RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 28 September 2005, Vol. 8, No. 39 (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/ * * * RootsWeb HelpDesk http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ * * * =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: Hurricane Katrina Aftermath USGenWeb Newsletter Turning Points: Wisconsin Historical Society Every-name Index for 1920 U.S. Census Available 1b. Tips from Readers: "Earing What I Ear" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "SSDI's Advanced Search Option" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Old Manuscript Provides Link" 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: "Rustling of Wings" "Meeting Our Waterloos" "50 Years of Silence Ends" "Peccadilloes of Enumerators" "Disowned Daughter: Debunking a Legend" "Stately Daughters" 8. Humor/Humour: "Bone Philip's Lament" 9. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: Hurricane Katrina Aftermath USGenWeb (USGW) Newsletter Turning Points: Wisconsin Historical Society Every-name Index for 1920 U.S. Census Available HURRICANE KATRINA AFTERMATH. Like many others, employees of MyFamily (RootsWeb's parent corporation) have contributed to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund. Individuals have contributed $9,420 and the company has matched the donations, bringing the total contribution to $18,840. Additionally, MyFamily partnered with http://KatrinaHousing.org/ to assist in the relief effort. This organization matches survivors who have been left homeless with volunteers that have opened their homes. Since September 12, the company's member services team has been taking calls from both survivors and volunteers -- helping to match these parties together. So far it has received nearly 3,000 phone calls and placed more than 400 families into temporary housing. On 19 September Allen Weinstein, the archivist of the United States, announced several initiatives to aid in the recovery of original records in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana that have been affected by this hurricane. Details about this assistance are available in its press release at: http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2005/nr05-120.html The recent hurricanes remind us all of how fragile our paper and computerized histories are. Disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and fires, are not limited to the United States either. Are copies of your personal genealogical and localities' records preserved? Digitized? In a safe place? Do you know? http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/electronicrecords/erdigitalimaging. html http://www.archives.state.ut.us/recmanag/digital_guide.htm Have you posted your genealogy at WorldConnect where you could retrieve it in the event of a disaster or a computer crash? http://wc.rootsweb.com/ Genealogists, of all people, should plan for life's disasters and our eventual demise. We should try to preserve our family histories and related records and pictures that we have spent so many enjoyable hours collecting and putting together -- don't wait for a hurricane to happen. * * * USGW NEWSLETTER. The USGenWeb Project News (Volume 2, No. 5; September 2005) includes a couple of interesting articles. One is about the USGenWeb Archives Project and cooperative work being done by volunteers to save and store records from the U.S.'s devastated Gulf Coast. The other -- "Search Engine Tips," by Mike Jarvis offers six tips for Web searches. http://usgenweb.org/newsletter/NL-09-2005.shtml * * * TURNING POINTS. The Wisconsin Historical Society has hundreds of eyewitness accounts and pictures that may be of interest to genealogists on its "Turning Points in Wisconsin History" website: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/ * * * EVERY-NAME INDEX for 1920 CENSUS. Subscribers to Ancestry's U.S. census collection now can use the every-name index to the 1920 census. (http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?sourceid=831&dbid=6061) The new index makes it easier to locate your ancestors in the information-packed 1920 enumeration. Find ancestors who were children at the time, even if the name of the head of household is unknown. Track down "lost" people and those with common names in your family tree by searching for other family members in the household who may bear a more distinctive name. The 1920 census was begun on 1 January 1920 and all responses were to reflect the individual's status as of that date. Due to boundary modifications in Europe resulting from World War I, some individuals were uncertain about how to identify their national origin. In 1920, enumerators were instructed to spell out the name of the city, state, province, or region of respondents who declared that they or their parents had been born in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, or Turkey. Interpretation of the birthplace varied from one enumerator to another. Some failed to identify specific birthplaces within those named countries and others provided an exact birthplace in countries not designated in the instructions. See Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, January 1, 1920: Instructions to Enumerators available online at: http://www.ipums.umn.edu/usa/voliii/tEnumInstr.html Learn more about the 1920 enumeration at: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A128301 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Earing What I Ear By R. Richard Crockett Searching for my VIOX (vee-ox) ancestors in Cincinnati, Ohio, I was having a difficult time finding them in the 1880 census. I did thorough searches of the Soundex, but the family was not to be found. Thankfully, there were city directories available for the period that showed where they were residing. Of course, they were right in the intersection area of two enumeration districts. By going through the microfilm rolls, the family (actually families) were discovered. Apparently, old Sebastian had a bit of a German accent. The family was listed as FEOCHS (fee-ox). The German-English pronunciation of that first V is what the enumerator heard and what was recorded. So, if you don't find your ancestors by checking out the possible variant spellings, think of how the name might have sounded to an enumerator, especially if your ancestor had an accent. 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: SSDI's Advanced Search Option Linda LONG had been researching her family tree for quite some time and she had compiled a lengthy pedigree for her LONG ancestors. However, she had a few blanks in her file on more recent family members. Linda, like many of us, had not obtained much information about her then-living relatives. Now she discovered she was missing data about Aunt Lydia (LONG) HOEL and Lydia's husband Lance HOEL, both deceased. There were also a few cousins Linda had lost touch with over the years. These cousins were elderly when Linda last visited them and she suspected they too were now deceased. Since Linda's recent family history is all centered in the United States and her cousins and aunt and uncle most likely applied for Social Security cards at one time, Linda decided to try the RootsWeb Social Security Death Index (SSDI) in an attempt to learn more about them. Her father had commented several times that Aunt Lydia went by her middle name because she didn't like her first name -- but try as she might Linda couldn't remember what Aunt Lydia first name was. She also was not sure about Lydia's surname at the time she died as Lydia had remarried a few years after Uncle Lance died. However, as luck would have it, she just happened to have Aunt Lydia's Social Security number in some old family financial records dating back to her grandparents' estate settlement. Linda also had little information about Uncle Lance (her uncle by marriage). At least she knew his name and approximate year and place of death. Linda also had varying bits of information about her cousins, so when she headed off to search the RootsWeb SSDI (http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/) she wasn't sure exactly what she'd be able to find. Linda clicked on the ADVANCED SEARCH link on the SSDI page and was greeted by a full-featured search engine with options that suited her needs perfectly. She knew one cousin had died within the past few months and she noted that RootsWeb's SSDI database had been updated recently and that it included deaths reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA) through the month of July (the new entries and any edited entries are distributed by SSA about a month after the end of the month for which the new data is available). For another cousin, she had only the family Bible entry listing the date of birth and a given name -- she didn't know the cousin's married name. In most cases, when doing genealogical research for females, maiden names are used, but when searching the SSDI, females are generally recorded under the married name (assuming they were married, of course) -- and it will be the one used at the time of their death. Additional information about the SSDI database can be found at: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson10.htm With the ADVANCED SEARCH options offered Linda could search on only these tiny tidbits of information she knew and find the people for whom she was searching. She could search on Social Security numbers alone -- no name, dates, or locations needed. And, she could search on first name and date of birth. RootsWeb's customized ADVANCED SEARCH options of the SSDI make searching easy and fast. While not every person who died in the United States can be found in the SSDI, if your family member is listed there, and even if you don't have complete information about an individual -- your chances of finding the right person are enhanced using RootsWeb's full-featured ADVANCED SEARCH option. Whether you are looking for long shots or trying to fill in holes on your pedigree chart -- give RootsWeb's SSDI and its ADVANCED SEARCH option a try. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Old Manuscript Provides Link By J.C. Shepard in Slayton, Minnesota, USA My grandmother kindled my interest in family history beginning with a few questions for a Boy Scout project back in junior high school. She was a TILLSTROM, who moved across the state to join the SHEPARD family in Genesee County, Michigan. As in many small towns, over the years families had split and inter- married and most everyone seems to be related, yet forgotten quite how. After many years I pulled out the old paper files for a family event after my grandmother passed away. She had faithfully copied down many events over the years, and I started typing away. I use the Internet daily, but did not expect much info on the Web -- my grandmother knew everybody in our small town. Rootsweb's WorldConnect family trees set me straight. Come to find out, an old manuscript had been rescued from the basement of one of my grandmother's best friends -- on retirement they had built house next door to each other. Beth, her granddaughter in California, had taken the time to enter the family history data and post it on WorldConnect. Calvin SHEPARD, our common ancestor from circa 1800 western New York, had been right there in Michigan all the time. Since then I've combed the census again, studied old texts and message boards, and posted many queries. WorldConnect doesn't have all the answers, maybe not even the right answers, but it sure is a great place to connect. ======================== Advertisements ============================ GET HELP WITH YOUR BRITISH GENEALOGY British Ancestors, a British company with researchers throughout England and Scotland has helped more than 4,500 satisfied clients worldwide since 1999. 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. Friendly service, affordable prices and free research assessments. For a FREE! no-obligation research assessment visit http://www.britishancestors.com/consultrwr/ ====================== End Advertisements ============================== 3. New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- MAILING LISTS. 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 29,400 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ No new lists were created this week. 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] U.S.A. ~copgs -- Parker Genealogical Society (Douglas County, Colorado) ~okeocpo -- Eastern Oklahoma Cemetery Preservation Organization ~paalhg -- Anthracite Living History Group (Pennsylvania) ~txdsudc -- Dallas 6 (Texas) United Daughters of the Confederacy ~vascotch -- Scotchtown (Virginia) Chapter DAR Key: DAR – Daughters of the American Revolution 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 (its Web address), along with a brief description, including the major pertinent surnames and what is available on your site, to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com BURIED GENEALOGIES. Many incredible genealogies are buried on RootsWeb's FreePages (personal pages) due to the lack of understanding of what TITLE means, how to use the TITLE tags on a webpage, and how these pages are indexed at RootsWeb. To see the problem, look at the number of webpages listed below under "My Family" (or a combination thereof). This is due to of the incorrect use of the TITLE tag. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/directory/genealogy-M.html In "Naming Web Pages" -- an excellent tutorial by Pat Asher -- she points out that each webpage actually has three different names -- the title (or heading) that appears on the page, the name between the TITLE tags and the file's name under which you save it on your computer. http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/~pasher/naming.htm Your entry page at FreePages should be named either index.htm or index.html. Remember that Index.html (with a capital "eye") is not the same thing. Your genealogy pages at FreePages are automatically added to the FreePages genealogy directory, but in order to be listed, you must name your main entry page either index.html or index.htm Put the description that you wish to appear in the index directory between the TITLE tags at the top of your webpage: Smith and Jones Genealogy Your page then will be indexed according to the first letter of this title. In this example it will be indexed under "S." Articles such as "a" and "the" are ignored. However, My Smith Family will be indexed under "M" Instead of using "Genealogy of Smith Family" or "Our Smith Families" in the TITLE tag, which will index under "G" or "O," put the primary surname first in the TITLE tag -- the one under which you wish the page to be indexed. The TITLE tags are not seen by others and this TITLE information has nothing to do with the readable heading (also called a title to further confuse us) that you put on your website. Avoid being cute or clever with what you put in the TITLE tags. Kizzin' Kuzzins is OK if you want to put that as a heading (what people actually can see) on your page, but if used in the TITLE tags it will index your page under "K" -- and that's not where you want it. Your Smith cousins will be looking under S -- not K. The TITLE used in the TITLE TAG of your page should be something that is meaningful to a search engine. If you want search engines to index your site effectively, be specific with something like "Smith and Jones Families in Ohio, 1822 to 1900." If your FreePages at RootsWeb are not indexed as you meant, this is a good time to fix your TITLE tags so your cousins can find your website. http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/~pasher/basichtml.htm#metatags * * * DANIEL, COLLIER. The Texas heritage of the DANIEL and COLLIER families. Surnames include: ADAMS, BEENE, BIBLE, BOONE, BUETTNER, CARLYSLE, CHERRY, CLARK, CLEARY, COLLIER, COTTON, COX, DANIEL, DRISKILL, ELLISON, FRY, FUTTERER, GIBSON, GRAF, GREER, GUNTER, HARDING, HARDY, HARKY, HEINZE, HENTSCHEL, HOOD, HUBENTHAL, KLINKSEIK, KRAKOWSKY, KUBITZ, LOVIT, MOORE, MYERS, OBENHAUS, PETKOW, PHEARS, PROFFITT, PYE, ROBERTSON, SCHMIDT, SCHNEIDER, SCHOPPA, TEIMANN, TZSCHIEDER, and ZOCH. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~danielcollier/ FAMOUS RELATIVES. Some of the famous people in the author's WorldConnect family tree with links to their pages. Most pages have pictures and many even have sound. Includes: Beach Boys, John and Michelle PHILLIPS, Dean MARTIN, Janis JOPLIN, Johnny CARSON and Saint Elizabeth Ann SETON. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tdowling/famouscousins.htm HART, MUNDY/MUNDAY, MALLORY, KNOWLTON, DRANE, CARTER, KAISER/ KAYSER, BAUMANN, MEIDL, ANSLEY, WALLIS, and related families. Families are found in the USA in Georgia, Wisconsin, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, and Maryland. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~familyhunter77/ PRESIDENTIAL COUSINS. Click on a picture of a U.S. president at this site and it links to his page in the compiler's family tree at WorldConnect. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tdowling/presidents/presidents.htm 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. ALASKA, Kenai Peninsula Borough. Anchor Point. Anchor Point Kallman Cemetery, 117 records; Cooper Landing. Cooper Landing Cemetery, 61 records; Hope. Clark Cemetery, 9 records; Kachemak Bay. Homer Area Bear Cove, 4 records; Seward. American Legion Cemetery, 254 records; Seward. Fort Raymond Cemetery, 21 records; Sterling. Bears Rest Cemetery, 5 records; Totem Tracers Genealogical Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ CALIFORNIA. Solano County. Hansen and Bryan Funeral Home Records, 185 records; Janice M. Sellers http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ NEBRASKA. Hamilton County. Stockham. Associated names with the Stockham Cemetery, 207 records; Dee Grams http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ SOUTH CAROLINA. Lancaster County. Lancaster. Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery Listing (partial), 14 records and 95 records; Judith R. Dalton http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ WISCONSIN, Price County. Brantwood. St. Mary's Cemetery; 255 records; T. Lorbecke with help from Marcella Braski from the Brantwood Historical Society 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rustling of Wings By Teri Brown in Las Vegas, Nevada More than 20 years ago, I was searching for the maiden name and family of my great-great grandmother Nancy SLACK who was married to my great- great-grandfather Peter SLACK. I wrote to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Lisle, New York in search of a death certificate. It turned up nothing, but the gentleman wrote back that his wife happened to be the county historian and he would pass my information on to her. This wonderful woman sent me cemetery records of every SLACK in that county. None turned out to be Nancy, but several others later tied in with my family. About two or three months after my contact with the county historian I received two No. 10-size envelopes jam packed with sheets of lined school paper with single spaced typing on both sides of each page just filled with genealogy family records for Nancy SLACK, who turned out to be Nancy JAPHET from Saugus Bay, Massachusetts. Along with the information came a letter from a retired schoolteacher who said she saw an ad in a local newspaper with my query about Nancy SLACK (JAPHET) and my address was included in the ad to send the information to. I did not place the ad. I can only conclude that the county historian put that ad in the paper although she did not reply when I wrote and asked her and thanked her if it was she. As a result of that ad, I ended up with more than an inch thick packet of family group sheets that took me six months to type up on my manual typewriter (in between working and raising five children). I took them to a local printer and had two copies bound with leather covers and the JAPHET name imprinted on the cover. I sent one to the schoolteacher and kept the other one for myself. The tearful letter of thanks I got back from her was worth its weight in gold. There are definitely guardian angels among us. * * * Meeting Our Waterloos By Gordon Taylor Most members of my extended family had been told that my great-great- grandfather Jeremiah (aka John) TAYLOR had been a member of the Duke of Wellington's staff at the Battle of Waterloo. http://www.britishbattles.com/waterloo/waterloo-june-1815.htm J. TAYLOR was an officer (Lieutenant at the time) in the 9th Regiment of Foot. He had been with the regiment through the peninsular war and at the end of that war had been shipped, with the regiment to Canada and they were stationed at Kingston as part of the British forces in the war of 1812. At the time of the Battle of Waterloo the regiment was being marched south towards Plattsburgh, New York, to do battle with an American force moving north. The battle did not take place, the regiment withdrew to Quebec and were shortly after shipped to Europe as part of the occupation of France after the fall of Napoleon. A check of the list of Wellington's staff did not turn up a Lieutenant J. TAYLOR. Hence, he was not on the staff at Waterloo. He was with his regiment in North America. The regiment was in France shortly after the Battle of Waterloo but he was not at the battle. * * * 50 Years of Silence Ends By Gwen Fry I had been putting messages online to try to find my one and only first cousin, who I hadn't seen since he was about eight years old (he is now 58). Several months later, I received an e-mail from his son, who had seen the message, and then I received an e-mail from my one and only first cousin. What a thrill. * * * Peccadilloes of Enumerators By Mike Troy In the 1930 census, John Patterson was doing a decent job as enumerator in Distinct 2 of Big Lick, Roanoke County, Virginia. But, at page 85 of the final report, retired military man Ballard Webb joined him and unconventionality set in. From that point on, the left side of the page is neatly hand-printed -- our hero! But apparently, Webb had no patience for the repetitious grind of the place-of-birth columns, either, see: http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6224&iid= VAT626_2458-0160 * * * Disowned Daughter: Debunking a Legend By Kathie Marynik in Granite Bay, California, USA Several of my family lines belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and this has been very helpful in my family research. Of course, not all the material out there is as factual as one would like. In the case of my 3-great-grandmother Catherine (née CLARK) CORLETT, a written account of her life by one of her grandsons states: "Catherine CORLETT's parents, being bitterly opposed to the Latter-day Saints, tried their best to persuade their daughter to give up Mormonism and to stay in England from which she was contemplating a move with other converts to Utah. She loved her parents and hated the thought of distressing them and becoming estranged from them, but she knew deep in her soul that the ancient Gospel had been restored and she could not give it up for the sake of any earthly friendship. Later on, when she wrote to some of her relatives for names and dates of the family, preparatory to doing work for them in the Temple, she was told that her name had been stricken from the family record." Well. Pretty dramatic, I'm thinking. However, as my research into this line progressed, the wills of both of Catherine's parents were obtained. Lo and behold, Catherine was remembered -- by name, and by the way, quite generously in both wills. It obviously paid off to check this out and not rely on family stories. * * * Stately Daughters By Stephen Lignowski In answer to "Census Notes and Comments" by Beth Flood in Laguna Hills, California, USA, the record in question was the 1860 U.S. Census, Graves County, Mayfield, Kentucky, M653-369, page 112. California Mexico and West Florida CRITTENDEN also had another sister -- named Tennessee. 8. Humor/Humour: Bone Philip's Lament ------------------------------------ Thanks to: Paul Moynagh in the UK A 1798 memorial now mounted on the wall outside St. Edmund's Church, Kingsbridge, South Devon, England to gravedigger Robert Philip, nicknamed "Bone Philip," has this epitaph: Here lie I at the chancel door, Here lie I because I'm poor. The further in the more you pay, But here lie I as warm as they. This is, of course, a class grumble about how only wealthy nobs could get buried inside the church, while poor grunts like Bone Philip had to make do with an outdoor grave. * * * 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: 28 September 2005, Vol. 8, No. 39. * * * *