RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 26 September 2007, Vol. 10, No. 39 (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/2007/0926.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. A Website Worth Visiting 1b. Genealogy Guides on RootsWeb Are Updated 1c. 2008 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 1d. Book Notice 2. Using RootsWeb: Books We Own 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb Right in My Own Backyard 4. Bottomless Mailbag: Unnamed Offspring Re: The Use of a Mirror to Read Tombstones Conducting Research for Your Ancestors from the Netherlands 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. A Website Worth Visiting America's Book CDs This site is not free, but provides a good genealogical service. The purpose of the company behind the site is to make old and rare genealogical books available to researchers. The three business owners have purchased a high-end book scanner and make CD reproductions of the rare books (all published before 1923 to avoid copyright issues), which can be purchased from the site. Visit the site to see if any of their books would patch the holes in your family tree. http://www.abcd-usa.com/ 1b. Genealogy Guides on RootsWeb Are Updated Over the past several weeks, one of our RootsWeb staff members spent a great deal of his time updating outdated links in the first twelve of RootsWeb's genealogy Getting Started Guides. The guides, titled "RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees," are found under the "Getting Started" link on the homepage. These guides are a great resource if you're new to genealogy and will give you tips on how to start, what different records to use and where to find them, how to cite your sources, and more. Check them out here: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ 1c. 2008 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy The Utah Genealogical Association is holding its very successful Institute of Genealogy from 7-11 January 2008. This is a week-long educational experience led by nationally known genealogists. One course offered is the coveted "one-on-one problem solving" class in which members receive individual help with their research problems. Other courses are on intermediate- U.S. research, western-U.S. research, Welsh research, French research, archivists and librarians who serve genealogists, multimedia publishing, Scandinavian research, producing a quality family narrative, and advanced research methodology. For more information or to enroll online, visit www.infouga.org. 1d. Book Notice History of the O'Gradys of Clare and Limerick By Gerard Madden Description: 16 chapters, 207 pages, illustrations, maps and photographs, and an index. Cost, including postage in the U.S., is $35.00. For further information or to order, contact the author at eastclareheritage@eircom.net. 2. Using RootsWeb: Books We Own: Using Other People's Personal Libraries to Find Your Family By Jana Lloyd Sometimes, amid all the links on RootsWeb's homepage, useful resources get lost. We continually tout the advantages of adding your family tree to WorldConnect, posting queries about your family on message boards, or joining a mailing list to keep updated on an area, name, or topic of interest to you. But what about some of the other resources available on RootsWeb? This week, I'd like to highlight a very useful, but often overlooked resource on RootsWeb: "Books We Own." What Is "Books We Own?" Simply put, Books We Own is a list of genealogical books owned by different volunteers who are willing to do look-ups. 1,500 volunteers contribute to the project, and all are willing to look up genealogical information in one or more of their family history books. More than 1,000 surnames are represented in the books, which include family histories, town and county histories, atlases, gazetteers, directories, and more. There are books on the U.S., multiple Canadian provinces, and forty-nine other countries. How Do I Find Out Whether There Is a Book of Interest to Me? To find out if there is a book that might have details you're looking for about your family, click on the "Books We Own" link under "Hosted Volunteer Projects" on the RootsWeb homepage; or, go here: http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/ Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a search box and a Master Index. Enter a term you are looking for or browse through the index. It is divided into regions and other categories. To find a book on a particular surname, click the "Family Genealogies" link. How Do I Request a Look Up? If you find a book of interest to you, request a look-up by clicking on the link at the end of the book citation. A form will appear where you can fill out your information, the name of the book, the surname(s) you want looked up, and any additional information that will help the volunteer in his/her search. Some but not all volunteers will provide photocopies or scans of pages. If this is the case, you will need to reimburse the volunteer for the cost of copies and postage. A useful request will include the name of the book you want a look-up performed in, full names of the people you are looking up information for, relevant dates, and any other information that may help the volunteer distinguish your ancestor from someone else. A good sample request, taken from the "Helpful Tips" section of the site, looks like this: Subject: BWO Look-up of Fingerhut in Ohio Please look in your books Early History of Coshocton County, Ohio and Cemeteries of Paulding County, Ohio for John, James, Sarah and Lucinda Fingerhut who lived in Coshocton County from 1820-1850 and Paulding County from 1850-1900. Here are a list of other helpful tips for effectively filling out a request form: http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/tips.html Have a Book You Want to Contribute? If you have a book you think would be of value to others, and you would be willing to volunteer your time to do look-up requests, you can register to become a volunteer for "Books We Own" by going to the contributor's page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/contrib2.html Make sure to read all the instructions for contributors. You will want to pay special attention to the copyright laws. If your book was published before 1923 you can freely transcribe or photocopy from it. If it was published after 1923, you will only be able to say whether you found an individual in the book and provide brief excerpts of it, unless you have permission from the author or publisher or the book contains a copyright-waiver clause. And the Moral of the Story Is. . . "Books We Own" is one of many great services provided by RootsWeb volunteers. It breaks down research barriers and allows us all to enlarge our genealogical libraries. Take a few minutes to browse the library of available books and see if any are of interest to you; or, choose to give back by listing your own book and making your resources available to us all. * * * * * * * * * * 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 Right in My Own Backyard By Joan Byrne A few years back, I was hunting for information on my elusive Chicago Leinen family. I posted a query on the Leinen message board on RootsWeb and got a reply from a person who was indeed a fellow Leinen descendant. We were both great-great-grandchildren of John Henry Leinen and Mary Clooney, who emigrated from Germany and Ireland (respectively) in the mid-1800s, met in Chicago, and married in 1859. We were of course thrilled to find each other and exchanged information. She e-mailed, "Where do you live?" I e-mailed my location (a small town outside of Seattle, Washington) and she quickly fired back, "You're not going to believe this--so do I!" We couldn't believe the coincidence. She lived ten minutes away, and I drove to her house that very afternoon, where we drank tea, shared news clippings and photos, and filled in gaps in the family history. We had much in common besides great-great-grandparents: we were both born in Chicago, went to the same small college in Grand Rapids, Michigan (ten years apart, so our paths never crossed), and ended up in the same town in Washington. 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 G. David Thayer Sarasota, Florida In Sue Martin's article "Unnamed Offspring" in the RootsWeb Review for 19 September 2007, she writes about her family's practice of not naming a newborn child until about the age of three. Like Sue's great-grandfather, my great-grandmother Emma Frances (Lidey) Nutter and her husband Charles Polk Nutter also removed to the silver mining area of Colorado, specifically Ouray, where they arrived in 1877. In letters written to her mother in Illinois, Emma refers to her youngest child, Anna, who was born in February 1876, as "baby"-- until a letter dated April 1879, at which time Anna was three years old. I believe that Emma's children were named at birth but simply not referred to by name until they were about three. A baby boy born in Ouray in 1881 who died on his first birthday was named Charles William Nutter, both in his mother's letters and in an obituary in a local newspaper. I too believe that this convention of calling very young children "baby" until about the age of three was owing to the very high infant mortality in those days. In another branch of my family, the Holdens, one of my male ancestors lost his second wife and three of their five children to a cholera epidemic that struck New York City in 1832. In fact, of twelve children that this Holden ancestor had by three different wives, only five managed to survive to adulthood. Life was a precarious proposition in those days. * * * Re: The Use of a Mirror to Read Tombstones By Rita Peterson In some past Reviews people wrote about using a mirror to reflect light onto unreadable headstones and view the otherwise illegible writing. A link a few weeks ago even showed impressive before and after photos using this technique. I promptly headed out to a cemetery with mirror in hand to give it a try. No luck. I tried several angles and still no luck. Can anyone tell me what they do? Is there a special trick to making this work? * * * Conducting Research for Your Ancestors from the Netherlands By Sandra Hamerlink-Muys, Edwin Hamerlink, and Jim Ver Heule [Editor's Note: The authors wrote a fine article on how to conduct research on individuals from the Netherlands; however, due to space restrictions, I will only be able to include a small excerpt. If you would like to read the entire article, please e-mail Editor- RWR@rootsweb.com and put "Netherlands Article" in the subject line.] RECORDS Like many of the buildings in Europe, the records in the Netherlands fall into two categories: those created before Napoleon (the church records), and those created after Napoleon (the civil records). The foundational civil records are the Burgerlijke Stand, or the births, deaths, and marriages created after Napoleon. They are indexed in the "Ten Year Tables" (in large cities sometimes they are the "Five Year Tables"). The Ten Year Tables also include the inhabitants of each city in each province; basically, they act like what we know as a census here in the U.S. Births and deaths must be registered in the Ten Year Tables within forty-eight hours. Marriages, which happen in the presence of a representative of the Burgerlijke Stand, are automatically registered when the couple signs the marriage certificate at city hall. (A couple can choose to be married at city hall or an approved marriage location; they may also have a second ceremony at the church. However, the civil services at city hall take precedent over the religious services.) In short, if anything happened, it's in those books--the Ten Year Tables. Before the Burgerlijke Stand, baptisms, burials, and marriages were recorded by the churches. These were the only source of record-keeping until Napoleon decreed otherwise. There are also secondary sources for looking up vital information. For instance, the bevolkingregister (register of the people) is useful for looking up immigration/emigration records and tax records. Events like probation of wills, land ownership, and land transfer fall under notary. ARCHIVES Check the Zeeland Archives (www.zeeuwsarchief.nl) if your ancestors are from the province of Zeeland. Otherwise use Genlias (www.genlias.nl). Genlias is a very important resource for those in the Netherlands as it contains information from each province and records it in a national database. There are other databases, but most are in Dutch. There is also the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie (www.cbg.nl). However, after you find the documents pertaining to your ancestors, you'd better have a good grasp of the Dutch language, as the documents haven't been translated into English. A fourth source that may be of use is www.ngv.nl. Click on "stamboom.ngv.nl," one of several websites within the Netherlandse Genealogische Vereniging. Then click on "English" on the button marked search page button (in Dutch it is zoekpagina). The municipal achives at www.archieven.nl are also good sources of information. Some have their own websites with databases. A good source to find out what records are available online is the Geneaknowhow website, at www.geneaknowhow.net. This site has links to many of the other different databases. Remember that you must constantly go back to the archives, as none are complete and all are continually being updated. As a lovely lady that helps me with my research says, "Don't be so American!" In other words-- be patient. Go back every six months or so and re-examine the amount of material submitted. Not everything is online or will be; there is just too much in the way of hardcopy records for that to happen. However, most of the basic information is coming online, slowly but surely. 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. MICHIGAN. Iron County. Resthaven Cemetery. 5,225 records. Dale Safford http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ SOUTH DAKOTA. Lawrence County. The West Lead Cemetery. 1,802 records. George Laun. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries/ 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these Web pages might not be accessible yet. 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 Poinsett County Historical Society (Arkansas) website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~arpchs/ * * * DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution U.S.A. arpchs -- Poinsett County Historical Society (Arkansas) azcmldar -- Cemetery Memorial Ladies (Arizona) Chapter DAR azmccdar -- Madera Canyon (Arizona) Chapter DAR caofddar -- Old Fort Des Moines (California) Chapter DAR ildocdar -- District 1 (Illinois) Chapter DAR insbcdar -- Samuel Bryan (Indiana) Chapter DAR langha -- Natchitoches Genealogical & Historical Association (Louisiana) mechs -- Canaan Historical Society (Maine) mihcgs -- Huron County Genealogical Society (Michigan) mimcjs -- Michigan Company Jamestowne Society (Michigan) nyicdar -- Irondequoit (New York) Chapter DAR ohsbcgs -- Southwest Butler County Genealogical Society (Ohio) pamcdar2 -- Montrose (Pennsylvania) Chapter DAR txemchs -- East Montgomery County Historical Society (Texas) vaccdar -- Chantilly (Virginia) Chapter DAR wicchs -- Clinton County Historical Society (Wisconsin) wiwgs2 -- Winnebagoland Genealogical Society (Wisconsin) 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 OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS No New Ethnic or Special Interest Mailing Lists 6. Humor/Humour I received an e-mail containing funny photos. One was of a tombstone with the name Dimwiddle. Everyone had a good laugh. Imagine my surprise when the History Channel did the Revolutionary War series and Dimwiddle turned out to be one of Washington's generals. You really can't judge a book by its cover, so to speak. --Thanks to Sylvia McClelland-Morrison * * * In Wildwood Cemetery in Gardner, Massachusetts, a tombstone for the Glad family reads, "GLAD--we're here" --Thanks to Melanie M. * * * 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: 26 September 2007, Vol. 10, No. 39. * * * *