RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 12 April 2006, Vol. 9, No. 15 (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: "Copying Old Photographs" Book Notes: South Dakota Sites: Copyright, Missouri and New York City Vitals 1b. Tips from Readers: "Sharing Gossip Online" 1c. Using RootsWeb:"Preserving and Sharing Data" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "Uncovering Murder and Mayhem" 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "Generous Genealogist Applauded" "Young Bride's Death Haunts Researcher" 7. Humor/Humour: "Enumerator's Editorial Comments" 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: Copying Old Photographs Question. My local copying store will not make reproductions of my old family photographs. What can I do? Answer. According to the U.S. copyright office, "photocopying shops, photography stores and other photo-developing stores are often reluctant to make reproductions of old photographs for fear of violating the copyright law and being sued. "Copy shops have been sued for reproducing copyrighted works and have been required to pay substantial damages for infringing copyrighted works. The policy established by a shop is a business decision and risk assessment that the business is entitled to make, because the business may face liability if it reproduces a work even if it did not know the work was copyrighted." In the case of photographs, it is sometimes difficult to determine who owns the copyright and there may be little or no information about the owner on individual copies. Ownership of a "copy" of a photograph is distinct from the "work" itself -- the intangible intellectual property. The owner of the "work" is generally the photographer or, in certain situations, the employer of the photographer. The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph. If the photographer is no longer living, the rights in the photograph are determined by the photographer's will or passed as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession. However, in the U.S. virtually all photographs published before January 1923 are now in the public domain. http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm There also may be situations in which the reproduction of a photograph may be a "fair use" under the U.S. copyright law. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html But, "Access and use of unpublished materials or those created after January 1923 can be much more complex, since each of the four rights of the copyright holder can be controlled separately . . . it is possible to acquire a physical print of an image through purchase or gift, without obtaining any other rights to the image. The copyright holder may retain any or all of the four supplemental rights associated with subsequent use of the work." http://www.vintagephoto.com/reference/copyrightarticle1.htm * * * BOOK NOTES: South Dakota The "100-year History of Herreid (Campbell County) South Dakota" is about the birth and growth of a farming community that was established in 1901 along the tracks of the SOO Line Railroad. Some of the surnames include DAMBERGER, BRANDNER, STELLFLUG, WEISBECK, SCHMIDT, LUNZER, BERNDT, SCHAEFBAUER, HILT, OCHSNER, KRAMLICH, HUBER, TRAXINGER, GRAD, SCHIRBER, VOLZKE, TINHOLT, KOST, QUENZER, KLEIN, ROSSOW, KLAUDT, and WEINZIRL This local history book ($40 postpaid) can be ordered from the Kountry Classic, P.O. Box 188, Herreid, SD 57632 or call 605-437-2961. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: DEBUNKING THE POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT MYTH in the U.S. http://registermycopyright.com/poor.htm MISSOURI DEATH CERTIFICATES The Missouri State Archives now offers the Missouri Death Certificate Database. It's a new online index and images. Currently the index covers from 1910 to 1955 and the images date from 1910 to 1920. It is at: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/ NEW YORK CITY BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM INDEXES The bridegroom index is for the entire city (1909-1936). The bride index is incomplete and is only for the boroughs of Bronx (1891-1937), Brooklyn (1891-1937), and Queens (1904-1937). Plans call for adding the Manhattan bride index to the online system. The Stephen P. Morse site at http://stevemorse.org/ now has cross-links between the two indexes for New York City located at the Italian Genealogy Group site at: http://www.italiangen.org/ * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Sharing Gossip Online By Ann Parrish Internet genealogy and its people have been a great source of enrichment and joy to me. I have learned much, not only about my family but about byroads of history that I had never known were out there, much less responsible for having shaped my family. And thanks to Internet contacts, I have a much wider family than I ever knew before -- I have encountered many online cousins, and some have become dear friends. Such happy adventures are what made the following such a shock: Encountering a family tree that included my mother's uncle Horace and his wife Hilda [I've changed the names] and noting that Uncle Horace's information was incomplete, I left a Post-em note with additional information. The tree's owner contacted me to thank me. He was related to Aunt Hilda although he had never met her and knew nothing about Uncle Horace's family. He urged me to tell him what I knew. I complied. I gave him the facts I had and then--here was my mistake--I gave him the gossip I had gathered from my mother and from my own scant memories of Uncle Horace and Aunt Hilda. Comments, kind and critical, about their personalities, gossip about their children, whom I only knew through their parents' and my mother's remarks. The tree owner was grateful for my account, he told me, and I was glad to give it to him. This was about three years ago. I forgot it until recently, when a message from another unknown cousin -- a great-grandchild of Uncle Horace and Aunt Hilda -- told me she obtained my address online. I "Googled" Uncle Horace's name and found myself revisiting that family tree--but this time, attached to it in full was the gossipy letter that I had sent--not just my comments about Uncle Horace and Aunt Hilda, who are long dead, but about their children and grandchildren. I was given full credit for what I had written! That was the horror of it. Had I had the least notion that my letter would be embedded in cyberspace for public perusal, I would not have written it in the slapdash style I used, nor would I have included speculation and guesswork about the personalities and probable fates of living people I do not know! (Could I be sued? Probably!) I have never been more mortified and I am 68 with many mortifications behind me. Please do not assume that everything you write to strangers is confidential! * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Preserving and Sharing Data If you ask Penny PACKER's family about the clutter in their home, they will swear Penny is the poster child for the packrats of the world--she saves everything. It seems to be a trait that was passed down in the family from grandmother to mother to Penny. The attic is filled with dusty papers and the spare bedroom has been turned into an office of sorts where Penny keeps most of her genealogy files from her years of researching her family history and preserving the papers that were entrusted to her as the current generation's family historian. Truth be told, there isn't a room in the large old Victorian house that has been in the family for more than one hundred years that doesn't have some amount of clutter. There might be a use for it "someday" or it has sentimental value as a family heirloom. It isn't that Penny is a sloppy housekeeper, her home is actually quite clean, it is just that she hasn't figured out what to do with all the "stuff" she has acquired. With the annual spring cleaning chores at hand, Penny's decided this year is going to be different because she is acutely aware that the items and information included in them could easily be lost as they fade and crumble with aging or, God forbid, in a disaster. Penny got a wake- up call in this regard when her aunt in Louisiana, who also inherited the packrat gene, lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and hadn't recorded the data in the family treasures in her possession anywhere other than in her own filing cabinets. Penny vows, she is going to sort out the papers. What can be entered into her genealogy program on her computer will be. It will then be uploaded to the Internet. What doesn't fit into that format-- family photos and grandmother's newspaper clippings that span at least 100 years will be scanned or transcribed and uploaded to an appropriate site on the Internet also. Fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes show no mercy when it comes to irreplaceable family heirlooms and, although there isn't much that can be done to protect the heirlooms themselves, family data such as births, marriages, and deaths recorded in a Bible can be preserved for posterity by uploading them to an Internet site. As Penny sorts her collection of newspaper clippings, Bible entries, funeral cards, yearbooks, and photos; she considers where to put everything on the Internet for safe keeping and sharing. She decides that everything she wants to post online can be accommodated at RootsWeb. The family tree goes to WorldConnect in GEDCOM format: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ Individual obituaries, plus other odds and ends, including some photos, go on the message boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Large collections of like data such as the alumni listings in the yearbooks goes to the user-contributed databases: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit Additional family data that Penny wants to upload with a personal touch will be going to a Freepages website at RootsWeb, which Penny has requested at: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/index.cgi?op=show&page=freagree.htm Next week Penny cashes in -- in some unexpected ways. * * * * * * * * * * 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 email consultation visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/rwr/ For help in finding ancestors from England or Scotland request a FREE email assessment from http://www.britishancestors.com/ 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: Uncovering Murder and Mayhem By Penny (Niceley) McCracken I went to RootsWeb and the first thing that hit my eye was "Looking for Thomas Jackson NICELEY, wife Sarah E." I nearly had a myocardial infarction on the spot! Those were my great-grandparents, And I had two pictures of Sarah. I fired an e-mail off and she wrote back, "I just posted that 20 minutes ago!" I never started out to do any genealogy. I only wanted to put what data we did have in a binder -- but of course, it had to be in chronological order. (I was a female technical illustrator). It took five years to finally get it all done -- archival pages, acid-free light cardboard, pictures both sides, telling much of our family's history, back to only mid-1800s. I was a third-generation only child, so I didn't think there was much to research. Shortly after I finished that album, a lady called, and started the conversation with "You don't know me, but . . ." Since I was living in Los Angeles, where you have to be a tad paranoid to survive, I was at first, very careful with her. Then when she told me my father had referred her, and told me what he said, I knew she was OK Turns out our great-grandfathers were brothers, and we share a common great-great-grandfather. I didn't even know my great-grandfather had any brothers. My grandmother had also told me of her father's murder, but could never tell me much more than that -- even into her late 80s. When the lady heard about my album, she got breathless. After asking for and receiving permission to come for a visit, they arrived from Tempe, Arizona at 10:30 the following morning. When she actually saw the album, she nearly fainted. I had so many of her missing pieces. We went out to our local quick printers and copied every page. After she returned home, she must have told half the world -- because two- and three-pound packages of mail came to me for weeks. One of them was a copy of the passenger manifest of a sailing ship that brought German settlers here in 1754. It had the ship's name, "John and Elizabeth" and the name of her skipper, Capt. Ham. Johannes FLINNER, wife Anna MINNICK, who thrived, and produced offspring -- and I am only in the tenth generation away from them. I knew from my Dad's paternal side that my grandfather was born in Missouri. I had just gotten in touch with an old boyfriend from Class of '56 and he lived near the cemetery. He drove down and photographed ALL of the family gravestones. I knew, as part of what my grandfather told me, that his uncle had been shot and killed at only 23 years old. I must have looked at the picture of his gravestone for a year before I could think "Well, darn, if he was shot in Joplin, Missouri there probably was a story about it" I got on the Web, found Joplin and the newspaper's name. Contacted the paper and it said old papers were archived at the library. Called the archivist and since we had the exact date of death, she found it right away .Then she said "Did you know he was shot by a jealous husband?" I laughed and said "No, but given my family, I'm not a bit surprised!" Then I mailed her $2 and she sent the clippings and I got another heart- stopping shock -- he was killed by his first cousin for stealing that cousin's wife and I am related to both of them! Their grandfather is my great-great-grandfather on that side. All unknowingly, I had one tiny bit of evidence that unraveled things for the rest of my heretofore unknown family -- like cutting a Gordian knot. Thank God, my grandmother was such a packrat. Then, my new cousin did some more researching regarding the murder of my minister great-grandfather. And I was as shocked as if it had happened to me. Imagine being a bride of only a year, expecting your first child (my dad) and sitting down to the breakfast table only to read that your father had been murdered and nobody had warned her. I burst into tears for my beloved grandmother. She had more than her share of tragedy. I'm up to six three-inch binders and there is much more to go. I cannot find my maternal grandmother, Edna G. DUNN, born in Mississippi in 1898 and living with a grandmother. She was a toddler, because the info was from the 1900 census. By 1920 she was married and had one child, and was expecting my mother. By 1830, they had moved to Long Beach, California and were divorced. My mother and aunt lived through the 1933 earthquake. And there's another whole wild story about all of that. It's like a giant, never-ending mystery story. And we all seem to have our share of people -- good and bad, rogues and gentlemen. One last shock. I was born in California. My now-ex husband was born only nine miles from Joplin -- in Kansas. Both sides of my family lived in a very close geological area back there. FLEENOR was my grandmother's maiden name. I got my McCRACKEN name when I married, though my maiden name was NICELEY. Imagine the shock when someone posted an obit for "Laura FLEENOR McCRACKEN." I gasped, and yelled, "I married a cousin!" * * * 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/ ---------------------------------------------- No new databases this week. 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 ANGLIN-ANGLEN. The ANGLIN-ANGLEN Surname Y-DNA Project. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~kmparker/AnglinDNA/ BERESCIK-BERESCSIK. Surnames include: BAKER, BERESCSIK, BERESCSIK, BODNAR, BOSKOROS, BREZA, CASZTIVJAK, COEN, GRECULA, GRECZULA, GYURISIN, GRECULA, HARASICK, KENDRACH, KOSCHAK, MCNERNEY, ONDISKO, PETERSON, RIAPOS, SAVAGE, and TIMCHO. Covering 1800s from Trebisvo, Slovakia to Mingo Junction, Ohio. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~werty7/ CHANDLER, WYMER, MINGLE, EMMONS, FREED, JENSEN, MATHIS, and MILLER. "Traveling Through the Generations." http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~barbc46/ FULBRIGHT Family Association. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~full/ STURGEON. Sturgeons and allied families of Warren County, Kentucky. Other surnames include: WILSON, FLATT, LEWIS CANNON http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sturgeon/ UK. Cornwall. Online Parish Clerk. Parish records from first record to 1910 are transcribed for Helston, St. Cleer, and St. Martin in Meneage, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cricket5/ VAN VUREN, VAN VUUREN (including JANSE/JANSEN/JANZEN). Starts with Gerrit van VUREN who went to South Africa in about 1687. Includes genealogies up to present day but not many people are listed on the webpages who were born after ca 1900. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~niloc/vanVuren/van-Vuren.htm l VESTAL. Family research records for the VESTAL surname in the U.S. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ginnyb/ 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] BULGARIA bgrbshv -- Bulgarian Society of Heraldry and Vexillogy IRELAND irlleitr -- County Leitrim U.S.A. gaevhs -- Euharlee Valley Historical Society (Georgia) ohsmh -- Shelby Museum of History (Ohio) txvicto2 -- Victoria County (Texas) wvgreen2 -- Greenbrier County (West Virginia) * * * 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 AIGELSREITER CANTLEY DOESCHER FORMBY HOSELITZ KIBBY (includes KIBBEE, KIBBEY, and KEBBY) MEDLAM PROBERT VARBLE NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS -- CANADA CAN-AB-MEDICINE-HAT --Medicine Hat district NORWAY NOR-HEDMARK -- Hedmark County NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS AUS-SCOTTISH -- for those researching their Australian/Scottish heritage. CELTIC-ROYALTY -- Celtic royal and noble genealogy for historians and genealogists. DANISH-DNA -- DNA testing as used to research Danish origins; for anyone interested in Danish genealogy and DNA testing. EMERGINGTECH -- Using the emerging Web technologies, such as RSS, blogs, podcasting, aggregators, newsreaders, permalinks, tagging, wikis, and other Web applications in our genealogy research. 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kudos for Generous Genealogist By Carole Cross Bobbie Coons ("Finding a Home for Colorado Treasures" in last week's RootsWeb Review) tracked me down through my tombstone project pictures and mailed my family album, postcards, and a Swedish book. Can you imagine the thrill of touching these family heirlooms? Thanks to Bobbie's 20-year care and knowing the priceless value, I'm reunited with my ancestors in a personal, touching way! Thank you, Bobbie. Thank you RootsWeb. Thank you Internet! * * * Young Bride's Death Haunts Researcher By Claudia J. L. Glass For some time, I have had a photo of a gravestone in my files (for my husband's family). I started working on his family within a year of marrying him in late 2000 and one of the earliest efforts I made was to located all the graves locally and take photographs of the headstones and try to find all the Interment information possible. This one picture has bothered me for at least the last three years, possibly four, ever since I snapped the photo. I never did anything about it, though, because of time constraints and because she wasn't part of any direct lines I was doing work on. She continued to bother me because she was buried in a section along with members of my husband's great-grandfather. Her name was Ora GLASS and she wasn't a sister or daughter of my husband's family, but her headstone matched the headstones of other family members and there was a bas-relief poetic inscription engraved on one side that tended to indicate she was obviously a cherished member of the family. She was born in December 1883 and she was the first wife of my husband's grandfather's older brother, Charles Orlando GLASS. She died 23 November 1901, a month or less shy of her 18th birthday. For a long time I thought her maiden name was MARTIN. The cemetery interment card showed "Lottie" and "Martin" on it as her parent's names, and it was a natural assumption because no other name was given and Martin is a common surname that I have researched in my own family. She died young, reportedly from pneumonia and had been dead over 100 years. Logic leads one to think that, having been dead so long, all the loose ends are tied up. In this case, I was wrong. One evening, with a few minutes of time on my hands while at the library, I looked up our family name in the obituary file and discovered a reference to an obituary for Ora GLASS entered on a card. As I was staring at it, it seemed to beckon to me, so on a whim I looked up the issue of the paper it was printed in. I discovered it on an inside page, printed on about 1.5 to 2 inches of column space in very small type, with a lot of ink bleed-through from the backside of the page. Her father's name was shown as Martin ALLEN. I printed off a copy to take with me. At home, I immediately went to the 1900 online census to see what was there before I got side-tracked with anything else. I found only one Ora MARTIN in Reno County, Kansas. She was living with a family, a father named Edward M. ALLEN and a mother named Lottie, during the year before her death. She was the eldest child so there were also the names of some of her siblings. Next stop was WorldConnect to see if anyone was working on her ALLEN family lineage. Eureka! There was a descendant of one of her sisters and Ora's name was listed with notes indicating she was "missing" -- where- abouts unknown, with the assumption she had died (believed to be in our state and county, but no proof to back it up). I sent a brief e-mail to the owner of the GEDCOM, asking if she was still looking for Ora and said that I thought I had found something on her. A nice young woman wrote back with a cautious memo saying, yes, she would be happy to see anything new that turned up -- but gave the impression that she didn't hold out any great hope of ever seeing anything of great interest. The next day I scanned and e-mailed the photo that had been bothering me for years, along with the copy of the interment card I had in my file, and included a copy of the obituary. A few days later, I found the funeral home that handled her services --- it still had a record of her funeral and sent it along, too. To say we both were pleased with the outcome is an understatement. The young woman to whom I sent the information was so ecstatic in her response that it brought tears to my eyes. She said her family had been looking for this "missing" sister for 104 years, never knowing for sure that she had died and totally unaware that she had married. Now they know what happened to her and where her mortal remains are located, and they know that she was loved and cared for. What better outcome can any of us wish for? I hope we all find peace in knowing she had a place in both of our families. 7. Humor/Humour: Enumerator's Editorial Comments --------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Gene M. Shuttlesworth In the extreme left margin of 1920 census for Quinton Township, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, on 20 February 1920, the enumerator, David B. Riggs wrote: "Outside of town, lovely mountain trails, Where wolves and ignorance prevail" * * * 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: 12 April 2006, Vol. 9, No. 15. * *