Rootsweb Review

RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine
12 December 2007, Vol. 10, No. 50
(c) 1998-2007 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Editor's Desk: News and Notes
1a. 1911 Census of Ireland Now Online
1b. World War II Photos Online
2. Using RootsWeb: Holiday Gatherings and Debunking Family Myths
3. Connecting Through RootsWeb:
Thanks for Sharing Your Stories
4. Bottomless Mailbag:
Rented Connections
A Sticky Photo Problem
Family History Book
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. 1911 Census of Ireland Now Online
The National Archives of Ireland, in partnership with Libraries and
Archives Canada, has now put the 1911 census of Ireland online. So
far, the website only holds records for Dublin, but the rest of the
census should be online sometime next year.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

1b. World War II Photos Online

Footnote.com has recently released the largest collection of World War
II photos online. Footnote is a subscription website, but you can view
sample World War II photos and documents here:

www.footnote.com/wwii.php

2. Using RootsWeb:

Holiday Gatherings and Debunking Family Myths
By Joan Young
joan@volunteer.rootsweb.com

As family gathers for the holidays this year and begins reminiscing,
you may hear some interesting family tales that pique your interest.

You may have been told that your father is distantly related to
Zachary TAYLOR and your mother's family is connected to Benedict
ARNOLD. Or that your second great-grandmother was a full-blooded
Cherokee princess but the family said they were "Black Dutch" to hide
their Native American ancestry. Maybe you were told that your Italian
grandfather's surname was changed by the officials at Ellis Island and
the family was forced to continue using the newly assigned surname. Or
maybe it was that Uncle Henry's wife Hilda had a great-grandfather who
fought at the Alamo with Davy Crockett and returned to tell the family
all about it.

Sound familiar? All sorts of family lore is shared during holiday
visits. And some of it may even be true!

Remember that family stories need to be verified. You must gather and
consider evidence to determine their veracity. (Most likely the
stories you hear are exaggerated, but contain a grain of truth.) But
how do you separate fact from fiction and family myths from family
truths?

Well, there may be more resources at RootsWeb and elsewhere on the Web
to help you verify or debunk those family stories than you realize.

Just about every American TAYLOR or ARNOLD family has stories about
being related to Zachary TAYLOR or Benedict ARNOLD. As the volunteer
administrator of the ARNOLD list I've heard just about every myth and
fact over the years about connections to Benedict ARNOLD. The archives
of the ARNOLD mailing list or message board are a great place to start
in your attempt to get the facts. Or you can search the many ARNOLD
family trees at WorldConnect (but remember that while you may find
famous people in online trees all this information needs to be
verified too). Begin with the same resources (the TAYLOR mailing list
and message board) to verify or refute a connection to Zachary.

Some excellent articles to help resolve the issue of the supposed
family name change at Ellis Island include the following. (Hint: this
is generally a myth.)
http://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ihrc/immigration/2007/02/whats_in_a_name.html

Using a Google search we learn that Aunt Hilda's family is most likely
mistaken about her ancestor fighting at the Alamo alongside Davy
CROCKETT (unless he was fighting with Santa Anna):
http://www.americanwest.com/pages/davycroc.htm
http://www.lone-star.net/mall/texasinfo/alamo-battle.htm

We can explore what Black Dutch means (and doesn't mean) by reading a
column written by the former editor of the RootsWeb Review, Myra
Vanderpool Gormley, here:
http://www.ancestry.aol.com/columns/myra/Shaking_Family_Tree04-02-98.htm

And begin your search for your "Indian princess" ancestor here. (The
term "princess" is likely a red flag that at least a part of the story
is mythical--Europeans, not Native Americans, used the word
"princess.")
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/heritage/native-american/ancestor-search.html
http://www.genealogy.com/90_carmack.html

Remember, learning to weigh the evidence and determine the veracity of
family lore is just one of the steps you'll need to take on your way
to becoming a seasoned researcher.

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3. Connecting Through RootsWeb:

Thanks for Sharing Your Stories
By Sue Montgomery-Cook

[I wanted a nice holiday "Connecting" piece, so I resurrected this one
from a December issue in 1998:
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/19981216.txt .]

As compiler of a vast amount of DENTON and related family
information, and "owner" of the Denton list at RootsWeb, I've
been blessed often to be able to help others find their family
roots, or at least point them in the right direction. I'll have
to say that being able to help others in this way is incredibly
rewarding. And now, thanks to RootsWeb, I've received the best
Christmas gift imaginable.

For forty years, at least, my Montgomery family has been searching
for parents for my great-grandfather, Lorenzo Dow MONTGOMERY.
He was born in 1826 in Fayette County, Kentucky, and married Mary
GUYN in 1843 in Woodford County, Kentucky. "Uncle Dow," as he was
known, and Mary moved to Scott County, Indiana, where they lived
out their lives and raised a large family. Since the advent of
RootsWeb's mailing lists, I have often sent out random queries
about Lorenzo Dow Montgomery and Mary Guyn hoping to find
information on their parents. I did know that her father was
Gabriel Guyn, but only that her mother's name was Mary. Well,
guess what. A query this week to the Woodford County, Kentucky,
list brought me the following note from Dona Wilson of the
Woodford County Kentucky Historical Society. In one e-mail, Dona
sent me the names of Lorenzo Dow Montgomery's father and Mary
Guyn's mother.

"Hi Sue: Since I didn't have a Gabriel Guyn in my marriage bond
project for Woodford County, I decided to check the Fayette County
marriage bond book that my friend, Melvin Hurst recently completed. I
found; Gabriel Gwyn married Polly Hoglin--bond date 21 Feb 1823. Is
this your Gabriel Gwyn? This is the only Gwyn listed in Melvin's book.
Do you have or need the bond and consents for Lorenzo Montgomery and
Mary Guynn? They each must have been under the age of 21 at marriage,
since they both had consents. Robert Montgomery, father of Lorenzo
gave written consent for him to marry and G. Guynn, father of Mary,
gave personal consent. I invite you to share your family research with
the Woodford County Historical Society for our family files. Thank
you, Dona Wilson"

Words simply cannot express my joy at Dona's note. I immediately
sent e-mails to my family and presented them all with two new
ancestors as a Christmas present. Thanks Rootsweb! Because of
these wonderful lists, Dona sent a simple, short note, but full
of such important information for me and my family. Blessings to
you all for all that you do.

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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Rented Connections
By Joseph Nelson
Arizona

The article "Sharing Historic Houses" by Sharon Gray, which was in the
5 December issue of the RootsWeb Review, reminded me of a meeting my
mother had with a renter. After all of the children had left home, my
parents decided to rent out one of their rooms.

One day a lady asked to see it and wanted to stay a few weeks. A short
time after moving in, she and my mom were talking about where they
were raised and different places where they had lived. This lady
mentioned that she had recently lived in Muleshoe, Texas, and had
rented a place from a Mr. Frey. My mom's ears perked up and she said
she had a nephew with the last name of Frey who lived in Muleshoe.

It turns out that the lady had rented from my mom's nephew for several
years and knew him and his family well. My mom and her nephew had not
seen each other in many years and sadly never had the opportunity to
meet again before they both passed away. However, because of this
lady, my mom was able to learn a lot about her nephew's family.

To read "Sharing Historic Houses," visit:
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/2007/1205.txt
* * *

A Sticky Photo Problem
By Joy Weaver
East Islip, New York

I'm sure this is a problem many others have faced. My mother had glued
all her photos onto black paper pages of a photo album. I pried them
off to see whether any of the people were identified on the backs and
found that some of the photos do have writing on them. However, some
of the black paper is sticking to the photos obscuring what is written
there. Does anyone know how to remove this glued-on paper without
ruining the pictures?
* * *

Family History Book
By Sherryl Snow

I had a fun genealogy experience this week that I wanted to let you
all know about.

Several months ago I was able to take a trip to visit my aging
grandmother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Before going I decided I would
bring my scanner and scan any old photos from her albums that struck
my fancy--if there were any.

Were there ever! I had no idea the treasure I was in for. I guess I
just sort of assumed I'd seen all her photos, but there were pages of
pictures I'd never seen--some of her as a baby, a toddler, a teenager,
and a young mother.

I had only ever seen one photograph of her mother--somewhere back
someone told me it was the only one still in existence. But there were
multiple photos of her in my grandmother's album. What a wonderful
surprise to see my great-grandmother as a young woman for the first
time. Also, to see a new picture of my great-great-grandmother.

After scanning the photos I wanted to share them with my siblings.
They are not really into family history but I knew even they could get
excited about pictures--who can't? Instead of just sending them a CD
of photos, however, I decided to put the pictures in a book. There are
a number of book-making websites out there that make it easy to drag
and drop your photos and create professionally bound and printed books
for relatively cheap (mine was about $30.00 for a book of thirty-five
pages, minus the shipping costs).

I won't mention the specific product I used, but here are a few sites
you can look into: heritagemakers.com, memorypress.com,
ancestrypress.com, and shutterfly.com. You can also use your iPhoto
application to make a book if you're a Mac user and I'm sure there are
more programs out there for both Macs and PCs.

Making the book took several weeks. I added photos and then pasted
snippets of text from a brief autobiography my grandmother wrote some
years ago. I supplemented it with short bits of text from an oral
history interview I also conducted with her on my last trip.

I knew that not many people in my family were likely to read the oral
history or even the autobiography and would only glace quickly at a CD
of pictures--unless I was sitting by them and talking them through it.

But this way, I think they will all get a better appreciation for my
grandmother and her life--at thirty-five pages the book is not too
overwhelming and contains my favorite photos. I also tried to keep the
text portions brief enough that they would be engaging and easily
digestible.

I plan on giving these books to my family for Christmas, and I can't
wait to see their reactions. I almost cried when I got them in the
mail and saw how professional they looked, thanks to the service I
used.

I recommend looking into making a short photo book like this for your
family. It's a great way to get even the most disinterested family
members to enjoy a little family history.

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/
-------------------------------------------------------------

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
BUMSTEAD
BURGOS
DEJESUS
DURALL
ESTRELLA
FEEMSTER
FELICIANO
JOHME
MCCROCKLIN
MCKELLIP
MONTES
NEGRON
RIVAS
TEAT
TEATER
TIPPIE
VANADESTINE
YAMBO

NEW REGIONAL MAILING LISTS
KIRIBATI -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical
interest in Kiribati, formerly known as the Gilbert Islands and the
Ellice Islands Colony.
MARSHALL-ISLANDS -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a
genealogical interest in the Marshall Islands.
NEW-CALEDONIA -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a
genealogical interest in New Caledonia.
NIUE -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical
interest in Niue (an island in the south Pacific Ocean, east of
Tonga).
NORTHERN-MARIANA-ISLANDS -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a
genealogical interest in the (Commonwealth of the) Northern Mariana
Islands, which comprises fourteen islands (including the islands of
Saipan, Tinian, and Rota).
TUVALU -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical
interest in Tuvalu (formerly known as the Ellice Islands).
VANUATU -- This is a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical
interest in Vanuatu.

NEW ETHNIC OR SPECIAL INTEREST MAILING LISTS
LEWIS-DNA -- This is a mailing list for discussing information
regarding DNA research on the Lewis surname and its variations
worldwide.
MTDNA-HAPLOGROUP-T -- This is a mailing list for discussing
information on mtDNA Haplogroup T (T*, T1, T2, etc.) theories and
genealogies.

VEST-DNA -- This mailing list is for anyone involved in DNA testing
with the Vest surname.

6. Humor/Humour

While looking for some of my ancestors, I found a census record that
really makes me wonder what the census taker was thinking.

As I looked in the Saco, York County, Maine, census records for 1880,
I found a listing for a George Sutherland on line twenty-four. George
was age fifty-five and his wife Elizabeth was fifty. Living with them
was a widow named Rachael Scurnmure, age eighty-three, who I assume to
be the mother of either George or Elizabeth. Both Elizabeth and
Rachael are listed as housekeepers. And what was George's occupation?
It's listed as "Too lazy to do anything."

I can't imagine that George himself was home the day the census taker
came calling. So I wonder why the census taker, C.S. Hamilton, didn't
simply write "unemployed" or leave the line blank as he did for
others. Did one or both of the women harangue him about George's lazy
work habits? Or did the census taker, perhaps with a sense of humor,
simply shake his head and sigh, chuckling to himself while writing
down exactly what he was told?
.
--Thanks to Susan Goerke Ball
* * *

In response to the article from last week, "The United States of
Names," by Diana Ware, I have also found some interesting names. My
mother-in-law, Amanda Catherine PICKLE, had twin sisters named Ora
Virginia Pickle and Nora Tennessee Pickle--they were born near
Bristol, Tennessee, where the state line between Virginia and
Tennessee ran down Main Street.

--Thanks to Nancy Ragan
* * *
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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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
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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: 12 December 2007, Vol. 10, No. 50.
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Rootsweb Review, 12 December 2007, Vol.10, No. 49