RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 15 August 2007, Vol. 10, No. 33 (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/2007/0815.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. New Logo Added to FreePages 1b. Mysterious Genealogist Leaves Notes in Cemetery 1c. Book Notice (1) 2. Using RootsWeb: Seeing Double on WorldConnect: Eliminating Duplication 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Updating My Information 4. Bottomless Mailbag: A Tired Enumerator Headstone Rubbings Correction to "FamilySearch Indexing," by Ada Eyerly Book Project Addendums Photo Touch-Ups 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. New Logo Added to FreePages Several weeks ago, a new RootsWeb masthead was added to RootsWeb.com. As a part of the branding changes, all websites hosted by RootsWeb (i.e., HomePages, FreePages, society and county websites), will also be updated with a new masthead. This will create a cleaner, more consistent look across the pages of RootsWeb. 1b. Mysterious Genealogist Leaves Notes in Cemetery An anonymous genealogist in Kings County, Nova Scotia, has been leaving messages in plastic sleeves by local graves. The messages, which contain genealogical information about the deceased person taken from censuses and other records, have presumably been left to generate genealogical interest in the community. Read the full story and view a video interview about the anonymous genealogist at NovaNewsNow.com: http://tinyurl.com/3y5ksd 1c. Book Notice (1) Kibler, Corse, Wadsworth, and Connected Families (Their Genealogy) By Dewey E. Kibler LCCN 2004091380, published in 2004, 1,245 pages, hard cover with surname index (about 23,000 names). Surnames include KIBLERS, KEEBLERS, KIBBLERS of East Tennessee; HELM; MADDEN; RISSLER; PELL; WEATHERINGTON; REED; CORSES or COURSEYS of Ireland, Maryland, and Kentucky; CASHION; RUDD; TUCKER; PARHAM; COLEMAN; SHELTON; BATHURST; WEST; HAGER; KILLIAN; BYNUM; BLOW; WADSWORTHS of Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri; COX; BLACK; COBB; FARRAR; REYNOLDS; JEFFERSON; ABERNATHY; TILLMAN; SANDERS; WOOD; BATTE; and MALLORY. Descendant outlines given for Jacob Keebler (1710-); Thomas Helm (1620-); John Madden (1708-1758); William Pell (1760-1839); Lewis Reed (1792-1865); Henry Coursey of Ireland (1596-1664); James Cashion (1700-1759); George Hager (1733-1784); John Bynum (1616-1691); Edward Wadsworth (-1762); Henry Cox (1598-1638); John Black (1760-1824); William Farrar (1594-1637); Robert Abernathy (1626-1685); Henry Batte (1509-1555); and Peter Jones (1634-1679). Available for $98.00 plus $6.00 postage. Contact: dek1740@hal-pc.org 2. Using RootsWeb: Seeing Double on WorldConnect: Eliminating Duplication By Jana Lloyd, editor of the RootsWeb Review You're in search of information on your late husband's family tree; immediately you think of WorldConnect. You enter information for one of the less common names on the tree--Mindwell Moore--hoping for some matches. To your surprise, 517 hits pop up. It's likely there was more than one Mindwell Moore and that more than one person has submitted a tree with her name in it--but 517? The chances seem slim. A more likely scenario is that someone made updates to his or her tree and then submitted multiple copies, rather than just replacing the old tree with a new one. This story is a real one. I received an e-mail from a user this week who told me about it. Attempting to find out whether her late husband and present fiance descend from the same Moore immigrant, she checked WorldConnect for Mindwell, only to be barraged by submissions. She wrote: "Without checking them, I am sure that many are duplicate submissions by the same person. So please, go to World Connect and check your files. If you have duplicates, please remove all but the most recent updates. It's very easy with the new system. And you are more likely to get a response to your listing if you aren't overwhelming other researchers who are confronted with many duplicate files. [The rest of us] . . . will thank you forevermore if you will take the few minutes it takes to remove your duplicate files from WorldConnect." DELETING OLD TREES This writer is correct: deleting your old trees on World Connect is easy with the new My Account feature. Just follow these steps to delete old, outdated trees: 1. Click "My Account" in the upper, right-hand corner of RootsWeb. All the user codes you created to submit different trees are listed under "WorldConnect User Codes." (Remember, every tree has its own user code.) 2. Click "Edit" next to the tree you want to delete. You will see a new page with information on that tree. 3. Click "Delete Tree." (Note: If you have not used My Account before, you can delete an old tree by going here: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igmuser.cgi Enter the user code and password for the tree you want to delete and click on "standard." At the bottom of the next page, click on "Remove Account." If the user code for your tree starts with a colon followed by numbers or a colon followed by a letter plus numbers, the tree was submitted to Ancestry.com. Even though those trees can be viewed through RootsWeb, you will need to return to Ancestry.com to edit or delete them.) UPDATING TREES What if you have made changes to your tree and want to post a newer version? Don't create a new user code and resubmit the tree (unless you delete the old one first). Instead, replace the old one. How? Follow steps 1 and 2 above. Then, instead of clicking "Delete Tree," click "Replace Tree with New GEDCOM." By the way, if you have only made minor changes, you may just want to add a Post-em Note to the individual(s) changed. Wait until you have more substantial changes to completely resubmit the tree. To read more about Post-em notes, click here: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/postem/ * * * * * * * * * * 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 dream genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Updating My Information By Deb LaVasseur I thought I'd share a success story that only happened because I took your advice about keeping my e-mail address up-to-date on message boards. In 2002, I posted enquiries about my grandmother Lydia Whitcher on numerous genealogy message boards. I never got any replies, but when my e-mail address changed, I updated my records on all the sites. Just today, five years after the original post, I got a reply from a second cousin I never knew existed, who had a lot of valuable information. So, everyone out there, be sure to update your information on message boards. You never know who might try to help you several years down the road. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- A Tired Enumerator By Ezziej Bromwich I write a BROMWICH Family Circle newsletter for a group of BROMWICH families and relatives. While researching in the census I came across a BROMWICH in Spratton, Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire is one of the counties in England that is hard to research. While I was researching, I thought, "Hmm, I should see who else lived in Spratton, Northamptonshire, during this time." At the very end of the census it showed an address, but where names were to be listed it showed "N.K." for both people, age 47 and 45 respectively. Everything else was also labeled "N.K.," or "Not known." I laughed. One must have sympathy for the enumerator; after all, he was at the end of the road and the census. * * * Headstone Rubbings By Sylvia Bachelor In her last article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak wrote, "When we find an unreadable stone, we apply a nontoxic, colored, wetted sand to the crevices, which allows us to read the epitaph." Could you explain this a little? What kind of sand is this and where do you get it? How do you apply it? I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a good way to make weathered tombstones more readable, but I have been stumped. Response: The wet sand idea came from my cousin. She purchases non-toxic, colored sand at a craft store. She carries a spray bottle of water to wet the sand before pressing it into the stone. The first time I saw one of her pictures, I was surprised to see blue lettering, but she explained that the technique allows for easy reading of the text. Mary Harrell-Sesniak RootsWeb Review Columnist To read Mary Harrell-Sesniak's article, "Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0808.txt * * * Correction to "FamilySearch Indexing," by Ada Eyerly By Dawna In the letter titled "FamilySearch Indexing," written by Ada Eyerly, it says that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been microfilming since 1984. I didn't know where the year 1984 came from because I personally started using microfilm records back in the 1960s and knew they had been microfilming long before that. So, I looked it up and this was the information I found on the FamilySearch site: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHL/frameset_library.asp?PAGE=library_history.asp 1. The first microfilming was done in 1938. 2. The Granite Mountain Records Vault, for storing the original microfilm, was completed in 1963. 3. By the time that the current Family History Library in Salt Lake City opened in 1985, they already had 1.5 million rolls of microfilmed records. While the year was not crucial to the purpose of the letter (to encourage people to try the new indexing system on FamilySearch), it would be nice to acknowledge the contribution to genealogy by nearly fifty additional years of microfilming. To read "FamilySearch Indexing," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0808.txt * * * Book Project Addendums By Ken Rockwell Last week, Mary Harrell-Sesniak wrote about some lessons she was learning while writing a family genealogy. I know what she means about how hard it is to wrap up a book project; you always find more information. I finally drew the line at the seventh generation in my Rockwell genealogy and got the book in print in June. The solution I found to agonizing over "what if I find more details after I'm done" was to establish a website to accompany the book, announcing it in the preface. (It's a Rootsweb page, so it should be announced shortly in the Review.) This way, purchasers can go to the appropriate page for their direct ancestor and see what further information I've added. To read Mary Harrell-Sesniak's article, "Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0808.txt * * * Photo Touch-Ups By Woody Thomas In "Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy," Mary Harrell-Sesniak's photographer/publisher friends advised, "Old pictures look old, so be careful not to go too far with manipulation and color correction." I disagree, especially when it comes to color photos. Unless the original color photo was taken on Kodachrome film or is a Kodacolor print made from the 1960s on, the image is likely to be faded, sometimes seriously. Almost any color print that has been exposed to light in a frame will have faded. For about nine years I used a UMax scanner, which had reasonably sophisticated software, to scan photographs and, along with Adobe PhotoDeluxe (the precursor of Photoshop Elements), to restore old color and black and white prints. There were no automatic correction algorithms, however; I had to do everything manually and, as a result, had to know (or learn) what I was doing. I had a good leg up by that time, having worked in photography for more than forty-five years as a photographer and as a scientist (thirty-three years with Eastman Kodak). I recently purchased an HP Scanjet G4050, which allows me to scan color negatives and transparencies from 35mm up to 4x5 inches (almost all of my old negatives and transparencies are large format; that is, they are bigger than 35mm). This scanner was new in the market when I bought it a couple of months ago. It was the only one I could find at a reasonable price that would scan large format film. While the software overall is not as sophisticated as the UMax, it does have an automatic correction algorithm for faded transparencies that is a miracle worker. You click a box and the faded pink image suddenly turns into a lovely color picture. Unfortunately, the HP scanner will not do the same thing for faded color prints, nor will it do so for faded color negatives. For those, you must open the scan file in Photoshop (Elements or otherwise) -- or some other equivalent photo manipulation software -- and use the levels command to restore the faded image. Here again, it really helps if you understand color photo theory and practice. At any rate, there is image restoration software that can restore many color images to a close approximation of their original appearance. Why should we not try to present to our readers and viewers the best looking image we can? Is there some strange virtue in a cracked and scratched picture over one that looks most like the picture when it was new? To read Mary Harrell-Sesniak's article, "Lessons I'm Learning While Publishing a Family Genealogy," visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0808.txt * * * 5. New at RootsWeb 5a. New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/ ------------------------------------------------------------- No New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb. 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 genealogy- or history-related site is located somewhere other than at RootsWeb.com, you can add the link here: http://resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/addlink.html * * * A Collection of Family Histories, Documents, and Photographs for Ancestors of Donald and Carolyn Engstrom. By Donald E. Engstrom. Surnames include patronymics from Denmark (USA: ANDERSEN, JENSEN, HANSEN), Sweden (USA: ENGSTROM, JANSON), and Norway (USA: OLSEN, LARSEN), MANNING, WYMORE, VASS, JAMIESON, LYONS, SYNETTE, PATRICK, SAINSBURY, TRIPLETT, and HUNT. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~engstromde 5c. New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies To Request a Free Web Account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- No New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Genealogical/Historical Societies 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 GRUNICH MUNDIE NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS No New Regional Mailing Lists NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS No New Ethnic or Special Interest Mailing Lists 6. Humor/Humour As I was perusing the California Death Index, I came across a name that I thought was amusing and humorous. Here is the entry: California Death Index, 1940-1997 Name: Ura Little Moore What's even more funny is that her maiden name was "Walker." --Thanks to Robyn * * * While paying our respects at my wife's great-grandparents' graves in rural Montgomery County, Virginia, we happened to see a large tombstone near the entrance. It had the surname "SODA" on the back side of it. Since that isn't a common name for this area it caught our eye. The stone was very large and above ground, with the husband's and wife's names on it. When we looked at the wife's name (you guessed it), it said, "Minnie." --Thanks to Donnie Noel, Salem, Virginia * * * Found a funny or "proper name for the job" in old records, or an amusing entry in census, parish, church, or other 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: 15 August 2007, Vol. 10, No. 33. * * * *