RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 27 September 2006, Vol. 9, No. 39 (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/ * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES: Current and previous editions: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2006/0927.txt http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ * * * ========================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES, AND SOME SITES WORTH SEEING NEWS: Downloadable Charts and Forms BOOK NOTES: Autauga County, Alabama Cemeteries SITES: Civil War Volunteer Colored Troops Lists; Topeka, Kansas Newspapers Obituary Index; and Pilgrims in Holland, 1600-1630 1b. Tips from Readers: Patience Rewards Australian with English Roots Friendly Persistence Pays Off 1c. Using RootsWeb: Virtual Stick Notes Flag WorldConnect Trees 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Winding Trail Leads to Unmarked Grave in California 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: Librarian Finds Hidden Family BEARing Illinois Ancestors Accepting Undocumented Information Deducting Years; Confusing Descendants Presidential Namesakes Found on Many Trees 7. Humor/Humour: Touching Up 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1a. EDITOR'S DESK: NEWS, NOTES; SOME SITES WORTH SEEING NEWS: Need some charts and forms to print out for your research projects? RootsWeb has added some (in PDF) to help you. They are located at: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/get_started/charts_forms.html * * * BOOK NOTES: Alabama Autauga County Cemetery Records: Western Division, edited by the Autauga Genealogical Society. The first of two county cemetery listings takes in the western part of the county. Includes 87 family, church and other cemeteries. 301 pages, paperback, indexed. $40 (postpaid).Order from Pioneer Publishing Co. online at: http://www.pioneersoutheast.com/ * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING: MISSOURI. Index to "Descriptive Recruitment Lists of Volunteers for the United States Colored Troops for the State of Missouri, 1863-1865." This new online index includes two lists, one alphabetical by name of recruit, the other alphabetical by name of former slave owner. About 10 percent of the recruits were listed as "free" or did not list a slave owner. Although this is a Missouri resource, birth places of the recruits include 23 states, the District of Columbia, and the Cherokee Nation. The index is available at http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/jkh/usctmo/usctmosoldiers.htm KANSAS. The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has made an obituary index available on its website. To access the database page click on the Community Resources link on the library’s homepage. This takes you to the Community Resources page, which offers searchable databases. Click on the "obituary index" tab to access its search function. The obituary database contains information found in Topeka newspapers from 1906 to 1935 and from 1 January 2004 to the present. A work in progress. obituaries are being added from 1936 to 2003. Initial search results include the name of the deceased and the date that the obituary appeared in the newspaper. Clicking on the "Title" link allows access more detailed information, which includes such fields as notes, publisher (newspaper name), date the obituary appeared, title, abstracts, subjects, and page information. The notes field may include information regarding other newspapers where the individual’s obituary appeared -- often a clue to where they had moved to from Kansas. http://www.tscpl.org/ PILGRIMS. Information about the Pilgrims and other non-Conformists in Holland ca 1600-1630. Includes Pilgrim records from Leyden, guarantors, some marriages, and members of the Ancient Exiled English Church who became members of the Pilgrim congregation in Leyden. http://westerly-journies.com/pilgrims/pilgmain.html * * * 1b. TIPS FROM READERS: Patience Rewards Australian with English Roots By Pam in Adelaide, Australia This is neither a case of dazzling you with my sleuthing, which after so many years (from pre-Internet) is "fairly" considerable. Nor is it a case of uncanny luck. More, is it a case of the patience involved in genealogical research, which I feel is highly underrated. I began my interest in genealogy in 1976 when at 21 I decided to travel from Australia back to England (where I was born) and visit Europe. During that time, I met one of my mother's sisters, who was originally an American "war bride." Her second marriage was to an American man, who was a follower of the Latter-day Saints faith. Our love of history and family made me the ideal person to pass on her knowledge. Up until last year I had never questioned her (or her English researchers') information. Like any good genealogist I had double- checked, verified and quantified her data with census material and research from the original PRs, certificates, etc., and had never found a problem -- not one wrong turn. I have in fact gone back much further researching the original parish registers. However, there was one marriage of my grandfather's siblings that I could not find. I regularly check freebmd, census data, IGI and loads of other websites over the years. Parish registers were not an option to me at that time. PARKER is not an easy name to research, But I had traced the family back to the 1500s in Arundel, Sussex. I was lucky they stayed in Arundel for 200-odd years. But when they decided to move, they moved and moved and moved. I had births for Paddington, New Cross, Battersea, Marylebone, Hatcham and many other London places until they finally settled in Lewisham, Kent where they remained. Apart from checking online resources every three months it was one of those times when you just have to "let go." My aunt's researcher had told her that Florence DULLEY married George DEANE. One day I was doing my regular three-month perusal of common sites for my "missing persons" including the freebmd, RootsWeb lists, Ancestry.com, etc. and lo and behold, there was a marriage for George DEANE, Harry DULLEY, Florence DULLEY and Rose DRURY. I had, of course, checked the censuses as they were coming online, but what piqued my interest was seeing two DULLEYs on the same volume, page number for Lewisham. So I re-researched the censuses for Rose and George and Florence and Harry. Well, onto searching census data, cross- referencing -- yes, two cousins married each other. I found both George and Rose DEANE and Harry and Florence DULLEY on the 1901 census. Having grown up with the knowledge (back then) that two cousins didn't marry, it just goes to show how patience can win out. Plus a learning curve. Do not let preconceived notions influence you. What can happen now openly, happened back then -- maybe more hush-hush, but it still happened. One quandary overcome, now if we could just find her death and his subsequent marriage to Nellie TUBBY, all would be right with the world. I just hope it doesn't take another 20 years. But the chase is on. * * * Friendly Persistence Pays Off By C. Trier A friend of mine is not afraid to pick up a phone for his research. Recently he called the county clerk in a West Virginia county to inquire about possible records of his great-great-grandparents' divorce. He was met by reluctance and disbelief -- people didn't get divorced in the 1860s, and if they had, the record would be buried too deep to find . . . and anyway, lots of old records were lost when the basement of the old courthouse was flooded. My friend, whose job is charming temperamental people all day every day, just smiled into the phone and engaged the clerk in a conversation about her roots. Eventually she promised to see what she could find and call him back. And she did! He found out his ancestors had been divorced in that county, but was unable to get any details. According to the clerk all files are sealed and could be opened only with a court order. At this point I would have given up, but my friend searched online, found the name of a judge in the West Virginia County, and within a few days had an order to open the files. I was impressed -- the information he got was amazing. Seems the husband claimed the wife was a Rebel sympathizer, and she claimed he had abandoned the family -- he was living in Iowa. Testimony from friends and neighbors took both sides. The wife was accused of carousing with questionable people (those Rebels again). A plus in the records was the naming of all eight of their children. All-in-all it was well worth a few long distance telephone calls. * * * 1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Virtual Sticky Notes Flag WorldConnect Trees An original and personal feature in viewing or submitting a family tree to RootsWeb's WorldConnect is the Post-em Note option. The little virtual sticky notes can be attached by the GEDCOM submitter to make note of small corrections or additions to his own file until such time that he updates his tree to include the changes directly into the file. The notes also can be added by others, if they find an entry of interest or connection to their own research when searching WorldConnect trees. You can note differences between your records and those of the submitter or you can add additional information if you like. You can even use the notes to "touch base" with the GEDCOM submitter or others who may also happen upon the entry. This will enable others to contact you if they find a connection. You can keep track of your Post-ems (ones you have attached to your tree and trees others have submitted) at Password Central: http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/ and you can also obtain a list of all Post-ems others have attached to your submitted trees at Password Central. To obtain the latter, look for the box to send for "WorldConnect GEDCOMs User Codes, Passwords and Post-ems attached to my GEDCOMs." When you add a Post-em Note you will be asked to choose a password to ensure that only you can access the note to edit or remove it in the future. The only exception is that the database submitter can also delete (but not edit) any Post-em Notes attached to his files (using his database password to do so). You will also see several letters displayed in degraded graphics format, which you will be asked to type in on the submission form for security purposes. This little "test" prevents spammers from using automated scripts to attach spam onto Post-em Notes. A question that comes up from time to time involving Post-em Notes attached to entries in GEDCOMs is "what happens to the Notes when a GEDCOM is edited and the original file is replaced?" Post-em Notes are maintained in a separate database from the family trees and the Notes link to the family trees -- rather to the specific entry in a family tree, by association with the ID number in the family tree file for the individual to whom the Note is attached. The ID numbers are a function of your computer genealogy program and are not created within WorldConnect. Some genealogy programs renumber individuals when a tree is edited and others do not. Whether or not the Post-ems remain attached to the correct individual after a GEDCOM is updated is determined by your genealogy program and whether or not it renumbers the individuals in the file. No matter whether your genealogy program renumbers the individual entries or not, the Post-em Note is not deleted as a result of updating the GEDCOM, but it can mean that the Post-em is no longer attached correctly to the original individual. Using the tools above at Password Central you can always identify and locate the Notes and delete those that are no longer applicable or, if you are the author of a Post-em Note that is now detached from the entry to whom it pertains, you can add a new Post-em and delete the old one. By remembering how Post-em Notes are housed in their own database and are merely linked by ID code to an entry in a WorldConnect file and by remembering how to obtain a listing of all of them, it is possible to keep track of any stray Notes and to ensure your Notes and file never become disconnected. * * * * * * * * * * 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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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/ * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Winding Trail Leads to Unmarked Grave in California By M. Kathleen Felsted I became interested in family history when I was 18 years old and some friends at church recommended that I do some family research. I immediately went to my grandmother, Mary Idaho (BROWN) FAULK JOHNSON, and she gave me many ancestors' names and dates. Her sister -- Josephine Minerva "Jody" BROWN -- was the mysterious person that I wanted to know about. However, college, marriage and children got in my way. When I would return home to visit, no one could give me many answers about "Aunt Jody." However, I knew some things about my grandaunt Jody. She was six feet tall and had slightly curly auburn hair. We have pictures of her and she was beautiful. Her mother, Martha Jane (VAN CLEAVE) BROWN died in 1910, when Jody was only four years old. My mother and her sister's opinion of her father (their grandfather) Joseph Manuel BROWN's work ethic was not too flattering, although he was a farmer and the constable in Kootenai County, Idaho for several years. He never remarried so it probably fell on my grandmother, Mary Idaho BROWN, to help raise her little sister. The family story was that "Aunt Jody" had married a couple of times and "worked" at a hotel. I have a postcard where her father, who was in Oregon, pleaded to have Jody send some money so he could come visit and not die among strangers. Jody helped various members of the family out a lot with her job during the rough years in northern Idaho and Spokane, Washington during the Great Depression. The problem was that I could not find her death date and place. My mother, Virginia Rose FAULK, claimed she died in the Mendocino State Hospital in Ukiah, California about the time mother got married in 1941. I was persistent, but my mother insisted that she remembered "Aunt Jody" coming to California, appearing sick at her mother's door, and that my grandmother took her to Mendocino to the state hospital and she thought "Aunt Jody" had died soon afterwards. Since I had no concrete death date, the hospital records could not be released to me. A son and I went to Mendocino County one time and looked through death certificates for 1941; I ordered the fiche for the California Death Certificates for 1940-1949 and looked for any Josephine, Josey, Jody, Jerry, Minerva, etc. No luck. Needless to say, I had to put "Aunt Jody" on the back burner. The other complicating factor was that I did not know for sure the name of any men that she had married, so I had no last name for her and who knows what name she was using when she checked into the state hospital? My mother remembered one husband with the last name of DANKER or something similar, but I found no deaths in 1940s of someone that would fit Jody's birthdate. Fast-forward to 2001 -- we now lived in Maryland and my parents and her siblings had passed away. One day I was searching on RootsWeb and decided to see what was available on the Mendocino County site. I saw that a Phil CARNAHAN was posting some cemetery records. I did not find my "Aunt Jody" listed, but I found some "unknowns." Was one of them "Aunt Jody"? I e-mailed CARNAHAN, but he could not find any Jody, Josephine, etc. So I was discouraged, but I thought I would look over the site and see what else they had on there. I found a place where they posted old postcards of various things in the county. I thought I would see if they had a picture of the Mendocino State Hospital. They did! And guess what? I remember being there. I remember long drives from Sacramento to some hospital with lots of pine-like trees. My parents told us that my mother was doing some charity work through her job and she had to visit this sanatorium. This had to be in the time period of 1950-1958. I had no reason not to believe her at that time. But as soon as I realized that I had been there -- aha! I had caught my mother in a "little white lie." It did not take a great brain to figure out quickly that my mother had been visiting "Aunt Jody" during that time. So she had not died in the 1940s, but later. Since the California State Death Records were online. I tried several ways to find her. I knew her maiden name, her mother's maiden name, the date and place of her birth -- why couldn't I find her? Finally, in complete frustration, I entered what I knew: Her birth date, birth place and that she was a female. 540 names came up on the search. On the fifth page I found her. Her name was listed as Jodie -- not Jody -- and her last name was COLEY. She is in an unmarked grave and CARNAHAN gave me its position. I think my relatives did not want me to go visit "Aunt Jody" because she had a syphilis-related mental condition, which was documented on her death certificate. My poor husband thought someone had died in the family when I called him. I was hysterical with joy and crying and could not calm down to relate to him my finding of "Aunt Jody." At last I knew when and where she had died and where she was buried. My cousins and I plan on putting a marker on her grave at a family reunion next year. Never give up -- and check out those USGenWeb county sites -- many of them are hosted by RootsWeb. * * * 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/ ---------------------------------------------- INDIANA. Decatur County. Adams. Mount Moriah Baptist Church, 1854-1895; 287 records; Robyn Dowd via Noda Bostic http://userdb.rootsweb.com/churchrecords/ * * * SHARING OPPORTUNITY. Does your alma mater, old military unit, newspapers, church, parish, province, county or state have material available that you think would be of interest to genealogists? 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/ 4. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages -------------------------------------- BIBLE CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE. Issues currently transcribed are January 1844, January to March 1848 and January to April 1849. These transcriptions contain biographies, memoirs and obituaries, plus missionary reports, religious intelligence such as chapel anniversaries, new chapels, circuit news, conference reports, and minister news. Includes a brief history of the Bible Christian movement in Cornwall, England. The most frequently mentioned areas in this monthly magazine are Cornwall and Devonshire (England). Other areas within Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, Somerset and Dorset, along with Canada, are also mentioned. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~biblechristianmag/title.html COMBS, SCHWARZ. Website pertaining to these and related families. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~combsschwarzfamily/ * * * 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 * * * 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 nswsyd -- Sydney and Surronds (New South Wales) U.S.A. azcsdar -- Copper State Chapter (Arizona) DAR flchcdar -- Sugar Mill Chapter (Florida) DAR macmayna -- Maynard (city, Massachusetts) macwater -- Watertown (city, Massachusetts) Key: DAR -- Daughters of the American Revolution * * * 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 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Librarian Finds Hidden Family By Melba Crain It was the cleverness of a persistent librarian that helped me find my maternal grandparents and family in an early 1900s census. After I had searched for hours under every variation of their names that I could think of, I went for help. The librarian tried some of the same trials. Then, saying "a whole family doesn't just disappear," he asked me to give him the names of the children. He began searching on only the given name of a child. It was not until the sixth child that he hit pay dirt. Because her name was so unusual (Dixie Cozette), he was able to locate the entire family -- under an unbelievable misreading of the spelling of the surname -- SICHURST for SECHREST! Hooray for clever genealogical librarians! * * * BEARing Illinois Ancestors By Mary Lynne Farrell In a copy of an informal history of the BEAR/BARE family in Bearsdale, Illinois, a note was made "Five Bare boys marry five Good girls.". Evidently the BARE/BEAR gentleman had married ladies of the GOOD family. Walter Scott BEAR wrote "A Genealogy of Jacob Bear, 1747-1797". He did subsequent histories of the descendants up to 1906 in that book. That is the year of publication. Later the Illinois BEARS were mentioned in the history noted above. To my knowledge it was never published. * * * Accepting Undocumented Information By Dan Craycraft in Cleveland, Ohio, USA A word of caution to new genealogists. When I began using the Internet, some five to eight years ago, I accepted everything that was given to me. I was like a magpie, saving everything. Unfortunately, I began to post this undocumented information on the RootsWeb's WorldConnect. Then the problems began. I received dozens of queries over the years as to where I got my information. Of course, I could only explain that it came from John or Jane Doe. After several years of receiving this type of query, I came to the conclusion that if it was not my research, I would delete it from my database and from WorldConnect. My advice to new genealogists -- don't incorporate someone else's work into your database. Use their work as a launching pad, but do not accept their work as fact without doing the research yourself. This process will save you many agonizing hours of answering inquiries as to the source of your information. Be very careful about what you post online and what access you allow others to have to your data. I have several examples where I freely gave my family tree (GEDCOM) to others. They in turn incorporated it into their databases and now, I cannot retract what I gave them. Unfortunately, during those early years of my investigation into my family line, incorrect information was included. Yet, those errors continue today to be posted on their websites! * * * Deducting Years; Confusing Descendants By Larry Berry We were trying to find who was the second wife of my 2-great- grandfather. His first wife was Martha E. LANGSTAFF. As we searched the census records we found his apparent second wife was also named Martha. but we could never get a satisfactory answer as to her maiden name. When I went over her records for entering Salem College I found she had taken off two years from her age. This led to more searching and a final realization that there was no second wife. Our elusive Martha had gone through life taking off years from her age and marrying younger men. She had deducted 15 years by the time she died. Another clue in this research of Martha was the middle initial E. Even though my cousin was willing to accept that the second wife also had same middle initial E, I felt that was too much of a coincidence. Additionally we originally thought our great-grandfather had a half brother, but it turns out this man was a full brother. * * * Presidential Namesakes Found on Many Trees By Chris in Colorado, USA I was amused by Frances Ann Roth's finding of "Grant of the North" ISSIACSON in the 1880 census. However, I have a different theory on how the name was chosen: "Grant of the North" may have been named for Civil War Union general and eventual U.S. President Ulysses S. GRANT. I've run into many Grant first names that had dropped the Ulysses, but perhaps "Grant of the North's " parents or the recorder couldn't get their tongues around or spell the name Ulysses. Frances probably is right about the "Grant, just Grant" part when this young man got to school. 7. Humor/Humour: Touching Up ------------------------- Thanks to: Chris Carlson A woman brought an old picture of her deceased husband, wearing a hat, to a photographer. She wanted to know if the photographer could remove the hat from the picture. He told her he could easily do that, and then asked her which side of his head her late husband parted his hair on. "I forget," she said. "But you can see that for yourself when you take off his hat." * * * 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: 27 September 2006, Vol. 9, No. 39. * * * *