RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 29 March 2006, Vol. 9, No. 13 (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: Down Under 2006 Census Opt-in Question Book Notes: Levy County, Florida Sites: UK Maps; U.S. Civil War Battlefield Preservation 1b. Tips from Readers: "Throwing More Light on False Copyright Claims" 1c. Using RootsWeb: "De-mystifying WorldConnect User Codes" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Encountering Net Angels" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Going Dutch" "Joys of Internet Genealogy" 7. Humor/Humour: "Too Late, Fellows" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: DOWN UNDER 2006 CENSUS HAS OPT-IN QUESTION Australians will have to opt-in if they want their census information released to the public in 99 years. The next Australian census will be conducted Tuesday, 8 August. It will contain 61 questions -- all will be compulsory except the ones on religion and census retention. The retention question (Q60) states: "Does each person in this household agree to his/her name and address and other information on this form being kept by the National Archives of Australia and then made publicly available after 99 years?" Unless you answer YES your census form will not be retained in the archives and will be lost to future generations. The Australasian Federation of Family History Organizations is working closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the National Archives of Australia to assist in the national public education campaign prior to census night to encourage a "yes" answer to the question. Additional information can be found at http://www.affho.org/projects/census.php * * * BOOK NOTES: Levy County, Florida The following recently published publications with genealogical and historical information about Levy County, Florida and surrounding areas including Marion, Gilchrist and Alachua counties are available. "Marks and Brands of Levy County, Florida," Book A, 1865-1907; 116 pages, softbound, $20 postpaid, includes a discussion of the "open range" and its demise in the state, examples and explanation of the various marks and sketches of the actual marks along with their recorded descriptions. An all-name index is included. "Masonic Lodges of Levy County Florida and other Nearby Lodges." 20 pages softbound, $3.50 postpaid. Oldest available lists of members of 17 lodges are given. "Withlacoochee Notes." 206 pages; softbound with 87 photographs, $15 postpaid. A history of the area along this important central Florida river from the Gulf, through Levy and Citrus counties and into west Marion County; includes several important early pioneers. Books are available from Dix Stephens, librarian, Levy County Genealogy and History Society, P.O. Box 2125, Trenton, FL 32693-2180. For more information contact: dix1034@yahoo.com. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: U.K. MAPS ONLINE. A new website was launched recently displaying high- quality maps to aid genealogists with U.K. interests. The site currently has 10 London maps and views dating from circa 1560 to 1897 with more London and English county maps planned. The maps are free for all to use for noncommercial projects, so feel free to use these maps to illustrate your family history project. http://archivemaps.com/mapco/index.htm CIVIL WAR PARK DAY. Learn about "Historic Preservation of American Civil War Battlefields." http://www.civilwar.org/parkday/ * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Throwing More Light on False Copyright Claims By James F. Ramaley, Ph.D. (jramaley@hotmail.com) In "Examining False Copyright Claims" (RootsWeb Review 30 Nov. 2005), I urged the genealogical community to avoid the practice of placing copyright notices on works that are not eligible for copyright. See: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2005/1130.txt Reader comments and questions to that article fell into three categories: 1. Exactly what is copyrightable in genealogy? 2. How can a person protect against further copying of his or her work (copyrightable or not)? and 3. What is the harm in inserting a copyright notice even if the work is not copyrightable? Before commenting on these points, let me call attention to one of the most readable (and thin! -- just 58 pages) books that covers general U.S. copyright: It's "101 Questions about Copyright Law," by Andrew Alpern, (Dover Publishing, 1999). Although I got my copy at the Library of Congress bookstore, the paperback is widely available at a price of less than $5. Alpern is an architect and architectural historian who is also a practicing attorney in New York, specializing in intellectual property law. His book should be required reading for anyone who wishes to, or needs to, understand copyright. Now to No. 1 point. It is important to restate the primary reason for copyright -- to spread knowledge. Copyright does this by protecting for an author the financial benefits that might be gained by copying his or her creative works for a limited period. The absolutely key criteria for any work to be copyrightable is that it must be ORIGINAL and CREATIVE. Original means original with the author -- don't expect to copyright something that you have discovered and copied or heard from another party. Also, facts -- such as birth, marriage, or death dates -- are never original and are usually given as prime examples of non- copyrightable material. Creative is more than a flowery description of facts. We recognize creativity in a new play or a new song but when we try to make our family histories more interesting by simply changing paragraph structure or by using various phrasing for "he died in 1839" we are not being creative -- in the legal sense. In genealogy, most citations are to works that are in the public domain such as the factual material in an obituary or in a church registry. Such data is not subject to copyright and so only the CREATIVE text that is original with the author is copyrightable. However, if you are preparing the "Definitive History of My Perfect Family in America", the entire book -- as a whole -- is copyrightable even if many of the citations and facts therein aren't. This means that you can't prevent people from copying any of the noncopyrightable material therein, but they can't (legally) copy or reprint your ENTIRE work without your explicit permission. Since most amateur genealogists are usually interested in just getting the facts of their ancestry correct and sharing this information with other people researching their direct and/or connecting lines, this may be enough on the first point. For more on what is copyrightable, please see Alpern's book. Point No. 2. Many who contacted me did so because they had had an unpleasant experience in which large sections of some genealogical work of theirs had been copied off their website, etc. and incorporated into someone else's genealogy -- without even the courtesy of an acknowledge- ment. They felt that the hard work they had done in assembling their history was unfairly taken and used by an uncaring cousin. This is all too common. We amateur genealogists are driven neither by a profit motive nor did we start our hobby with a goal of becoming famous as a family historian. Generally we began our study to learn more about our ancestors' lives and to share this knowledge with others. But we are only human and become upset when our work and efforts are slighted. This upset is probably magnified in genealogy because our study of ancestors leads us to appreciate the legacy we have been given. We are quite willing to share with a newly found cousin, but if that person re-copies the facts we worked so hard to discover and fails to mention our help, we become irritated. Ironically, a cause of the copier's failure to cite sources may stem from an implied threat of suing for "copyright infringement." Perhaps we would get better results if we replace the (usually false) copyright notice with something like: "You may use all data on this website but remember that genealogical work is always subject to revision. If you copy some of my material, your readers will appreciate a citation to my site so that they may see if my data has been updated." (And, of course, the "golden rule" of source citation requires that you cite your sources as you would have others cite you.) Assembling the facts that go into a family history is not usually a creative act in the view of copyright law. It does represent many hours of hard work and expense in visiting courthouses, copying census records, or analyzing conflicting "facts." This effort should be appreciated and acknowledged, but hard work and money spent do not necessary result in something that becomes protectable intellectual property. If you rely on copyright to correct bad manners (or ignorance about citations) you are certain to be disappointed. I was also told of instances where a local genealogical or historical society assembled public domain material (cemetery readings in one case), adding nothing original but a foreword, and placed the copyright symbol on the first page to "protect" it. This is risky as a fund-raiser because someone could come along and put up the same (public domain) information for free. If a society wishes to provide such information as a service to members and attaches a reasonable fee that recovers the cost of the materials, plus a small bonus for the society's treasury, fine. But don't set an exorbitant price hoping to get rich with such an item -- and don't make false copyright claims about it. It is possible that you could try to prevent further copying of your genealogy by inserting a "terms of use" notice for your work where you prohibit any user from redistributing the material to others. But this seems counter to the spirit of amateur genealogy. If you really don't want others to share in your discoveries, perhaps you should reconsider why you are even publishing anything. The bottom line is that if you have published or deposited in a public library some family history (or shared that information or GEDCOMs with anyone), it will certainly be copied and you will not be able to prevent that by a copyright claim. Since most genealogists are interested in having their family notes found and used by others, depositing and sharing genealogical work is good. But don't expect to be able to control further use or misuse of your work. Point No. 3. Question 111 (p. 56) of Alpern's book discusses the "intersection of copyright law and criminal law." I quote from his answer (with his permission): "At the lesser level of a violation, the copyright law provides that falsely representing a material fact in a copyright application or other written statement filed in connection with an application carries a fine of up $2,500. A maximum fine in the same amount may be imposed on one who fraudulently removes or alters a copyright notice on a copyrighted work, or who fraudulently places a copyright notice on an item, or who fraudulently distributes -- or imports with intent to distribute -- an item with a copyright notice on it that the person knows to be false." In other words, falsely asserting a copyright is also a violation of the law. I want to stress the value of registering material that you believe to be copyrightable. Since registration with the copyright office is no longer required in order to obtain some of the benefits of copyright, many people just put a copyright symbol on their work and forget about it. However the law specifically requires that a copyright must be registered before an infringement suit can even be initiated. Moreover, attorney fees and other damages can be recovered in an infringement suit only if the alleged infringement occurred AFTER the work has been registered -- a very valuable incentive for registration. If you have not registered your copyright and send a "cease and desist" letter to an alleged infringer, you are likely to get a letter back that says, in effect, "I will be glad to stop the alleged infringement if you will please provide proof of ownership and of registration." Registration costs only $30 and instructions are available at http://www.copyright.gov/ [Editor's Note: Prevent misunderstandings by citing your sources properly and acknowledge specifically the work of others (not a "thanks to everyone in the world" note). If you find information about your elusive JOHNSON family at WorldConnect, for example, posted by Mary SMITH, remember that her sources are NOT your sources. Don't claim to have found the information in the Johnson Family Bible (that she cites) if you haven't seen it. See "Creating Worthwhile Genealogies for our Families and Descendants" http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson12.htm Doing genealogy "just for fun"? Why should you go to the bother of recording and citing your sources of information? Well, would you create a shoddily made quilt or dollhouse for your granddaughter? Of course not. Then why would you create a scruffy family tree for her?] * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: De-mystifying WorldConnect User Codes Alice ADDERLY thinks that GEDCOM files must be like coat hangers left in closets -- they multiply! Every time she searches for her GEDCOMs on WorldConnect (http://wc.rootsweb.com/) she finds more duplicate files. For purposes of browsing and searching WorldConnect, the database is combined with files originally submitted to Ancestry World Tree (AWT) and its Online Family Tree (OFT). Alice, like many others, did not realize that and forgot that she had also uploaded trees via Ancestry. Alice knows how to delete and update a GEDCOM file and she learned that she must do so by returning to the place where she uploaded the file originally. However, she isn't sure which files she submitted where. Here's how she (and you) can tell: --If you find duplicates and the user codes start with a colon ":" the files were submitted through Online Family Tree (OFT). --User codes starting with a colon plus the letter a ":a" were submitted via Ancestry World Tree (AWT). --Submitter-selected user codes comprised of letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores indicate WorldConnect-submitted trees. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY ANCESTOR SEEKERS researchers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will search this vast collection for your ancestors from the USA/Canada, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. If you commission the work (there's no obligation to do that!) prices start from $52 (US). For a FREE! initial e-mail consultation visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/rwr/ For help in finding ancestors from England or Scotland request a FREE e- mail assessment from http://www.britishancestors.com/consultrwr/ Join us JUNE 11-16 for our Fifth Salt Lake City Research Trip -- the ideal genealogy vacation! http://www.ancestorseekers.com/slcrt.htm * * * Internet Genealogy is a new magazine from the publishers of Family Chronicle and History Magazine. The first issue is now available on newsstands across North America. For a limited time, you can download a FREE preview issue of Internet Genealogy. You can also take advantage of a limited-time introductory subscription offer of $20 (US) or $23 (Cdn) for one year and start your subscription with the very first issue. Call toll-free 1-888-326-2476 or visit http://internet-genealogy.com/IG_subsRW.htm * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Encountering Net Angels By Connie Dennis Thank goodness I chose to share some of my family information with a cousin that had some of our family tree on RootsWeb. Because of the information entered there my 83-year-old mother now has a brand-new, 76-year-old niece. My mother was born on her father's 50th birthday. He had been married prior to his second marriage to MY grandmother and had three children by his first marriage. These children were the same age as his second wife. As a child my mother remembered on two different occasions that her half brother had visited her home almost 70 years ago, but we knew nothing of where he and her other two half siblings or any of their children lived. It is this one half brother's daughter who was able to contact us through the information that I had shared on RootsWeb.(even though I did not receive credit for sharing the info, which is another sensitive topic previously discussed on this forum.) Since my mother's niece lives on the West Coast and we live on the East Coast we agreed to meet in the middle of the United States where our ancestors were from. While there we were able to take our wonderful new niece/first cousin and her husband to our grandfather's church reunion in the community where our grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived and were buried. We also visited the graves of our ancestors in a neighboring state. While there she visited for the first time the gravesite of her father who was my mother's brother. What a precious time this was for us to meet, introduce her to new cousins and share in these experiences as well as learn about each other and fill out our family tree. Needless to say we have kept the e- mails humming from coast to coast. As I opened one e-mail of a picture of our grandfather that my artistic cousin had "touched up" and sent back to me I could tell there was an oval shadow behind my grandfather's image and as his photo downloaded there emerged a picture from the background of his picture. The emerging picture was of a lady with her name on it. Recognizing the name I e- mailed my cousin and asked her where she had found the picture of our great-grandmother's aunt who was born in 1822. My cousin said "I thought you e-mailed it to ME!" We have no idea where this picture came from as we had never seen it before. We choose to believe that granddaddy's genealogical angel sent this through the Internet for us to share. To top that -- this incident with the picture occurred on 1 April 2005 -- but was certainly no April Fool's joke as it really happened. * * * 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/ ---------------------------------------------- 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. CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles County. San Fernando. Bobbettes and DeMilos YWCA Clubs, 1953-1957; 32 records; C. Trier http://userdb.rootsweb.com/groups/ KANSAS. Linn County. Richland/Douglas Cemetery; 36 records; Amy Tharp http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ LOUISIANA. Bienville Parish. Castor. New Ebenezer Cemetery; 1,445 records; Castor. Old Castor Cemetery; 631 records; Colbert Frazier Cemetery, 9 records; Watts Cemetery; 9 records; Maxine Blake Morgan http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ NORTH CAROLINA. Edgecombe County. Cemetery records; 125 records; Annette Roebuck http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ VIRGINIA. Military records; 51 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ 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 BLACKSMITHS (and related trades) in the UK and Australia. An index created by the webmaster that contains the names of blacksmiths, whitesmiths, shipwrights, wheelwrights, goldsmiths, copper-, brass-, and ironworkers, etc. Includes some photos. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~blacksmiths/ OHIO. Licking County Genealogical Society (a chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society) has an index of biographies available, plus its calendar of events, First Families of Licking County Lineage Society, Civil War Families of Licking County Lineage Society, access to online databases, and other aids to assist researchers in this locality. http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs2/index.html 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. arcemet2 -- Cemeteries (Arkansas) arcknobe -- Knobel City (Arkansas) azcemet2 -- Cemeteries (Arizona) comgs -- Mountain Genealogists Society (Colorado) nccdurha -- Durham's Creek (North Carolina) * * * 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 29,700 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS BALLOUGH ESTRIGHT GIERKE, GUIMONT HOLLINGTON NASMYTH PINCOMBE ROBERDES, ROBLEDO VELEY (includes VEALEY, VEELY, and variants) ZEMANY NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS -- CANADA CAN-AB-CALGARY (Calgary area, Alberta) CAN-AB-EDMONTON (Edmonton area, Alberta) CAN-AB-RED-DEER (Red Deer area, Alberta) CAN-BC-CARIBOO-CHILCOTIN (Cariboo and Chilcotin Coast areas, British Columbia) CAN-BC-HIGH-COUNTRY (High Country, British Columbia) CAN-BC-KOOTENAY (Kootenay Country, British Columbia) CAN-BC-NORTH-NORTHWEST (North and Northwest of British Columbia) CAN-BC-PEACE-RIVER (Peace River area of British Columbia) CAN-BC-ROCKY-MOUNTAIN (Rocky Mountain area of British Columbia) CAN-BC-SOUTHWESTERN (Southwestern area of British Columbia) CAN-BC-VANCOUVER-ISLAND (Vancouver Island, British Columbia) NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS CA-NevadaCoGS -- Nevada County, California Genealogical Society for its members' communications and discussions TX-CollinCoGS -- Collin County, Texas Genealogical Society for its members' communications and discussions 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Going Dutch By C. Harthy in Homer, Michigan, USA My grandmother sat me down when I was about 12 and told me to copy the information she had on the HARTHY family since I was the last male in the line (I still have my printed copy). Over the years, I have made attempts to learn what the original name was -- family tradition had said that great-grandfather had changed the name when he came from the Netherlands in 1847. An old cousin thought the name was HARTOG and that he came alone, or possibly with his mother. I obtained a copy of great-grandfather's marriage license from the Kalamazoo County (Michigan) clerk in 1967 and she had underlined HARTSTRA as the name. In the 1970s a friend of a friend went to the Netherlands and checked in Leeuwarden (HARTSTRA is a Frisian name) without success. About three years ago, A friend that works in the Kalamazoo County Clerk's office as a volunteer checked the original marriage license and found it was clearly HARTHA, not HARTSTRA. However, this no help. I have had my grandfather's 1888 diary for many years, but had never read it thoroughly. In it, there was a record of attendance at the funeral of Annie SCARBOROUGH, about 20 miles from where they lived. My friend at the Kalamazoo County Clerk's office checked the death certificate and found her mother was born Margaret FLEIG. My grandfather had several references to Aunt Mag in his diary. Further investigation found land records, etc. for FLEAK, FLEIG, FLIEG in Kalamazoo County. I then wrote to the Bureau voor Genealogie in the Netherlands and it came back with evidence that the whole family had immigrated and the original name was VLIEG. Eventually, I obtained a copy of the ship's list and great-grandfather's given name was either Jotje or Petje (original is in bad shape), which could explain changing that to Benjamin, but why HARTHY for the surname? That probably will remain a mystery forever. * * * Joys of Internet Genealogy By Kelly Ward Last week's article about making connections online opened a flood of memories of people I've met through the Internet and the walls that have been broken down because of the sources found that way. I truly enjoy my issues of the RootsWeb Review. When a family genealogist only gets the blank stare when trying to relate the joy of finding three sets of grandparents' (multiple "g's") and actual passenger list entries, it's a needed boost to communicate with like-minded searchers. I treasure the photo of g-g-grandmother Charlotte CHENARD DESCHENES (circa 1890s) given to me by "cousin" Pearl, who I met personally through someone who had seen my letter to a RootsWeb Wyoming list. Also, the photo of one of Charlotte's sons, sporting what we had always (though erroneously) referred to as "the VerBurg chin," when in fact it is the "Deschenes" chin -- a huge dimple in the middle of it -- passed through his niece, my grandmother. The number of "cousins" I've found was only possible through the Internet. I am sorry that the living relatives I've contacted, who are initially so overjoyed to learn of their parents' genealogy, are so distrustful -- after receiving the information -- to not respond to my further questions on the deceased. These are people who can verify what I know about their families to be correct. I send copies of the photos and information I have anyway, hoping somehow this information will be passed on. RootsWeb is the greatest and my subscription to Ancestry.com is so well worthwhile. Anyone who hasn't looked at Ancestry.com in a year or so, should give it a look. The improvements are great. 7. Humor/Humour: Too Late, Fellows ---------------------------------------------- Thanks to Karen Sanders I was at the Salt Lake Family History Library -- against a "brick wall" and was leafing through books to kill time while waiting for a friend. I found the following in a book of wills. The woman had requested that all the pallbearers at her funeral be female, no men, because: "They wouldn't take me out when I was alive and they aren't going to take me out now!" * * * 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: 29 March 2006, Vol. 9, No. 13. * * * *