RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 02 May 2007, Vol. 10, No. 18 (c) 1998-2007 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Having trouble reading this newsletter? The online version is available at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0502.txt * * * ROOTSWEB HELPDESK: Check here for site maintenance announcements: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ * * * ROOTSWEB NEWSROOM: Check here for the latest RootsWeb news: http://blogs.rootsweb.com/newsroom/ * * * ROOTSWEB STORE: Check here for the latest in genealogy books, software, photos, and more: http://www.therootswebstore.com/ * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES: Check here for previous editions: http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. Can I Change My E-mail Address on a List? 1b. Corrections: Australian Citizenship E-mail Address and Queensland Stats 1c. Conference Notices 1d. Book Notice 1e. Using RootsWeb: Finding a Mailing List at RootsWeb 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Ancestors Overhead 3. Bottomless Mailbag: U.S. Veterans of Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate? Accessing Keyboard Viewer on a Macintosh Naughty Daughters 4. New at RootsWeb 4a. New User-contributed Databases 4b. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals 4c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies 4d. New Mailing Lists 5. Humor/Humour 6. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. Can I Change My E-mail Address on a List? You're searching through the mailing list archives and find some of your old posts with an outdated e-mail address. Can you change it? After reading Joan Young's article last week on searching the mailing list archive, many people did just this. Joan and I have received this question from many users. The answer? No. The list archives simply preserve what was posted on any given day. If you want to update an e-mail address, the best way is to make a new post to the list and provide your current e-mail address. You may also wish to include the surnames you made posts about, so that someone searching for that surname will see both your old and new addresses. But what about message boards? Some outdated e-mail addresses on old message board posts can be updated by virtue of My Account. Since My Account was introduced to the site last spring, users are required to sign in before making a post on a message board. My Account associates a username and an e-mail address; to update an e-mail address on an old post all you have to do is change it in My Account and any posts associated with the username will automatically be updated with the new e-mail address. What about messages created before My Account? These will be updated as well, so long as you were a registered user and logged in before making your old posts. If you were registered but did not log in to post, or were an unregistered user, there is no way for your old posts to be identified and updated. To review Joan's article on searching the mailing list archive visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0425.txt To read an article the article on My Account published in the 14 February 2007 issue of the Review, visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0214.txt 1b. Corrections: Australian Citizenship E-mail Address and Queensland Stats Want to know more about the changes to Australian citizenship law discussed in last week's Review? The e-mail address I was given in the media release last week was incorrect. The correct e-mail address is info@southern-cross-group.org. You can also learn more about the legislation on the following website: www.southern-cross-group.org Also, there was a notice in last week's Review stating the following: The Department of Justice and Attorney General of Queensland--the most populous state of Australia--recently put birth, marriage, and death records from 1829-1914 online at: http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/bdm/IndexSearch.htm It should have read: The Department of Justice and Attorney General of Queensland--the THIRD most populous state of Australia--recently put birth, marriage, and death records from 1829-1914 online at: http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/bdm/IndexSearch.htm Sorry for the oversight. 1c. Conference Notices If you're not from England, you may not be aware that the Society of Genealogists' annual Family History Show conference is going on this weekend (5-7 May). The special thing about this year's conference is that they have partnered with the popular BBC television documentary series, "Who Do You Think You Are," which is famous for taking celebrities on a quest to discover their ancestors. A special "Who Do You Think You Are" LIVE show will take place, and 15,000 attendees are expected. Other workshops, "Ask the Experts" sessions, and entertainment venues are planned. To read more about the conference and the show, visit: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk/index.php?option= com_frontpage&Itemid=1 and http://www.sog.org.uk/events/2007show.shtml * * * The Ottawa branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) will be hosting the society's annual seminar from 1-3 June at the Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. The theme is "Ottawa, the Nation's Capital for 150 Years--the Peopling of Canada." For more information, visit the website at: www.ogsseminar.org * * * The Society of Florida Archivists will be holding their annual conference from 6-8 June, at the Boca Center Marriott, Boca Raton, Florida. The theme is "Opening Eyes to Archives--Building Respect for Your Collection." For more information, please visit the website at: http://www.florida-archivists.org/meeting.htm * * * The Gregath Publishing Company is holding its third annual genealogy retreat, "Genealogy in the Woods," from 19-21 October 2007 at the Sky Ranch in rural, northeast Oklahoma. The conference will include sessions on genetic genealogy, American migration patterns, and waterway routes; and an entire day dedicated to scrapbooking with award-winning scrapbookers. For more information visit the website at: http://www.gregathcompany.com/workshop/2007 1d. Book Notice Ancestors and Relatives of Ford and Florence (Smith) GUMM By Elisabeth Gumm This is a 300-page, hardbound, indexed, 9" x 11" book about the ancestors of Ford and Florence GUMM, who lived in Whitman County, Washington. The book includes more than 300 pictures of different family members; some photos are more than 100 years old. The families are from Oregon, California, Illinois, and Missouri. This book includes descendents of Shepard and Nancy (PULLIAM) GUM, Daniel and Mary (QUESENBERRY) HUGHES, George and Ann (FLEMMING) RAVENS, Christopher and Jane (CRABTREE) STARR, Joseph and Mary Ann (HUNTLEY) SMITH, and David and Mary (MOUNT) STORMENT. Other names are BAKER, BILYEU, CHARLTON, FAIRES, FELTON, GORE, GUMM/GUM, HOLLOWAY, HUNTLEY, KENNEDY, MARLOW, MILLICAN, PRYOR, ROBINETTE, WAKEFIELD, and WALKINGTON. The cost of the book is $70 including shipping and handling. To request a copy of the book send check or money order with mailing address to: Elisabeth Gumm 1113 32nd Place Forest Grove OR 97116 1e. Using RootsWeb: Finding a Mailing List at RootsWeb By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com You may feel as if you are hopelessly lost in a maze when you first set out to locate a mailing list at RootsWeb. After all, there are more than 30,000 genealogy-related lists with a wide variety of subject matter from which to choose. Recently RootsWeb introduced a new tool for finding mailing lists of interest to you. Prior to the introduction of this new search engine, locating a mailing list involved browsing the list indexes. If you prefer, you can still use the old familiar "browse" method by starting on the mailing lists homepage and clicking the "Browse mailing lists" link. To find the mailing lists homepage, click the Mailing Lists tab on the RootsWeb masthead or go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ To browse for lists go to: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/index.html For your convenience, the mailing lists homepage also includes a search box for searching the archives of all lists. It is titled "Search the mailing list archives." This search box uses the new Archives search engine explained in this column last week. It comes in handy if you wish to check out previous discussions on a list before deciding whether or not to subscribe. Just below the Archives search box, you will see the new "Find a List" search feature. Browsing to locate a list is self-explanatory if you have a good idea of the category in which the list you seek would be located. The lists are grouped under the following categories: Surnames, USA, International, and Other. The Other lists include all topics that don't fit into the surname or various locality classifications. Sub-categories are clickable and the lists in each grouping are found on the linked pages. Searching for a list can be easier than browsing, especially if you are not certain of a list name or the category under which it might be located. Searching can also help you find all lists that touch upon a particular subject, including lists you may not have considered. Start with a simple search by entering a keyword or words in the "Find a mailing list" search box. You can search for exact phrases by enclosing the entire phrase in quotation marks. You can also use the "*" (asterisk) and "?" (question mark) wildcards. The asterisk represents zero or more missing or unknown characters; the question mark indicates a single missing character. Either can be used in any position within the keyword(s). The Boolean operators AND and NOT will also work with this search engine. Use AND to search for two words and NOT to exclude a word (for instance, JONES NOT TXJONES). Since the actual name of a mailing list might not always be obvious in relation to the subject matter covered on the list, the keyword searches also match words contained in the list description of a list as well as the actual list name. If a keyword search doesn't yield the results you were hoping for, you can click the Advanced Search tab and search specific fields for a list name, list description, country, state, county, surname, and/or category. Remember that if you include search terms in more than one field of the advanced search form all of the marked fields are searched and, for a list to be found, it must match all of the words you entered in each field. If you are feeling lost in a maze when looking for a RootsWeb mailing list to aid you in your family history research, don't forget to use the new "Find a List" search engine to locate valuable resources that may be just what you need to break down those brick walls. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FROM PROFESSIONAL GENEALOGISTS IN ENGLAND OR SCOTLAND 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. Visit http://www.britishancestors.com/ For help from professional genealogists in finding ancestors from the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, or Europe, visit http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research/rwr/ Or join us 24-29 JUNE for our EIGHTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--The ideal genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb Ancestors Overhead By Nina Naukam Summertown, Tennessee I am sure we have all read the stories of how we just "by chance" found the headstone of some missing relative. Here is one of how my third great-grandfather saved us from a forest fire. This past Sunday afternoon I was trying to track down a mysterious and missing great-grandmother, Carrie Belle RIDER, with no luck. So I decided to start searching for her four known brothers. I found a little information on Nep, Clint, Huse, and George RIDER, as well as their father, William B. GIBSON, born in 1844 in Tennessee. Not having the time to really study the information, however, I printed it off and placed the pages in the appropriate notebook. After putting my three-year-old granddaughter to bed around 9 p.m., I decided to go over what I found while it was still fresh in my memory. I was so excited that I had finally made a small breakthrough, that I was still awake around eleven. At about that time my dog started acting very nervous and wanting to go out. I said, "OK but you will just have to spend the night outside." When I opened the back door to let him out I saw the forest behind us on fire and topping the ridge. The winds were blowing away from the house so I never smelled any smoke. I thank great-great-great-grandfather RIDER for watching over my family and our neighbor this past Sunday night. Neither my house, nor my neighbor's house, suffered any damage, and the forest fire was contained and put out by our great forestry department, volunteer fire-fighting department, and numerous country neighbors who just showed up with shovels, rakes, and even horse trailers--in case we needed to move the horses to safety. If I had not been working on our family history I would have been in bed and sound asleep by 10 p.m. I truly believe that our ancestors can and do watch over us. Some will say it was just a coincidence, but not me. 3. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Veterans of Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois By Patricia Davidson-Peters With Memorial Day approaching, we'd like to spotlight our website, U.S. Veterans of Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois, to honor these veterans. We look forward to hearing from viewers and we welcome e- mails. Our site previously appeared in the RootsWeb Review in 2004 at which time it included approximately seventy veterans who were laid to rest at Glenwood cemetery in Collinsville. The site began when I learned Gene Beals had personally researched seventy veterans and had U.S. veteran markers set for them in Glenwood cemetery. I was so impressed with his work and how much information could be made available from his research, that I contacted him and volunteered to create a website. Three years later the site has grown tremendously and has a new address at the military section of RootsWeb. It now honors 197 veterans from the Collinsville area who served in nine wars including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Black Hawk War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish- American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Most of the veterans from Collinsville were laid to rest at Glenwood cemetery, but some have their final resting place at Holy Cross, St. John, St. Peter, and St. Paul cemeteries. Other veterans are buried abroad in various cemeteries while still others are memorialized on the Missing in Action tablets. All 197 veterans have their own page, which includes military information and medals and badges, if they fought in a more recent war. Nearly all of the veterans' pages contain a photograph of their headstone and, when available, an obituary and photograph of the individual. To see our website, visit: http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~sunnyann/collinsville/bealsveter ans.html * * * Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate? By Gynon Nash I am not affiliated with this site, but I ran across it and thought RootsWeb readers might find it of interest. It was created by the University of Minnesota, and it provides some free information and some materials you can buy about passing on your personal belongings. http://yellowpieplate.umn.edu/ * * * Accessing Keyboard Viewer on a Macintosh By Bill Rendahl Torrance, California I read Woody Thomas's article (Rootsweb Review, 25 April 2007, Vol.10, No. 17) with great interest, since Key Caps was a useful utility "under the apple" on the old OS9 Macintoshes, but I had not found it on the newer, MAC OS X machines. After reading his article, I went to try the Keyboard Viewer but could not initially find it. Here is how to make Keyboard Viewer available: 1. Go to "System Preferences" underneath the blue Apple icon on the menu bar. 2. Open the "International" preference. In the new window that appears, click on the "Input Menu" button on the right. Then check the "Show input menu in menu bar" box at the bottom of the window. That will put a little flag icon--the input menu--on your menu bar. 3. In the same window, check the "Keyboard Viewer" box. That will add the Keyboard Viewer to the flag icon's drop-down menu. (By-the-way, leave the "Character Palette" box checked also to be able to use that panel from this menu.) From then on, you can access Keyboard Viewer by clicking on the little flag icon, or input menu, and selecting "Show Keyboard Viewer." To read Woody Thomas's article, "Umlauts, Acutes, and Accents on a Mac," from last week's Review, visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0425.txt * * * Naughty Daughters By Monica Williams-Mitchell Several weeks ago in the Review, a link was posted to an article written by Myra Vanderpool Gormley titled "Naughty Daughters Dangling on the Family Tree." I enjoyed the article but have one comment. Myra speculates that these women were removed from their parents' wills because they did something to anger their parents--which well might have been the case. But in one instance another explanation could apply. She quotes from a will: "Whereas I did convey in said will to my daughter Priscilla Mathews an equal share with other three daughters, which said gift I do hereby absolutely and entirely revoke and instead thereof I do hereby of my good will place my said daughter's full share as given in my said former will into the possession of my grandsons Griffin Mathews and Isaac Moore for them or either of them to act as agent or trustee [for] daughter aforesaid for her sole benefit during her life and at her death to descend or go to and belong to the heirs of her body." It seems clear to me that the "good reason" the testator mentions might be the real possibility that the woman's husband would have appropriated her share unwisely or even to her detriment--making that the reason that the grandsons were given the power to act as agent or trustee for her benefit. Remember that in many places married women didn't have legal right to their own property; everything they had belonged to their husbands, however abusive or imprudent they might have been. To read Myra's article, visit: http://www.ancestrymagazine.com/2007/04/digging/naughty-daughters- dangling-on-the-family-tree/ 4. New at RootsWeb 4a. 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. CALIFORNIA. Contra Costa County. Burials Oakview Cemetery, 1890-2006. 12,246 records. Wayne Ernstrom. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ MASSACHUSETTS. Suffolk County. Index to probate records, 1636-1896, selected surnames only. 256 records. Maureen Graves Anderson. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/courtrecords/ NEW YORK. Broome County. 1790 Census. 12 records. C. White. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/census/index/ SOUTH DAKOTA. Hand County. Rose Hill Cemetery. 194 records. Ronette and Jenny. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ SOUTH DAKOTA. Hand County. Wessington Cemetery in Hulbert Township. 312 records. Ronette and Jenny. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ 4b. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- 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, the title of the website, the name of the author, and a BRIEF description of the site, including major surnames, 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 * * * Index to Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts, to the year 1850. Website created by Jane Devlin; transcription of vital records done by Coralynn Brown. Includes many surnames native to Nantucket, such as COFFIN, STARBUCK, HUSSEY, GREENLEAF, MACY, FOLGER, SHATTUCK, GARDNER, PADDACK (PADDOCK), and others. New data continually being added to site, such as cemetery records from Essex County, New York, family records from Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York, and vital records from Worcester, Massachusetts. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/ma/0- nantucket_index.htm 4c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these Web pages 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] * * * Note that the ~[tilde] before the Web account name is required. For example, the James Waldrop (Georgia) Chapter DAR website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gajwcda/ * * * DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution SAR = Sons of the American Revolution USGW = USGenWeb Project AHGP = American History and Genealogy Project U.S.A. gajwcdar -- James Waldrop (Georgia) Chapter DAR gatatnal -- Tatnall County (Georgia) USGW ilhchs -- Hamilton County Historical Society (Illinois) ilpchgs -- Piatt County Historical and Genealogical Society (Illinois) mactowns -- City of Townsend (Massachusetts) USGW ncgwcsar -- General George Washington (North Carolina) Chapter SAR okocgs -- Ottawa County Genealogy Society (Oklahoma) txcalla2 -- Callahan County (Texas) AHGP ITALY itapcata -- Province of Catanzaro (Italy) 4d. New Mailing Lists To 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/ NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS STRAHL NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS No New Regional Mailing Lists NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS POCOIAGESO -- The Polk County Iowa Genealogical Society mailing list, for the use of posting of monthly newsletters; genealogy notices; discussion about genealogy, the Internet; and so forth. 5. Humor/Humour The most recent addition to my children's family tree, from eighteenth- century Canaan, Connecticut, is the couple Hunt and Peck--two good, old New England names. I'm sure that no one then would have seen any humor in a Mr. Hunt marrying a Miss Peck, but since the invention of the typewriter, it sure is funny. --Thanks to Linda MacLachlan * * * One of my favorite finds is from the Texarkana, Texas, census in which the column labeled "cannot read or write" is checked for the doctor, the pharmacist, and the hotel clerk. --Thanks to Kay Bradley, Santa Fe, New Mexico 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. We also welcome other humorous genealogy-related submissions. 6. 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: rootswebreview@email.rootsweb.com The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of The Generations Network, 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: Tami Deleeuw, tdeleeuw@tgn.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: 02 May 2007, Vol. 10, No. 18. * * * *