Back to newsletter listDate:
Wed, November 21, 2007 12:25:17 PMFrom:
Rootsweb Review
Subject:
Rootsweb Review, 21 November 2007, Vol.10, No. 47
RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine
21 November 2007, Vol. 10, No. 47.
(c) 1998-2007 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/
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Having trouble reading this newsletter? The online version is available at:
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1121.txt
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ROOTSWEB HELPDESK: Check here for site maintenance
announcements:
http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/
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ROOTSWEB NEWSROOM: Check here for the latest RootsWeb news:
http://blogs.rootsweb.com/newsroom/
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ROOTSWEB STORE: Check here for the latest in genealogy books, software, photos, and more:
http://www.therootswebstore.com/
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ROOTSWEB REVIEW ARCHIVES: Check here for previous editions:
http://e-zine.rootsweb.com/
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes
1a. RootsWeb Help Page Delayed
1b. ICAPGen is offering Exams for African American and Native American Certification
1c. Book Notice
2. Using RootsWeb: The Volunteer Spirit at RootsWeb--Sharing with Others
3. Connecting Through RootsWeb:
A Google Rescue
4. Bottomless Mailbag:
Negatives of the Past
Travel Safely
A Date to the Face
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
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes
1a. RootsWeb Help Page Delayed
In last week's Review, I announced that there would be a new Help page on RootsWeb. The page was scheduled to appear on the site the following day--15 November. However, due to unforseen circumstances, the release was delayed. The new Help page is now scheduled to appear on 26 November.
1b. ICAPGen is offering Exams for African American and Native American Certification
The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) announced it is offering exams that can award an Accredited Genealogist (AG) certification for any genealogist interested in specializing in African American and Native American research. The tests available are Gulf-South African American, Mid-South African American, Gulf-South American Indian, and Mid-South American Indian.
To learn more about the AG title and qualifications for certification, visit the ICAPGen website:
http://www.icapgen.org/
1c. Book Notice
Everything About Magruders
By Don McGruther and Sue Emerson
This set includes a book and CD documenting the ancestral beginnings of the Magruders in Scotland as well as the Magruders in America. This publication has taken decades to research and includes many photographs. The cost for the set is $90.00 plus $12.42 shipping and handling. If interested, you may send check or money order to the following:
Sue Emerson
30029 155th Ave. SE
Kent, Washington 98042-4509
2. Using RootsWeb:
The Volunteer Spirit at RootsWeb--Sharing with Others
By Joan Young
joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com
I'm on a health kick of late and I've discovered the benefits of walking at least three miles daily. Each morning I drive to a local park that has a walking/jogging track and playground equipment for children--slides and swings, and a basketball court. This morning as I walked I got to thinking about all the people who were using the equipment. I thought about the park and the resources and how they would all be worthless if people didn't use them. The park is a lot like RootsWeb.
RootsWeb provides the technology, resources, and bandwidth for our mailing lists, message boards, family trees, and websites--the facilities that are needed for us to carry out our research. However, without the human element, the people who volunteer their time and effort to provide content, ask and answer questions, and share with others, they would serve no purpose. The genealogical community makes RootsWeb what it is.
Here are some ways you can give back to RootsWeb
MESSAGE BOARDS AND MAILING LISTS
Take the time to answer someone's query on a mailing list or message board. Type up and post a piece of information--such as an obituary or marriage record--that would be useful to fellow list or board members.
Or, try volunteering as an administrator of a mailing list or message board. I wrote an article about this in July, which you can read here: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/0711.txt
Mailing Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com
Message Boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com
USER-CONTRIBUTED DATABASES
What if you have catalogued more data than you feel would be appropriate to post all at one time on a single list or board? Perhaps you have walked a cemetery and created a record of all of the tombstone inscriptions. Maybe you have recorded the genealogical data about everyone listed in your grandmother's old high school yearbook, or you have compiled a list of the soldiers who served during World War II in your father's company. Share by submitting your data to RootsWeb's user-contribued database program:
http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/
FAMILY TREES
Most of us have a genealogy software program on our computer in which we have entered family history information. Whether we have entered many names or very few, we can always upload our family tree in GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication) format to WorldConnect. Family trees are never completed and in most cases are later found to contain errors. Don't let this stop you from uploading a family tree today because you can always upload a corrected or updated tree in the future. In fact, sharing your data via WorldConnect is often the means by which new "cousins" who have additional information find you and share. Sharing is a two-way street.
http://wc.rootsweb.com/
WHAT IF YOU ARE ONLY STARTING OUT?
Even researchers who are the rankest Newbies know the surnames, dates, and locations for their most recent ancestors. Start off by submitting that basic information to the RSL (RootsWeb Surname List).
http://rsl.rootsweb.com/
Maybe all you have to share is a link to your favorite genealogy-related website that isn't located at RootsWeb. RootsLink allows you to share that link.
http://resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/addlink.html
POST-EM NOTES
RootsWeb offers a wonderful feature that allows even the newest user to add a personal comment to a record he or she has found in a database. When you find an entry someone else has posted for which you have additional information or a correction, you can add a Post-em Note. Post-em Notes can be applied to WorldConnect entries, Social Security Death Index listings, or user-contributed databases.
GET INVOLVED WITH INDEPENDENT VOLUNTEER PROJECTS
There are many independent volunteer projects to which you can offer your time and labor. The projects are always seeking volunteers to transcribe data or host websites. Some of these projects are wholely or partially hosted on RootsWeb servers.
A few of the projects you may wish to join or offer assistance to are Books We Own, Free BMD (England and Wales), Free Reg (UK), the Obituary Daily Times, the USGenWeb Project, the American Local History Network, the American History and Genealogy Project, and the WorldGenWeb Project. Look for links on the main RootsWeb page. Be a giver and not just a taker by volunteering.
http://www.rootsweb.com/
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3. Connecting Through RootsWeb:
A Google Rescue
By Connie Trier
Recently I tried searching on Google for the name of my mother's cousin Robert Grayson Crooks. The name was unusual enough that I thought I had a chance at finding him.
Bingo! I found his name on a website dedicated to old p***s. I knew he had been a pilot and was supposedly killed in a p*** crash while rum running, but that information was family lore and was never confirmed.
The information on the website listed him as the owner of a specific p*** and said, "The registration was cancelled on 1/22/31, although owner Crooks continued to send mailing address updates through 1933. One could conclude the airp*** was damaged on 12/24/30 and Crooks chose not to repair it. In the record Crooks was reported deceased as of 3/25/33."
This gave me an approximate death date. I went to Ancestry.com and searched for "Robert Crooks" and "pilot," and found an account of his death giving the exact date and the details--yes, he was a rum runner. The article also mentioned his wife and I had no idea he was married. Later I found his obituary as well. All this information thanks to Google and Ancestry.com.
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.]
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Negatives of the Past
By Nancy Owen
nfowen@linkny.com
I have been carefully reading the items posted about old negatives. Years ago, long before I became interested in genealogy, my husband and I were looking at a box of old photographs and negatives that his mother shared with us. Out of that box we retrieved many old negatives of my husband during his growing-up years and had them printed at the local print shop. The main reason we did so was because he looked almost exactly like our son at that age. However, I am now so glad that we had those negatives printed because that box of negatives and photos has disappeared. Luckily, my husband's mother helped us identify the dates of those photos that we were able to have printed.
I have been lucky in that I have quite a few older photographs of various members of my own family but few of them are identified, which has become another project for me. I think many of my mother's own negatives have gone by the wayside--I hope to have the few I've found printed.
It is so sad to see the photographs in antique and collectible shops that no longer have homes. I intend to try to keep our photographs in our families and document them as much as I can for future generations.
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Travel Safely
By Sue Duhaime
soili@sympatico.ca
Last week, Kate Shields wrote in about how her relatives' luggage was stolen with all their irreplaceable genealogy documents inside.
If you must travel with important documents, but do not need them until your arrival, the safest thing to do is to send them to your place of arrival through a dependable courier service: UPS, Fedex, Purolator, etc. You can even do this with your luggage. No more waiting at airports, no more lost luggage, and you don't have to lug your documents around with you.
To read Kate's submission from last week, visit: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1114.txt
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Putting a Date with the Face
By Robbie Joyce
her@homexpressway.net
A cousin sent me an old photo she found in her mother's scrapbook that showed my mother, Velma Lucille Freeman, standing with her mother, Mary Matilda Ward, and her father, Mitchel Gerome Freeman, in front of a billboard advertising an event in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The date behind them was Thursday, 17 August, but no year was shown. By checking Google, I discovered a site that says they have calendars covering 10,000 years (http://www.calendarhome.com/tyc/ ). I knew that mother married in 1936, and in this photo she looked younger than when she had married. By starting back from 1936, I was able to date the picture as Thursday, 17 August 1933. I was so excited. Everyone else may know of the site, but being new to computer genealogy, the find was exciting for me and I wanted to share with those who may not yet be aware of the site.
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5. New at RootsWeb
5a. New User-contributed Databases at RootsWeb
http://userdb.rootsweb.com/submit/
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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/
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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
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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
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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/
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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/
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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
ARENAS
GREATHEAD
HEDEMARK
KARDASHIAN
KLINGBEIL
LIVOLSI
NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS
ENG-WILTSHIRE-PURTON -- This is a mailing list about a village and parish of Purton, Wiltshire, England, and nearby parishes.
ENG-WOR-OLDBURY -- This list is dedicated to the town of Oldbury, now in the West Midlands of England.
NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS
No New Ethnic or Special Interest Mailing Lists
6. Humor/Humour
One of my distant family lines has the surname "Place." While researching it, I came across an eleven-year-old boy on the 1860 Louisville, Kentucky, census with the name "Blank Place."
--Thanks to James L. McConaughy
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When I was a young child, I often overheard my father and his siblings refer to a certain relative as Tea Coffee. Such a strange name aroused my curiosity, but in those days we were taught not to interrupt adult conversations with questions--especially when we weren't supposed to be listening. So Tea Coffee remained a vague mystery. Recently my genealogy research probed that branch of the family, and I discovered that my cousin Sara Drusilla Bowman's husband had been named after the great Civil War general Tecumseh Sherman. Tecumseh was a pretty awkward name for a young boy, so he was simply called by his initial "T," which stuck with him through adulthood. I also found out his last name was Coffey. Mystery solved.
--Thanks to Chuck Sears
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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
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SUBSCRIPTIONS. You received this newsletter because you are subscribed to the RootsWeb Review. To manage your e-mail communications (i.e., to *** from 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
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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.
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ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS.
AdSales Worldwide: Tami Deleeuw, tdeleeuw@tgn.com
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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: 21 November 2007, Vol. 10, No. 47.
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