RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 23 November 2005, Vol. 8, No. 47 (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/ =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: Finding West Virginia Vitals Online Some Sites Worth Seeing This Week: "The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony: 1620" "Mayflower Passenger List" "Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its History and People" 1b. Tips from Readers: "English Dialects Challenge to Genealogists" "Separating Your E-mail" "Prepared!" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "Thanksgiving with RootsWeb and the Pilgrims" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Some Angelic Assistance" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Rolling the R's" "Visiting Cemeteries" "Adding Years to Join Up" 7. Humor/Humour: "Dollarhide's Rules for Genealogy" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: FINDING WEST VIRGINIA VITALS ONLINE Searching for those elusive West Virginia ancestors may now be just a mouse click away. You can now search and view scanned images of original birth, death, and marriage records from six counties, as well as most statewide death certificates from 1917-54 at http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/ The free database consists of millions of West Virginia births, deaths, and marriages--a goldmine for genealogists and historians. FamilySearch Archive has scanned and indexed these records and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History is hosting them online. The database has more than 3.5 million names linked to 1.4 million original images of birth, marriage, and death records from Calhoun, Gilmer, Hardy, Harrison, Mineral, and Pendleton counties. The record dates vary by county and type of record, but typically range from 1816 to 1929. Birth records are for the period 1853-1930, county death records for 1853-1969/1970, and county marriage records from the creation of the county until the late 1960s -- all of which are searchable by name, county, and date. FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org/) -- a nonprofit entity -- filmed, scanned, and created the automatic index at the heart of the online database. The project required 2,500 volunteers and 64,000 hours to complete. West Virginia plans to add records from additional counties in the future. * * * SITES WORTH SEEING THIS WEEK: The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony: 1620. A study guide for use by teachers, students and anyone interested in learning more about the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag friends. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/ Mayflower Passenger List http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/passengers.htm Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its History and People http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/ * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS English Dialects Challenge to Genealogists By Christine Buckley in the UK English accents fall into several broad groupings, depending on historical influences in the regions, and "received pronunciation." [A pronunciation of British English, originally based on the speech of the upper class of southeastern England and characteristic of the English spoken at the public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Until recently it was the standard form of English used in British broadcasting]. The latter doesn't belong exclusively to any one place and national broadcasting has reinforced its status. (Our distorted "posh" accent seems an aberration.) Dialect changes regularly began in London and moved up a language corridor, the physical route north -- Roman Watling Street, and later our A1 - and spread outwards. Physical barriers to movement, such as major rivers and hills, also affected the development of an area's dialect. Some rural and northern accents retain a clearer pronunciation of "r," also preserved by some north American accents, dating back to the pre- industrial age, because some changes never reached them. In industrial areas, accents changed faster. Different features were retained in different places, some predictably, some not. Where I now live, in the highly industrial Black Country part of the West Midlands region, the dialect still retains pretty much the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation of "you" and "your" -- "yow" and "yower." So there may be two current ways of saying place-names: local, and "received pronunciation." The educated version may be (unfairly?) regarded as "correct," but the local version may be more relevant to understanding old documents. Name forms in written records depend on who's writing them. This applies even, I'm afraid, to transcripts; the LDS' 1851 census CD for Warwick- shire, Devon and Norfolk, which is riddled with (to my eye) obvious errors, whether of reading or keying, because the transcriber didn't know the areas. (Of course, they weren't tempted to introduce "corrections" of their own, either.) Genealogy is an art rather than a science. * * * Separating Your E-mail By Howard Grisso in Medford, Oregon, USA There are many FREE e-mail sites on the Internet, pick one and use it exclusively for your genealogy-related e-mail. I use one that has a large amount of free space and I have a separate folder for each surname. When an e-mail arrives, I sort it to the right surname. It makes it very easy to keep track of e-mails and even easier to send copies to family members and fellow researchers. * * * Prepared! By Valeria Nichols I keep a copy of my complete genealogy on CD. The one in my car is in a small cooler that protects it from heat or cold and another copy is at my son's house. Of course, having one online [at WorldConnect] is another option. I have left directions that the copies should be given to the historical society and the other to our library if something happens to me. * * * Do you have a tip to share with other researchers? Send them to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Thanksgiving with RootsWeb and the Pilgrims Will WHITE and his large family gather every year for Thanksgiving Day at his parents' home -- a large Colonial house, which was at one time surrounded by farmland in Maryland. The house had been in Will's family for more than 100 years. Will did not have much interest in the family history that was discussed at the annual holiday feast because his attention was usually directed toward the television and the scores of his favorite football games. Last summer Will and his family went on a vacation trip to New England. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered hearing his father tell how the WHITEs had lived in New England before settling in Maryland and purchasing the farm where the last few generations of WHITE children had been reared. Will also remembered hearing his father say that the WHITEs had been in America "forever" or nearly so. Will had no idea how long "forever" was but after visiting Plymouth Colony and learning about the early Protestant Separatists, called Pilgrims, who arrived on the Mayflower and celebrated what has come to be known as the First Thanksgiving with the Indians of the Wampanoag tribe in 1621; Will decided to pay more attention this year, and to attempt to learn exactly when his family arrived in America and what their place in history might be. During a discussion over the turkey-and-all-the-trimmings dinner, Will learned that there were vague stories in the family claiming his ancestors were, indeed, passengers on the Mayflower in 1620. Aunt Hilda seemed to recall that one cousin, now deceased, supposedly had been a member of the Mayflower Society, which, if true, would add considerable weight to the family legend. Later Will searched the Internet to see if he could find any information about his WHITE family and whether or not it was descended from a Mayflower passenger. He found several genealogy sites and eventually made his way to the Mayflower message board at RootsWeb/Ancestry: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.organizations.mayflower On this board he browsed and searched for references to his WHITE family and posted a query asking if anyone had information on his ancestors. Will also found the MAYFLOWER mailing list at RootsWeb, located on this page (he had to scroll part way down the page to locate this mailing list): http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/misc/misc.html The mailing list, unlike the message board, required a subscription if Will wanted to post a query and receive its messages via e-mail. However, since the subscription is free and he can unsubscribe any time he wishes, Will decided to join. Next, Will found RootsWeb's huge WorldConnect family tree database (http://wc.rootsweb.com/) and tried using the keyword searchbox to locate family trees that included the word Mayflower in the title or header or footers. Sure enough, there were more than 50 databases with reference to The Mayflower and Mayflower descendants and some of them even included the surname WHITE! Will then realized he needed to gather as many personal family records as possible to be sure whether his WHITEs were the same WHITEs in Massachusetts in the 1600s who arrived on the Mayflower. And, he needed more details about his own line in order to study the family trees he had located and to make full use of the mailing list and message board. It looked like a genealogy feast to him! 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb. Thanks for sharing your stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Some Angelic Assistance By Kathie Sarchet I have always been interested in my family history. Two of my grandparents were deceased before I was even born and the other two died when I was just a small child. My parents didn't live near their siblings and weren't even particularly close to them; visiting them usually only once a year. I wasn't afforded the opportunity that many people have of growing up with relatives of all ages, experiencing family reunions and getting to know my extended family. About 1982 my sister-in-law, Donna SARCHET, began researching her family history and I was also bitten by the genealogy bug. Donna graciously shared her basic research knowledge with me and pointed me in the right direction. I read everything I could get my hands on, spent many hours at the library and corresponding with other researchers. Genealogy became my passion. During the past 25 years Donna and I have taken many research trips together, attended seminars and kept the long distance telephone companies in business discussing our latest find or research dilemma. Our husbands have been great sports about our mutual passion and it does help that they are brothers. They don't mind spending "brotherly guy time" together while we do "our genealogy thing". Two years ago Donna was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She tackled her disease the same way she tackled genealogy -- methodically and with gusto. She kept her sense of humor and optimism to the very end; she finally succumbed to the disease on July 4, 2005. We continued to discuss genealogy during Donna's illness and just a few short weeks prior to her untimely passing we had what I thought was going to be our final genealogical conversation. I wanted to make sure Donna knew how special she was to me; she was my sister-in-law, my friend, and my research partner. I also told Donna that I was envious that she would reach heaven before I did and she would get to solve her big genealogical dead end -- she would finally find out all she wanted to know about Mr. BROOKS. Every genealogist knows what I am talking about. You feel that you have checked every resource known to mankind and still can't solve your one big mystery, no matter how hard you try. Donna's dead end had been Mr. BROOKS and mine was Mr. ANDREWS. We didn't even know their first names. A smile crept to Donna's face and she replied, "I am not kidding, I am serious, don't think I haven't thought about that. I will finally be able to locate Mr. BROOKS." We both got a good laugh out of it and I then quipped to her that I would appreciate her finding Mary Elizabeth WHALEY ANDREWS BLEWETT (my Mr. ANDREWS' wife) and find out about my Mr. ANDREWS. Donna gave me another big smile and said she would be happy to do it! I even told Donna that if I did eventually find my elusive Mr. ANDREWS, after all this time, I would know that it was a heaven-sent sign from her. Just two weeks after Donna's death I woke up one morning with a start. I had been dreaming that Donna and I were discussing Mr. ANDREWS and she was telling me that I needed to check the Wise County, Texas tax rolls. After checking the Internet, I found that the Wise County, Texas tax rolls had been microfilmed and were housed at the University of North Texas in Denton. I had already planned a trip for later that week to visit my daughter who lives near Denton, so I decided to leave a little earlier than originally planned and stop in Denton to view the microfilm. After about 30 minutes of searching I came across an entry for F. M. ANDREWS in 1862 -- he owned $120 worth of miscellaneous property. Tears came to my eyes as I realized this was probably my elusive Mr. ANDREWS -- right where Donna had told me to look for him. He was the only ANDREWS entry in the whole county for the exact time period that I needed. I had been unable to locate my ANDREWS family in any state for the 1860 census and Mr. ANDREWS was supposedly killed in the Civil War. I continued checking the microfilm for at least 20 more years and found entries for the widow Mary Elizabeth ANDREWS, later on her second husband James Love BLEWETT and finally her sons. There is still much work to be done on uncovering the mystery of Mr. ANDREWS, but at least I am on my way. I thought when Donna passed away that our research trips and genealogy discussions were now a part of the past. I now realize that is not going to be the case, we are still sister-in-laws, friends, and research partners and Donna has taken on even a new role. She is now a genealogy angel! She did exactly what she promised and she did it in true Donna style -- promptly and with attention to detail. I am incredibly blessed to have her in my life and hopefully we will continue to pursue our mutual passion for many years. ======================== Advertisement ============================ 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/ ====================== End Advertisement ============================== 3. 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. Military Records: World War I Draft Registration --Locklin surname-USA; 141 records; Sarah Locklin Taylor http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ ALASKA. Kenai Peninsula Borough. Anchor Point. Anchor Point Area Memorials, 3 records; Chinitna Bay. West Side of Cook Inlet Memorials; 2 records; Cooper Landing. Cooper Landing Highway Memorials; 3 records; Funny River. Funny River Memorial Garden; 25 records; Homer. Homer Area Memorials; 3 records; Homer. Memorial Facility at Hickerson Memorial Cemetery; 33 records; Homer. Seafarer's Memorial Bricks; 126 records; Homer. Seafarer's Memorial; 63 records; Hope. Hope Area Memorials; 7 records; Kasilof. Johansen Cemetery; 4 records; Kasilof. Kasilof Area Memorials; 5 records; Kasilof. Osmar's Dock Cemetery; 2 records; Kenai. Kenai Area Memorials; 29 records; Kenai. Leif Hansen Memorial Park; 174 records; Nikiski. Nikiski Area Memorials; 27 records; Nikiski. Nikiski Senior Center Memorial Wall, Nikiski; 17 records; Ninilchik. American Legion Honor Wall; 38 records; Ninilchik. Ninilchik Area Burials; 2 records; Seldovia. Seldovia Area Memorials, 2 records; Seward. Seward Area Memorials; 16 records; Seward. Seward Tidal Wave Victims, 27 March 1964; 13 records; Soldotna. Damon Memorial; 3 records; Soldotna. Gaede Homestead Cemetery; 3 records Soldotna. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church Cemetery; 4 records; Soldotna. Soldotna Area Memorials, 3 records; Sterling. Sterling Area Memorials, 19 records; Totem Tracers Genealogical Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ * * * 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/ 4. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- BOUNTY MUTINEERS. Descendants of the "HMAV Bounty" mutineers who moved from Pitcairn Island to Norfolk Island in 1856. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sooty/pitcairntonorfolk.html ENGLAND. NEWSPAPERS. Updated with 21 newspapers added to the site from 1728-1813. Includes London (London Gazette 1728, Craftsman 1730, and St. James's Chronicle 1775), Worcestershire (Berrows 1762-1790), Sussex (Sussex Weekly Advertizer 1809), Northampton (Northampton Mercury 1794), Shropshire (Salopian 1813), Yorkshire (Leeds Intelligencer 1791). The Leeds Intelligencer is especially interesting, leading with a mention of Captain Vancouver. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dutillieul/index.html * * * 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] CHINA chnguang -- Guangdong ITALY itacampo -- Campobasso U.S.A. alfca -- Faunsdale Connection Association (Alabama) alwchgs -- Washington County Historical and Genealogical Society (Alabama) ksghstwn -- Kansas Ghost Towns masuffol -- Suffolk County (Massachusetts) nhmtcdar -- Matthew Thornton (New Hampshire) Chapter DAR okdac -- Daughters of the American Colonists (Oklahoma) vapfcdar -- Point of Fork (Virginia) Chapter DAR DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rolling the R's By Kay Ohana in Bigfork, Montana, USA I enjoyed the article by Christine Buckley regarding English accents. A number of years ago I was in England researching some of my family names, one of which is BERWICK. I knew this ancestor was from England of Scottish descent, so decided to try my luck in the town of Berwick- upon-Tweed" on the northern coast of England on the Scottish boarder. I got a kick out of the stationmaster while I was trying to determine the correct train to get there from Bristol. I pronounced the name, Burr-wick, with the stress on the "w." He pronounced it "Barre-ick" -- rolling that "r" in the back of his throat. He told me he wouldn't tell me which train to take until I learned to pronounce the word correctly, as he didn't want me to embarrass myself once I got there. He had fun teasing me and I still chuckle whenever I remember this incident. * * * Visiting Cemeteries By Bud Samuels When visiting cemeteries always take: 1. the gateway; 2. more subjects than you know; work a grid--16 or eight stones. The neighbors are often kin you don't know. Occasionally an interesting story is also found, Using the movie mode on digital cameras will give you results that can become stills. * * * Adding Years to Join Up By Lynda Horan Frances Willess' discovery reminded me that, during World War I, my husband's father, James Patrick HORAN, joined the Connaught Rangers of County Mayo, Ireland, by falsifying his birthdate -- adding two years and enlisting at age 16. On those British Army records, his birthdate shows 1898, not 1900, which was the true date. It could be that the information Frances' family had believed all along was correct. They just had an eager young patriot in the family who didn't want to be left behind. 7. Humor/Humour: Dollarhide's Rules for Genealogy ---------------------------------------------- Thanks to: William Dollarhide http://www.dollarhide.org/page_billw.htm "Always interview brothers and sisters together in the same room -- since they can't agree on anything about the family tree, it makes for great fun to see who throws the first punch." "It is a known fact that St. Peter checks all your Family Group Sheets for accuracy before you are allowed to enter the Pearly Gates." * * * 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 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. If the question pertains to something you have found on a RootsWeb site, please include the URL [that's the Web address; starts with http://]. http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/form1.html * * * 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: 23 November 2005, Vol. 8, No. 47. * * * *