RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 8 February 2006, Vol. 9, No. 6 (c) 1998-2006 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/ * * * ========================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS, NOTES, AND SOME SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: "Black History Month Highlights" "Truly Confusing Family History"; "Book Notes" Sites: "Illinois Civil War Soldiers"; "BBC TV" 1b. Tips from Readers: "Keep on Hunting" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "Mighty Family Trees Begin as Little Acorns" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Hiding in Hungary" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Builder Rescues Marriage Certificate" "Gallery of Ancestors' Images" "Rare or Common Happening?" "When Time Runs Out" 7. Humor/Humour: "Proper Name for the Job Department" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: Black History Month Highlights; Truly Confusing Family History; Sites; Book Notes February is officially recognized as Black History Month in the U.S. In celebration, Ancestry.com celebrates Black History Month by providing free access during this month to historical records detailing the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans. Some of the records available include: --Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, which show depositors' names and sometimes other personal information such as age, place of birth, and occupation. --Slave Narratives -- A collection of one-on-one interviews with more than 3,500 former slaves collected over a 10-year period from 1929 to 1939. The interviews, written exactly as they were dictated to preserve the spoken dialect of the former slave, are very rich in family history data and often identify ages, places of residence and birth, and names of spouses, children, siblings, and parents. --Slave Schedules -- Slaves were counted separately during the 1850 and 1860 U.S. censuses. In most instances the names of only the owners were recorded; individual slaves were not named but were simply numbered and can be distinguished only by age, sex, and color. --1870 U.S. Federal Census -- This is the first federal census to list African Americans by name. --World War I Draft Registration Cards -- In 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men, close to 25% of the total population of the United States, completed a World War I draft registration card. The cards contain more than just names and dates: they contain significant genealogical information such as birthplace, citizenship status, and information on the individual's nearest relative. If a person was of African descent, the bottom left corner was cut off of the registration card to make that distinction. http://www.ancestry.com/aahistory/ RootsWeb Guide to Tracing Family Trees (African American) http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson25.htm * * * TRULY CONFUSING FAMILY HISTORY. Jerry Ferrin, the Comanche County, Kansas webmaster (http://www.rootsweb.com/~kscomanc/), wrote earlier about the skepticism family historians must feel when reading about a family whose three sons were all born on the same day of different years. After the article about the family was mentioned in the RootsWeb Review, he received the following: "I just read your post in the RootsWeb Review. It reminded me of a story a co-worker told me. Her grandparents were immigrants and did not speak English well. They celebrated all their kids' birthdays on the same day of the month -- the day her grandfather got paid. None of the kids knew when their real birthday was." The story is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~kscomanc/purkey_bros.html * * * BOOK NOTES: Has your genealogical or historical society published local records recently that might be of interest to RootsWeb Review readers? Send particulars to Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com for possible inclusion in our public service Book Notes section. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: ILLINOIS CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS. Tom Pearson, the reference librarian at the Saint Louis (Missouri) Public Library writes that the descriptive rosters for Illinois Civil War soldiers are now available on the Illinois State Archives website. It is possible to copy and paste the information provided there into your own publications or files. http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html BBC. The BBC TV programme "Who Do You Think You Are" is currently in its second series and according to RootsWeb Review reader, Richard May in Suffolk, it is getting better as it goes. "The featured celebs are mainly of UK interest, but some have made it over the pond. Even if you didn't know of them, you couldn't fail to be interested in the research and moved by the results. It's the best thing on TV," he says. Follow this link to find out more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/wdytya_celeb_gallery.shtml * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Keep on Hunting By Bob Roland in Amarillo, Texas, USA I looked for a long time for my grandfather -- Ernest Victor ROLAND, born 1879 in Pennsylvania, For the 1930 census I tried all of the forms of the spelling of his name, but no results. Using Map Quest and knowing their residence in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1930, I made a detailed map of the area. I was then able to go to the enumeration districts and determine from what street to what street the areas were in that district. I then went through the census for that district line at a time. To my surprise I found the family listed with the last name VICTOR. The recorder had completely dropped Roland, so my grandfather became Ernest VICTOR and my father became Charles VICTOR. I continue the search as he does not show up in any searches for the 1910 census when he was in Pennsylvania and the year he got married. I searched the entire county where I thought he lived but he was not there. Such is the fun of this hobby. Win some, loose some, but keep on the hunt. * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Mighty Family Trees Begin as Little Acorns Ned NEWBY is still wet behind the ears when it comes to researching his family history. He "got the bug," as he puts it, after listening to grandaunt Martha's stories when the family got together over the past holiday season. She claimed her grandfather had run off and joined the French Foreign Legion and left her grandmother to raise nine children on her own. She talked about her grandma working in a cigar factory and the older children pitching in at home to care for the younger ones, including Ned's great-grandfather -- the baby of the family. Ned made note of everything his grandaunt told him and then began asking questions of elderly family members representing other branches of the family tree. None of the information he received from other relatives was as exciting or exotic as what his grandaunt related to him, but it was all quite interesting to Ned. When he had written down all the information, Ned went online and downloaded a free family tree program for his computer and began inputting the names, dates, and places he'd found in the old family Bibles, which came to light as a result of Ned's persistent questions. Family safes were unlocked and baptismal and marriage certificates were produced, which added to the data and notes that Ned was inputting into his genealogy program. In searching the Internet, Ned had found several places where others had uploaded their family trees -- such as WorldConnect at RootsWeb (http://wc.rootsweb.com). Ned figured that he'd wait until his family tree was more complete before deciding whether to add it to vast database at WorldConnect. His tree consisted of fewer than 100 names and he noticed that many of the trees at WorldConnect contained many generations and thousands of names. Besides Ned wanted to be sure that his family tree data was perfect and contained no errors before he uploaded it and put it on public display. Ned found at WorldConnect a couple trees, which included names that appeared to tie in with his family, and he quickly dashed off e-mails to the submitters of those trees, Alice ADDISON and Glenda GAINES. He learned from the replies from both Alice and Glenda that it wasn't all that long ago that they were at the stage of their research where Ned is today. They both encouraged Ned to go ahead and submit his tree in GEDCOM format to WorldConnect now and not to wait until the tree is "completed" or "perfect." Glenda pointed out that no tree is ever "perfect" and you continually learn new information that might change the conclusions you reached yesterday. Genealogical research requires an open mind and judicious review of all new information that comes your way. Putting your family tree research before the public allows others to help you make any needed corrections. Alice reminded Ned that no family tree is ever "complete." And that placing his small tree online could be the very impetus needed for cousins to find him who would be willing to share information for their branches of the family and quite possibly be in a position to provide additional generations to what Ned has already learned from his family. In the end, Ned decides there is no shame in posting a small family tree in the hopes of growing it and correcting it as needed in the future. He learned that editing and updating his family tree at WorldConnect is easy. He merely has to create an updated GEDCOM on his computer with the new information included. Then, using the original user code and password, he can return to the WorldConnect Set-up page, type in, or browse to, the location of the new GEDCOM on his computer and upload the new file, which will automatically replace the old one. Ned realizes that putting the data online at WorldConnect now might just hasten the growth process for his puny tree as it had for the ADDISON and GAINES lines. Like the mighty oak, Ned hopes his tree will grow and branch out from the tiny acorn he is planting. * * * * * * * * * * 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 of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Hiding in Hungary By Janet Kozlay Hungarian genealogy presents some unique challenges, not the least of which is their propensity to change their names. Breaking through these brick walls in my search for my husband's ancestors has been a long and frustrating experience. Great-grandfather Jen KOZLAY, who immigrated in 1850, was nowhere to be found in Hungary except in his military record when he participated in the 1848-49 War of Liberation against Austrian rule. His diaries, which my husband had inherited, told us what villages he had lived in, but not a trace of anyone with that name could be found in any of them. Fortunately we also had his mother's name (Susanna RUTTKAY) and I found her in the village where his family had lived in the 1840s. Since married women kept their maiden names (thank goodness), we found that she was married to Janos KECSKES. Who was that? Well, indeed it was our Jen's father and Jen himself was Janos KECSKES, Jr. The only clue to a connection between the names is that "kecskes" is the Hungarian word for "goat" and "koz" is a Slavic word also meaning "goat." We also knew that Jen's ancestors were from present-day Slovakia, so that made some logical sense. Living in a Hungarian village, they changed the spelling of their name, much as many immigrants Americanized their foreign names. Armed with a new name, I revisited the other villages where the family had lived but found nothing. No KECSKEs anywhere. The key to unlock this mystery was found only with the help of a friendly Hungarian in Budapest who frequently helps people untangle their Hungarian ancestry. We began our correspondence through the RootsWeb Hungary Message Board. We knew from his diaries that Jen/Janos had attended a school, which is still operating. I had written to them twice asking if they had any records on him, under either name, from the 1830s, and had received no response. My good friend told me, "I will find him." And indeed he did. Searching through their archives, they found him under the name Janos KOZIK. All of his information matched exactly and there was no question that it was our Jen. That was the key that opened the door to uncovering several generations of the family back to their migration from the Slovak area of Upper Hungary in the 1700s to the central region of the country. But even that was not all, because they had again modified their name to KOZIK from the original KOZLIK. And there is some suggestion that even earlier the name may have been KOZLAJ, an early spelling of KOZLAY. When I asked a Slovak genealogist about KOZIK versus KOZLIK, he explained that "koz" meant billy goat and "kozl" meant nanny goat, "but whether it made any difference to them -- who knows?" Hungary was a multinational, multilingual country--Magyar (Hungarian), Slovak, Czech, German, Serb, Croatian, and Romanian. In addition to a tradition that already easily accepted the variant spellings of surnames, laws passed in the late 19th century actively encouraged people to adopt Hungarian surnames. If descendants of these Hungarians find their own brick walls, this may be one reason why. Sometimes, but not always, the church records will indicate such name changes by indicating "alias" or "msknt." There are also records from that period in the late 19th century that document official name changes. Finally, my story indicates that not all answers can be found in church records. Although they have been invaluable, it was only with the help of a generous friend, found through RootsWeb, that the real breakthrough was made. [Editor's note: The "Dictionary of American Family Names" (in three volumes), edited by Patrick Hanks and published by Oxford University Press in 2003, is an excellent source to consult for history and meanings of surnames. Look for these volumes in larger libraries.] * * * Tell us how you made an online connection. Have you found a special cousin? A photograph of your great-grandparents? Solved a missing link that enabled you to take your roots back to Charlemagne? Did you leap over some brick walls or cleverly figure out where your grandmother was hiding in a census? Do tell! Dazzle us with your brilliant sleuthing or uncanny luck. We're all ears. Send your tales of genealogical adventure to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com 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. CONNECTICUT. Fairfield County. Monroe. Chalk Hill Middle School, Class of 1974, 6th grade; 325 records. Michele Oltra http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Washington. Mount Vernon Bank officers/directors, 1920; 21 records; Red Men (organization), 1920; 17 records; Elks, Washington Lodge, 1920; 35 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/groups/ Mount Vernon Seminary, graduating in 1920; 20 records; Technical High School, some students, 1920; 25 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ LOUISIANA, Bienville Parish. Ringgold. Providence Cemetery; 2,014 records; Maxine Blake Morgan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ MARYLAND. Montgomery County. 1920 Rockville High School; 9 records. Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ OHIO. Greene County. Baptist Church records; 14,943 records. Virginia Mullins http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deaths/ VIRGINIA. Cumberland County. Trent family Bible records, 1749-1903; 71 records; Don Trent http://userdb.rootsweb.com/births/ Richmond. 1920 Virginia Council of Defense; 12 records. Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/groups/ Stafford County. 1920 Honor Roll of Salem School; 36 records. Paula Lucy Delosh 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 ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS. The webmaster, Richard Heaton, has added 13 more newspapers to the site. They date from 1710-1773 -- and include London (British Apollo, 1710, Weekly Journal, 1720, London Gazette 1725, 1728, 1744, 1748), Somerset and Gloucestershire (Cruttwell's Bath and Bristol Chronicle 1770; the Bath Journal 1773, Pope's Bath Chronicle 1761). Cruttwell's 1770 mentions a report from New York about the destruction of the "Liberty-Pole" by British soldiers -- and more. The index is accessed through http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dutillieul/index.html McNEW. A gathering place for clan researchers of all spellings of the McNEW surname with anticipation of finding new cousins and lost ancestors. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~greatmcnewclan/mcnew.htm MARSTON PLANTATION. Genealogy and history of MARSTONs of Middlesex and Culpeper counties of Virginia and Kentucky and AYRES of Essex County, Virginia. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~marstonplantation/ 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] U.S.A. azspvahs -- San Pedro Valley Arts and Historical Society (Arizona) calcgs -- Lake County Genealogical Society (California) flcmfdac -- Colonel Moore Fauntleroy (Florida) Chapter DAC mialpen2 -- Alpena County (Michigan) mikalam2 -- Kalamazoo County (Michigan) mncghs -- Canadian Genealogical and Heritage Society (Minnesota) ndsmd -- Society of Mayflower Descendants (North Dakota) txcjadar -- Captain John McAdams (Texas) Chapter DAR utnyfhs -- National Youth Family History Society (Utah) IRELAND irlcor -- Cork County KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS: DAC -- Daughters of the American Colonies DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution * * * New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 29,600 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS BARMBY CATHERYN HIRTLE IWANICKI LEAMING, LEMING, LIEDLE PILARCZYK, PLUE (including PLEW, PLOUGH, and PLOEGH) ROBERTS-UK (United Kingdom--England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland) SLOCOMB, SPAAR NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS CAN-SK-OBITS -- Obituaries for Saskatchewan ROM-SUCEAVA -- genealogical and historical discussion of Suceava District of Romania. SVK-VYCHODOSLOVENSKY -- genealogical and historical discussions of Vychodoslovensky, Slovakia (Rivnins'ka oblast'). NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS CORNISH-AMERICAN -- about Ancestors who emigrated from Cornwall (England) to the USA; covers genealogy, culture, history and emigration topics. ENG-EAST-ANGLIA-DNA -- discuss topics pertaining to the East Anglia (southeast England) Geographic DNA Project. 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Builder Rescues Marriage Certificate By Geoffrey Clack A few years back a builder discovered a Certificate of Marriage dated 3 June 1909 as he renovated a small terraced house in Norwich, Norfolk (England). The bridegroom's surname was CHAMBERS so, at the first opportunity, he showed the certificate to a fellow builder named CHAMBERS. It didn't meant anything to him but he thought that a distant cousin, a brother- in-law of mine (a plasterer), might be interested. Brother-in-law recognized it immediately because the bridegroom's father is listed as James CHAMBERS (deceased) -- Lunatic Asylum Attendant. The certificate is for the marriage of his maternal great-grandparents. As the family remembers the story, great-grandfather had been killed by a patient at Hellesdon Lunatic Asylum, which is situated just outside of Norwich. The assailant hid behind a door with a chair and used it as a weapon as James entered the room. * * * Gallery of Ancestors' Images By David Bowler in Chesterfield, UK A few years ago I visited the village in Nottinghamshire (UK), which seemed to be the home base of my family. Whilst looking for an address I stopped a man coming out of a pub and asked him if he knew where it was, He redirected me to a lady in a cottage, who redirected me to another lady in the village, When I knocked on the door it was answered by a lady who turned out to be my second cousin, On the wall of her entrance hall was an array of photographs ranging from my 2-great-grandfather, my 3-great-grandfather and my 4-great- grandmother (watercolour) -- born in 1754. I already had a photograph of my great-grandfather so I now have an unbroken run of photographs from my grandson back to my 4-great- grandmother. I have never come across anyone else with such a run, and I have graves to match. I consider myself very fortunate in this and these pictures can be seen on my website (http://www.bowlerinfo.co.uk/). You just never know what's out there. * * * Rare or Common Happening? By Madeline De Long The letter "Stranger Than Fiction" (RootsWeb Review, 4 January) in which three sons within the same family were born on the same date on three different years, could have easily been referring to my father's first cousins in Texas. The first three boys were born on the same date, every other year. The fourth broke the pattern and was born 15 months following the third. I'm curious about the statistical likelihood of such occurrences. The reality is that wonders such as this do actually occur. * * * When Time Runs Out By Maxwell Russell My ex-wife, mother of our three children, died on 13 April 13, 2005. She was diagnosed and operated on for a stage four malignant brain tumor at the end of 2004, and it took less than five months for the cancer to do its work. For many years, I wanted her and our children to review and narrate the home movies that we took of the kids as they were growing up, but we never got around to it. I wanted all of us to sit around and comment on these movies into a tape recorder and thereby be able to save the information, times and places, names and faces. We waited too long. We began taking movies of the kids in 1958, when our oldest daughter was just a toddler. In those days, the best equipment you could get was a standard 8mm movie camera that was only capable of silent pictures. As the years went by, we added many reels of film to our collection and had a pretty good documentation of all three children as they grew up. Many times, I wished that there was a way to add sound and narrate the movies that we had taken. At one time my son even bought the equipment to re-photograph the movies with his VHS video camera to sort of modernize them, but he just never got the time to do it. After his mother got sick, I instructed him to take all the films down to a nearby store (various photo shops and big box stores offer this service) and have them sent away to be transferred to DVDs. Just so you know, it cost $430 and I ended up with three full-length DVDs, which were professionally recorded and had background music added to them. He then mailed them to his mother so that she could at least view the DVDs in her last months. Later, I took the DVDs and, with the help of my computer and several movie software programs, I was able to remove the background music, edit out the bad spots, move things around, cleanup dark or light scenes, narrate all the movies, and add my own background music. I really got creative with the music such as using the theme from "Jaws" to accompany the kids splashing around in the backyard swimming pool. I wasn't able to recognize all of the people or all the places that were in the movies, but I documented everything as well as possible. I used several movie programs and it took a many man-hours to accomplish this, but that's what our children and grandchildren got for their 2005 Christmas presents. I'm not sure how much of a big hit these made as Christmas gifts, but I know this the whole thing was a labor of love and my heirs now have a record of themselves and their parents growing up. I only wish that whole family had taken the time to do this a lot sooner so that all of the people could have been identified and all of the scenes could have been documented. We waited too long. 7. Humor/Humour: Proper Name for the Job Department ------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Alan in the UK, who reports this finding in the census: 1881 Dwelling: Long Benton Village Vicarage Census Place: Longbenton, Northumberland, England Oliver CHURCHYARD M 37 M London, Middlesex, England Rel: Head Occ: Vicar of Long Benton BA (Clergyman) * * * Found a "proper name for the job" or humorous sign, amusing entries in census, parish, church, etc. records? Send them 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: 8 February 2006, Vol. 9, No. 6. * * * *