 30 January 2008, Vol. 11, No. 5
Table of Contents
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The New RootsWeb Review Format
Last week, we sent the RootsWeb Review as an HTML e-mail for the first time. Since then we have gotten an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from users. The one complaint? The font was too small for some people to read.
So, we have increased the font size. Please let us know if this helped. |
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Survey for The Generations Network, Inc.
The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, and Ancestry Publishing, is working on a new project and gathering some information from the family history community before they begin development. Please take a minute and complete the following survey: http://email.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/nsBw0QQeUy0HQR0jfr0Gd |
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Following Through with My New Year's Resolutions, Part II
By Joan Young joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to revisit brick-wall ancestors I had put aside years before. In my last article, I showed you what I had done to pick up the trail for my third great-grandfather, Abraham ROBINSON. I searched Quaker Corner, the new global search engine for the USGENWeb Archives, the RootsWeb mailing list and message boards, WorldConnect, Ancestry.com, Google, FamilySearch, www.linkpendium.com, and www.cyndislist.com. Part I of my search can be found here: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2008/0116.txt. |
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Lost in Oz--The Search for James Carey
By Liam Martin A gravestone in St. Joseph's RC Church cemetery in Dunloy, County Antrim, North Ireland, bears an inscription that begins, "Erected by John Carey in memory of his beloved mother Margaret Carey who died in 1903 and his father Richard Carey who died in 1908 aged 81 years. . . . Also his uncle, James Carey, who died in Australia in 1889, aged 72 years." Several family descendants are now millionaires, some several times over, and one is a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory. Many others have succeeded in commerce and some have scaled the heights of academia. At least seven entered and served in the priesthood throughout their lives at home and abroad. In short, James Carey's financial support helped bring success to many members of my family, and I have been looking for genealogical information about him for six years. As far as I could find, no documentation remained about the date he sailed to Australia, the ship that carried him there, what he did for a living, or where the site of his grave was. Finally, in 2007 I searched the new online Victoria, Australia, Department of Justice BMD file, extending the search to ten years on either side of James's 1889 death date, which I got from the Dunloy gravestone. This turned up an interesting death record as follows: "Number 1827 - 14th November, Marnoo, Shire of Kara Kara, County of Kara Kara - James CAREY (Farmer) - Male, 69 years - Death from Influenza and heart failure (signed Alfred Giles Esq. JP 15 Nov) - Parents unknown - No 16073 - Informant, Fredrick Reese, Marnoo - Registrar, M. Golden - Buried, 16 Nov. 1899, Gray's Bridge Cemetery (Witnesses, E. Morgan and J. Boyle) - Born, N. Ireland - Not Married." 1899? Could this be the same James Carey? The Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) carried out a search in the Victorian probate index that showed a James Carey, farmer, died at Marnoo, 15 November 1899. There was an administration order, which implied that he did not leave a will. Copies of wills and administration orders are held at the Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV), but the papers relating to the administration order for James Carey were marked S11--closed. A GSV volunteer went to PROV and put in a request to look at the closed administration papers of the deceased James Carey. To make a long story short, he was finally able to see the administration file. It provided a valuation of James's 300-acre property, shares, and bank accounts. But most importantly, it confirmed his identity as my great-granduncle; it stated that he had a brother named Richard in Ireland living at Glenbuck townland near Dunloy in County Antrim. (It also indicated that the lawyers had managed to dissipate about a third of the estate's value, earning themselves a fee equivalent to about 500,000 pounds today.) James left an impoverished Ireland for Australia in the desperate times of the 1846-50 potato famine. His subsequent lonely efforts down under fuelled the progress of those he left behind and they represent a disproportionately large contribution of one individual to the prosperity of his relatives. And it is not surprising that it took six years to track him down since the date of death on the Dunloy gravestone was off by ten years. Just goes to show that even "facts" carved in stone can lead the unsuspecting genealogist astray. To read the full story of my discovery and document images, visit my website. |
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Photo Recognition Software
By Deborah Cook, Australia John P. Wilz asked for photo identification software. My Heritage has a face recognition section on their website. They use algorithms to do this. The more people who upload their photos, the better this will work. It is such a great idea for genealogy with the frustration many have with photos. http://email.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/nsBw0QQeUy0HQR0jfw0Gi |
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Happy Fact for Iowans
By M. W. Green I've been searching censuses for years, but yesterday I discovered something new about the 1925 state census for Iowa. The family I was seeking appeared at the bottom of the page, and I knew there were more children than were listed so I went to the next page. At first it appeared to be a duplicate. Then I discovered that the far left column with the names had been trimmed to run alongside a second page on which appeared the names of the fathers and mothers of each person in the household, with their birthplaces, and if alive, their ages. Amazing! And there was yet another page following that listed, among other things, which church they attended. The lesson here for me is that we should not be in such a hurry that we fail to explore the record before we extract the data. |
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Adding More Than Photos to Your WorldConnect Tree
By Pat Geary Last week you gave instructions on how to include photographs in your WorldConnect Tree. Not only can you add photographs to your World Connect database--you can include links to important documents.
A Web page I created explaining how to do this: An example of a hyperlink I embedded in my WorldConnect files: Also, you can match the look of your database at WorldConnect to a website that is associated with it: Example: Hopefully, some day we will be able to add a small amount of CSS directly to the WorldConnect database through the user interface. |
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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 For help from professional genealogists in England or Scotland visit Or join us 13-18 April for our TENTH SALT LAKE CITY RESEARCH TRIP--the dream genealogy vacation! |
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New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb
The following databases have come online recently. They are searchable, but not browseable |
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New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Counties, States, and Historical Societies
To Request a Free Web Account For example, the Stark County (Illinois) USGW website is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilstark USGW = USGenWeb U.S.A. |
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New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals
To Request a Free Web Account If you have a new or substantially revised freepage at RootsWeb and would like to see it mentioned here, send the URL, the title, and a BRIEF description, including major surnames, to Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com. No New/Updated Freepages and Homepages by Individuals. |
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New Mailing Lists
NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS |
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 Daniel W. Pflueger, my maternal great-grandfather, pictured next to his traveling Watkins store, about 1900 in Indiana. Every woman that sees this picture says something to the effect of, "Oh, a ladies man!" I don't get it, but that won't be the first time. Submitted by J.P. Smith, Arizona |
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Found a funny name or humorous tidbit in old records or an amusing entry in census, parish, church, or other records? Send them to Editor-RWR@rootsweb.com. My toddler daughter started calling her great-grandmother, Violet Viola, "Grape Juice Grandmother." It took us a while to realize it was because she thought we were saying, "Grape-Grandmother" instead of "Great-Grandmother." "Grape-Grandmother" loved the purple connection to her given names and we all call her "Grape Juice" to this day. --Thanks to Shirley McDaniel ***** A dear little lady, with whom I worked, was called "Mine" by her grandchildren. When I asked her where they got such an endearing name, she told me that when they were little, she was always admonishing them not to touch the things that were "mine." I shouldn't have asked. I thought the name was sweet. --Thanks to Eleanor W. Sandford |
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