RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 30 August 2006, Vol. 9, No. 35 (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: WorldConnect Post-ems Requirements BOOK NOTES: Palm Beach County, Florida SITES: St. Louis Catholic Cemeteries; Alaska's Shipwrecks; Gulf of Mexico Historic Shipwrecks 1b. Tips from Readers: Following the Waterways 1c. Using RootsWeb: Sharing Your Recent Genealogical Finds 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Correspondence Resumed; Roundabout Way to Ancestral Village in Bavaria 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: Bound for Australia 7. Humor/Humour: All Points Bulletin 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING NEWS: WorldConnect Post-ems You may have noticed that Post-em notes in WorldConnect now require that you register and that you enter a security word in the box before it will be posted. While a bit inconvenient, this step has become necessary because the porn advertisers and other spammers had started using post- ems on WorldConnect. Registration in My Accounts is free. If you already have a board login or Ancestry login in, please login to My Accounts with that usercode instead of creating a new account. * * * BOOK NOTES: Palm Beach County (Florida) Genealogical Society has compiled and produced three local municipal cemetery indexes. Each includes a short history of the cemetery and map of same; all 8.5x11 hardcover. Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, Index of Burials, Sept. 1903-Sept. 1987. 178 pages, $20, plus $4 postage. The Municipal Cemeteries of Lake Worth, Florida, Index of Burials, 1923-1997. 350 pages, $30, plus $4 postage. Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach, Florida, Index of Burials, Jan. 1905-Dec. 1994. 412 pages, $35, plus $4 postage. Order from Palm Beach County Genealogical Society, P. O. Box 1746, West Palm Beach, FL 33402. * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: 15 Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (Missouri) http://www.stlcathcem.com/historical.aspx Burial Search http://www.stlcathcem.com/iSearch.aspx Shipwrecks off Alaska's Coast http://www.mms.gov/alaska/ref/ships/index.htm Historic Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/regulate/environ/archaeological/shipwrecks.html * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Following the Waterways By Frank D. Taylor Jr. I appreciated the comments in the last two editions of the "RootsWeb Review" on changing county boundaries. I wanted to share my own observations on this point about the kind of confusion it can generate and point out a useful tool in detecting errors of this type. I have been researching several families in late 1700s North Carolina and encountered accounts by some researchers indicating they moved gradually west from Anson County to Mecklenburg County to what was then Tryon County and later became Rutherford County. Other researchers had contradictory accounts that turned out to be more accurate, but without knowing who was right, I was looking at a confusing set of narratives. A glance at a modern map shows this supposed moved as quite a trek, with major differences in culture and climate as well. But I found a way to chart their moves more accurately than just looking at the political boundaries, which we obviously know were shifting during this era. First, I looked more closely at the primary sources, especially the land records, which were not difficult to find at the library in Charlotte. Second, I became better acquainted with the real lay of the land that is described in the land records. Since I had the luxury of living nearby, I took day trips to the two sites I could pinpoint, and got a first-hand glimpse at these areas. The most crucial feature that some American researchers tend to overlook, I think, is waterways. Anyone has spent much time with old deeds or other descriptions of property in old records knows that everything is set down in terms of the nearby waterways. In this case, I found that my families had only migrated once within the state and the move wasn't one of the ones indicated by the record in the political boundaries. Yes, they lived in each of these counties, but that was because Mecklenburg was created from Anson and Tryon was created from Mecklenburg. During the American Revolution, the British governor for whom Tryon was named was so unpopular that it was renamed and broken into two new counties -- Lincoln and Rutherford. My families were located, in the 1760s and perhaps a bit earlier, on the South Fork of the Catawba River, which was within each of the counties I've named as the political boundaries shifted, except for Rutherford. And Rutherford was the one county I could place them in for certain at the end of this period of supposed migration. The contradictory accounts I mentioned above placed these families in a community called Sunshine on Roberson Creek in Rutherford County. The early deeds referred to this as a large meadow adjacent to a mountain on the first large creek of the Second Broad River above a certain Indian trail. And visiting the site, I saw that this was precisely correct (although the Indian trail is no longer in evidence). But the South Fork site, important as the place these families first settled in North Carolina and as the likely place to look for missing names of spouses, turns out to be in the other half of old Tryon, which became Lincoln County after the split. It looks like some of their land is still in southern Lincoln County, though some of it may be in northern Gaston County, which was created in the 1800s. So the one move they made within North Carolina was within one county -- Tryon, something that the political boundaries didn't show, but the acquiring and selling of land along two different waterways did. I strongly recommend to anyone who encounters confusion in the accounts of other family researchers to hit the primary records and pay especially close attention to waterways. * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Sharing Your Recent Genealogical Finds Your summer vacation might not have been a white-water rafting trip, a week at the seashore, or a mountain cabin getaway. For many genealogists summer vacation means cross-country trips to ancestral villages, walking old cemeteries, and, instead of cooling off beside a swimming pool, you cool off by descending the stairs into the deep recesses of courthouse basements searching among dusty old will books and deeds. If you were lucky you have made a few new discoveries this summer -- a deed that settled 4th-great-grandfather Archibald COX's estate and also proved that your 3rd-great-grandfather Simeon COX was indeed the youngest son of Archibald as you had suspected for years. Trudging through an old abandoned cemetery by the edge of the county highway where a Methodist Church once stood, you found the birth and death dates you'd been missing for grandaunt Lydia WOOD and her husband Joseph. Those now documented dates were previously blanks in your GEDCOM on WorldConnect (http://wc.rootsweb.com/) and you didn't dare add Archibald COX to the family tree with only the hint that he could be Simeon's father. Several queries that you have posted on the message boards at RootsWeb (http://boards.rootsweb.com/) now are obsolete as you have learned the answers that filled the gaping holes in your family tree. Of course, every answer leads to new questions and new generations to seek. Now, while all of the summer discoveries are fresh in your mind, it is time to post an update to your old message board query, listing all the new data you have learned and adding whatever new queries to which you now seek answers. Open your genealogy program and add the new data to your family tree and upload the new GEDCOM to WorldConnect to replace the existing file. Start on the main WorldConnect page and click on START HERE and access the Set-up page for your old GEDCOM by using your original usercode and password. Put new life into your research by bringing all your online data up-to- date. Your student days of writing an essay on "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" may be well behind you, but you can still show the world (and other interested researchers) what you learned about your family history on your recent trips. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * For a limited time, RootsWeb Review readers can now subscribe to Internet Genealogy for a special rate of $22 for one year -- a saving of $6 off the regular $28 rate. Visit http://internet-genealogy.com/ to subscribe today! Also, download a complete, FREE issue of Internet Genealogy! This issue is available only online. It contains the same great features and articles that you would find in our printed edition such as: German Research using the Internet; a case study on Madison Davis; City Directories online; Remarkable Research Resources; Forensic Genealogy and much more. Download this Extra Issue from http://internet-genealogy.com/ * * * 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. For a FREE! no-obligation research assessment visit http://www.britishancestors.com/ For help in finding ancestors from the USA/Canada, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, request a FREE! initial e-mail consultation from http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/rwr/ or join us OCTOBER 23-27 for our Sixth Salt Lake City Research Trip -- the ideal genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Correspondence Resumed By Peter Schuck in Encino, California, USA This is the story of a genealogical case that I've been working for the past four years or so. Well, in truth, I had begun to work it in the late 1960s and pretty much left it alone after the early 1970s -- until I came in online contact with a distant relation in Belleville, Illinois. This city is across the river from St. Louis, Missouri, where my paternal family has lived since the 1860s. My relative, Ned SIEGEL, had seen some of my postings on a message board at a particular genealogical website in re my SCHUCK ancestry of Obermoschel in the Rhenish Palatinate (Germany) and got in touch, as he too has SCHUCKS of this little city in his background. We were ultimately able to link up our Obermoscheler lines back in the 18th century, but what was totally ironic is the fact that in the course of our communications, it came out how we share ancestry in the Palatine city of Schifferstadt as well; this is where my great-grandmother SCHUCK, Maria Felicitas née SATTEL, was born. We've since come to understand that between them, St. Louis and Belleville received quite a few Schifferstadter and Moscheler emigrants during the latter 19th century. Backtracking a bit, I had learned the names of my great-great- grandparents SATTEL from the Schifferstadt registrar, as well as the fact that great-grandmother had a younger sister who had died in childhood prior to Maria Felicitas’ coming to America, but he was never able to provide me death data concerning the second great-grandparents. I visited his office in 1970 and obtained some additional information re the preceding generation from him at that time. One might imagine, though, my surprise when, visiting with my local second cousin the SCHUCK family plot at a Saint Louis cemetery in 1972, I observed their names and death dates inscribed on the large headstone there -- obviously, they had accompanied great-grandmother to the States. I later came to learn that a brother and a sister along with her husband had also made the journey, whereas another sister had remained behind and married but who was childless and another brother had, to date anyway, simply vanished from the records. But the eldest child of the family stayed in Schifferstadt too, and she married and bore a daughter who in turn wed and had 13 children -- whew! During my and Ned's correspondence, he advised that his grandmother SIEGEL, Anna Maria "Mary" née Schuck, whose mother was a Schifferstadter Keßler who was my second great-grandmother's sister had kept a journal. Ned has the journal as well as a few letters, in which his grandmother described a trip that she had taken to Germany in 1930, but she also advised that prior to her going, she had contacted "Mrs. SCHUCK in Saint Louis," (my great-grandmother), in order to secure the address of my great-grandfather's half sisters in Obermoschel whom she ultimately visited, and that of a granddaughter of great-grand- mother's sister in Schifferstadt with whom Maria Felicitas communicated. This early 20th-century cross-river contact was all news to me, and I said so to my second cousin in Saint Louis who responded that, well, yes, she recalled how as a young child she had accompanied her mother on the occasion of a few visits to certain relatives in Belleville but really didn't remember much about them and that in any case, there hadn't been any communication with them for the better part of 70 years. I mentioned this to Ned, and he took it upon himself to stage a "reunion" with this second cousin, in the company of her eldest daughter, in her home about a year ago. He had actually been employed for the longest time at a firm located not very far from her residence. In the interim, I had purchased a CD that constitutes the meat of a forthcoming publication by a Schifferstadter historian/genealogist, which covers all the families in Schifferstadt of the 19th and early 20th centuries, through the good offices of another distant relation, himself a chronicler/genealogist in the neighbouring community of Dannstadt-Schauernheim, with whom Ned had earlier made contact and e- introduced me to. With it, I was able to trace great-grandmother's sister's descent down to the granddaughter of Ned's grandmother's mention, but no farther owing to the fact that the historian is having to contend with certain German data protection laws with respect to the living and recently so, which difficulty has delayed its publication, almost having scuttled it altogether. Again with the help of the relative in Dannstadt-Schauernheim, I was able to e-contact the historian in Schifferstadt whom the former deals with on a colleague basis, and I put to the fellow pretty much all of the above and asked whether he couldn't advise if there are any present- day descendants of this early 20th-century family in his city whom Mary ultimately came to visit, for she had also described that amongst its members were two daughters, the oldest of whom had an infant daughter named Marliese. He came back to me with a fairly comprehensive breakout of the family in question and indicated that, yes, one Marliese DREXLER lives there today at a particular address. With this confirmation, I wrote Mrs. DREXLER this past December, introducing myself and, again, laying out most of the above before her, asking if she might be interested in resurrecting in the here and now that long dormant cross-Atlantic correspondence between my great-grandmother and her grandmother. In January I received an e-mail from the business e-address of one Guido DREXLER, a family man it turns out, who is Mrs. DREXLER's son, conveying his mother's response. She said that she was very surprised and pleased to receive my letter and would indeed like to hear from me again. Consequently, I wrote her a reply and have since received her return, in which she described inter alia her recent birthday celebration in the company of her four half siblings by her mother. As one might imagine, I'm totally thrilled at this successful outcome and look very forward to building new relationships. * * * Roundabout Way to Ancestral Village in Bavaria By Maria Schisel I spent many years searching for that one document that would give me the home village of my husband's ancestor Joseph SCHISEL who came to Wisconsin in 1868 from Bavaria. There was no U.S. document that gave the exact place of birth, just "born in Bavaria." I found many documents pertaining to this large family -- marriage, birth, baptismal, death, probate, military, census, obituaries, naturalization papers, ship lists, and newspaper articles, but without finding this elusive data. I contacted many other SCHISEL researchers, but they did not have this information either. I discovered there was a SCHISEL Bible record -- buried with their only daughter under a half a ton of concrete. Was this a vast cover-up or was I becoming paranoid thinking they were trying to hide this information? Joseph had a brother who settled in Iowa. I decided to find out more about him. I was fortunate to find descendants and we shared information. Despite finding many U.S. documents, we still did not know where in Bavaria their ancestor was born. I then decided to concentrate on Joseph’s wife’s side of the family. Even though they were married in the U.S., they were sweethearts in the old country. Again I found many records for her STAUDINGER line and I contacted descendants, but it was the same thing, all documents just state "Bavaria" as place of birth and they were unwilling to embrace Franziska as their own as she did not travel with the STAUDINGER family when they came to the U.S. They doubted she belonged to the family. My task now was to convince them that she did belong to the family and also to find the place of birth. I discovered one of George STAUDINGER's daughters married a Wolfgang BRANDL. I searched on RootsWeb and found a message posted about him. On his naturalization paper it stated that he was born in Estekam. Finally a clue! My research led me to believe the BRANDLs were also from the same area in Bavaria because they traveled with the STAUDINGERs on the same ship. However, there is no Estekam, Bavaria. A correspondent believed it to be Eschlkam in southeastern Bavaria near the Czech border. On the strength of this information and through the help of another researcher who had written to the archives in Regensburg on his unrelated family, I took a chance and wrote to it. I believe these documents are only available in Germany and have not been copied and made available elsewhere. After paying its research fees, I got a letter from the archives. I was stunned -- it sent me factual summaries of the baptismal records of Joseph SCHISEL and Franziska STAUDINGER as well as other marriage and baptism records pertaining to the SCHISEL family who were from Stachesried and the STAUDINGERs who were from Seugnhof, Bavaria. The church they attended was in Eschlkam. I understand from others that this archives has records that go back to the 1600s. But for now, I'm just in a pleasant daze sitting among the ruins of a large brick wall that just came tumbling down. * * * 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/ VIRGINIA. Halifax County. Halifax School; 1942 honor roll; 89 records; Paula Lucy Delosh http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ WASHINGTON. King County. Seattle. 1915 Sunset Club alumni list; 187 records; Boojee Stone-Bowman http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ 4. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- Can your cousins find your website at RootsWeb? Has it ever been mentioned here or do you have a new, updated, or substantially revised website at RootsWeb (it will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL)? Send the URL (its Web address), along with a brief description, including the major pertinent surnames and what is available on your site, to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com FISCHER/FISHER FAMILY HISTORY. This website details the background history of Jacob Fischer, Senior (c1739-1827), who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Vaughan/York Counties, Canada, ca 1796. Jacob's land documents state he was a "native of Germany." He was a corporal in the 60th Regt. of Foot (Royal Americans) under Col. Bouquet during the French and Indian War. Also includes a partial listing of the soldiers belonging to the 1st Bn. Royal Americans. Other surnames include: BAKER, BRETZ, COBER, CUMMER, EBY, GRAM, HOLLY, HORNER, KAISER, KEFFER, MCLEOD, OSTER, SHEPARD, STONG, TROYER, SNIDER, WHITMORE, and WITMER. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pioneer/ 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] JAPAN jpnhiros -- Hiroshima Prefecture U.S.A. ildupage -- DuPage County (Illinois) mdocdar -- Owasco (Maryland) Chapter DAR nycemete -- Cemeteries (New York) nyfcm -- Fulton County Museum (New York) ohchaps -- Citizens for Historic Preservation Services (Ohio) ohcwogs -- Cuyahoga West (Ohio) Chapter OGS wircp -- Rock Canyon Pioneers (Wisconsin) wishawa3 -- Shawano County (Wisconsin) Key: DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution OGS -- Ohio Genealogical Society * * * 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/ MAILING LISTS MOVING TO NEW SYSTEM The RootsWeb.com mailing lists are moving to a new list management system. No new lists will be created until this move is completed. Not all of the lists are being moved at one time. It will take about two weeks to complete the process. Additional information about the update and a current schedule can be found at http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/migrate_sched.html How will it affect you? Your current subscription(s) will transfer automatically to the new system so there will be no need to re-subscribe to your list(s). However, because the sending and receiving of list e- mail will be handled by a new system, you may notice a few changes to your list(s). Digest subscribers will notice a small difference in the layout, volume and issue numbers of the list digests. As in all such endeavors there have been and probably will be some glitches along way. RootsWeb appreciates your patience during this transition and hopes that the mailing lists will continue to be a valuable tool in your 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bound for Australia By Di Cummings in Melbourne, Australia In 2001 I began researching my mother's side of the family, and found that several families immigrated to South Australia. Discovering what ship they came on, and what the voyage was like, proved to be rather difficult -- especially as I don't have access to the research data held "over there." Given that our pockets are not majorly blessed with lots of cash, I was surprised and pleased when my hubby said I could go to South Australia for a week. Then followed much planning and calls for help and advise. Getting to SAust took a whole day by train, and accommodations cost a lot too, as did the photocopying when I finally reached my destination. I discovered that the newspapers of the day sent a "shipping" reporter down to each ship to record who was on the ship and if anything significant happened on the voyage. Slowly and surely I found my people. I rang home excited, to share the news, and was asked to "check a couple more names and a couple more and a couple more, oh and it could be spelt this way or that way or that way, and we don't know what year." My pile of passenger lists grew and grew. It occurred to me that maybe to create a list of "all the people who arrived in one year" might be an interesting thing to do. This grew and grew. I soon realised I should learn how to write webpages, to share my discoveries. I made arrange- ments with RootsWeb to host my family tree, plus some pages [about 2,500 webpages of them] -- all relating to passengers coming South Australia -- showing who came on which boat and when. This is when an old song began creeping into my head -- Bound for South Australia -- and so my shipping pages "got their name." In October 2005 I launched a CD entitled "Bound for South Australia -- passengers arriving from 1836 to 1851." The CD contains more than 3,000 passenger lists (1836-1851) covering about 60,000 families, plus about 30 ship diaries and more than 200 photos of the early pioneers. And then my family said "no more!" Being such a nice person, I knew I couldn't ignore pleas for help -- and so the project advances a year at a time. Should you need help finding when your families came to South Australia, visit my website. My e-mail address is at the bottom of each page. Remember to include who, when, and the ship name (if you know it). Please limit your requests to ONE PER PERSON, per month. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dicummings/Images/Ships/BoundForSouthAustralia.htm 7. Humor/Humour: All Points Bulletin --------------------------------- Thanks to: Cheryl Haas who writes: I found this transcription of an 1864 newspaper announcement from Jackson County, Oregon, USA: ELOPEMENT: On Thursday night Reason Sergent, a lad of 19 or 20, eloped with a Miss Lizzy, aged about 15 years, daughter of Q. N. Anderson. They went North or South, don't know which. * * * 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: 30 August 2006, Vol. 9, No. 35. * * * *