RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 28 June 2006, Vol. 9, No. 26 (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 Vintage True-Crime Magazines BOOK NOTES: Great-great-grandpa Found at Golf Course SITES: Global Gazette Looks at "Women in Revolutionary War" 1b. Tips from Readers: Exploring Spelling Variants 1c. Using RootsWeb: Finding Ancestors in the American Revolution 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Tracing Verinder's Family 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: Wishing for Wishie A Special Father's Day Gift Dealing with Spelling Problems Initial Confusion Geographical Solutions Heavenly Pedigree Answers But Officer, We're Family! Grandpa's Memory Lapse Guarding Hard Drives 7. Humor/Humour: Out of the Mouth of Babes 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING Vintage True-Crime Magazines: An Untapped Goldmine Dedicated genealogists are relentless when seeking facts on our families. We want to be thorough and consider every source available, even the obscure and unconventional. Oftentimes the history of a family has been impacted by crime, whether a relative was victim or perpetrator. The era of the true-crime magazines has virtually ended. Yet those countless articles that first came into print more than 80 years ago are a unique, untapped goldmine for family historians. See article at: http://www.genealogymagazine.com/crime.html * * * BOOK NOTES: Great-Great-Grandpa Found at Golf Course "Raking the Ashes," by Nancy Simons Peterson (222-page paperback), is a research book of interest to anyone doing genealogical research in California and San Francisco. Just released, it is available from the California Genealogical Society (http://www.calgensoc.org/) for $19.95. Following a trail of clues in the public records, it became clear that the author's earliest California forebear, a pioneer arriving in San Francisco in 1847, now rests with other early settlers under putting greens and fairways at Lincoln Park Municipal Golf Course. When her great-great-grandpa died in 1849, he was buried in the old North Beach Cemetery. His body was moved later by family members to Yerba Buena Cemetery and eventually relocated to Golden Gate Cemetery, which once lay adjoining the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Some time later a few of the remains in Golden Gate Cemetery were removed, headstones dumped into nearby waters, and the grounds converted to a golf course -- leaving thousands of bodies lying there under the turf, unmarked and unhonored. Almost no records remain to identify the bodies of these earliest pioneers. It is not an unusual story in San Francisco history. The author pursued the trail of clues in records to search for her ancestor and subsequently conducted a comprehensive survey of San Francisco's extant sources and records lost. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: GLOBAL GAZETTE: "Women of the American Revolution," by Shirley Gage Hodges, discusses the importance of learning about the roles and history of women on both sides of armed conflicts. http://globalgazette.net/ * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Exploring Spelling Variants By Robert Thullner of Austrian heritage This is to let others know that there may be another spelling for GUENZER or KUENZER -- and that is QUENZER. The surname of QUENZER is very common in Campbell County and the community of Herreid located in South Dakota. * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Finding Ancestors in the American Revolution Those who grew up in America may recall how bored we often became in our American history classes. Remember how disconnected those long-ago events about which we were reading seemed from our everyday lives? What we read about in history books seemed so distant -- until we became interested in tracing our family history. Then, suddenly, instead of boring names and dates and dry facts about famous people whose pictures stared back at us from the pages of textbooks, the events of the past that shaped America, began to take on a more human form -- a form that directly impacted on our lives and helped to shape the person we were to become. Suddenly we found ourselves asking questions. What were our ancestors doing during this or that period in history? Where were they living? How did those historical events affect them? Were they for or against the Revolution? It usually comes as a surprise to new genealogists that they might have had ancestors who took part in the American Revolution. However, we realize as we learn the names of our ancestors, the era during which they lived, and the places they inhabited, that they were a vital living part of history. It is not just the George WASHINGTONs and General LAFAYETTEs who took part in the history-making events unfolding around them -- it was the ordinary people, like our ancestors, as well. http://www.americanrevolution.org/home.html Perhaps some of your ancestors served in an active military role during the American Revolution (1775-1783) while others might have supplied troops with food and shelter or manufactured wagons or weapons. Was your ancestor with General Washington the night they snowy night they crossed the Delaware River? Or were they with him at Valley Forge in 1777-1778? http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/ Or you may descend from more recent immigrants who came to this country in search of a better life. No matter which of these categories describe the path that led your ancestors to become Americans, through the study of family history we also learn about their part in America's history. RootsWeb offers many resources to help you discover and discuss the role of your ancestors played in American history. For example, if you would like to learn more about mailing lists for discussion of historical and genealogical issues related to the American Revolution, and browse, search, and post a message on mailing lists and message boards related to the discussion of the American Revolution, see: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Military:_US_Revolution/ http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.military.amerrev Perhaps you would like to search the various American Revolutionary War records that have been submitted to the RootsWeb User-contributed databases located here: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/military/ (Select American Revolution as the war you wish to search.) Researching the role of your ancestors in the events that helped to shape America can add to the sense of patriotic pride as the nation prepares to celebrate another birthday this 4th of July. Today in History: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul04.html * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * WOW! (Internet Genealogy) is stupendous . . . Internet Genealogy is a real asset . . . This new product fills a real need for researchers and is well worth checking out! . . . I'll go out on a limb and say that Internet Genealogy will soon become the most widely read genealogy magazine . . .  You've come up with a winning product . . . I am very impressed! The articles are excellent . . . Thanks! You've done a splendid job on the inaugural issue . . . I absolutely LOVE the first issue! . . . It is just wonderful. These are all real comments about Internet Genealogy. See what people are raving about at: http://internet-genealogy.com/IG_subsRW.htm * * * 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/ or join us OCTOBER 23-27 for our sixth Salt Lake City Research Trip -- the ideal genealogy vacation! * * * FREE $10 gift card with your $50 order Save now, save even more later with this special offer: FREE $10 gift card with your $50 merchandise order. Shop our values for women, men and home. Shop clearance buys, too, at up to 70 percent off. Plus enjoy 99-cent shipping -- each item, online only. http://microurl.com/383028134 * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Tracing Verinder's Family By Robyn Gross Wodonga in Australia On 25 November 2000 I posted a message on the VERINDER board at RootsWeb along with others on the DAVIS and DAVIES board and numerous other boards for England and Wales as I began to attempt to solve the mystery of my grandmother's ancestry. Over the next five years I slowly gathered bits of oral family history from my mother but all other relations in Australia were dead and I had no contacts in Wales or England to further my efforts. VERRINDER researches assisted with 1881 and 1891 census information, which gave me some background, and they were also able to assist with my grandmother's birth certificate and her parents' marriage certificate. But all other searches ended at a brick wall. The 31st of January 2006 proved to be a breakthrough when I received an e-mail from Sue Coleman in Scotland enquiring if I was the Robyn Gross looking for relatives of Verinder DAVIES. I e-mailed that I was and by return e-mail I learned that her mother-in-law (Trudi COLEMAN nee DAVIES) was my mother's cousin. She was the daughter of my grandmother Verinder's older brother William Henry James DAVIES who was named after his father. Sue and I exchanged information. Sue was compiling an album on her family history to present to Trudi as she was to fly out to Australia at the end of May to celebrate her 79th birthday with her brother Frederick DAVIES who lived in Brisbane. Now my mother had two living cousins and both would be in Australia at the same time if more than 1,600 kilometers away (1,000 miles). This was an opportunity too good to be missed. I booked into the same resort that they were to be staying and at the end of May I drove my mother up to Brisbane to meet her cousins for the first time. Trudi traveled to Australia with two of her children and her niece. Only one son and her niece knew we were going to be there, so it was a complete surprise for everyone else when we were introduced. My mother and I discovered that her Brisbane family had two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. We were fortunate enough to meet all but two members of their family. What made the reunion amazing was the instant recognition of family traits particularly a wicked sense of humour and a sense of always having known each other. It was a rich emotional week, which had to come to an end as we departed back to our hometowns, but not after having exchanged addresses, phone and e-mail contacts. In the meantime Sue is continuing her research in the UK as we pool what we are gathering. Even now we know that there is another descendant trying to find more about this family as there has been entries of my great-grandparents' family members in familysearch.org made by a member! We can only hope that they find RootsWeb soon. * * * 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/ PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia. Greenmount Cemetery. 8 records; John Griffiths http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ OKLAHOMA. Cotton County. Temple Masonic Cemetery. 2,741 records; Lori Mooney Hedges http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ 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 SAMPSON. The Pilgrim Henry SAMSON Kindred (PHSK) has updated its online Abraham SAMPSON (Duxbury, Massachusetts, circa 1638) Descendants Report. The updated version now totals 789 pages, the final of 88 pages of which are an all-name index. The report was assembled from the PHSK’s Abraham SAMPSON source database, which now includes information about 13,418 individuals connected to Abraham directly or collaterally. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~henrysamsonkindred/ 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] U.S.A. alcgs -- Canebrake Genealogical Society (Alabama) cawavhs -- West Antelope Valley Historical Society (California) fljccdar -- John Call (Florida) Chapter DAR mscemet2 -- Mississippi Cemeteries nystcusd -- Southern Tier (New York) Chapter USD Key: DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution USD -- US Daughters of the War of 1812 * * * 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wishing for Wishie By Randy Campise My grandfather, Simone, only mentioned one sister and two brothers. I had heard he had other sisters but no one seemed to know their names. Without too much effort I found a sister who was born in 1902 and died in 1920 possibly in childbirth. The 1910 census record showed six children including a daughter named "Wishie" who was 10 on that census. I could not find her in 1920 or 1930. I assumed she had either died or was married. I knew that by 1942 only four children were alive -- per my great-grandfather's naturalization record. The family was from Sicily and had strict naming patterns. The oldest daughter was always named for the father's mother. In this case that would mean there would have been a daughter named "Vincenza" who would have died by 1900. A second daughter was named "Lula" after the mother's mother. In my search for "Wishie" I wrote down every marriage in Brazos County, Texas that included my surname. Fortunately, most of these are at least remotely related to my line. I found a 1916 marriage of a Vincenza CAMPISI to a Pietrus SCANNALIATO. It made me think that maybe there was a newborn named after a deceased sibling. I had not seen that within my family before and thought it was only done with consecutive siblings. Since there was already another daughter named after the mother's mother the usual pattern was to start naming children after the parents' siblings. It did not occur to me that they would have gone backwards. Anyway, going through the index for the 1920 census I remembered that the name SCANDALIATO was often shortened to SCANLIN, so I searched that surname and found a Pete SCANLIN living in Fort Bend County, Texas. Since "Wishie" was born about 1900 she would have been about 16 when she got married and should be about 20 in 1920. I was delighted to find his wife, age 19 named Jennie. This is because Vincenza often became Virginia and Jennie for short. I had been putting off ordering a death certificate, partly because of the expense and partly because at some county clerk's offices they require direct line lineage to the person regardless of how long they had been deceased. I had once been prevented from getting a great-aunt's death certificate because she was not a parent or grandparent, etc. Anyway, I fudged on the form and put that Jennie Campesi SCANLIN was my grandmother. Sure enough it verified that she was my grandfather's sister. She died in 1937 of arsenic poisoning. So "Wishie" was a nickname for Vincenza or Virginia. The irony is that a few weeks later I found her obituary in the Houston Chronicle (newspaper) and it named my grandfather as her brother and my great-grandparents as her parents. * * * A Special Father's Day Gift By Ronald and Joan (O’Connor) Straube in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, USA In May of 2005, my wife, Joan and I traveled to Ireland to do among other things genealogical research. After spending two days in Dublin at the National Library, we traveled to Ballinasloe, County Galway, where according to a gravestone in Jersey City, New Jersey, one Sarah MANNION, was born in 1809 in the nearby village of Ballinamore Bridge. Sarah had married John O’CONNOR who presumably died in Ireland after fathering four children. One of those children was the cousin of my wife’s father and helped to raise him after his parents died when he was just a boy. We met John O’CONNOR and wife, Pat, at their home in Ballinamore Bridge and we think we may be distantly related. They mentioned that there were still MANNIONs in the area and we should stop at St. Mary’s RC Church in Ballygar -- a short distance away -- to check the church records. They said Father Sean BEIRNE was the parish priest whom they knew and to mention their name. Father BEIRNE was indeed helpful. We found a Sabina MANNION, born 1806, in the records. Sabina’s parents were the same as Sarah’s so she may have been an older sister. Although this was the only record we found in Ballygar, we felt our visit was successful by meeting the O’CONNORs and finding a church record. Fast-forward to Boston, Massachusetts on Father’s Day, June 18, 2006. My daughter, Kristen, wife, and I settled in at the outdoor patio of the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel overlooking the harbor for an afternoon drink. Our waitress had a name tag that was unusual to me in that it had the person’s full name and country. That prompted my asking where she was from in Ireland. To my utter surprise, she responded, "Ballygar." . This led to a shortened version of the above story as she was busy with other customers. When she returned with our order, I asked her if she knew Father Sean BEIRNE and she replied with a glowing smile, "he is our parish priest." I am still not over calculating the chance things that happened over the past year to bring us all to the moment on a patio in Boston where we recounted the happy memory of Father Sean BEIRNE of St. Mary’s Parish in Ballygar, County Galway, Ireland. This chance encounter was truly a Father’s Day gift and a celebration of the small world in which we live. * * * Dealing with Spelling Problems By Kathleen Frye Our family name is CARRIZAL.I couldn't find my ancestors listed on the 1920 U.S. Census for Texas, yet I knew they had emigrated from Mexico to Texas in 1916. I obtained the appropriate Soundex microfilm from our local Family History Center. While scanning the film I found some given names that sounded a bit familiar. The census information is listed as follows with the correct names in parentheses: Neysbus Carisal (Carrizal, Nieves) Cirnelio (Cornelia) Jchnetts (Juanita) Mary (Maria) Pory (Piedad) Avelon (Odillon) Eliro (Hilario) Feolitirre (Faustino) Megebus B (Carrizal, Baldomiano) Mosia (Maria) Patrits (Petra) Stren (Esteban) Lusia (Luz) Cerisal Netesi (Carrizal, Natividad) * * * Initial Confusion By Ron Johnson While reading the name spelling snafus I was reminded of a humorous story I read in a magazine some years ago. As I recall this gentleman was working for the government. He did not have a first or middle name. He only used the initials R. B. So his name was R. B. JONES. The government, in its typical bureaucratic fashion, insisted that he list his name as R(only) B(only) JONES. It should be no surprise that when he received his paycheck it was made out to: Ronly Bonly JONES. * * * Where's Peter Pan? By Fran Bolton I found these amusing neighbors in the 1850 Smith County, Texas census, Family No. 598: Tinkle Family No. 599: Bell * * * Geographical Solutions By Sue Schlack Moravian Church Genealogy Links: http://www.enter.net/~smschlack/ My MIESS ancestor gave his birthplace as "Berghausen" and tombstone reads "Wirtenberg." I have found that http://www.expedia.com is great for European place names. Berghausen in Europe yields 15 results -- in two different countries and five German states. The driving distance between points also helps to narrow things down. * * * Heavenly Pedigree Answers By Warren Aney in Tigard, Oregon, USA Any student of the Bible should know that all Saint Peter will probably check is your particular list of "begats" -- you know, John Doe begat James Doe who begat Randy Doe, etc. -- preferably going all the way back to Noah and Adam. And, of course, if your list isn't complete you will be able to finish it after gaining entrance because you will be able to personally interview your ancestors (except maybe those black sheep members that the family doesn't like to talk about -- or maybe they'll be there and the judgmental ones will be missing). * * * But Officer, We're Family! By Celia Ewald My nephew is a New York City highway patrolman. One day he stopped a man for speeding and asked for his license. Noting the man’s surname was PYNN, and knowing that I was researching that surname for his grandmother (my mother), my nephew mentioned his grandmother’s name and asked if the man was related? The man claimed to find the name familiar and said he knew he had some relatives in Brooklyn that he hadn't met. He gave my nephew his father’s telephone number who then passed it on to me. This little encounter opened a whole new branch to my research. It seems my granduncle had a first wife with whom he had four children that I wasn't aware of. This man gave me the name of my granduncle’s first wife, which enabled me to find him in a census where I couldn't find him before because I only knew the name of his second wife. It solved another mystery too. When I had gone to the Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn and found my great-grandparents' burial site, there was a Florence PYNN, age four, buried with them. I did’t know who that could be but figured it had to be family. Turns out she was the first-born of my granduncle and his first wife. Also, in finding out the names of his children with first wife, I then looked for the children’s names in the 1920 and 1930 censuses and found that wife No. 1 had remarried after 1907 but was widowed shortly thereafter. But, I still haven’t found them in the 1910 census. * * * Grandpa's Memory Lapse By June Castorena My father Jones Edward TAYLOR, born 1 March 1912 in L'Anse, Michigan, was in a logging accident 3 August 1941 and died 5 August 1941 in Munsing, Michigan. I sent for his birth and death certificates. The birth certificate came, but I was informed there was no such person in the death records. I called and the woman told me they had no James or Jones TAYLOR listed. They did have an Alexander Edward TAYLOR born and died on those dates. When I received the death certificate, it showed that his father claimed his body and had filled in the information. His other two sons were twins, Raymond and Russell. Where he (my grandfather) got the name Alexander I'll never know. * * * Guarding Hard Drives By Rick Van Dusen The RootsWeb Review readers will probably want to be aware of a problem recently highlighted on MSN. A computer user had a defective hard drive replaced under warranty and six months later, he received a phone call: "I have your hard drive." Yes, with all the personal information still intact. Folks, it's up to us to protect our data. If you're going to let a drive out of your possession, use a utility on it to destroy, mutilate, and obliterate all your personal data. (Note: Deleting is not enough, not even a good start.) If your computer is broken and you can't wipe your own drive, insist that the repair facility wipe it, even if you have to pay them extra. Let's keep our personal data safe. 7. Humor/Humour: Out of the Mouth of Babes --------------------------------------- Thanks to: Stephen Fox, who writes: While performing a page-by-page examination of Cherokee County in the 1875 Kansas state census, I happened to notice an entry where the occupation was given as "sucker." I was immediately interested in determining if this was some odd occupation I had never heard of or just a very gullible citizen. Luckily I didn't have to go farther than the name: "Baby Johnson." * * * Thanks to Anonia Ciesluk, who says: My favorite was the entry I found while looking through pages of the 1870 Georgia census. Listed where name, sex, age, and occupation were: Baby, F, 1/12, sucking. Being a mom I had to chuckle. * * * 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 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: 28 June 2006, Vol. 9, No. 26. * * * *