RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 24 October 2007, Vol. 10, No. 43 (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/2007/1024.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. The Generations Network, Inc. Acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors 1b. Genealogy Books for Sale 1c. Book Notice 2. Using RootsWeb: Tips for Posting a Reply on a Mailing List or Message Board 3. Connecting Through RootsWeb: Finding Rosie 4. Bottomless Mailbag: Old Negatives Identifying Photographs: Black Light on Faded Ink RE: Armie Cannon Counted Twice Spooky Cemetery Finding 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. The Generations Network, Inc. Acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com, was acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors this past week. Spectrum Equity Investors is a private equity firm focused on investing in profitable, growing service businesses. A part of the press release making the announcement reads as follows: "Investment Will Support and Accelerate Company's Strategic Direction and Growth Plan. "PROVO, Utah, October 17 -- The Generations Network, Inc., today announced that Spectrum Equity Investors will lead an investment of $300 million to purchase a majority interest in the company. Spectrum, a private equity firm based in Menlo Park and Boston, has been a shareholder in The Generations Network since 2003. Following the transaction, Vic Parker and Ben Spero from Spectrum will serve on the company's new board of directors, along with Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of The Generations Network. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed." The acquisition should be a positive thing for the company and will not negatively affect any of the great services provided by RootsWeb. 1b. Genealogy Books for Sale The West Valley Genealogical Society Library in Youngtown, Arizona, has just listed approximately 130 books for sale on their website. All these books are in new or like-new condition. New books are added to this list every few months. http://www.azwvgs.org/Duplicatebooks1.htm. 1c. Book Notice Coker Descendants of Francis and Judith nee Bowles By Brian Coker Francis and Judith nee Bowles were married 17 June 1781 at St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. This booklet traces the descendants of Francis and Judith's second son, William, and his family. They moved to east London in 1805 and operated a very successful Ships Chandler business. It was operated by the family for three generations-- until the shipping collapse of 1866. For questions, or to order, send an e-mail to Brian Coker at cokerrb@ns.sympatico.ca. Or, write to: Brian Coker RR #1 Smiths Cove Digby County, Nova Scotia, Canada B0S1S0 2. Using RootsWeb Tips for Posting a Reply on a Mailing List or Message Board By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com We've already discussed tips for posting new messages on mailing lists and message boards. We've also discussed choosing the appropriate list or board for posting your message (see "Getting Your Message Across on Mailing Lists and Message Boards" at http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1010.txt ). So now you know everything there is to know about message board/mailing list etiquette, right? Wrong. Crafting your message and posting it in the appropriate place is only half the equation; learning how to reply effectively is the other half. The following steps will ensure that your reply is helpful and thorough. KNOW WHEN TO REPLY Remember only to reply to a query when you have information that will be of interest--or if you wish to ask for clarification in order to provide help. You may also post a reply if you wish to let the poster and others reading the list/board message know that you are also researching the same ancestors. Do not send "me too" messages or messages noting that you don't have information for the poster--unless you were specifically asked for a lookup. CONSIDER WHERE YOUR REPLY IS GOING Most of us click on "Reply" or "Reply All" when we see an interesting message, but fail to take notice of exactly which address or addresses are included in the "Send to" field of our e-mail. This often results in unexpected consequences. Perhaps we intend to send a private reply to a newfound cousin and our reply contains private information, but we end up broadcasting it to the world on a public list and have it permanently saved in the mailing list archives. Knowing how to direct your replies can differ from mailing list to mailing list. The list administrators have the option to set lists to default to "reply to sender" or "reply to list." Also, individual list posters may have a specific "reply to" address set in their e-mail program that can override a "reply to list" setting set by a list administrator. These variances make it absolutely essential that you check the addresses in the "To" and "CC" fields each and every time you send a reply. This will prevent the occasional "Oh no" moment--the moment after you hit "Send" when you realize the e-mail went to addresses you had not intended to include. As for message boards, be careful to click on the "Reply" link rather than starting a new thread and posting a message that is not attached to the original one. If you make this error the original poster won't be notified that they have a reply to their query and they may never see it. Also, your reply may not make much sense to other readers if it is disconnected from the original query. QUOTING THE MESSAGE TO WHICH YOU ARE REPLYING When you are replying to a query on a mailing list you usually want to include all or part of the query to which you are replying so that the answer or lookup information you provide will be clear to everyone reading your message. When drafting your reply, check to see whether the information you planned on quoting is included, and also make sure it is clear what is being quoted from the original and what text you are adding in your reply. Remember that RootsWeb list messages are all sent through as plain text, so any HTML indenting or quote marks will not be displayed when your reply comes through the list. E-mail programs differ in how they quote text in a reply. Some e-mail clients automatically quote the entire message and others allow you to highlight only the text you wish to quote. Some give you a choice in your mail options. Don't quote more than is necessary to make your reply clear. Delete any old taglines and signature files to keep the reply as clean as possible. If your e-mail program automatically quotes an entire message but you don't need to quote the entire message, highlight the text you wish to delete and then hit the backspace or Delete key to remove the extraneous text. This is especially important if you are replying to a digest and your e-mail program automatically quotes the entire digest. Never, under any circumstances, quote an entire digest! Quote only a single message or part of a message. KEEPING TO THE TOPIC OF A THREAD When you post a reply on a mailing list or message board you are establishing a thread--your reply is attached to the original message. As a rule this means your reply has the same subject and topic as the original post. However, quite often as a thread continues and the topic of discussion begins to wander a bit from the original subject, it is necessary to change the subject of your reply before sending your message or hitting "Post" on the message board. If you are replying to a digest message remember to change the subject of your reply to indicate the subject matter of the message rather than the default digest subject line. If your reply is straying too far from the original topic of the thread, consider whether it might be more appropriate to begin a new thread or post a new original message rather than replying within the existing thread. Finally, don't panic--just proceed with caution. We've all been beginners. But we're here to help each other learn the proper RootsWeb etiquette and to break down our tricky brick walls together. * * * * * * * * * * Advertisements * * * * * * * * * * REQUEST A SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT THE 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 plan and quotation 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: Finding Rosie By Robin Butler Daviet In March 2001, I placed the following query on the Ferrier RootsWeb Message Board: "Rosannah 'Rosie' Ferrier married Frances 'Andy' Poindexter in 1820 in Surry County, North Carolina. "We are seeking her parents and siblings if any. 'Andy' and 'Rosie' moved to Tennessee to raise their family, near some of his family members (hers too?). He served in the War of 1812 in the New Orleans area. Could he have met Rosannah there? "Any help, suggestions, thoughts, ideas, or information would be gratefully appreciated. We have been hunting for Rosie's parents for almost forty years now. Maybe the Internet can finally help speed up this process and make a seemingly futile search come to a happy conclusion. Thank you to all who read this and try to help." In December 2005, I was contacted by a gentleman who was working with a Ferrier Family Association. Like the Poindexter Descendants Association, of which I am currently president, their members follow up on all Ferrier names, documents, notations, gravesites, etc. they locate while researching their own lines. During some research in 1976, one of their members had found a Letter of Administration for the estate of a William Ferrier filed on 39 [sic] January 1799 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His widow and the Administrix of his estate was Elizabeth Ferrier. While other researchers were trying to discover how this William Ferrier connected to the rest of their family, they located a second document written in December 1799. It read as follows: "By the Court "Come into Court Elizabeth McMahan Mother and next (friend?) of Rosanna Farrier a minor under the age of fourteen years Orphan daughter of William Farrier deceased and prayed the Court to appoint Robert Porter Guardian over the person and Estate of the said Rosanna. The Court upon consideration appoints the said Robert Porter Guardian over the person and Estate of the said Rosanna Farrier minor orphan daughter of the said William Farrier deceased during her minority or until another Guardian be appointed in his room." The gentleman who contacted me about my post then sent me photocopies of these original documents. He also said the Ferrier Family Association had found documentation of Elizabeth McMahan, along with her new husband and children, living in North Carolina. Now I have places and names. The Rosannah "Rosie" Ferrier who appeared to pop up full grown in North Carolina without any family is no longer an unattached child. Now our search continues as we work with the Ferrier Family Association to try and locate William Ferrier's origins. 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------- Old Negatives By DonRheta Margolis donrheta@embarqmail.com I read the article in last week's issue concerning the value of old negatives in genealogy and couldn't agree more. My mother died three years ago, the day before her eighty-fifth birthday. While going through her belongings, my sister and I found a yellowed envelope containing some old negatives. Just this past year, I came across the envelope again and scanned them to see if they would be worth developing. Much to my surprise and delight, one of the photographs was a beautiful picture of her and her youngest brother when she was approximately sixteen or seventeen. I was able to determine the time frame from the postmark on the envelope. I had the pictures developed and sent copies to all my siblings. The date was 1935 and I was amazed at the quality of the pictures. I encourage everyone to check old negatives--you don't know what treasures you might find. To read the article titled, "Genealogy Photos," from last week's Review, visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1017.txt * * * Identifying Photographs: Black Light on Faded Ink By Lester T. Gordon II Carmel, Indiana I found that someone had affixed masking tape to the back of several of my ancestors' tintypes with the subjects' names written on the tape in ballpoint pen. Unfortunately, the ink had faded and was unreadable. I used a black light and was able to easily read the names. I now know how some of my great-great-grandparents and their families looked. Thanks go to the ancestor who took the time to identify the tintypes. * * * RE: Armie Cannon By Joanne Mosley I read in the past couple issues of the Review about an individual by the name of Armie Cannon. My girlfriend has four boys. Their names are Gunner, Storm, Cannon, and Cadence. Needless to say, her husband is a U.S. Marine. * * * Counted Twice By Mary Steffens I was researching one of my husband's kin in 1870 Texas. The surname is often misspelled so I did my usual Soundex search and came up with two men who fit the description: George Golden, born 1824, Pennsylvania; and George Goulding, born 1824, Pennsylvania--both were living in Travis County. At first, I was having a hard time figuring out which one was the right one. George Golden was in the 1860 census in the same county, and in the 1880 census with a new wife and children, still in Travis County. After careful examination of both 1870 census documents, I discovered, based on the dates, that he was enumerated twice: the first time was with his first wife and children in June 1870 and the second time was after the death of his wife, with just his children--in October. Despite the variant spelling of not only the surname but of some of the children's names, the ages and order of birth were identical. He was a preacher living in Austin, who kept a farm out of town. The June census caught him at home in Austin, while the October census placed him on the farm. I can imagine this was most likely a grieving family seeking a quieter place. Conclusion: it is possible to find the same family enumerated more than once. * * * Dead Man in Cemetery By James S. I live in Illinois. The other day my husband and I went searching for one of his relative's graves in a church cemetery. I was a few feet in front of him when all of a sudden I saw a man lying on the ground about twenty feet in front of me. I spoke to him and said, "Sir, sir, are you alright?" He did not answer, and I was brave enough to go up and touch him. He was cold. I called to my husband and he went to the church to get help. Since it was a Saturday afternoon he could not find anyone at the church. I ran back to an open gate in the cemetery and headed out into a residential area. I hollered, "Call the police, there is a dead man in the cemetery." (Not so unusual--there are lots of dead men in the cemetery.) Anyway, the police finally arrived and of course they asked us questions and examined the body. There was identification on the man. Come to find out, his pickup was right next to our car in front of the church and the vehicle had been there since early morning. Also, he was lying on the ground at his own tombstone and apparently next to members of his family with the same last name. The police said the gentleman died of natural causes. 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 * * * 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 Redwood County Historical Society (Minnesota) website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnrchs/ * * * DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution USGW = USGenWeb DAC = Daughters of American Colonists USD = United States Daughters of 1812 U.S.A. hicemete -- Hawaii Cemeteries ilwilli2 -- Williamson County (Illinois) USGW molcgdrg -- Lost Colony Genealogy and DNA Research Group (Missouri) nmmckinl -- McKinley County (New Mexico) USGW nmsando2 -- Sandoval County (New Mexico) USGW nmsanjua -- San Juan County (New Mexico) USGW ricemete -- Rhode Island Cemeteries SCOTLAND sctselki -- Selkirk County (Scotland) * * * 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 BLEWFIELD BRANDUM CHAMPENOIS COWHEY DRAYER ENDERT EVENING EWERT FECHLE GENSKE GUTHALS HERMISTON HUGASIAN LUETTEN MCCUGH MCGANNON MCQUERTER MCVAUGH MELUNGEON-KIN MESSAGE SODERMAN UJLAKI VARDEN VIRDEN 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 While conducting some research recently I came across a household in the 1880 Wisconsin census. The head of household's occupation was given as "Easy Living." Living in the same dwelling was his wife, a servant, and a young woman whose occupation was given as "Easy Virtue." Hmmm. --Thanks to Tim Ericson * * * Years ago I was doing research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and was having problems copying some data from a book. The copy machine was near the staff desk and the staff personnel could see I was having a problem so he just called over, "Hit it." I am an old, no-longer playing soft-baller and wanting to be sure I heard correctly, I questioned, "Hit it?" He said, "Yes, hit it (meaning the print button)," so I reared back and hit the machine with all the muscle I could muster in my swing. I told him I had done exactly what he told me to do after we stopped laughing about the miscommunication. Now that I volunteer at our local Family History Center I walk over to the copier and work directly with anyone having difficulty copying. I don't want our copier heading for first base. --Thanks to Gladys Tolbert * * * 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: 24 October 2007, Vol. 10, No. 43. * * * *