RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 26 October 2005, Vol. 8, No. 43 (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/ For best results, when contacting the RootsWeb HelpDesk, provide information about your computer (PC or Macintosh), its operating system (Windows 2000, XP, Mac OSX, etc.) and your Web browser and its version. http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/form1.html * * * =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: BCG Consolidates Categories Some Sites Worth Seeing 1b. Tips from Readers: "Panning for the Gold in California" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "Ghost-busting Made Easy" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Twists and Turns to Connections" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Chilling Experience in France" "Ghost-hunting in North Carolina" "Dropping and Finding H's" 7. Humor/Humour: "Aging Is Goal" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) announced that, effective immediately, it has consolidated three research categories into one category that will be called Certified Genealogist. All those holding a current credential as Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, Certified Lineage Specialist, or Certified Genealogist will hold the designation of Certified Genealogist. The board also established application requirements for the single credential and voted to continue the existing renewal requirements for those already certified. Also unchanged is the two-step application process. Individuals file a preliminary application form and then have up to one year to submit their completed portfolio. Those who have already filed a preliminary application form will have the opportunity to decide whether to continue under the previous requirements or convert to the new requirements. Complete details for each requirement will be posted by 1 December on the BCG website, ( http://www.bcgcertification.org/). Beginning 1 January 2006, only applications using the new requirements will be accepted. Since its founding in 1964, BCG has promulgated in research, lectures, and publications attainable, uniform standards of competence and ethics that have become generally accepted throughout the field. Its publication, "The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual," sets forth the currently accepted standards for all areas of genealogical research. The manual is available from the publisher, Ancestry.com: http://shops.ancestry.com/product.asp?productid=1956&shopid=0 * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: HAUNTED HOUSES in the UK. Houses, castles, abbeys, and churches. http://pages.zoom.co.uk/hauntedplaces/houseshome.htm HAUNTED HOUSES in the USA. Find haunted houses, ghosts, ghost towns, haunted hotels, and haunted places. Just click on your state and shiver. http://www.hauntedhouses.com/map.htm CONNECTICUT. New London Crew Lists Index, 1803-1878. During these years more than 2,500 voyages to foreign ports sailed from New London. Prior to sailing the shipmaster or captain of each vessel was required to file a crew list containing information about the vessel's destination and its crew. This website provides an index to those crew lists. Containing more than 37,400 names, there's also information pertaining to their age, complexion, birthplace, and residence, plus the ship's name and its destination. Transcribed from copies of originals held by National Archives. http://www.mysticseaport.org/library/initiative/crindex.cfm CANADA. Toronto Ukrainian Genealogy Group (TUGG) http://www.torugg.org/ PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION OF RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS. FAQs from Penn State's Special Collections Library. http://www.libraries.psu.edu/speccolls/rbm/faq/preserveFAQs.htm * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS Panning for the Gold in California By Rob Roy Ratliff The Gold Rush in 1848/49 started one of the largest migrations in history as a half million people from around the world went to California. Was one of your more adventurous ancestors there for the 1850 U. S. census -- the state's first? Schedules for three counties are missing and while the enumerators were to record the name and age of every free person in every household, they were not always successful. The census taker in El Dorado County, for example, said he found about 80 Chinese who refused to give their names or other information. In Sutter County, 234 men born in China and 102 in Hawaii were noted but no names or ages given. Solano County's enumerator reported 14 unnamed black men, slaves in Missouri, who had contracted to work in California "and then be free after two years." In Calaveras County, the census taker had better results. He listed 64 men born in China -- all with the surname "AH," from Ah Bee to Ah Yot, including "Ah Fart" and "Ah Pee." (which reminds me of prized editions of the English-language newspaper in Taiwan that regularly reported citizens going to court to change their obscene and disgusting names, per the English translation, into more flowery or flattering ones.) If you do not find your ancestor in this census, in addition to all the usual reasons, maybe he was panning gold on a stream in the hills and the census taker missed him. I hope he was successful! * * * Do you have a tip to share with other researchers? Send them to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Ghost-busting Made Easy Samantha and Stuart SHIVERS decided it was time to purchase a house but both agreed they didn't want some new boxy house in a suburban development -- they wanted an old house with lots of character. They decided on a 200-year-old farmhouse with two acres of land. It was a genuine fixer-upper, but the large old house had a lot of character, not to mention a spectacular winding staircase leading to the second floor with real mahogany balusters. Stuart exclaimed that you just don't see workmanship and quality material like this in a new house. They worked long hours in their efforts to restore the house to its original glory. Samantha began wondering about all the families who had lived in the house over its 200-year history. She couldn't shake the feeling since moving in that those who had come before her might still be present in some form. Samantha was not superstitious and she wasn't at all sure she believed in ghosts -- but there had been some occurrences she just couldn't explain. Granted the plumbing in the old house was in need of repair, but could that explain why Samantha would walk into the bathroom and find the faucet turned on full force when she knew she'd just turned it off upon leaving the room minutes before? Then there were the footsteps she and Stuart would hear in the middle of the night along the old creaky hallway. When Samantha's sister, Lilly, was helping them move in she swore she caught a glimpse of a female figure in a long flowing dress at the end of the hallway. She asked who the costumed figure was that she saw in the mirror at the end of the hallway. Samantha's response was "what mirror?" There is no mirror at the end of the hallway and no one was wearing a costume. They joked "must have seen a ghost" -- but the thought came back to haunt the new homeowners whenever they heard those unmistakable footsteps in the hallway late at night. Samantha and Stuart minored in history in college and they decided to learn more about the history of their "new" old house to see if they could come up with any plausible explanation for the strange happenings. They obtained a complete list of the names of the home's owners over the years from the county courthouse. They also visited the local historical society and library to see if there were any old atlases, newspaper accounts or other information about their house. Samantha had done some family history research on her own and Stuart's families and had used many resources on the Internet for this purpose, so she decided to give that method a try to learn more about her home's previous owners. Before long she found information in WorldConnect that gave her more genealogical data on the families whose names she had found in old deeds -- and even a lead about the identity of her "ghost." She learned that Savilla SHADE and her family lived in the house from the 1850s through the 1880s (about the right era for the clothing Lilly had seen the apparition wearing) and that three of Savilla's children plus her father had died in the house during a flu epidemic in 1857. Savilla lived in the house until her death in the late 1880s. Was it possible that the trauma Savilla had been through made it impossible for her to leave the house? Could she possibly have returned after her own death in search of her lost children and father? Samantha decided she needed to learn more about paranormal research, ghosts, and folklore to see if she could accept the possibility that she really was experiencing something supernatural. Again, she turned to RootsWeb -- this time to the mailing list index at http://lists.rootsweb.com/ and the message boards at http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Surprisingly, she found a variety of resources on this subject matter. She found a list called PSYCHIC-ROOTS listed under the Other category and better yet, she found several message boards of interest in her search. They were under the sub-category: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.folklore Samantha learned was that she wasn't alone in her suspicions about hearing things that go bump in the night that can't be explained by mere settling of an old creaky house. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to say she actually believed in ghosts and spirits from "beyond," but she also could no longer say she felt it was all "hogwash" either. She, Stuart, and her sister knew what they had seen and heard -- and it gave them cause to wonder. RootsWeb resources provided Samantha with information about the families who had once lived in her house and she discussed the strange occurrences with others on the mailing lists and message boards and read what they posted on similar experiences. She had wanted a house with "character," but she wasn't so sure about the "characters" that seem to have come along for the ride. Samantha believes that she came to the right place for her research into the paranormal when she came to RootsWeb. If you think you might have ghosts or have experienced supernatural phenomena, who ya gonna call? Why, RootsWeb, of course. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Twists and Turns to Connections By Larry McCaugh(a)n http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mccaughan/ I operate the "McCAUGHAN Family Tree" website that is hosted by RootsWeb. Besides maintaining my own family tree with all the associated names, I also maintain other disconnected branches of the McCAUGHAN names and its various spellings. I recently received an e-mail from a lady, Leann who was searching for her birth mother. She had found out that her birth mother's name was Mary McCAUGHAN [not her real given name]. I searched my global database and discovered that I had only one person with that name; but I had no further details since she was not in my branch. With a little research I found that the Mary I had was born three months after her father had died in California -- and I also found this Mary's mother's maiden name. I reasoned that being a widow with a three-month-old baby that Mary's mother must have remarried and I was able to find where she did indeed remarry. With the help of a commercial subscription service I was able to find a phone number for Mary's mother and stepdad. I sent the information to Leann and asked her to let me know the results. She sent me an e-mail a few days later saying she had called the number. She said that the lady was not Mary's mother. However, the lady knew Mary's mother because this lady was the second wife. The lady gave Leann information that led to Mary talking to Leann. And yes, the reunion was complete. ======================== Advertisements ============================ PICK 3 DISNEY MOVIES, ONLY $1.99 EACH WITH FREE SHIPPING! Browse the world's most magical movie library as a member of the Disney Movie Club. Pick 3 of your favorites for $1.99 each--with FREE shipping and processing when you join. Satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. CLICK HERE to join today http://clk.atdmt.com/IGM/go/bvh0010000072igm/direct/01/ * * * WHO ARE YOUR ANCESTORS? Ancestry.com--the #1 source for family tree discovery online--puts nearly 2 billion names at your fingertips and provides you access to the most comprehensive online family history resources available. Start your free two-week trial today! http://www.ancestry.com/s20529/t5121/rd.ashx * * * GRANDMA'S MEMORY BOOK Your life is full of rich stories waiting to be told and "Grandma's Memory Book" is a way to help you share those treasured memories with the ones you love. The book is a series of questions that prompt you to share the information essential for your children and grandchildren to know more about their heritage. The questions are arranged in chronological order from childhood and adolescence to marriage and retirement. You'll also find pages to list your parents' and grand- parents' names so your grandchildren will know even more about who they are and where they came from. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=20529&key=P3820 * * * GENEALOGY ONLINE TRAINING COURSES (each $29.95 USD). Sign up for November classes in Eastern Europe Intermediate Research, Jewish Internet Research, Scottish Research, Irish Research, Northeastern U.S. Research, Writing My Family History/Newsletter Class, and Genealogical Research on the Internet. Details and sign up at: http://classes.myfamily.com/ ====================== End Advertisements ============================== 3. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ---------------------------------------------- SHARING OPPORTUNITY. Does your alma mater, old military unit, church, parish, province, county or state 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 genealogy) 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 such material. 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 Hope. Pioneer Cemetery; 11 records; Hope-Sunrise. Point Comfort Cemetery; 17 records; Port Graham. Mid Village Cemetery; 4 records; Port Graham. Norman Cemetery; 2 records; Port Graham. Port Graham Cemetery; 81 records; Port Graham. West Port Graham Cemetery; 13 records; Seward. Oddfellows Cemetery; 37 records; Seward. Pioneers of Alaska Cemetery; 152 records Soldotna. Robinson Cemetery; 11 records; Totem Tracers Genealogical Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ ILLINOIS. Sangamon County. Springfield. Cathedral Boys High School Class of 1957; 72 records; John Petterchak. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ 4. 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 GERMANS FROM RUSSIA. History of some German families from the Catholic Colonies near Odessa, South Russia. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~odcolonies/ PENNSYLVANIA. Armstrong County. Histories, obituaries, pictures and articles about Rural Valley and nearby towns in Cowanshannock Township. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sarakay/rural%20valley%20history/ TAYLOR. Taylors of Ongar [England] and others -- a well-known 19th- century English literary and artistic family. http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~taylorsofongar/ TODD. The Todd Family DNA Project seeks to use DNA analysis to enable Todd families to determine if they share a common ancestor with other Todd lines. Includes variant spellings of: TODD, TOD, TODDS, TODDE, TODE, TOAD, and TOOD. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cherietree/ToddFamily/todddnaprojectpages.htm 5. New 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] AUSTRALIA ausmdhs -- Mildura and District Historical Society (Victoria) CANADA cancmhs -- Canadian Methodist Historical Society (Ontario) U.S.A. aljackso -- Jackson County (Alabama) azfmcdar -- Fort Mohave (Arizona) Chapter DAR caercdar -- El Redondo (California) Chapter DAR mnsscdar -- Sarah Sibley (Minnesota) Chapter DAR mojkcusd -- James Kearney (Missouri) Chapter USD 1812 mtdaniel -- Daniels County (Montana) okcocogs -- Cotton County (Oklahoma) Genealogical Society txdrtd2 -- Daughters of the Republic of Texas, District II DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution * * * 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/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS CUTSHALL KNESAL POSNETT TIEFENBACH VANDERVATE NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS NE-DCHS -- NEBRASKA. Denton Community, Lancaster County. 6. 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chilling Experience in France By Andy McAuliffe in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (grandson-in-law to Theresa (HALLER) LITSCHGY) With the approach of Halloween, I thought the following might bring chills to your spine. During the summer following the death of Theresa (HALLER) LITSCHGY in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on 17 December 1957, two of her daughters, Marie and Alice, visited her home town in Alsace-Lorraine (Germany) now France. They were welcomed at the family home by members of the family. When hearing the story of Theresa's death, the family looked at each other in amazement. One night before the previous Christmas they had been sitting around talking when a knock came to the front door. When answering the door, they found no one there. The same thing happened with again no one in sight. The father walked outside to see if someone was hiding around the corner -- to no avail. A little later the knocking resumed, seeming to come from the back of the house. The father walked around the house but no one was there. The knocking resumed later at a back bedroom window. The father checked to see if a tree limb was rattling on the window pane, but none was close enough. They heard no more knocking after that. The date they remembered was December 17 and the bedroom was the one in which Theresa HALLER had been born. * * * Ghost Hunting in North Carolina By Donna Gore Last week Ken and I were vacationing in Lake Lure, North Carolina. I wanted to go to the Scottish Museum/Gift Shop in Franklin, so I was looking at the map to see how far it was. To my surprise I noticed the little town of Edneyville only just around the corner. I remembered this from some genealogical research as the home of our ancestors through our great grandmother, Mary Kiefer EDNEY. So, of course, I had to check it out. After we left Lake Lure, we headed up U.S. Highway 64 toward Edneyville, which was only a few miles away. I noticed a road on the left called EDNEY Inn Road. A little further we passed an apple stand where a couple was working. We pulled in and I explained to them that I was an EDNEY descendant and wanted to look for the graves of my ancestors. I asked them if they knew where any of the cemeteries were in Edneyville. The wife mentioned that there was a cemetery on some property that her husband owned. I asked him if he recalled the names on the graves, were any people named EDNEY buried there? He shook his head and said, "No I don't think so." The wife suggested we stop at the Edneyville Public Library and told us exactly where it was. At the library were several books on area history. The town of Edneyville was founded by two brothers named Asa and Samuel -- I recognized those names from my family tree. This family was mentioned in several of the books, so I copied those pages. I asked the librarian if they had a cemetery listing. She said no, but she called the library at the nearby larger town of Hendersonville. Hendersonville had a cemetery reference book for the area. We went there and asked the reference room attendant for the book. To my delight there were probably at least a hundred EDNEYs listed. I looked for the names that were familiar to me -- Asa, Samuel, Calvin, Robert, William, Millard -- and found some of them. The index gave the person's name, years of birth and death, and the page # in the book for their cemetery index. Flipping back to those pages I got the name and location of each cemetery. I wrote down the info for four different cemeteries. I really wanted to find Asa EDNEY's grave. Apparently he was a business entrepreneur and local politician. According to the reference book, Asa was buried in the EDNEY family cemetery, which was on the corner of EDNEY Inn Road and Highway 64. I remembered passing that road and reading in one of the books that the EDNEYs had owned an inn there, which was a favorite resting place and watering hole for the locals. We got in the car and headed back through Edneyville. We stopped at one cemetery which we found easily and saw the grave of Calvin Jones EDNEY. We were looking for another road called Bearwallow Road, which led to the cemetery where Samuel was buried. Unfortunately, we couldn't find that road. We drove on until we got back to EDNEY Inn Road. We parked the car on the side of the road and got out. We walked around but we didn't see any cemetery. We just saw houses and woods. On one side of the street the trees had been razed to make way for something. I said "Surely they didn't dig up the cemetery!" and Ken said, "I dunno, it probably wouldn't be the first time a cemetery had been relocated." We walked all up and down the area where the two roads meet and we didn't see any graves at all. We got back in the car and started driving around the neighborhood. There were some fairly new and some very old houses. Ken said "Why don't you knock on a door and ask someone?" I wasn't really comfortable with that. I had visions of a crazed person running after me with a shotgun. We drove down this one gravel road where there was a house at the end of it where a woman sat on the front porch with her two poodles. She waved at us as we drove past. Then I said, "OK, this lady is friendly, let's stop and I'll talk to her." I showed her the notes I had copied from the library book that said the EDNEY family cemetery was located Highway 64 and EDNEY Inn Road. "But there's no cemetery here," I said. "There IS a cemetery," the woman replied. "Well where IS it??" "Did you see the first house on the right, the one on the hill?" she asked. I replied yes. "It's behind that house, in the woods. There's an old graveyard in the woods behind the fence. That house is a rental property -- I don't think there's anyone living in it now." (I wondered if this was the property the apple lady had talked about.) We said goodbye and the woman wished us luck. We drove back down the road and up the driveway of the house on the hill. We knocked and knocked on the door but nobody answered. We made our way around back behind the fence. Behind the metal fence was another fence made of wood which encircled something (what I don't know). I had forgotten my camera so I ran back to the car to get it. When I got back to where Ken was, just up ahead, I heard him say, "We've been looking for you!" I caught up with him and there in the middle of the woods was a grave. It was Asa EDNEY's grave. Ken said, "There are lots more graves over there," and pointed further into the woods. There were all the EDNEYs. Some of the tombstones were so worn smooth that you couldn't read them. But there were also some graves as recent as the early 1900s. I was really excited and took some pictures, though you can't really tell much. Like I said, the tombstones were worn smooth, and some of them were covered with lichens. It was kind of sad because the graveyard was totally overgrown and unkempt. Someone had been there and had placed a Confederate flag on the grave of a Civil War soldier. Even though I was happy and excited to find my old family burial ground, the fact that it was deep in the woods and completely overgrown must have creeped me out -- deep down in my subconscious. I ended up having nightmares that night. I vaguely remember dreaming about ghosts and Ken said I was whimpering in my sleep. There is not a superstitious bone in my body, and I certainly don't believe in ghosts. But even if there were ghosts, they would have been friendly ghosts because they would have been those of my own ancestors. So why would I be afraid of them? Who knows what kinds of fears run deep in the subconscious? * * * Dropping and Finding H's By Bill Andersen My great-uncle Asel was the family "character." His name was the subject of an often-told story. Asel was raised in a multi-ethnic neighborhood and reportedly did not have a lot of book smarts. One day he was walking to school and some German children saw him approaching and remarked, "Here comes Georgie, the 'dumm esel.'" A nickname for George was born and stayed with him throughout his life. This story has survived as gospel truth about the origin of his name through four generations. Asel's father was a Cornish immigrant, who dropped his H's. When I obtained a copy of Asel's baptismal record, I discovered that his given names were George Hazel. I may have uncovered the true origin of his name, but I think the other story will probably survive for many more generations. 7. Humor/Humour: Aging Is Goal -------------------------------- Thanks to John Irving in Scotland We in the West of Scotland seem to have the lowest level for life expectancy in the developed world. Which is why, when asked the question "What do you want to die of?" our most common reply for years has been -- "old age!" * * * "All would live long, but none would be old"--Benjamin Franklin: * * * Found a humorous sign or entry in census, parish, church, etc. records? Send to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 8. 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: 26 October 2005, Vol. 8, No. 43. * * * *