RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 6 December 2006, Vol. 9, No. 49 (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/2006/1206.txt http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ ========================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1. 1a. Editor's Desk: News and Some Sites Worth Seeing; Notes, News: Free Access to Passenger Lists Extended Sites: Ancestral Artifacts Online Book Notes: Dalton, New Hampshire; Edwardian Anglo-Africa 1b. Tips from Readers: Trying Other Letters Telephone and Genealogy: A Novel Approach for Irish Family Historians 1c. Using RootsWeb: Sharing with the World 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Tracking Ancestors to the Neckar River 3. New User-contributed Databases 4. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 5. New at RootsWeb 6. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: Finding Immigrant Ancestors -- at Last Collection Dilemma Tearing Down My Brick Wall Good Manners Gone Bye-bye Understanding Spelling and Sources Cutting Transcribers and Indexers Some Slack 7. Humor/Humour: Actung! 8. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ======================================================= IN THIS ISSUE: 1a. Editor's Desk: News, Notes; Some Sites Worth Seeing NEWS. Free Access to Passenger Lists Extended Ancestry.com has extended free access to its online immigration records collection through the end of the year due to unanticipated interest in the collection. The original deadline was November 30. The immigrations records include all Ellis Island records (1892-1957). Other ports include: --Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948 --Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943 --California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957 --Galveston Passenger Lists, 1896-1948 --New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1820-1945 --New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 --Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1883-1945 This full collection of more than 100 million immigrant names includes all readily available U.S. passenger list records from 1820 to 1960. To access the free collection, go to http://www.ancestry.com/ and click on the link to "the world’s largest collection of passenger lists." * * * SOME SITES WORTH SEEING. Ancestral Artifacts Online Family Old Photos. Browse by surname, by state and special sections (Civil War, railroad, circus, fire departments, etc.). http://www.familyoldphotos.com/ Heirlooms Lost. Designed to put people directly in touch with each other regarding lost family treasures. http://www.heirloomslost.com/ Antique Family Photograph Archives. A collection of antique photographs of individuals and family groups, taken from the Civil War period (1861-65) up to about 1910. These are originals with data that identifies the individual(s). These are, for the most part, tintypes, cartes-de-visite or cabinet cards. Some are large group photographs. There is a minimal charge for returning these original items. http://www.fordnagle.com/ Your Past Connections: Photographs, letters, marriage and birth certificates, Bibles, funeral cards, diplomas, postcards, etc. Submitters of "Available Items" specify an asking price which is displayed in the search results. Sometimes, the only cost requested is the cost of postage. When someone searches the database of "Available Items" and finds an item that they would like to acquire, they fill in a form on the website and an e-mail message is automatically sent to the person who owns the item. From then on, arrangements for payment and shipping are made between the two parties involved. Your Past Connections sets up the initial contact and does not charge either party for this service. http://www.yourpastconnections.com/ Cyndi's List: Photographs and Memories http://www.cyndislist.com/photos.htm * * * BOOK NOTES: New Hampshire, Victorian Africa NEW HAMPSHIRE. "Early Families of Dalton, New Hampshire" is a fully documented and well-indexed book containing 316 pages with an emphasis on individuals or families residing there by 1850. Many sketches also appear for short-term residents who later moved on to nearby towns in Coos and Grafton counties in New Hampshire and Caledonia and Essex counties in Vermont. It includes a 30-page appendix of transcribed old colorful newspaper items ranging from 1798 to 1900. This hardbound volume was compiled by Kathy Beals and is available from the Dalton Historical Society for $35 plus $4 shipping and handling. Dalton Historical Society, 220 Union Road, Dalton NH 03598 or contact Kathy Beals (kathybeals@earthlink.net) ANGLO-AFRICAN. Jeppestown Press in London has just reprinted the 1907 Anglo-African Who's Who, by Walter H. Wills, It has been reproduced from an impossible-to-find original copy and is packed with details of almost 2,000 elusive individuals -- most of whom who simply aren't documented anywhere else. It contains detailed biographical entries on prominent men and women of Edwardian Africa -- from kings and politicians, to settlers, soldiers and journalists. 488 pages (US$35.95). Available at: http://www.jeppestown.com/ and through Amazon and abebooks.com. * * * 1b. Tips from Readers: Trying Other Letters By Susan Grills In a recent newsletter, someone pointed out how the names Daniel and David appear so similar in cursive writing in census records that transcribers frequently mistake one for the other. I have noted the same thing happens with the names Josiah and Isaiah. Furthermore, in the cases of people named Isaac, Isaiah, Irene and other names beginning with the letter I, when only the initials are used in a re cord, transcribers frequently mistake the I for a J. If you can't find a person with the initial I, try substituting the letter J and you can frequently find them that way. * * * Telephone and Genealogy: A Novel Approach for Irish Family Historians By Liam Martin The 80 million strong Irish diaspora around the world often struggle to locate information about their ancestors. The loss of records in Ireland over the centuries culminating in the 1922 fire at the Four Courts and the absence of many church records from the Internet increases the difficulty of accessing information from abroad. These difficulties are expanded upon at: http://homepage.eircom.net/%7Eseanjmurphy/dir/intro.htm The Web has been a tremendous boost to Irish Family Historians with a searchable Griffiths Valuation (1848 to 1864) now available online. There is an on going Irish/Canadian proposal to mount both the 1901 and 1911 census records on the Internet. Still, information prior to the start of civil records in 1864 can be hard to come by, particularly if it relates to those who did not own property. However the introduction of inexpensive and free telephone services around the world provides an economical link to the folks back home and to recollections still held by distant older Irish relatives. Suppose one wanted to trace from the UK possible living relatives of an ancestor called McGEEVER from County Donegal. Entering the name and the county at the URL http://159.134.203.172/search.asp?source=Eircom provides 40 hits with addresses and telephone numbers. Parish and townland maps of County Donegal are available at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bhilchey/DonegalMain.html so it is possible to build up a population density map of McGEEVERs currently living in the various parishes and townlands in the county (and provide an indication of which parish and townland your ancestor might have originated from). The aim would be to contact all 40 McGEEVERs and possibly find one who is a family history enthusiast or at least has a wide knowledge of the clan. Writing to Irish contacts has traditionally been rather a disappointment as the folk at home are very reluctant to put pen to paper. So why not give them a bell? The Irish love to talk. Very expensive you will reply -- but is it? My UK "Talk Talk" telephone bill is so full of zero charges that I have difficulty finding a charged call outside "mobile phones," "special numbers" and "overseas calls." But that only covers Northern Ireland -- calls to the Republic still cost. However, if one registers in the UK with http://www.call1899.co.uk/ the call rate to the Republic of Ireland (and vice versa) is only 1p per minute. (http://www.call1899.co.uk/rates.php). See also http://www.call1899.co.uk/rates.php for the rates from Ireland to the UK (0.5 ct/minute). A ten-minute talk with each of the 40 McGEEVERs would cost only (where's my calculator) £4.00 (US$7.55). I recently organised a family reunion in Ireland for 270 friends and relatives at a relatively close to zero telephone cost. Northern Ireland telephone numbers are provided by the website http://www.thephonebook.bt.com/ This procedure would an ideal prologue to any folk planning a visit to Ireland, as opposed to the traditional -- more enjoyable but probably less effective -- tour of the local pubs, when you get there, to gather information. It should be possible to get the e-mail addresses of interested McGEEVERs and use the completely free services of Skype -- (http://www.skype.com/download/) which allows zero charge telephone calls to most countries in the world. Third-generation (3G) technology services on mobile phones will soon be linked to the free Skype technology and one could encourage Irish (or other foreign) contacts to beam over photographs of gravestones -- what a boon to distant family Historians. See: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19509-2457233,00.html In the absence of 3G, digital camera shots of similar images and photographs of the old homestead could be sent as attachments to e- mails. Inexpensive calls are also available from the USA, See: (http://www.consumersearch.com/www/house_and_home/long-distance- service/index.html). Pingo (http://www.pingo.com/) offers 2-cents-a- minute rates from Canada to Ireland Can any readers provide sites for low cost rates from Australia, New Zealand, etc? Telephone genealogy could be expanded to other countries using this site: http://www.infobel.com/world/default.asp It has links to telephone directories of the world that are available online * * * 1c. Using RootsWeb: Sharing with the World There is nothing more fulfilling than researching your family tree and then posting the tree online at WorldConnect for all the world to see. The WorldConnect name says it all. You are connecting with the world. Do remember that your audience is the world -- including your nosy neighbor who is sure your older brother Charles was born only seven months after your parents' marriage, and Aunt Adeline who would die of embarrassment if you included in your notes that her husband (Uncle Arnold), did some time in a federal prison as a result of a stock fraud scheme a friend had convinced him to take part in. All families have skeletons in their closets and family information they'd rather you (as the family historian) not share with the entire world. This doesn't mean you don't want to ensure that your family tree and notes are complete or that you should not include all information you have learned, but rather it means you need to consider your audience when you share your tree and notes with others or upload them to the Internet as you do when placing your GEDCOM on WorldConnect. WorldConnect has excellent filters and options available to you when you use the Advanced Set-up page to select display options for your file. See: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/wcsubmit4.html for complete instructions for the display options available to you when using the Advanced Set-up page to upload your GEDCOM. You can choose to display notes or not to display them. You can even choose not to display particular individuals for whatever reasons. In addition to your family tree on WorldConnect be careful when posting a message or reply to a RootsWeb mailing list or message board. Once again, remember that the entire world is your audience and anyone might be reading what you write to your new-found cousin, Susie. If you would like to tell Susie about your summer vacation or recent trip to your cabin in the mountains, keep in mind that personal discussions are better suited for private e-mails rather than public message boards or mailing lists which are publicly archived. Boards and lists are searchable within RootsWeb and old messages can be found by anyone (even non-genealogists) doing a Google search. While it is preferred that you share all suitable genealogical information publicly on the lists and boards so that it can aid future researchers who may find it (and you) in a search, remember Uncle Arnold and think twice whether you want his prison record in your public list reply or whether you'd rather keep that information private. Remember that the lists and boards are designed for sharing genealogical information and not for chatting (with the exception of a few chat lists) and that when conversation turns to personal discussions, these are better carried out in private e-mails. The world doesn't need (or want) to read all the details of your recent gall bladder surgery or your experiences in housebreaking Fifi, your poodle puppy. The moral of the story is -- always stop and consider your audience. Who is going to be able to find your message both today and in the future. And, is this information that you really intend to share with the world? * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * Save 10% on AARP membership. Spend less, enjoy more. When it comes to saving, every little bit helps. With AARP, you can learn easy ways to spend less, save more and start enjoying the good life. For a limited time, anyone over 50 can get a 10% discount on our regular $12.50 annual membership. Some of our benefits include AARP The Magazine, access to AARP-sponsored insurance plans, access to the AARP Legal Assistance Network, opportunities to volunteer in your community, and much more. Joining AARP is a great value! Join today and get a full year of information, advocacy and member benefits for 10% off -- only $11.25 a year! Join AARP Today! http://www.aarp.org/sk/membership.html?keycode=U5PAC8 P.S. - Your AARP membership includes your spouse or partner at no additional cost. Join now to get 10% off our regular rate! * * * ANCESTOR SEEKERS SEVENTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP -- THE IDEAL GENEALOGY VACATION! FEBRUARY 18-23, 2007 Join others from throughout the USA and Canada for the ideal genealogy vacation. Spend a whole week at the Family History Library, accessing the world's largest collection of genealogical records with help and advice from accredited genealogist professionals. Opening social, theater trip, and sightseeing tours! "Thank you all for such a wonderful experience." (Marsha, Iowa) Call TOLL-FREE at 877-896-0974 (9-6 MST) or visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/ * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Tracking Ancestors to the Neckar River By Marguerite Crist Calvin in southeast Ohio, USA For over 30 years I and others have searched for Christianna KINZLER and John Jacob HUMMELL of Fairfield County, Ohio. They came in September, 1854, slept in a haystack in Pennsylvania according to family tradition, before coming to Lancaster, Ohio, where they married in November 1854. Grandpa William HOUMEL, their son, insisted that's how the name was spelled. German specialists here claimed that was not a legitimate spelling. Searching every record we could find did not produce anything about their origins except "Muhlhausen." Last year, the Fairfield County Chapter of Ohio Genealogical Society produced its seventh volume of newspaper abstracts. And there was a small four-line notice that Christian KINZLER (Christianna's brother who came in 1870s) came from the "area of the estate of Lord Palm." Palm didn't sound German to me, but I put it on the Baden- Wüerttemberg list. Several wonderful researchers sent me information, plus we found information on the Internet. But the most wonderful thing happened! A nice lady named Erika, contacted me and found our entire KINZLER family in Weim-im-dorf, which is now part of Stuttgart. Not only did she find the family, but took pictures of the churches and area for us. Then this wonderful lady asked about John Jacob HUMMELL. And she found his family in the same town. Another good soul told us that it wasn't so far fetched that Grandpa William insisted on HOUMEL spelling. The pronunciation would sound that way, so Grandpa William and Grandma Christianna would have spelled it that way phonetically is our theory. Now all of those family names connected to KINZLER and HUMMELL that we did not know about have appeared in early Fairfield County, Ohio history. What better gift could any genealogical researcher ask for? How to repay these wonderful people? By abstracting, researching and sharing with others! Thanks to RootsWeb because without it I'd never have found my German roots. * * * 3. New User-Contributed Databases at RootsWeb 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. FLORIDA. Brevard County. Florida Today; 1974 newspaper obituaries; 1,999 records. Dee Swink for the Brevard County Genealogical Society http://userdb.rootsweb.com/obituaries/ MISSISSIPPI. Prentiss County. Baldwyn. 1963 graduates; 32 records. Milton H. Copeland http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ TEXAS. Aeronautical Order 186; 79 records. Kenneth E. Madl 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 * * * If your genealogical or historical related site is located somewhere other than at RootsWeb.com, you can add the link here: http://resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/addlink.html * * * HIPPLE. The Early Hipples of Chester County, Pennsylvania. http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~scrapbook/hipplechart.html * * * 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] No new Web accounts were created this week. * * * New Mailing Lists at RootsWeb Request a New Mailing List: http://resources.rootsweb.com/adopt/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- For information and an index to the more than 30,000 RootsWeb-hosted genealogy Mailing Lists and for easy subscribing (joining) options go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ No new mailing lists were created this past 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]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finding Immigrant Ancestors -- at Last By Bill Potter in Lansing, Michigan, USA Thank you very much for the article in the November 15th issue of the RootsWeb Review Weekly regarding Ancestry's newly published U.S. passenger lists. What a tremendous effort and accomplishment. I had spent hours in the National Archives reeling through many rolls of microfilm and online -- to no avail. Within five minutes of accessing the Ancestry site, I found the ship and list of my nine forbears. What a thrill and great satisfaction to finally know when and how they came. * * * Collection Dilemma By Tim Kelley (tim.kelley@hotmail.com) I have some historical or genealogical items that were in my sister's belongings. I got them when she died. I have a family history of a group that had a circus in the early 1900s. I have tried to contact the circus museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, but it hasn't responded well. This family was Armenian-Turkish and the surname was DEKREKO (Dekrekorian). The three children were: Julio, who served in the Navy in World War II, Anna, and Martha. I have old photos, birth certificates, military papers, obituaries, plus all the stuff about their circus -- even a schedule and pass for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. I don't want to throw it away, but don't know how to proceed with it. Secondly, I have two large bundles of personal letters -- one bundle from a man and his wife, the other from a man and woman whom I suspect were having an affair. These letters are from 1890s to ca 1910. The couple lived in Saint Louis and Chicago, the affairants in Galveston, Texas and Saint Louis. A lot of these letters have business information in them. If I was a more competent author, I would love to put them into a story. Any suggestions? * * * Tearing Down My Brick Wall By Richard Weick I have been looking for my great-grandfather Philipp WEICK in the 1860 Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio census with no luck. A nice lady, Kathy Nichols found him under a different last name of HICKS. She also directed me to other information that may be connected to him. She is researching another line of WEICKS. I cannot thank her enough. * * * Good Manners Gone Bye-bye By Don Davidson in the USA In answer to: "Ugly Americans: Oh, Where Have Our Manners Gone?" in the 8 November RootsWeb Review. I am afraid that the "nice" manners inherited from our immigrant European ancestors and passed on (we hope) to our children have been watered down, and even obliterated, by the television and radio media, as well as lazy parenting. One of America's great TV comedians, Steve Allen, published a book (Vulgarians at the Gate, 2001) in which he decries what has become "Raunch Radio" and Trash TV." The once self-imposed standards of nicety in these media have been abandoned by the producers of shows and studio executives because the "dirty" talk (and actions) apparently now bring in lots of money . . . Another result of all of this is that very few of the modern generation are made to sit down and write thank-you notes for birthday and holiday gifts. * * * Understanding Spelling and Sources By Jim Lancaster in Bury, Lancs., England In last week's newsletter, Patricia Lovell said that "The IGI consists basically of two sources of information; that which has been extracted from official records, and that submitted by members of the LDS Church. [and] This [DICKIN's baptism entry] put paid to my rule of, generally speaking, accepting extracted records on the whole, but taking submitted records with more caution. She proceeded to use Charles DICKENS to illustrate "problems" with the IGI. She queries the "correct" spelling of his surname. Surely the correct spelling of his name is the spelling he used, BUT the spelling in the baptism register was not provided by him! It was written many years earlier by the minister from what the minister heard. We do not know if Charles' parents could read or write, but they would probably not have been given the opportunity to check the baptism entry. The validity of the extraction process for the IGI is not compromised. I have extracted the following details from a local church register for a lady looking for KELLY entries. Marriage was between Patricium KEALY and Catharinam BUTLER and in the baptism register their children are recorded as Petrus CALEY; Maria KEIGHLEY; Gulielmus KAILLY; Ricardus KELLY; Joseph KELLY; Thomas KELLY. The register is in Latin but that does not affect the spelling of surnames. The family was an Irish family and the priest who performed the marriage and five of the six baptisms was also Irish. The name appears in other contemporary records as KALY, KELY, KELEY; KELLEY. The present family uses the name KELLY. What is accuracy in this situation? The question of submitted records is somewhat different. As the compiler of my family history, my entries are as accurate as I can make them for my use but that does not mean that they are as accurate as others might wish. If I were asked in the RootsWeb office in the USA, "Where were you born?" I would answer "England." If I was asked when staying with my daughter in Orkney, the answer would probably be "Near Manchester." It is only if I was asked somewhere close to Bury, that I would give a more precise answer. To a large extent this view of place influences how we enter the details in our family history programs. For some entries we might be content with England, but with others we expect a full, detailed address. Sometimes we make assumptions that are not valid, but that suit us and we are happy with them. We need to remember that most records, including our family history records, are generated with a particular aim and even family histories were probably not started with a view to publication worldwide. The point we must always bear in mind is that the IGI is an INDEX, a pointer to another source, though sadly the other source is not always accessible. We need to assess the information, and its source. Discrepancies between entries in the IGI are not necessarily errors, but may be accurate reproductions of what was entered in the original source. * * * Cutting Transcribers and Indexers Some Slack By Susan LeBlanc Perhaps it is time for a general note about being more forgiving, understanding and tolerance of transcribed data that we all use constantly now in our genealogy searches. The two mailing lists I use regularly (one in the USA, one in Scotland) seem to have more and more complaints and derogatory comments about errors found in transcribed data. I do some volunteer transcribing for the U.S. county list where most of my early family lived. Often I am working from a scanned copy of a photocopied copy of a microfilm and even newspaper print from mid-1800s is often illegible. Unless one does such volunteer work, especially the early LDS (Mormon) transcribers who were using microfilms, such as the IGI files that we all use, one cannot realize how difficult or impossible it is to make out this information. The various handwriting compounds the problem. A little gratitude and understanding is the best solution. As an example, I have an ancestor with the given name of "Lemuel." With the florid style of capital letters in the mid-1800s, this invariably shows up in transcription as "Samuel." I'm still thankful that someone worked to make the data available to us all -- just be flexible. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I am a grateful Internet/digital researcher. * * * 7. Humor/Humour: Actung! -------------------------------------- Thanks to Raymond Wolff in Germany who writes: "I know of a family buried here in Berlin that only has one word on its gravestone -- only the last name: Pause! * * * Found a funny or "proper name for the job" in old records or an amusing entry 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. AdSales 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: 6 December 2006, Vol. 9, No. 49. * * * *