RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 21 June 2006, Vol. 9, No. 25 (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. 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES, AND SOME SITES WORTH SEEING NEWS: NGS-Chicago; Hefty "The Source" Available BOOK NOTES: "The Irish Kennedys" SITES: Places You Don't Want to Find Your Ancestors 1b. Tips from Readers: Ringing Your Way Around the World 1c. Using RootsWeb: Revisiting the Wild LNUs 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Encounter in Enderby Finding Birth Families Tracking Relatives Way Out West 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: Easy Way to Map Charleston Ancestors Properly Named Lawman Victorian Graves Can Solve Ancestral Puzzles Picking on Poor Editors 7. Humor/Humour: Hard Pedigrees 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING NEWS: RootsWeb appreciates the candid feedback received at the NGS- Chicago conference last week. It was our pleasure to meet many of you. Thanks for coming to the meetings and stopping by the booth. Hot off the press is the third edition of Ancestry's, "The Source" -- all 965 pages of it. This is the top reference book and guide to American genealogy. It's available (click on the Store tab) at: http://www.ancestry.com/ * * * BOOK NOTES: "The Irish Kennedys: The Story of the Rebellious O'Kennedys," by Brian Patrick Kennedy. The book traces the story of the Kennedy family from its beginnings as an obscure sept on the banks of the River Shannon through its rise to fame as the Lords of Ormond to its decline as the last of the Gaelic Chieftains and to its dispersal around the world. The book describes how the author in far-off Australia was able to trace his roots and establish his connection with "The Rebellious O'Kennedys." The author is a third-generation Australian who holds a Master of Education degree from the Queensland University of Technology and has a passion for Irish history. The 498-page paperback (second edition) can be ordered for $39 (AUD) plus postage, packing and handling at: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~gaeltach/order.htm More about the book: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~gaeltach/about.htm * * * The announcement of books and products by authors (self-published) and societies is provided as a community service and is not an endorsement in any way. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING (perhaps): Here are some sites where you don't want to find your ancestors, but might: Arizona Historical Prison Register. 100 Years of Inmate Admissions. Alphabetical listing of inmates received prior to 1972 http://www.azcorrections.gov/Historical/100Cover.htm Arkansas. Executions at Fort Smith, 1873-1896. http://www.nps.gov/fosm/history/executions/hd/index.htm Colorado State Archives. Penitentiary Photograph Collection, 1893-1980. http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/pen/photo.htm Colorado State Penitentiary Prisoner Index, 1871-1973. http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/pen/index.htm Illinois. Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index, 1870-1930. http://www.ilsos.net/GenealogyMWeb/chrisrch.html Tennessee State Library and Archives. Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1831-1850. http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/pubsvs/inmate1.htm Texas Executions Index, 1819-1982. http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/TEXAS.htm ENGLAND. Liverpool and Merseyside's life and times transcribed from old newspapers: http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/index.html Burials for St. Bartholomew's Roby to 1918: http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/stbartholomewsroby.html Ships losses for 1939 and other snippets: http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/New.html * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Ringing Your Way Around the World By Kate Johnson Twice now I have helped some people overseas looking for living relatives in the United States by directing them to http://www.dexonline.com/ In one case a fellow from Norway was able to call distant relatives he had been seeking for quite a while and have many of his questions about descendents in the U.S. answered. In the other case, a gentleman from Denmark is looking for relatives in Minnesota and it appears there may be as many as seven people listed who might be able to help him. Don't know the outcome of that yet. Obviously, this works best in cases of unusual surnames and when you know approximately where people might be, but it's still a helpful tool. It occurs to me that the newsletter might be a good way to disseminate this information. Also, I personally would love to know if perhaps there is a similar site for Europe or other countries; maybe you could ask people to submit that kind of information. [Editor's Note: Here are some links to online phone books: Phone Books of the World: http://www.phonebookoftheworld.com/ Infobel.com: http://www.infobel.com/world/ Find Phone Books (worldwide): http://www.journalismnet.com/phones/index.htm] * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Revisiting the Wild LNUs Are you spending sleepless nights prowling the Web in search of your elusive MNU and LNU ancestors? Or perhaps you've encountered them in someone's GEDCOM file on WorldConnect at RootsWeb and after doing more searches have come to the conclusion that there are many researchers out there hunting those wild and crazy LNUs. Well, it's time to let you in on one of genealogy's best kept secrets: LNU, MNU, and FNU are not real names. They are acronyms. They are: First Name Unknown (FNU), Maiden Name Unknown (MNU), and Last Name Unknown (LNU). They are first cousins to the mysterious UNK ancestors that you might have spent time tracking down until you realized that UNK was short for "unknown." Researchers have used these acronyms and other creative symbols and abbreviations for years, with little or no uniformity from file to file, to indicate the unknown or missing names we all have in our trees. The meaning of these acronyms is often unclear and can be mistaken for actual names by new -- and not so new -- genealogists. After all, we all have a few oddly spelled names in our trees, so what's a MNU or two? Be careful should you encounter any DITTO ancestors in your line. DITTO is an actual surname, but it is frequently mistaken as a surname by those reading an enumerator's "ditto" entry to denote that the name is the same as the one listed above it. (DITTO and DITTOE are Anglicized forms of a Huguenot name of unexplained etymology. The names are found in North America by 1700. Ditto also is a short form of the Italian personal name Benedetto.) All of this name confusion serves to reinforce the notion that while user-compiled genealogies are a valuable tool in research, you need to examine original records to verify or refute what the compiled records indicate. When possible, examine the original records for yourself. What can you do to make your files clear as to the abbreviation or acronyms you use to indicate any unknown given names, maiden names, or surnames? There are no perfect solutions or worldwide standards. Some compilers, especially those who use genealogy software, put a question mark to indicate that a name is not known, but this is not recommended as some creative family historians use one question mark, while others use two or three, and a ? for a name might mean one thing to you and something else to another researcher A recent unscientific search at WorldConnect http://wc.rootsweb.com/ revealed the following are being used as names in family trees: Unknown -- 4,503,884 LNU/Lnu -- 34,309 UNK/Unk -- 64,406 FNU -- 274 MNU/Mnu -- 6,942 ?? -- 112,740 ??? -- 190,233 ___ (underscores of variable lengths) -- 7,450 - (one hyphen) -- 8.839 MRS/Mrs (as a given name or part of) -- 862,644 (our poor lost ladies with no names of their own) [--?--] (the correct way to indicate an unknown name since genealogy software will not render em dashes) -- 56,483 Obviously there is no standard for indicating that a name is not known -- hence the confusion. The search even turned up an ancestor by the name of Unk FNU -- with FNU probably used as an acronym for Family Name Unknown. Not surprisingly there was no birth date or place for her and one wonders why such information is even included. Unknown maiden names should be indicated by using square brackets with a single em dash (or two hyphens, if the software, typesetting or word- processing programs will not accept or use em dashes), or use a question mark amid the em dashes -- e.g. Catherine [--] or Catherine [--?--]. The same format can be used when the given name is unknown or in doubt. The latter happens sometimes when you learn your female ancestor married someone whose surname is known, but not his given name. Such references can be recorded as [--?--] Smith. Some of the popular genealogy soft- ware has to be forced to use this format. In formal genealogical writing, the English tradition of putting a woman's maiden name in parentheses -- Elizabeth (Smith) Jones -- is commonly used by many genealogists. Therefore nicknames should not be put in parentheses, but rather enclosed in quotation marks. Example: Catherine "Cathy" [--?--] Jones. Again, your genealogy software program may or may not handle nicknames in this format or might require some tweaking. For those female ancestors with middle names that might be (or mistaken for) surnames, such as Mary Morgan Kirby, it is important to indicate that Kirby is her maiden name. If her nickname was Polly, and she married a Smith her name should be recorded so that in a family history publication it appears as: Mary "Polly" Morgan (Kirby) Smith. Remember you do not have to fill in every field in your genealogy software. If you do not know the given or maiden name of a woman, either leave the field blank or use [--?--]. Her given name is never MRS. and certainly not Mrs. King Henry VIII of England. Using acronyms or various symbols when names are unknown is not a good idea because you want to make it clear that the name is unknown (not that you overlooked it or neglected to enter it in the software). You do not want to muddy the waters and send others and generations of future researchers on an endless and futile search for the wild LNU. Don't put your cousins in the position of having to ask "Which Mrs. Thomas Smith is she?" Or "What's MNU? and who is Unk FNU? * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * GET HELP WITH YOUR BRITISH GENEALOGY BRITISH ANCESTORS 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. 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CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Encounter in Enderby By Peter Blackwell, Ph.D. Recently my wife and I spent a wonderful week in Leicestershire, UK, doing some family research in the Arnesby/Enderby area from whence the BLACKWELLS and MARGETTS left in 1857 for Tasmania. We gathered much from cemeteries and a host of record depositories, especially the archives office in Wigston. We arrived in Enderby on a Sunday afternoon and tracked down the old Independent church where the MARGETTS had been members. I noticed that there was a service scheduled for 4 p.m. in the new church next door so we decided to attend. Of course, the congregation wondered why a couple of foreigners (an American and an Australian) were there and when we explained, people said we must talk with an older gentleman who was sure to be able to help us. This wonderful man immediately mentioned that there was a Bible that had been presented by the family as they left for Tasmania, which we photographed, especially the flyleaf inscription. He then insisted that we walk with him down to the parish church cemetery where he knew where the various family members were buried. His hospitality was further extended as we were invited to his home where his wife had a simple, but wonderful, meal ready, served on Beatrix Potter plates. As we shared our interests he noted that we had a complete picture of the census data. "When you go the archives office tomorrow," he advised, "ask for the tithe map and the book. That will tell you where they all lived." Indeed, by the next afternoon we had a complete record of the homes and farms of all the family members for 1851. The archives office also made a copy of the map which they sent to my home in the U.S. on a CD. Meeting this gentleman made the short week we had so much more productive than we could ever have planned. * * * Finding Birth Families By Margaret McCleskey in Arlington, Texas Last month while attending my grandson's Little League baseball game, I saw a friend who I had not seen in several years. Her grandson was on the opposing team. We struck up a conversation and she happened to mention that she was looking for her birth mother. She had already done some "leg work" finding her adoption papers. I told her that if she would share the information that she had with me I could probably find what she wanted to know. Using information from the adoption papers, I tried to find the mother on the census records, but had no luck. I posted a query on a RootsWeb's surname message board. Shortly, I received information that the birth father had been killed in an automobile accident. That information led us to Wichita Falls, Texas, where my friend's daughter was attending college. The daughter went to the library there and found a newspaper account of the accident. Using my genealogy program and Ancestry.com, I found a marriage license for a man with the same name as the birth father in Cooke County, Texas. Was this a son? My friend got a copy of that marriage license. I then began looking for this man and, finding nothing, started looking for the wife. Again, using my genealogy program and Ancestry.com, I found a possibility living in Massachusetts. On a hunch, I called this woman and learned that she was now the ex-wife, but still had contact with the family. She offered to contact the family for me. My friend soon had an e-mail from a half sister and learned that she also had a half brother and that her mother and grandmother were still alive. All are living in Oklahoma. Last week, my friend made a trip to Oklahoma and met the entire family including mother and grandmother. We learned that the surname that the mother had used on the adoption papers was the name of a man to whom she had been married for a very brief period of time before marrying the father. I had seen a family tree on RootsWeb that seemed to fit, but had a surname that I didn't know about. I later learned that name was the mother's birth name and have since found many ancestors for her. * * * 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. OKLAHOMA. Cotton County. Temple Masonic Cemetery. 2,741 records; Lori Mooney Hedges http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ United States. Spanish-American War. Medals of Honor. 112 records; Margaret L. Busteed 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 BLOCHER. Other surnames: BOTTORFF, BROVONT, ROYER, and SAXTON. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~elblocher/ COFFIN. "My Coffin Roots." Descendants of Isaac COFFIN and Anna CHURCHILL of Dutchess County, New York. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mycoffinroots/ 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/~xxxxxx [accountname] AUSTRALIA auscdhs -- Casino and District Historical Society BELGIUM belufgs -- Union of Flemish Genealogical Societies ITALY itabenev -- Benevento Province itacaser -- Caserta Province itanapol -- Napoli Province itasaler -- Salerno Province itasener -- Senerchia Province U.S.A. catcudc -- Taya Cline (California) Chapter UDC fldcdar -- DeSoto (Florida) Chapter DAR insjca -- St. John's Cemetery Association (Indiana) maccambr -- Cambridge (city, Massachusetts) nycportb -- Village of Port Bryon (New York) ohcemet2 -- Ohio Cemeteries ohsandu2 -- Sandusky County (Ohio) orbpcdar -- Belle Passi (Oregon) Chapter DAR winahs -- Niagara Area Historical Society (Wisconsin) Key: DAR--Daughters of the American Revolution UDC--United Daughters of the Confederate * * * 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 29,800 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ No new mailing lists were created this week. 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Easy Way to Map Charlestown Ancestors By Mary Bergin On a recent trip to the Boston area I decided to search the state archives for my husband's great-grandmother's family. The family lore was that she was born at the base of Bunker Hill. I knew only her name and wanted to find out more about other family members. After spending three fruitful days in the Massachusetts State Archives I found many of the birth, marriage, and death records of her family. I then cross-referenced my new findings to immigration records and the census records of 1860, 1870, and 1880. Everything was coming together great. With only one day left in Boston, I wanted to find the house and street where they lived in Charlestown, but the current maps did not show Boe Street anywhere. A quick trip back to the archives to try and find maps from the 1880s for Charlestown was not successful. The staff suggested I try the Boston Library. It was now the end of the day and although I was able to find a book containing an old map with Boe Street on it, I also found out the street no longer existed due to the restructuring of major roads in the area. The closest I was going to get to Boe Street was a photocopy of a small map of the area. That night we stayed at the airport hotel and over dinner I was recapping to my husband my findings about his family. We then went to our hotel room and to my great surprise, there on the wall was a large framed print of the very map of Charlestown I had been searching for all day. My digital camera took an excellent copy of the picture map on the wall. If only I would have known earlier, I could have shopped all day! * * * Properly Named Lawman By Frances Willess My favorite nominee for proper name for the job is Lester GUNN, who was first deputy sheriff and then sheriff of Bell County, Texas for many years. * * * Victorian Graves Can Solve Ancestral Puzzles By Frances Lee There seems to be a widespread opinion that it is really not worth the bother to search out Victorian graves in Britain as unless they are wealthy there is no gravestone for the ordinary man in the street just a note of where their plot was on the records. Well, in spite of this I asked a cousin of mine if he could search for some BOGG relatives in Woolwich. He did so and found one grave with the BOGG name on it that led me to more than I expected. The name he found was John Edward BOGG. He didn't know who it was but I did. It was my great-grandfather's (John Glenville BOGG's) first born son from his first marriage. His first two wives died of T.B. However, to my surprise, also buried in the grave was Robert FIELD. I had never heard the name FIELD associated with our family before so I wondered who he was. My cousin found that the grave plot had been bought between Robert FIELD and Mary BOGG. So there was a connection but who was she? John BOGG's first wife had been Mary BOGG but she had died before this plot had been bought. As Robert FIELD's death was after the 1901 census I looked him up on it and there he was living with his niece Mary FIELD. Was she Mary BOGG? Well, that didn't help much so then I looked on the previous census where his wife Ellen FIELD was still living with the niece Mary FIELD. Still didn't help. So then I looked on the earlier census still. There was Robert FIELD and Ellen FIELD with niece Mary -- only this time she is Mary BOGG aged 5! So whose child is she and what is the connection between the families? So now I look on the earlier census still even though I know Mary won't have been born yet. Living with the family is Elizabeth McCARTHY. Suddenly everything is clear. Mary nee McCARTHY was John Glenville BOGG's first wife. She was also the mother of John Edward BOGG. Mary had a sister Ellen McCARTHY who had married Robert FIELD. Another sister was Elizabeth McCARTHY. I hadn't known of the existence of little Mary BOGG (later FIELD) because she was not born on the 1871 census and the 1881 census just shows her father John Glenville BOGG, widower, with his three sons and no daughters. It seems that although John Glenville BOGG, widower, kept his sons who were school age, Mary was too little and needed more care and so what could be more natural than that she would be given to a childless couple in the family -- Robert and Ellen FIELD? Probably she was put in their care before her mother's death and by the time she did die she thought of her uncle and aunt as her parents and it would have been cruel to uproot her. Were it not for this grave I would never have been aware of little Mary's existence or not at least for some time when I had got around to finding out who all the McCARTHY girls married. So ignore people who say it's not worth looking for Victorian graves. Even if there is no headstone, records should show who bought the plot and it might just tell you something you hadn't expected. * * * Picking on Poor Editors By John A. McCall I found a birth notice excerpted from the Hickman Courier in Fulton County, Kentucky and chuckled as I read it. Turning Back the Clock -- Hickman Courier-- 6 March 1930 A young son, born to Mr. and Mrs. Carsey Chaney on Feb. 13th. I wondered what other type of baby would be born to the couple. An old one perhaps? 7. Humor/Humour: Hard Pedigrees ----------------------------- Thanks to: Julie Richards While commenting to a young co-worker about how much I disliked my job, I told her that I would really like to pursue my favorite pastime professionally. She asked what that pastime was and I said, "Genealogy. Do you know what that is?" She said, "Well, yes! That's so cool! But, isn't it hard remembering all the names of the different types of rocks and stuff?" * * * Found an amusing entry in census, parish, church records or a humorous genealogy-related sign or a "proper name for the job"? 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 and please include your full name and e-mail address in the text. * * * 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: 21 June 2006, Vol. 9, No. 25. * * * *