RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 29 June 2005, Vol. 8, No. 26, Circulation: 804,154+ (c) 1998-2005 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com Certification: http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/ * * * Keep informed about the latest news, new databases, webpages and mailing lists at RootsWeb. Subscribe to the weekly RootsWeb Review. http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ * * * Search and share family trees at WorldConnect: http://wc.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/ * * * RootsWeb HelpDesk http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ * * * =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: Some Sites Worth Seeing "The Greatest Generation" "New DAR Online Index" 1b. Tips from Readers: "Backing Up, Saving Our Data" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "Summertime Getaways" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Sidebar to Genealogy: A House's History" 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: "Do Ye Hear What I Ear?" "Collaborative Effort" "Getting Younger -- Officially" "Making Mistakes" "Pass the Buttermilk, Cornbread, and Fish" 8. Humor/Humour: "An Occupational Hazard" 9. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: Some Sites Worth Seeing The Greatest Generation. AWON -- The American World War II Orphans Network is one of the children of Americans who died during that war. The website contains photographs and stories, welcomes those who lost their father or other family members in World War II, and encourages family members to register. There is no fee for registration. AWON also publishes a newsletter, "The Star" and has a database of family members of American WWII dead, which continues to grow. There is a link to a number of books that will interest family historians. http://www.awon.org/ http://www.awon.org/bookstore/bookstore.html * * * New DAR Online Index. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has enhanced its online index to the Genealogical Records Committee Reports -- the name for its collection of genealogical information from family Bibles, tombstones, church records and the like. You can search this 18- million name index for your ancestors at: http://grc.dar.org/dar/darnet/grc/grc.cfm?Action=New_Search The results will show you the book title and a link to its catalog record with the volume number and location in DAR's library. You'll also see the contents of the subject and notes fields, which can help you determine if the book is relevant to your research. Click "Ordering Page Copies" for details on requesting photocopies of the pages of interest. The DAR, founded in 1890, is a volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism and preserving American history. As the most inclusive lineal society in America, the DAR boasts 170,000 members in 3,000 chapters across the United States and internationally. It has an outstanding genealogical library in Washington, D.C. * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Backing Up, Saving Our Data By Ellen Blackstone in Seattle, Washington, USA I read recently about someone who was happy to have posted her genealogy online, because she had a backup in case something happened to her computer or her home. Posting our trees online is good, but, we should all keep backups of all of our important data -- genealogy, financial, whatever -- off-site. Every few days, weeks, or months, or more often if you're inclined and produce a lot of work, back up your most important files on a disk, a CD, or a back-up tape, and send it to a friend or family member you trust to leave the package unopened. Or keep a copy at your office--if it is secure. * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Summertime Getaways Are you preparing to get away from it all this summer? Going someplace where you won't be checking your e-mail? If so, you may be thinking about what to do about the mail that might be clogging your inbox when you return from all the mailing lists to which you are subscribed. RootsWeb mailing lists do not have a "no mail" option to enable you to shut down mail for a temporary period of time. So, the solution is to unsubscribe from your lists while you are away. To unsubscribe from your lists, send a new e-mail request (not a reply) to: LISTNAME-L-request@rootsweb.com if you are subscribed in mail mode or LISTNAME-D-request@rootsweb.com if you are receiving the list mail in digest format. In either case, put only the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject and message body. Be sure to replace the generic word LISTNAME here with the actual name of each list from which you wish to unsubscribe -- either temporarily or permanently. What happens if you do this and get a reply stating that your address cannot be removed from the list because it wasn't found on the list? How can that be? You know you are receiving mail from the mailing list. RootsWeb's mailing list software is not capable of removing an address that it doesn't find subscribed to the list, so there is a problem somewhere. Pay a visit to Password Central at (http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/) and which, despite the name, isn't just for passwords. Password Central also has all of your mailing list subscription information and instructions on how to unsubscribe from each. Make sure you are trying to unsubscribe from the correct mailing list. Some of the names are quite similar. If you are subscribed to OHROOTS-D@rootsweb.com, sending an unsubscribe request to OHIO-L-request@rootsweb.com or OHIO-D-request@rootsweb.com will not get you removed from the OHROOTS-D list. These are different lists even though the names are similar, and each list has its own unsubscribe procedure and address. By the same token, since you are subscribed to the OHROOTS list in Digest mode (that's what the "D" stands for), sending your unsubscribe request to OHROOTS-L- request@rootsweb.com (note the "L") won't get you unsubscribed either. You must unsubscribe from the exact same name list and the exact same mode -- in this case you need to send your unsubscribe request to: OHROOTS-D-request@rootsweb.com -- for your request to be successfully processed. Remember when you are subscribing to or unsubscribing from a mailing list that you are making a "request" and the mailing list address you send this to always has the word "request" in it. However, when you are posting messages to a mailing list you use the mailing list's address (that is the one without the "request" in it). And, here's what trips up many of us. You must send your request to unsubscribe from the exact same e-mail address under which you are subscribed. You can't unsubscribe from your office or laptop e-mail accounts (if you have different e-mail addresses there). If you have changed addresses and you arranged with your old ISP to have genealogy mailing list mail forwarded to your new address, and you can no longer send mail from your original address, drop a note to the list administrator at: LISTNAME-admin@rootsweb.com (no -L or -D). Again, replace the generic word LISTNAME with the actual list name. In this example it would be OHROOTS-admin@rootsweb.com. Let the administrator know you want to unsubscribe and that you are most likely subscribed under an old, inaccessible address (and don't forget to give him or her that full e-mail address). In cases where you need to write to the list administrator for assistance in unsubscribing, it is extremely helpful if you include a copy of the most recent message you have received from the mailing list in question with full, expanded headers. Don't know how? See: (http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/listadmins/headersfull.html) for information about obtaining the full headers for the most popular e-mail programs. Message Boards. Also, don't forget to remove any message board notifications you receive regularly before going away for an extended period of time also. To do this login on the boards using the account you used when adding boards to My Notifications. http://boards.rootsweb.com/ and click on the My Notifications link. All the way to the right side of the page on a line with each board name is a button to remove the board from My Notifications. Click the links one at a time to remove each board. When you return, you can always play catch-up by reviewing posts on the message boards you may have missed while away, and by browsing the mailing list archives for posts during you absence. The latter are at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sidebar to Genealogy: A House's History By Laurie Keller The continuing discussion about whether to post GEDCOMs or not centers on the number of people who've found distant cousins or pertinent information as a result of posting, but I was recently approached about a house. The next-to-the-youngest brother of my great-grandfather, August EKMAN (born in Sweden in 1870 and immigrated with his parents and youngest brother to Minnesota to join his older brothers and sister in 1888) became a well-to-do banker and philanthropist in Minneapolis. In March of 1900 he married a widow named Christine (ALM) ELSBERG, who had three surviving children at the time. Earlier this year I received an e-mail from someone wanting to know about August EKMAN because she was interested in his house on Elliott Avenue in Minneapolis. My files contained known residences of my relatives, but she had searched on the name because she found it in the records of the city planning department as the person who had built the house. She was trying to find information about the house for the Elliott Park Residents Association, who were concerned that the house was derelict and for sale -- it might have been pulled down by a new owner just for the land. They hoped that having information might enable them to mount a campaign for funds to help save the architecturally important building. I sent my inquirer what I knew, and she sent me what she knew about the house. It had been commissioned by August EKMAN in December of 1900 from a prominent local architect, and the family had lived in it until the untimely death of August in December 1910 from appendicitis and the resulting peritonitis. He died in the Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis, to which he had devoted both time and money. My correspondent's information sent me on a hunt to try to piece together what happened to August's family after his death, and to see whether I could trace any of Christine's descendants in hopes of finding a photograph of the adult August (I have a photo of him as a 7- or 8- year-old with his eight brothers, one sister and parents). I've now written to the one surviving Elsberg I could reliably trace to see if he might have any photographs with his great-grandmother's second husband, and his grandfather's stepfather, in them. In the meantime, the house has been purchased by a couple who hopes to return it to its former glory. They were very pleased to be given detailed information about its original owner. The local residents' association has also traced a descendant of the architect. So my posting has helped to bring together several of the strands that began to unravel with the untimely death of my great-granduncle August. ======================== Advertisements ============================ LOW COST BRITISH RESEARCH SERVICE WITH FREE ASSESSMENTS Need some help with British research? Try British Ancestors, a British company with researchers throughout England and Scotland. 4,000+ clients worldwide have been helped since 1999 with prices starting from just $70 US. Researchers will search the records of your English and Scottish ancestors stored in archives throughout England and Scotland, most of which are unavailable on the Internet. For a FREE! no-obligation research assessment visit http://www.britishancestors.com/consultrwr/ * * * Enter to win a trip to your ancestral home land and research assistance from a professional genealogist from Ancestry.com and TNT. Watch INTO THE WEST, a 6-week television event from TNT (Executive Producer Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television). INTO THE WEST explores the struggles, triumphs, and heartaches of two families as they journey in search of the American dream. See it Every Weekend -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- starting Friday, June 10 8/7c on TNT. Click here: http://www.intothewest.com/ ====================== End Advertisements ============================== 3. New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- MAILING LISTS. For an index to more than 29,200 RootsWeb- hosted genealogy mailing lists, visit http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS DEINZER ELSE FENGAL GEAKE HRENYO LAUBER NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS TX-BEXAR-CEM -- Discussing cemeteries found in Bexar County, Texas NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS BOSNIA-AND-HERZEGOVINA -- Bosnia and Herzegovina ENG-STS-WOLVERHAMPTON -- Wolverhampton, (formerly in Staffordshire), West Midlands, England URUGUAY -- Uruguay (country in southeast South America) 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 Los Angeles County, California website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~calosan2/ U.S.A. calosan2 -- Los Angeles County (California) kybchs2 -- Boone County (Kentucky) Historical Society 5. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- Can your cousins find your website at RootsWeb? Has it ever been mentioned here or do you have a new, updated, or substantially revised website at RootsWeb (it will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL)? 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 WILLIAMS, LANGE. Surnames include LANGE, LEHMS, JUDIJAHN, WILLIAMS, YOUNG, PARKER, DOYLE, KLINE, REED, and O'DONNELL. U.S. localities include Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, California, and Ohio. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ludlow58/ DOWNS. Downs Family of Kent County, Delaware, USA. The progenitor, at this time, of this DOWNS family is William. The time is March 1, 1729; he is granted 209 acres in Mispillion Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He died there in 1770. His son Benjamin was born there and died there in 1816. Benjamin and his wife Nancy OWENS had five children. In about 1810 Benjamin's son Curtis left for Ohio where he married Ann HALL. They had 11 children (10 sons) five of whom left Holmes County, Ohio and went to Jennings County, Indiana in about 1840. Currently there are more than 2,000 descendants of William DOWNS in this database representing nearly every U.S. state. http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=heycman 6. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ---------------------------------------------- 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. U.S.A. Death Records: Deaths 1857-present with ties to Iron County, Missouri 9,282 records; Marcine (Amelung) Lohman http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ CALIFORNIA. Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz High School Class of 1945. 148 records; Sara MacDonald http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ MISSISSIPPI. Lee County. Northeast Daily Journal. Obituaries published February 2004. 466 records; L. P. Stephens http://userdb.rootsweb.com/obituaries/ NEBRASKA. Pawnee County. Lewiston. Turkey Creek Precinct. Red Cross contributors, 1918. 339 records; Joan Shurtliff http://userdb.rootsweb.com/news/ TENNESSEE. Slaves and people of color, 1796-1850. 94 records; L. Brannan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/colored/ 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do Ye Hear What I Ear? By John Parfitt in Bristol, UK As a footnote to your item in a recent RootsWeb Review about the Southern pronunciation of "Charlotte," you might be interested to know that in the family Bible of my late wife's stepson Michael REED from Somerset, England are two ladies named "Hamah" and "Hamley." In standard English they were Emma and Emily. His own surname, REED, is commonly found in the variations "Red" and "Ridd" (as in Blackmore's "Lorna Doone"), formerly all pronounced with the long "e" -- characteristic of the West Country. * * * Collaborative Effort By David Porter I don't think there is a single genealogist out there, professional or dabbler, that has "made it on their own." At the very least, there were those relatives that answered questions or dug out photos; or there was that clerk in the records office that bent the rules and let you actually look through the file and read the handwriting yourself. Genealogy is a collaborative effort. For that reason I am happy to share my data and I don't really care who copies it. It would be nice for themselves and for their readers if they kept the source and source's source; but doing otherwise will only hurt them in the end. (The only thing that does bother me is when I have stated that certain data is based on analytical guesswork and the copier drops that caveat. I consider this publishing false data.) I think of my own genealogy work a lot like panning for gold. You scoop up a bunch of silt and then start to work separating it and refining it. I grab everything I can that relates to my family. Then I start checking. Is it true? Why did they say that? Does it correlate? Even primary sources must be evaluated. I have a relative who was married six times. The men kept getting younger (by comparison) and, according to the court records filled out in her own hand, she kept getting younger too! If I waited to post until I was absolutely sure of everything, I would never share anything. * * * Getting Younger -- Officially By Marilyn Strout in Maine, USA I too have "official documents" with mistakes on them. My mother-in- law's marriage certificate shows: Age of Bride: 26 (crossed out); 32 (crossed out) 26 (penciled in) -- seems she was "much older" than the bridegroom. My mother's second marriage certificate shows her maiden name as MAXWELL, but it was actually FITZMAURICE. MAXWELL was her first husband's surname. No matter, they all give clues for us to follow. I was going to say "it's not set in stone," but then I realized my husband's baby brother's date of death is set in stone (but it was according to his mother). The brother's official death date is two weeks earlier than what's on the stone and I tend to go along with the hospital records, not the mother- in-law's memory. * * * Making Mistakes By Alex Adams I use documentation where possible, but would give the following warning. The official death records for one of my great-grandfathers and one of his brothers both give their stepmother's name instead of their birth mother. I have verified this from the relevant birth and marriage certificates. The informants in both cases were sons who were miners and may not have had any memory of their first granny. Documents can work but even they can be wrong -- remember that the information is from a human being and is not checked by the registrar. * * * Pass the Buttermilk, Cornbread, and Fish By Jerry Murdock When I was a young boy in East Texas, it was an unquestioned fact that "sweet milk" should never accompany fish. It was known to cause poisoning, if coincident with some other unknown factor. Everyone knew that some people did drink "sweet milk" with fish, and some had no problem with it for years, but we believed that it would eventually catch up with them. Most of us just stuck with buttermilk -- which tastes better with fish, anyway -- and cornbread naturally goes better with fish than any other kind of bread, too. 8. Humor/Humour: An Occupational Hazard --------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Barbara Hunt While searching the 1881 British [London, Middlesex, England] census in Holywell, I found a Widow WALKLETT, one son (unemployed) and another son (working as a gilder). However the last entry for this household is : Lorimer W. STRONG, a lodger, male, 26, and his occupation is "Clergy," followed by a sad note -- "Without Cure of Souls." One wonders whether he was asked or forlornly volunteered the indictment on his occupation. * * * Found a humorous sign or entry in census, parish, church, etc. records? Send to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 9. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ----------------------------------------------------- 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/ If you use a spam-filtering program, in order to receive the RootsWeb Review please make sure that you're allowing e-mail from: newsletter@reply.myfamilyinc.com The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of MyFamily.com, Inc., 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT, 84604 * * * 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. The announcement of books and products is provided as a community service and is not an endorsement in any way. 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 * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS. Ad Sales Worldwide: Shana Davis, creative@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 June 2005, Vol. 8, No. 26. * * * *