was all done fairly--what more could you ask? * * * Solving the Picture Problem By Janice Beall Taylor in Urbanna, Virginia, USA This was our solution: 1. Have someone (usually the eldest child) identify and date the pictures to the best of their knowledge. 2. Make sure each person has at least one picture of each parent -- even better if you can find a picture of each parent with each child. 3. Put the rest of the pictures face down in a "deck" (like cards). Deal them out -- face down. There are five children in our family, so that's how many piles we made. After everyone has looked at their pictures they were free to trade or give away as they want. 4. If someone wants a copy (or copies) of a picture that another person has, the person who wants the copy pays to have it made. This is a lot easier and cheaper now with digital cameras to take a picture of the picture, and copy shops everywhere. This worked great for our family, although I have been told that we are closer and get along better than most families. Not having ever belonged to any other family, I wouldn't know! * * * Word of Caution on CDs By Diane Hall-O'Dell I've read in photo trade journals that the life expectancy of current CD disks stored in home or office is 30 years. Printing photos from the scanned images for long-term viability may be advisable. * * * Picturing Other Possibilities By Glenn Gohr in Springfield, Missouri, USA Dividing up family photos equally among siblings sounds like a great idea in theory. But it probably will not be practical. Not everyone has an interest in old family photos. They might receive them graciously, but when it comes down to it, either they, a spouse, or child, might decide to either discard the photographs somewhere down the line or else "hoard" them so that no one else will have access to them. With photo albums and scrapbooks, especially, do not divide pages and pictures up. Try to keep a photograph collection intact if possible. Make copies for other parties (or let the new owner make copies). That is a way to share. But keep the originals all together, so that someone in the future will know where to go to locate the precious family photos. That is better to have one person to contact (instead of three or four or more) to try to locate or get a copy of certain photographs. 8. Humor/Humour: An Uncommon Ancestor ------------------------------------- Thanks to: Ray Lines of Kempston, Bedford, England, who write: My Great-great-grandfather must have been someone special because on his death certificate the cause of death was "By visitation of God." * * * 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: 29 September 2004, Vol. 7, No. 39. * * * *