RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 23 May 2007, Vol. 10, No. 21 (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/2007/0523.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. RootsWeb at NGS 1b. Websites Worth Visiting 1c. Book Notices (2) 2. Using RootsWeb: WorldConnect Keyword Searches 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: You Never Know Where You'll Find a Cousin Ancestry Helps the Homeless 4. Bottomless Mailbag: CD Longevity Veterans History Project Spring Clean in Folkestone Turns Up Surprise 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. New User-contributed Databases 5b. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals 5c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies 5d. New Mailing Lists 6. Humor/Humour 7. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. RootsWeb at NGS Ten years ago, RootsWeb made its first appearance at a National Genealogical Society convention in Richmond, Virginia. Last week, RootsWeb came full circle when they appeared at NGS again--also in Richmond, Virginia. The case of "The Official Guide to RootsWeb.com" that was brought sold out quickly; all demos at the booth were well-attended; and the Saturday class presented by RootsWeb staff received a rousing round of applause. Thanks to all our users who came and said hello at the booth; we look forward to seeing more of you at NGS next year. 1b. Websites Worth Visiting American Prisoners of the Revolution: Names of 8,000 Men Find the names of American naval prisoners kept on ships at Wallabout Bay--later the Brooklyn Navy Yard--during the Revolutionary War. The list was first compiled by the Society of Old Brooklynites in 1888; it was put online by the U.S. Maritime Service Veterans. http://www.usmm.net/revdead.html * * * Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library This website contains more than 200,000 historic maps and 5,000 atlases, including woodcuts, copperplate engravings, lithographs, and more. Maps come from all over the world, though the majority are from Europe and America, with a particular focus on New England, Massachusetts, and Boston. They date from the fifteen the fifteenth century to the present day. http://maps.bpl.org/ * * * OurTimeLines.com Want to see how your life fits into world history? Submit up to ten personal events and this site will generate a personalized timeline with historical events, people, inventions, etc. You can also use the Peer Search to locate famous individuals born in any given year. http://www.ourtimelines.com/ 1c. Book Notices (2) The Life and Times of Nathaniel Hale Pryor, Explorer, Soldier, Frontiersman, and Spokesman for the Osage By Lawrence R. Reno This is the first comprehensive biography of Nathaniel Pryor, one of the sergeants on the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery. Pryor probably had the most interesting life after the expedition of any of the men, other than William Clark. Pryor married into the Osage tribe and has lines of descendants living today from two of his four Osage children. He was instrumental in helping the Osage negotiate treaties with neighboring tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, etc.) as well as with the U.S. Abbreviated genealogical information includes the descendants of William and Abadiah (Davis) FLOYD; the known ancestors and descendants of Nathaniel PRYOR; and discussions of one possible child and a purported child of Nathaniel Pryor. Soft cover, 256 pages, illustrations, bibliography, and index (ISBN: 0-9785327-0-8). The cost is $26, including shipping and handling. For more information, e-mail: LRRDEN@comcast.net. Send check or money order with your address, to: Larry Reno 303 Ea. 17th Ave., #200 Denver CO 80203 * * * The Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery, Newberry, South Carolina, with Selected Bush River Quaker Bibliography. Third printing May 2007. By Judith F. Russell The Quakers lived in Newberry, South Carolina, during the Revolutionary- War-era and into the early 1800s, when they began moving westward. The historic Bush River Cemetery was part of their meeting house property and was the final resting place of hundreds of their members.This publication is a completely indexed history of the cemetery and many of its families, and it includes photographs of all eighty of the existing monuments, plus a map of the tombstone locations. There is also an extensive bibliography of Bush River and Quaker references and an appendix with donated family information for many of the Bush River Quakers. The book is 125 pages, softbound. All book sale proceeds will go to the Quaker Cemetery clean-up fund. Because of this work, the cemetery is now accessible every day of the year. The cost is $37.00, including shipping and handling. Send orders with a check made out to "Quaker Cemetery Clean Up Fund" to: Judith F. Russell 1051 Forrest Hills Drive Bogart GA 30622-2442 For more information e-mail: jrussell2@charter.net 2. Using RootsWeb: WorldConnect Keyword Searches By Mary Harrell-Sesniak "Genealogy is not just a pastime; it's a passion." More than eight years ago, RootsWeb launched the WorldConnect project to immediate success. During its beta period, more than 5.5 million records were uploaded, and since then, it has enjoyed phenomenal growth. Today there are over 460 million names on file. The history of WorldConnect is on RootsWeb, and I recommend reading it, along with the archived messages that led to its development: http://wc.rootsweb.com/wchistory.html. Gary Hoffman's introduction of 8 April 1994 stated, "With the advent of the World Wide Web concept on the Internet, we finally have the tools to easily create a coordinated interlinked distributed worldwide genealogy database." What an interesting statement, and today the mission is the same. WorldConnect provides the largest distributed genealogical database in the world, and volunteers provide 100 percent of the data. If you haven't yet discovered WorldConnect, do so soon. It is easy to find. Just click the "Family Trees" tab on the main masthead. If you are new to WorldConnect, start with the FAQ tutorials. They include lessons on the Global Search form, terms and symbols, post-ems, and more. The following is an expanded lesson on searching WorldConnect by keywords, a feature that is typically underutilized. FIND A DATABASE BY KEYWORD(S) If you are searching for a surname or combination of surnames in WorldConnect, then use the "Find a Database by Surname(s)" search or the Advanced Search. The "Find a Database by Surname(s)" search is particularly useful if you are looking for a unique surname or a marriage (e.g., a Macy married to a Hobbs). The Advanced Search can help you locate matches for a more common surname by narrowing your search with dates, locations, and more. However, if you are looking for something other than a surname, use the "Find a Database by Keyword(s)" search. A keyword is a word that a submitter used to identify or describe his or her tree when it was first submitted to WorldConnect. Think of the "Find a Database by Keyword(s)" search as a special interest search. Enter any topic imaginable, from religions to locations or ethnic groupings to submitters. If you enter a submitter's name, hits will be returned for everything contributed by that person. You can also search for e-mail addresses, or portions of e-mail addresses. For example, there are several contributors who use zoomtown as their ISP (Internet Service Provider), and you can search for zoomtown to retrieve results for users with that ISP included in their e-mail address (e.g., mary@zoomtown.com). The "Find a Database by Keyword(s)" search areas include: --The tree ID (This used to be called the user code. Each user code is unique and created by the submitter. In the search results, it is the first displayed field. It also appears in the URL (uniform resource locator) or Web address at the top of the tree page.) --The e-mail address of the submitter --The submitter's name --The tree title (a lengthier title also assigned to the tree by the submitter) --The heading (optional information added by the submitter and included as a header on all pages) --The footing (optional information added by the submitter and included as a footer on all of the tree's pages; for example, a copyright or endnote) --The homepage title (an optional link to an external website) --The name count (a calculation of the total number of records in the tree) --The "updated on" fields (date, day of the week, and time the file was last updated) Keywords can include anything a submitter chose, so be creative and try variations. The terms "Sweden" and "Swedish" retrieve different files, as do "GA" and "Georgia." Capitalization does not matter, and it is best to avoid punctuation. All of the following are valid searches: Atlanta GA (or Atlanta, Atlanta Georgia, Georgia, or some other variation) Native American King George Sweden Once a query is submitted, search results appear containing the database name, e-mail address, author, title, file size, and the date and time last updated. Matches are highlighted in red. If an entry has no red, it indicates that the keyword was found elsewhere--either in the heading, footing, homepage title, name count, or "updated on" fields. Don't be surprised if the search results contain files you didn't expect to see. Searching for King George produces a report referring to King George County, one on Carl George King and others where either George or King appeared in a submitter's name and title. An example would be Patricia King's database that is named George S. Waugh. At the top of the search results is a section that shows your search criteria. Keywords: King George Match: All Match: "All" indicates that the files chosen contain all of the keywords entered. To the right of "All" is a down arrow and it can be changed to "Any" or "Boolean." The "Any" selection is an either/or query. If "Sweden Swedish" was entered for keywords, databases would be displayed with either, but would not be required to contain both words. Keywords: Sweden Swedish Match: Any The "Boolean" term is not as strange as it seems; it is a mathematical concept that allows a selection to be limited by use of what is known as an operator. The three Boolean operators used in WorldConnect are AND, OR, and ANDNOT, and they are capitalized. The first two options demonstrated, "All" and "Any," are the Boolean equivalents to AND and OR. The keyword search lets you use the terms or Boolean operators. Keywords: King AND George Match: Boolean Keywords: Sweden OR Swedish Match: Boolean The third operator, ANDNOT, allows you to search for one keyword and eliminate another. For example, if you wanted to look for Washington, but didn't want the name George to be included, the search would look like: Keywords: Washington ANDNOT George Match: Boolean To exclude more than one item, use the ANDNOT between each keyword. A search for Washington, but not George or any files with the word "descendants" in them would be entered as follows: Keywords: Washington ANDNOT George ANDNOT descendants Now that you know about keywords, be creative. Search for topics, authors, e-mails, religions, countries, or any other keyword you can think of. WorldConnect has files on topics such as royalty, famous people, and historic places such as Jamestown or Plymouth Colony. Even Harry Potter's ancestry is online. If you discover an exciting way to use a keyword search, please send your idea along. We'd love to hear from you. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT WORLD'S LARGEST GENEALOGICAL LIBRARY ANCESTOR SEEKERS researchers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will search this vast collection for your ancestors from the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, or Europe. Friendly service, affordable prices. For a no-obligation research assessment visit: http://www.ancestorseekers.com/research.rwr/ For help from professional genealogists in England or Scotland visit: http://www.britishancestors.com/ Or join us 30 SEPTEMBER-5 OCTOBER for our NINTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the ideal genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: You Never Know Where You'll Find a Cousin By Jackie Reid A second cousin in my husband Reid's line got in touch with me through a RootsWeb query. My husband and I have since met him and his wife on one of our trips back to New England and he and I have become e-mail buddies. He also found another second cousin recently in Texas thanks to a lady who answered his query and connected him with the newfound Reid cousin. Cousin Bill of New England had asked if I would send him my genealogy because I told him that I had a lot of New England ancestry, as he did through his mother's Crosby line. Last week I finally e-mailed my line to him and he e-mailed back and said, "Look over my line and your line again. We're cousins." Sure enough, his ancestor, Elizabeth Hill, born 1661 in Massachusetts, and my ancestor, Dorothy Hill, born 1667 in Massachusetts, were sisters born to Joseph Hill and Hannah Smith. Maybe we're not as close of cousins as Bill and my husband are, but we're cousins nonetheless. * * * Ancestry Helps the Homeless By Sue Kucklick I am a program manager at a mental health home for people who were homeless. I have a subscription to Ancestry.com to carry on the legacy of my great-aunt Helene, who was the family historian. Many homeless people lose contact with their families in the process of losing their housing and being ill, many for years at a time. Family contact is often very important in their recovery. One of my newer residents had not seen anyone in her family for about five years. One of her goals is to reunite with her children. I used the Public Records Search to try to find her kids. We weren't successful, though it appeared two of the kids lived right here in the same neighborhood for a time. I decided to try a different strategy and look for her siblings, thinking that since they are older they might be a little more settled. Within minutes, we located her brother and sister and she was able to call and talk to her brother. Later, she called her sister, who put her in contact with her children. She got updated on the family's events and one of her sons plans to come over today! 4. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- Have you leapt over some brick walls or cleverly figured out where your grandmother was hiding in a census? The RootsWeb Review wants to hear all about your brilliant sleuthing or uncanny luck. Send your genealogy tips and tales to: Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com CD Longevity By Jim Liddil In regards to the recent discussion that has been taking place about archival-quality CDs, let me say this. As someone who works in the area of records management, I have done a bit of research on CD longevity. Readers may want to look at the NIST website at http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.05/digitalPhysicalMediaAndDevice.html to read a bit about CD longevity, types of media, etc. NARA and the Digital Library Foundation have also done studies. Properly recorded and verified disks will not degrade rapidly if stored properly. Flash drives are far from 100 percent reliable: http://www.cnet.com.au/desktops/storage/0,239029473,240063522,00.htm To read the last two issues, with articles on archival-quality CDs, see: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0509.txt http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0516.txt * * * Veterans History Project (VHP)--A Good Resource for Military History Researchers and Oral Historians By George W. Archer, President of the Archer Association--A One-Name Study The Library of Congress American Folklife Center has a Veterans History Project (VHP) as part of their longstanding American Memory project: http://www.loc.gov/vets/ The purpose of the VHP project is to preserve the memories of veterans and those involved in these recent wars/conflicts (WWI onward) as oral history on tape/video or as documents. The project itself can be a locator resource to living veterans for further research. Personal information on living persons is not available from the project itself but referrals (names/addresses to those providing the material to the project) is available to researchers. To search the database online go to: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/vhp/html/search/search.html Here are some more useful, related websites: --The U.S. National WWII Memorial Registry of Remembrances, including four databases: Registry, National Archives, ABMC Missing List; ABMC cemetery listings. http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=registry.asp&subpage=intro --A list of public and private military museum and archival facilities that collect not just veterans' stories but recollections of U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts: industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc. http://www.loc.gov/vets/relatedrepositories.html --A list of organizations participating as "partners" in the project--an impressive list of possible resources for family historians to explore, organizations you have never heard of or did not know had a military history interest, including ethnic, racial, medical, gender, fraternal, and academic organizations with state-level links to comparable organizations. http://www.loc.gov/vets/partners/partners.html * * * Spring Clean in Folkestone Turns Up Surprise By Mary Harvey-Wright Republished from the 7 May 2003 issue of the RootsWeb Review I just wanted to share with you the successful outcome of an unanswered question that's been puzzling many of my family for several years--where were my grandparents buried? Our town, Folkestone in Kent--a town on the south coast of England, like many other towns had to provide more suitable burial space for its growing population. The little churchyards had all been long outgrown and the disposal of the dear departed was a severe problem. In late Victorian times many private companies were set up to take care of this and I believe it was a very profitable business. The cemetery at Folkestone is a large strip of land alongside the railway line and just outside the main town. The cemetery has a large mixture of graves ranging from the very simple to the extremely ornate and is very well tended. However, over the intervening years vandalism and the weather have taken their toll, and many graves have simply been grassed over. My grandmother, Fanny, died in 1925 aged just forty-three having had ten children and my grandfather followed her twenty years later, having raised them to successful adulthood. We knew roughly where they were buried but having explored every inch, could never find them. My mother, aged just seven when she lost her mother, could only remember that one of her neighbours, Edwin WILLIS, lived on the same street and was buried just next door. We are having a family visit from New Zealand shortly and I know that they wanted to visit the grave to pay their respects. Finally I contacted our local Environmental Services and, thankfully, learned that they hold the records and plans of the entire cemetery and, within a day or two, I had instructions on how to find the plot--"Just go through the main gate, turn left, count to nineteen and the grave is next to the wall." Well it wasn't quite as straightforward as that and each time I counted I ended up in a different place! In the end, however, I found another little stone marker and cleaned it off to read the name of Edwin WILLIS. My grandparents' graves had disappeared altogether and was now under the shelter of a spruce tree. My cousin and I arranged to meet with our gardening tools to at least cut back the tree and make a little flowered area so that we could pay our respects when the family came over. The tree had a successful pruning and I was just putting my trowel in the soil to plant some petunias when it struck something hard. We were both on our hands and knees like archeologists, gently scraping away the soil and we found the memorial marker, with names and dates and in perfect condition. The flowers are planted and the headstone is in an upright position for all the world to see. I didn't tell my mother anything of this and yesterday took her to see it. As we drew nearer, she said that she thought it was further down, but I took her over to the grave of her parents which she had not seen for fifty years. It was a very special moment and well worth the digging and pruning. We even gave Edwin WILLIS a spring clean, too. As a postscript, my grandmother had a name in death which she never had in life and was buried with the first name of Grace. The reason was that she didn't want to be known forever after the title of the famous "naughty" book--Fanny Hill. 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. 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. U.S. Cemetery Records: CemeteryListings. 6 records. K. Hawkins. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ ILLINOIS. Sangamon County. Springfield Junior College, class of 1962. 87 records. Janice A. Petterchak. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ KANSAS. Sedgwick County. Wichita High School Senior Class 1927. 482 records. Melinda McKinney. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ MISSISSIPPI. Hinds County. Goode-Aills Cemetery. 11 records. Nance Shaw. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ OREGON. Benton County. Oregon Agricultural College Class of 1909 (1910 yearbook). 100 records. Margaret Melaney. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ WISCONSIN. Jackson County. 1914 Atlas and Farmers Directory. 2,134 records. Roger C. Davis. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/atlas_gazetteer/ 5b. 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 * * * George W. CLINE Descendants and Related Families. By Syble Cline Glasscock. Surnames include CLINE, DANIEL, NEWTON, ALLRED, HARRIS, MCDOWELL, WITHERSPOON, and more. North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee area. 5c. 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] * * * DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution USGW = USGenWeb U.S.A. iaboone -- Boone County (Iowa) USGW fleidar -- Estero Island (Florida) Chapter DAR macwnewb -- City of West Newbury (Massachusetts) USGW mocchs2 -- Crystal City Historical Society (Missouri) 5d. 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 No New Surname Mailing Lists NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS No New Regional Mailing Lists NEW ETHNIC AND SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS No New Ethnic and Special Interest Mailing Lists 6. Humor/Humour Here's an interesting job title I found in the Poquoson, York County, Virginia, census, late 1800s: Oyster Catcher. --Thanks to Charles Cornell * * * My newspaper yesterday had an article about a person named "Christian Bible." Whether this was an assumed name or a birth name I don't know, but it seemed humorous to me. --Thanks to M. R. Hill * * * When my husband and I built our home in the country, just outside of Denver, Colorado, we hired a couple of men to dig our well, even though their names were HYER and PRICE. --Thanks to Gail McAssey, San Jose, California * * * 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. 7. 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. Ad Sales 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: 23 May 2007, Vol. 10, No. 21. * * * *