RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 19 September August 2007, Vol. 10, No. 38 (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/2007/0919.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 SPOTLIGHT: Know someone who has gone above and beyond in the service of RootsWeb? Nominate them for recognition on our Volunteer Spotlight page: http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/vols/ * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES: Check here for previous editions: http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/ ============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes 1a. BBC Launches "Who Do You Think You Are?" Magazine 1b. RootsWeb Spotlight 1c. Book/CD Notice 2. Using RootsWeb: Learning the Ropes of Registering at MyAccount, Part II 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: A Couple of RootsWeb Connections 4. Bottomless Mailbag: Unnamed Offspring Need a DAR Lookup? Use the Message Boards 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. BBC Launches "Who Do You Think You Are?" Magazine The BBC is launching a website and magazine to go along with its popular TV series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" The magazine will be 100 pages, full color, and will be released thirteen times a year. Each issue will also contain a DVD or CD with outtakes from the TV series. The first issue will be released 25 September. http://www.bbcwhodoyouthinkyouare.com/ 1b. RootsWeb Spotlight Has someone gone out of their way to help you on RootsWeb? Perhaps they took extra care in responding to your message board query, helped you set up your freepage account, or gave you some tips in genealogy 101. Thank them by nominating them on our Volunteer Spotlight page: http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/vols/ 1c. Book/CD Notice Devon Bunkers By the Bunker Family Association This CD is the first genealogy published by the Bunker Family Association in twenty-five years. It includes descendants of James Bunker of Dover, New Hampshire; William Bunker and Ann Forrester of New Castle, Delaware; Benjamin Bunker and Betsey Daniels of New London, New Hampshire; and Thomas Bunker and Alice Pertie of Rattery, Devon. It also includes Devon, England, parish records, maps, and nearly 100 pictures. In addition, it contains the records of military service for Bunkers from all the many branches of the family. It contains 1,333 pages, including indexes. The cost is $22.50. To order, send a check or money order to Bette Bunker Richards. 1655 W. Ajo #399 Tucson, AZ 85713 betterichs@earthlink.net More information about the Bunker Family Association may be found at http://www.bunkerfamilyassn.org 2. Using RootsWeb: Learning the Ropes of Registering at MyAccount, Part II: When You Need to Change or Update MyAccount Information By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com Last week's article discussed how to register with MyAccount. This article will discuss how to update information such as your e-mail address in MyAccount. https://myaccount.rootsweb.com/ CHANGING YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS OR OTHER ACCOUNT INFORMATION If the primary e-mail address associated with your account changes, you need to update it at MyAccount. Click on "MyAccount"; then "Update Account Information." You can update your name, e-mail address, nickname (the name shown for you on various resources such as your WorldConnect GEDCOMs), and your zip code. If a secondary e-mail address you have previously linked to your account changes but your primary e-mail address remains the same, add the new e- mail address by clicking the "Add existing services to this account" link after manually updating any resources that were associated with the secondary e-mail address. CHANGING YOUR USERNAME OR PASSWORD You may change your username or password at any time but you must be logged into your account to do so. You cannot change your username and password at the same time. Only one change may be made at a time. If you attempt to change your username to a name already in use, you will receive a message alerting you that you'll need to choose another name. You cannot merge your multiple existing usernames into a single account as all of your current usernames are in use and will be rejected for that reason. After all, they are in use--by you--even if they are inactive. UPDATING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE Your public profile is a way to tell others about yourself. Include information about your interests and your genealogical research. Include a photo so that others can get to know you better. Your profile is linked to your public posts on RootsWeb, such as your WorldConnect trees and message board posts, and it can enable new cousins to find you and share information. To update your public profile, click "My Account"; then "Update your public profile." FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD? If you forget your password you can reset it. To reset your password you must be logged out. Click on "My Account"; then, "Forgot your password?" Type in the e-mail address associated with your account. You will be e-mailed a list of all usernames associated with your e-mail address. Select the username for your preferred active account and reset your password. If you cannot remember your username or your password and the e-mail address associated with your account is no longer valid for receiving mail, you will need to contact the RootsWeb HelpDesk for assistance. http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/form1.html RESOURCES THAT CAN BE GLOBALLY UPDATED VIA MYACCOUNT Most resources may be managed and updated via MyAccount, with a few exceptions. Mailing Lists You can unsubscribe from mailing lists using MyAccount but you cannot use MyAccount to subscribe to lists; you must do that manually. If you administer RootsWeb mailing lists, your administrator address must also be updated manually. Calendar Entries Calendar entries will not be updated when you update MyAccount. Web Pages and Personalized Mailing Lists Web hosting accounts (Freepages, WWW, virtual domain, or Homepages accounts) are listed in MyAccount. Most, except for Homepages accounts, should change when you update MyAccount. If not, contact the RootsWeb HelpDesk for assistance. Of course, you will need to make any changes to personal information on your websites manually. Web accounts will maintain their current account names and existing passwords for updating files. At present, you cannot change the password associated with a RootsWeb Web account (or the former sponsor premium service--Personalized Mailing Lists (PML)), through MyAccount. If you have a good reason for needing a new password for your Web account, contact accounts@rootsweb.com and explain why you need a new password so that one may be assigned to you. For PML updates or changes, contact the RootsWeb HelpDesk: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/form1.html If you merely need a password/account information reminder (not a change) for a website account or PML, you can obtain this information from Password Central: http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/ WorldConnect Trees Owner information for your WorldConnect tree(s) is associated with the nickname and e-mail address listed at MyAccount. It will change when MyAccount is updated unless you have checked the option to "separate owner info" on the WorldConnect Tree Administration page. This disconnects or separates your owner information from MyAccount even though the tree(s) will still show up at MyAccount. http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/wcus Message Boards Message board administrator contact e-mail addresses on Board Information pages will update automatically when you update your MyAccount information, unless you have customized your Board Information page. If so, you must manually update your contact address. Secondary E-mail Address Services If you have linked services to MyAccount that are associated with a secondary e-mail address and you update your primary registered e-mail address at MyAccount, your linked services will subsequently reflect your new updated e-mail address, with the exceptions noted above. COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT MYACCOUNT REGISTRATIONS If you have feedback about the registration process, e-mail feedback@rootsweb.com. * * * * * * * * * * 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/ For help from professional genealogists in England or Scotland visit http://www.britishancestors.com/research/ Or join us 13-18 April for our TENTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the dream genealogy vacation! * * * * * * * * * * End of Advertisements * * * * * * * 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: A Couple of RootsWeb Connections By Laura Perry I have made a couple of connections through RootsWeb that amazed and delighted me. In 1999, I read in the "Religious Herald," a publication of the Baptists of Virginia, the story of an ownerless family Bible. Bibles mean a lot to people researching family history --they are a physical link to the people who owned them and recorded family births, deaths, and marriages in them. Since RootsWeb has such a wide audience, I decided to make the information available through a message board. I expected that someone would claim the Bible immediately. Instead, it was eight years before I got a message from Jim Potter of North Carolina, who said that the last owner of the Bible was his wife's great-grandmother. He recognized the names immediately. He was overjoyed to learn about the family Bible, which they hadn't even known existed. After a few days of phone calls and e-mails, Jim was able to drive to Richmond and retrieve the Bible and also the photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings stored between its pages. He was so grateful to me and the staff of the "Religious Herald." I was pleased to have assisted in this "family reunion." But RootsWeb deserves credit, too. Because of RootsWeb, the message was there waiting eight long years later when the right person came along to read it! The original message is at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/WEEKS/1999-11/0942436002 Another RootsWeb connection resulted from research into one of my own lines. While researching on the Brawner message board I met a woman by the name of June who was searching for an ancestor named Maude Brawner. We exchanged several messages and then one day, while I was reading the magazine "Good Old Days," I found this request from a reader: "Trying to locate my cousin, Pauline Brawner, of Quakerstown, Pennsylvania." Because of her RootsWeb postings, I knew that this was June's family, and I sent her the message--which included the writer's address. June told me that the cousins had lost touch because one used the surname of the man who had informally adopted her. Then both women got married, making it even harder for them to find each other. Not much later, June wrote to tell me that the cousins had been reunited. "My mother got to meet her cousin a few weeks ago and had plenty to talk about," she said. These ladies are in their eighties and helping them to find each other gave me great happiness. Before RootsWeb, I would have had no way to help them. In both these cases, RootsWeb was the mediator between strangers. Because of RootsWeb, a lost family Bible and a lost cousin came home again for a "family reunion." 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- Unnamed Offspring By Sue Martin Lake Forest, Illinois The contribution attributed to D. Seigel in last week's newsletter discussed finding young children sometimes called only "Brother" or "Baby." This was the case in my father's family, but their reason was not that they couldn't agree on a name. The following was the explanation I got. My Great-Grandfather Elliott was a doctor who brought his bride from their native Pennsylvania to the booming silver-mining areas of Colorado. Three of their six children died before they were three years old. After age two a baby's natural immunities to diseases cease. This is true for all, but probably "Doc" Elliott was a natural conduit for germs, brought from his patients into his home. It was believed that lessening the attachment to a child would make the all-too-possible loss of that child less painful. It was supposedly easier to lose "Baby" than a named child. This practice continued into my father's immediate family. His mother was one of the three surviving Elliott children. Most of her seven children were only named after the next sibling was born. This seems strange to us today, with our antibiotics and incubators, but infant and toddler death was commonplace up to WWII and the wider use of penicillin. * * * Need a DAR Lookup? By Glenda Thompson DAR Vice Chairperson VIS Com. Need a DAR Lookup? Do you think you might have an ancestor who served in the American Revolutionary War (1775-83)? Would you like to know whether your ancestor is listed with the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) in the "Patriot Index"? A helpful group of organized DAR VIS Volunteers monitor the RootsWeb DAR message board every day and welcome lookup requests or any query. Include your Revolutionary War-era ancestor's first and last name, spouse's name (if known), dates of birth, death, and state of residence when posting your lookup request. You need not be interested in joining the NSDAR to request a lookup. Let us help! Here is the link for our message board: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.organizations.dar * * * Use the Message Boards By Susan Daily, Missouri I have recently returned from vacation with two scrapbooks I purchased at an antique fair. The original author of the books, Betty Jane Venzlaff, passed away in 2002, and her memorabilia apparently sold off. There was some wonderful genealogical information contained in the books, so I have been creating a tree with her family information, which I will soon post on WorldConnect. One of the other things I have been doing is searching the message boards for some of the names of people I have found in her scrapbook. If I found posts that mentioned the same surname and town, I scanned and posted the information online. But sadly, most of the names are not mentioned anywhere in these free RootsWeb message boards. This makes me wonder how many people scan these boards for messages they are interested in, but never take the time to post their lines of interest. Just think--they may have just missed out on a photograph of their cousin in his navy uniform or the wedding invitation of their grandaunt! Be sure to get your information and questions online so other researchers like me can help you. 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. CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles County. Glendale High School, 1959 Stylus Yearbook Senior Portraits and Activities. 817 records. Susan Archer. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/alumni/ 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 * * * No New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals 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 BULLA BUSSINGER FAWKES JACKA KELLAGHAN LEWRY NACKE NANSCAWEN NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS No New Regional Mailing Lists NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS FRIEND-DNA -- This is a list for helping and learning about those with the surname of FRIEND and the DNA connection through their ancestors. TN-LHN -- This list is for communication between the Tennessee Local History Network State and County hosts. VA-BEDFORDGS -- This is a mailing list for the discussion and sharing of information regarding the activities, meeting agendas, and genealogical resources of the Bedford Genealogical Society located in Bedford County, Virginia. Queries on your specific ancestors are not appropriate. 6. Humor/Humour My husband's uncle went to university with a man named W. B. Darling. At the time of graduation, he was asked for his full given name for the diploma. He said it was W. B. Darling. The office insisted that the W. B. must stand for more and that it was required for his diploma. He said that was his name and that he had been called W. B. all of his life. Much conversation ensued on the topic. At the end, the man confessed that W. B. Darling stood for Welcome Baby Darling. The registration office agreed that W. B. would be used, making an exception on his name. --Anonymous submission * * * In the 12 September 2007 edition of the "Sydney Morning Herald," I found a humorous comment submitted by a reader named Jan Curran. After seeing an advertisement in the paper about gravesites that had not been used after sixty years she scanned the names listed out of curiosity. One of the gravesites had been purchased by an Alfred Lazarus. Was it "unused, or just no longer needed?" she wondered. --Thanks to Bruce Roy * * * 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: 19 September 2007, Vol. 10, No. 38. * * * *