RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 9 November 2005, Vol. 8, No. 45 (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: Check here for announcements: 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: SSDI Updated Family Health History Technical Problems Veterans' Day Some Sites Worth Seeing 1b. Tips from Readers: "Create A Back-up Team" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "Our Ancestors' Roles in War and Peace" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Picturing Great-Great-Grandpa" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Who Talks Funny?" "Using Subject Lines Correctly" "Sign in a Cemetery" "Accentuating Regional English Accents" "Grief-stricken Give Incorrect Information" 7. Humor/Humour: "In the Gaolhouse Now" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: SSDI Updated Family Health History Technical Problems Veterans' Day Some Sites Worth Seeing SSDI UPDATED. RootsWeb offers access to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), which includes records through September 2005. This free database contains several important bits of information on the more 76,057,145 persons whose deaths are on file with the U.S.'s Social Security Administration (SSA), including: social security number, date of issuance, state of issuance, date of birth, date of death, and last address of record. The SSDI is created from the SSA's Death Master File. It is a database of people whose deaths were reported to the SSA beginning about 1962. The SSA Death Master File and SSDI are used by leading U.S. government, financial, investigative, credit-reporting organization, medical research, and other industries to verify identity as well as to prevent fraud -- and to comply with the U.S. Patriot Act. http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson10.htm * * * FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY. November is Family Health History month in the U.S. and Thanksgiving (November 24) has been designated as National Family History Day. Families are encouraged to discuss family history and illnesses and conditions that are prevalent among family members at family gatherings -- and to record that information. Health care professionals have known for a long time that common diseases -- heart disease, cancer, and diabetes -- and even rare diseases -- like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia -- can run in families. Tracing the illnesses suffered by your parents, grandparents, and other blood relatives can help your doctor predict the disorders to which you may be at risk and take action to keep you and your family healthy. Most genealogy software programs, such as Family Tree Maker (FTM), have places to enter medical history information and reports that will display that information as well. Take a few minutes and talk with your family about health history and record it for future generations. For more information see: http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/ * * * TECHNICAL PROBLEMS. RootsWeb recently experienced some hardware problems with the freepages server and WorldConnect. Thank you for your patience. Before reporting or asking the HelpDesk about such matters, always consult the announcement box that is located at: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ * * * VETERANS' DAY. In 1918 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of November an armistice between the Allies and Germany was implemented to end World War I (WWI). This holiday is known as Remembrance Day in other parts of the world. Ancestry.com announces completion of the WWI Draft Registration Card Collection, which contains about 24 million names. These cards are particularly useful because they represent everyone that registered for the draft, including many that never served in the military. The collection does not include all active military during this period, but 98 percent of men under the age of 46 in the U.S. completed a registration card in 1917 and 1918. These cards often provide: Full name; home address, date and place of birth; age, race, and country of citizenship; occupation and employer, and physical description (hair and eye color, height, any disabilities). Other information that might be included is address of nearest or dependent relatives, marital status, father's birthplace, or previous exemption from military service, and their signature. Subscribers to Ancestry.com will be able to access these valuable genealogical records. If you have an ancestor or relative who was between the ages of 18 and 45 from 1917 to 1918 (born ca 1872-1900) you may be able to find him in this database. http://www.ancestry.com/ * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: AUSTRALIA: Remembrance Day http://www.dva.gov.au/commem/rememb/Rem_day.htm http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/remembrance/ CANADA: Remembrance Day http://canada.kos.net/remembrance.html NEW ZEALAND: Poppy Day http://www.rsa.org.nz/remem/poppy_hist.html UNITED KINGDOM: World War I and Remembrance Day http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/history/index.shtml USA: History of Veterans' Day http://www.historychannel.com/veteransday/ * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS Create A Back-up Team By Susan Buce http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~buce/ Lila Rose's article about "Safeguarding Family Treasures" (RootsWeb Review, 12 October) called to mind an incident I was involved with two summers ago. My friend is an avid genealogist, and has also inherited a number of things from both her mother and her mother-in-law. Some of her items are valuable heirlooms, others are just bric-a-brac, but all have a sentimental place in her heart. She always gives her friends and family "the tour" to show us the new and interesting things she has added to her collection. It was a summer week and my friend and her husband had been looking forward to a few days of vacation time. They hopped in the car on a Thursday morning and left town, headed out for a five-day rafting trip. None of us realized that a small lightning-caused wildfire 13 miles away, was about to blow up into a huge conflagration. By Thursday evening the fire had spread to hundreds of acres and had burnt up over the ridge, headed right for their house. Those of us who realized the danger went to their house and began to evacuate their belongings. We left things like the TV set and stereo behind --insurance would replace those items. Because my friend had always made a practice of pointing out the things that had sentimental value, we knew exactly what to rescue: the misshapen clay pot her son had made in school, the Christmas-tree ornaments, the anniversary gift vase, along with the genealogy notes, photos, treasured items and family heirlooms. Five of us, within an hour, managed to pack everything up and stuff it in our cars. Thanks to 800 firefighters over a five-day period, the wildfire was brought under control and no one lost their house, although it was a close call. By Monday, the heavy smoke which a few days ago had made it impossible to see beyond the backyard, had finally cleared away. When my friends returned there was little evidence, beyond a house stripped of sentimental keepsakes, to show them the chaos that had taken place during their absence. They couldn't get over the fact that we had only missed rescuing two items of any sentimental value; both had been deliberately "hidden" in case someone broke in. They were thankful we managed to do such a thorough job. We would never have been able to locate it all, if we hadn't been given "the tour" from time to time. One way to safeguard your family treasures is to make sure your friends and family know which things you value and where to find them. Not many people consider, "What would happen if someone, other than I, had to suddenly evacuate my home during an emergency?" Everyone should have a "back-up" team who knows you well enough to help salvage your treasures in the event that you can't be home during an emergency. * * * Do you have a tip to share with other researchers? Send them to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Our Ancestors' Roles in War and Peace Like many of us, Randy WRIGHT wishes he had paid more attention in history class in school. He is now older, wiser, and recently retired. Randy is putting together his family history, something he has always wanted to do but until now, never found the time. As he compiled information, he realized for the first time that history doesn't merely touch on the lives of famous people. He never considered that average folks -- his family members and ancestors included -- lived through, and participated in, the events that are recorded in our history books. Much of this new-found interest in history is due to Randy learning that many of his family members were veterans of military service in times of war. Randy knew his deceased father fought in World War II, but he never talked much about it with his family. There were a few family heirlooms that he had come across when beginning his genealogy research project from his father's Army years. Randy wanted to know more about all of his ancestors' experiences in the various wars during which they served. As Randy learned added details for his family tree and worked his way back generation to generation, he learned that his great-great-grandfather had served in the American Civil War and that this ancestor's sister had served as a nurse during this war. Randy had two goals -- he wanted to learn all he could about the effects of the wars and military service on his ancestors and their families, and he also wanted to learn more about what life must have been like for them during those difficult times, and the hardships and sacrifices they faced. What would it have been like to have been in their shoes during these events that shaped history? Randy used RootsWeb resources while researching his family history and decided to see if there might also be more specific military information available there. He started out by reading the RootsWeb Guides No. 13 (Military Records--worldwide) and No. 14 (Military Records--U.S.) at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson13.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson14.htm Next Randy began checking the index of mailing lists. Under the Other category he found several links to American and International Military lists. He found many lists for the American Civil War here: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Military:_US_Civil_War/ He even found a list called CIVIL-WAR-WOMEN which would include discussion of women like his relative who served as nurses during the war. Randy learned that before subscribing to any of these free lists he could read prior discussion that has already taken place on the lists by clicking on the link to the individual lists in the index and then on the browseable archives link. Military topic message boards are located here: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.Military The boards can be browsed and searched and Randy can also post a new query or even add data, such as pension information, for his ancestors on the appropriate board. If Randy finds prior discussion on topics he either wants to know more about or has additional information on, he may also decide to post a reply to a previous message. These boards are categorized primarily by war and country with individual boards for a wide variety of subjects including branches of military service such as the Army and the Merchant Marines. An every- word search as well as advanced searches may be made either for all boards within the military topic boards from the above page or for a specific board from that board itself. Surname searches are also enabled on the boards. Next, Randy found the RootsWeb User-contributed Databases. The military master database may be searched starting here: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ Randy has to type in a surname (last name) to search but he can select from an exact match, a match of the beginning letters of the surname (he must enter at least the first three letters -- wild cards are not used, he can just enter the letters) and a "sounds like" match (Soundex). He may also narrow down searches by listing a given name (optional) and/or a war (optional). A list of all military databases that have been contributed, included in the above search of the master military database can be found here (click on Military Records): http://userdb.rootsweb.com/regional.html These user-contributed records are as diverse as some World War I and World War II rosters, ships' crew listings, lists of soldiers in various training classes, and lists of some who were killed in various battles. In addition, there is a separate POW-MIA master database searchable from this site: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/pow_mia/ Randy will need to follow through by posting, subscribing, searching, and browsing using the above resources, but he feels he is on the right road to finding his WRIGHTs and appreciating the times and events that shaped their military lives. Perhaps this Veterans' Day you'd like to start learning more about your ancestors' roles in the military. 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Picturing Great-Great-Grandpa By Penny McCracken I was never intending to be a genealogist, not even an amateur one. I am a third-generation only child. But, I am also a technical illustrator/ graphic artist/perfectionist. So, of course, all the pictures I have from both my mother and paternal grandmother had to be in chronological order. It took five years, and careful filing, to get all the pictures in order. Sometimes, I had to guess the date of the picture by the fashions on the women therein. Then I was contacted by a third or fourth cousin I didn't know I had. Our great-grandfathers were brothers. They had hit the big red brick wall of death and I had one tiny piece of information that unraveled like a Gordian knot cut by a sword. Suddenly, I had cousins all over the place. Even better, one of them sent me a picture of my great-great-grandfather as a young man; I had a picture that no one had seen of him as an old man. For a time, that spurred quite a lively discussion. People felt there was no way the handsome young man could have turned into that battered-looking old man. But he was a farmer, born in the late 1700s. A life of brutal hard work could have done that to him. Then I noticed that the jacket in the photo was the same. A farmer, never wealthy, who probably owned one dress jacket his whole life. It was the same man. Great fun! And fun being an amateur sleuth. ======================== Advertisement ============================ SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP February 12-17, 2006 Enjoy the ideal genealogy vacation -- spend a whole week at the Family History Library, accessing the world's largest collection of genealogical records with help and advice from accredited genealogist professionals. Opening social, theater trip, and more! "Thank you all for such a wonderful experience" -- (Marsha, Iowa) 10% early registration discount ends November 30! Call toll free at 877-896-0974 (9-6 MST) or visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/awn/ ====================== End Advertisement ============================== 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. U.S.A. Census: DARNELLs in 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820 censuses; 316 records; Missi Darnell http://userdb.rootsweb.com/census/index/ MASSACHUSETTS. Hampshire County. Haydenville. High Street Cemetery Records; 929 records; transcribed by Robert P. Emrick (1950), copied and submitted by his niece http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ SOUTH DAKOTA. Hyde County. Eden Township. Bohemian National Cemetery; 159 records; Ronette S. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ VIRGINIA. Henrico County. The Old Dominion Nurses, 1903; 8 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ 4. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- CROWLEY, CROLEY, CRAWLEY DNA PROJECT. A site for submitting and comparing DNA results. The project is linked to Croley-L@rootsweb.com All CROWLEY and variant surname descendants are invited. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scismfam/crowley/ GARCIA. GARCIA DE TAOS. In searching for his ancestors -- Bicente GARCIA and Maria Juliana ROMERO of the Taos Valley in New Mexico, the author has found additional GARCIAs. Other surnames are: ARMIJO, ENCINIAS, FRESQUEZ, LOPEZ, LUCERO, MARTINEZ, PERALTA, ROMERO, ROYBAL, SERNA, SILVA, and SPRADLING. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mgg1122/Garciadetaos.htm GIRLING OF NEW ZEALAND. Surnames include GIRLING, MALLARD, VICKERY, KIRTON ALLAN and EVA. The site contains 455 individuals and 114 surnames -- mostly from the north island and Canterbury New Zealand. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~girlingnz/index.htm HESSBROOK/HESBROOK FAMILIES IN AMERICA. Surnames include: HESSBROOK, HESBROOK, MARTINEZ, HERNANDEZ, FALCON, TORRES, MARTINEZ, NETZLEY, LOFTON, OCHOA, DOLAN, BROWN, FISK, OLSEN, SANCHEZ, and AUSTIN. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dtxn/hesbrook.html MARSHALL FAMILY DNA PROJECT. This is a DNA surname project for MARSHALL families, dedicated to breaking down brickwalls and bringing long lost cousins together. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~marshalldna/MarshallDNA1/ NEW YORK. Jefferson County. "Thelma Moye's Home Page." Includes genealogy and history articles from old scrapbooks. Surnames include DICKINSON, VINCENT, HOLLIDAY/HALLIDAY, BAMFORD, WHITING, ROSS, COLLINS, DIXON, HOWARD, BEMIS, MOYE, and SHIRAH. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tmoye11444/ TENNESSEE. Maury County. If you have ancestors from this Middle Tennessee locality, take a look at this site's outstanding collection of cemeteries (including many photographs) and excellent article on "About Cemetery Restoration in Old Cemeteries." The site also includes the county's school records and history project, with such valuable data as the 1838 census index of the scholastic population of the county and biographies of early Maury County school students and staff. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~maury/cemetery/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~maury/ WALKER OF EAST SUFFOLK. Birth, marriage, burial and census information for all WALKERs born or passing through Suffolk. Also SCOTT and ALDEN. Wickham Market, Suffolk. Complete 1841 and 1861 census indexes, extracts from the local paper and more. NEWMAN and KINGSTON of Ireland and Ontario; PANTER of Northamptonshire; LOCKTON and LOVITT of Linconshire and Leicestershire. 1720 Historical Register listing causes of death, such as purples, Saint Anthony's fire, tissick, horse-shoe head, planet struck and other weird and wonderful things. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tiber/ WORLD WAR II. A website dedicated to the men who were killed on 7 February 1943 when the USS Henry Mallory was torpedoed by a German U- Boat in the Mid-Atlantic while en route to Iceland. http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~cacunithistories/hr_mallory.htm * * * 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 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] CANADA canwarne -- Warner County, Alberta canwillo -- Willow Creek, Alberta 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Who Talks Funny? By Joann Rickenbach I was born in Rhode Island as was my father and his family. I lived there until I was five years old. So I learned to speak "New England" -- dropping R's and putting them at the end of words. My mother was born in Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- Pennsylvania Dutch country. If you have had the pleasure of visiting the Amish you know they speak different, such as "Outen the light" or Pa hasn't et yet. It wasn't until I started school that I realized I talked funny. * * * Using Subject Lines Correctly By Susan C. Hopkins in Urbana, Illinois, USA A follow-up to Peter Savage's Nov. 2 tip on cold contact e-mails being filtered out deserves an addition. We should all look at the subject line to see if it looks like one that is genealogy related. And, vice versa, it would help the contact at the other end if we create good subject lines. To me it looks like one version of the Nigerian scam when only a surname is in the subject line, especially if it is not a major name in my work. I've posted multiple trees and multiple notes on message boards over time and I don't recall all the surnames let alone what tree they are from. Just received one last week with the subject line "Poethig." I was tired and I almost pressed the delete key. It turned out to be a response to a three-year-old message board posting when I was looking to return a book to someone related to the author. The name wasn't even in one of my trees -- almost didn't open it. So, one strategy to get an e-mail message read by someone you've never corresponded with before -- put GENEALOGY plus more info in the subject line to catch their attention. * * * Sign in a Cemetery By Wally Caviness After visiting and taking pictures of the tombstones of my grandmother, her son, and her parents in the Shiloh Cemetery, 10 miles southwest of Mammoth Spring, Fulton County, Arkansas, my wife and I started walking back to the car. The sky was partly cloudy with no wind. All of a sudden, a very strong gust of wind came up and blew my cowboy hat off sending it back toward the graves. Then the wind quit. My wife said, "That must be a sign that they appreciate us coming!" She told me later, that while taking a picture of me standing with my hand on my grandmother's tombstone, she was thinking and wondering if dead people can still communicate. * * * Accentuating Regional English Accents By Christine Buckley Other accents in England also have problems with initial "h," as in Cockney. Here in the Midlands, for example, a researcher I know looked for years for a man with the surname ANSON -- to find him under HANSON. Worcester: The English pronunciation of the name is closer to Boston's "Wuhstuh" than "Worster." A respectable standard accent turns vowels in unstressed syllables to an indeterminate "uh" and we lazy Midlanders often fail to make the first, stressed syllable of Worcester much different. We take little notice of "r" at the end of words, generally, and as final syllables are usually unstressed, -er comes out as -uh. Name pronunciation is a nightmare. Locally, we have a surname that's sometimes spelt FULLWOOD, sometimes (phonetically) FULLARD. Someone researching a family in south Warwickshire ("Warrikshuh") spent ages looking for Darscot, until I told her it's local way of saying Darlingscott. There are no doubt many other examples, but the most confusing place name I know is Ratlinghope (Salop) -- Rachup. * * * Grief-stricken Give Incorrect Information By Frances Willess With reference to Odessa Elliott's letter about her grandmother giving wrong information on a death certificate, it could probably be because of shock at the death of a family member. My father-in-law's mother died when he was small, shortly after the birth of his youngest brother, Doyle. His father remarried two years later and their stepmother raised the seven boys. The family seldom discussed their family history. When my father-in-law died and my husband and his uncle Doyle were giving information for the death certificate within an hour of his death, they were both still in shock. They gave the name of the stepmother as the mother. I had not been in the family very long, but knew that she was not the birth mother. None of us could remember the mother's name, and the death certificate showed the mother as "Unknown." Almost 40 years later I insisted on my mother-in-law having the death certificate corrected to show the name of his mother. She had to furnish a copy of the old family Bible to get it corrected, which became a part of the record. 7. Humor/Humour: In the Gaolhouse Now ------------------------------------------------ Thanks to: Gilbert Rattenbury In the 1841 census for Bradninch in Devon, UK there's one piece, HO_107_224_6, that was specially reserved to record the inmates of the borough gaol. The only person reported in the entire schedule was: Thomas Jacob, 55, occupation -- keeper. The Public Record Office reported all other folios were blank. The statistical total of one person in the account was duly certified by the Superintendent Registrar "that no inaccuracies have been discovered therein." * * * 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: 9 November 2005, Vol. 8, No. 45. * * * *