Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails. Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.
Administrators may save the emails in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb
Please do not hit your reply button. Email the person to whom the request is coming from.
If anyone has any brick walls...feel free to send them on. I will be trying to send them out on a regular basis starting with the last weekend of every month unless I get an over abundance (which till now I haven't gotten any!) then it will be the last weekend and the first weekend of the following month. :)
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For about a year now I have been trying to help my step dad trace his mothers side of the family. I was finally able to get his mothers death certificate which states she died in Shawnee County, Topeka Township. Her father Preston Gray and mother unknown. This information was provided by her husband Richard Mason. What I would like if possible is and obituary or a lead on her father. It's as if her parents never existed.
Flora Mason died in Topeka, Kansas Sept. 1, 1935. At the time of her death they lived at 1720 Fillmore in Kansas City, Kansas (Wyandotte county). She is buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery (Sept. 4, 1935) and the undertaker was Stone Street & Sons I in Topeka. The only additional information on her father is that was born in Kentucky. Her mothers maiden name was unknown (what a shame they don't at least put the first name on). What I would like if possible is an obituary or a lead on her father. It's as if her parents never existed.
Thanking you in advance for any help.
Linda Hardiman Palmer grandmotherlinda(a)msn.com
__________________________________________________________________
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The following is an excerpt from the Rootsweb Review newsletter:
Errors Everywhere!
I read with amusement in recent RootsWeb Reviews concerning documenting and sourcing your data. In my particular case, I was applying for my Canadian passport and naturally applied for my birth certificate -- a mandatory required document in the application process.
Well, lo and behold, the copy of the birth certificate I received showed that I was born on August 6 instead of what I thought was my birthday -- October 6. To make a long story short, the minister of the church somehow in his copy of the register wrote in the wrong date, all the witnesses signed it and the government now had the incorrect date. I had to go to the hospital where I was born and obtain a letter from them stating that their birth records indicated that I was born on October 6.
It just goes to show that you can not trust all sources. Even on the Canadian censuses which show birth dates besides everyone's names that I have personally viewed I have noted that individual birth dates are not accurate and they can vary widely from one census to another.
The bottom line: Check, recheck and check again. Never assume a date is right until it has been verified, especially in the older documents. --Richard Pollock rpollock(a)videotron.ca
* * *
About Those Sources . . .
[Editor's Note: Which source is correct? How do you know? Learn how to
weigh the evidence that you find: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson12.htm
See also these excellent (free to access) articles: "Evidence and Sources--And How They Differ," by Donn Devine, CG, CGI
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/1657.asp
"Building a Case When No Record 'Proves' a Point," by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/803.asp
"Citing the Internet as the Source," by Rhonda R. McClure http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/3660.asp
"Information, Evidence, and Proof," by Donn Devine, CG, CGI http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/4214.asp
"It's on 1,000 Web Sites," by Michael John Neil
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/3202.asp
"Copyrights, Plagiarism, and Ethics: Rights to Use Information," by Donn Devine, CG, CGI http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/730.asp
RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ offers 31 free lessons in research techniques and links to many valuable sources. You can take advantage of the various speciality lessons online that are offered by Ancestry.com (see details below in Section 8).]
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: Vol. 5, No. 41, 9 October 2002.
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The following is an excerpt from the Rootsweb Review newsletter:
Providing Perfect Pedigrees
Recently, there have been a lot of discussion about the importance of verifying information before adding it to your database. While I agree that verification of data is extremely important, I disagree with those that say that one should not add it to his or her database until it has been verified.
To begin with, not all information is verifiable. Information may have come from interviews with individuals who are no longer living or from records that are no longer accessible. But just because information cannot be verified does not mean that it is without value. In fact, adding unverified information to my database and posting it at RootsWeb has been the means of connecting with relatives that have helped me in
my research. I have been contacted by dozens of people over the past few years because I have posted unverified information. Some of them have been adamant about not posting their unverified information on the Internet, but they didn't complain when I was able to connect them with other relatives.
In a couple of cases in my research, both of which are in a county whose records have been almost completely destroyed by natural disasters, the only records that I have is early genealogical research done by someone else. The documentation is sometimes good, but often poor. In some cases, we have been able to verify or discount the information in those genealogies. But if I hadn't included the incorrect information in my database in the first place, I wouldn't have been able to collaborate
with others to find the correct information.
I have three suggestions on how to deal with the problem of flagrant copying without regard for accuracy. First, I have a disclaimer in my WorldConnect database, in all capital letters, that states that data without source information should be considered unverified. (I use the Header and Footer options.)
Secondly, I do not set my WorldConnect GEDCOM to be downloadable. If someone wants a GEDCOM, they have to ask me for it. Then I only send them the portion of the data that pertains to them. This also gives me an opportunity to warn them about those portions that I think still need some follow-up research, as well as to ask them for their information on the same family.
Next, when someone sends their GEDCOM to me, I review the information, particularly in those areas where they seem to have overcome a brick wall and ask them for their sources, if they're not clear from the source records and notes of the GEDCOM. If they cannot give me a credible source, I either do not include the GEDCOM in my database or I write a message in the notes of that individual or family that the information is questionable.
My point is that we should be careful about perpetuating errors, and we should endeavor to educate new researchers about the problem, but we shouldn't be so rigid in our rules that it actually hurts our research. --Tracy Polyak tracymirko(a)hotmail.com
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: Vol. 5, No. 41, 9 October 2002.
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6. New Personal Freepages and Homepages at RootsWeb
---------------------------------------------------
[Note: When your new, updated, or substantially revised personal pages located at RootsWeb (they will have "freepages" or "homepages" in the URL) are up and ready for visitors, please send the URL (Web address), along with a brief description of what is available on your site to: rwr-editor(a)rootsweb.com
Comments and questions about any of these independently authored webpages should be directed to their respective compilers/webmasters.]
ENGLAND. LIVERPOOL CEMETERY, ANFIELD. Contains more than 700 Memorial
Inscriptions online and more than 300 different surnames -- in a searchable format, with grave and section numbers, plus a map of the cemetery from the 1860s, a bit of history about it, and some grave photographs that are available.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~liverpoolcemetary/
FRYDIG/ FRIDIG, FRIDAY, FRIDY AND FRYDAY. The descendants and ancestors
of the FRYDIGs. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~thefridays/
GEORGIA PHOTOS. 20 unidentified photos that are believed to be those of relatives of James Morgan RICHARDSON and his wife, Nancy Catherine MCBURNETT, probably taken in Haralson and Polk counties or in surrounding localities. James Morgan "Jim" RICHARDSON was born 1883, in probably Floyd County, Georgia, and died in 1953. Nancy Catherine "Kate" MCBURNETT was born 1883 in Carroll County, Georgia and died in 1972 in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia. She was the daughter of Stephen Joshua MCBURNETT (1858-1927) and Millie Elizabeth WINKLES (1851-1941. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~westgeorgiaphotos/
HESTON FAMILY ASSOCIATION. For the descendants of Zebulon HESTON and
Dorothy HUTCHINSON, who were married on 3 December 1698 in Hutchinson Manor, Burlington County, New Jersey.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hestonfamily/
JANE'S GENEALOGY SITE. Surnames include: SANFORD, BOSKILL, COULTER,
DYER, ANDREWS, GALBRAITH, PEDDICORD, and OSTERHOUT.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~janeha/
KAISER, JOHNSON. The ancestors of William KAISER and Jane JOHNSTON,
Edward I. WARREN and Susan Amelia FOREMAN; Ross P. FENTON and Edna Rose FELLOWS, all of Wexford County, Michigan, plus other assorted ancestors
of allied families of the area. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pbwarren/
NEW YORK. Documented information on the following Central New York families: BOYD, MARRIOTT, PILLMORE, ROWBOTTOM, and WALL of Oneida County; MEAD of Oswego and Wayne counties; and the Mystery of Joram ROBERTS of Monroe County. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cnyfamilies/
PLATT FAMILY ASSOCIATION. Descendants of Richard PLATT of Milford, Connecticut, 1638 and Thomas PLATT of Burlington, New Jersey, 1712; membership information; newsletter queries (indexed); meeting information; research and projects. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~plattfamilyassn/pfahome.html
TRACING THE PATHS OUR ANCESTORS TOOK. By Marianne DOXEY and Ludwig
FEIST. Surnames: FEIST, MAIER, LAUINGER, BENSON, STILL, RYAN, VOLK,
WELK, GUTENBERG, ALDRICH, RAND, HEADLY, HUDSON, LEAVEY, and FITZSIMMONS Includes photos, documents, surname index with links to genealogy, link to GEDCOM at WorldConnect. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~feist/
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: Vol. 5, No. 41, 9 October 2002.
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The following is an excerpt from the Rootsweb Review newsletter:
1a. Buried Treasures at RootsWeb: Mining the Mailing Lists Archives. The RootsWeb Mailing Lists archives contain the content of years of discussion that have been carried on among researchers of the subject matter of these various Mailing Lists. Thus buried in these archives could be some treasures that might benefit you in your quest to learn more about your ancestors. Someone at another time -- perhaps years ago -- might have posted just the information you seek today.
Because the Mailing Lists archives' content is not included in the metasearch results when you type in a surname on the main RootsWeb page, a specialized search to find the treasures in the Mailing Lists archives must be conducted. Such searches may result in finding some sparkling gems pertaining to your genealogy that you will not discover elsewhere.
The archives of the individual Mailing Lists are both browseable and searchable from two separate RootsWeb archives. Most Mailing Lists at RootsWeb are archived. The Threaded (browseable) Archives is at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ and the Interactive Search (searchable archives) is located here:
http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
Both of these links--Interactive Search and Threaded Archives can also be found under the Mailing List section on RootsWeb's Home Page: http://www.rootsweb.com/
In the Threaded Archives, responses to an original message are displayed attached to the message to which they are replying in an outline format with responses indented from the original message. Thus you can follow an entire subject of discussion by tracing through a thread of messages in the archives. Browsing the Threaded Archives also benefits new Mailing List subscribers who may want to get a feel for the list before posting to it or wish to check out whether their ancestors have
previously been discussed. It also aids current Mailing List members by enabling them to check messages they might have missed while on vacation, during e-mail delivery problems, or because of a computer crash.
Starting at the Threaded Archives http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ type in the Mailing List name of your choice to access an index page showing each month and year included in that particular list's archives. View an outline of the subjects of all messages posted to the Mailing List within a given month (including the poster's name and date posted, if desired) in either threaded (the default) or chronological order. Click on a subject of interest to view the full text of the message.
The Interactive Search located here: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl allows you to search a single Mailing List one year at a time by marking the appropriate radio button. (Radio buttons are round circles which represent choices within an list of options on a form.) Select a keyword, name, or phrase to obtain results matching your search criteria. The Interactive Search supports some Boolean operators (AND, OR, ANDNOT) to help you establish the most effective searches to suit your needs. Boolean expressions are used extensively by Internet search engines.
By default, your searches will include every field in a message, but you may narrow down your results by specifying that you want your search to apply only to matches in a specific field. In the following examples all Boolean operators are shown in capital letters while all search criteria are shown lowercase. This is for explanatory purposes only -- as both are case insensitive.
You may search for john OR smith by using the OR operator. You will obtain all messages containing either the word John or Smith. However, if you search on "john smith" or john+smith the results will only yield instances where the words John and Smith appear in that exact sequence. The use of quotes or a plus sign creates a complete phrase. Searching for john AND smith (using the AND operator), or john smith (with a single space separating John and Smith) will yield results where John
and Smith appear somewhere in the message, but not necessarily side-by-side.
The ANDNOT operator may also be used as follows: john ANDNOT smith which
would yield all messages where the word John was found unless the message also included the word Smith.
Grouping search criteria and the applicable operators within parentheses will permit more complex searches. For example, (sarah AND jones) OR (john AND smith) will yield results where Sarah AND Jones OR John AND Smith appear somewhere in a message but the words are not necessarily side-by-side.
Searching on a specific message field, such as searching for all messages posted to a list by a specific poster during a year, is accomplished by typing in the search criteria: from/johndoe(a)anyisp.net Only the "from" field will be searched. If you are looking for a specific thread and you know the subject or partial subject you wish to
locate, you may opt to search the "subject" field only, as follows: subject/"john smith in ohio" -- note that double quotation marks are used to tie the entire phrase together when you are searching for more than a single word. The phrase in quotation marks must match the subject, or a portion of the subject, exactly to return a hit.
You may search for all messages posted on a given day without specifying a field but you must use quotation marks to tie the phrase together. For example: "02 may 2002" will get all messages posted on May 2, 2002 and "22 may 2002" will get all messages posted on May 22, 2002. Searching on "may 2002" will yield all messages posted within the month of May 2002, and searching on 2001 will result in getting all messages posted to the list for the entire year.
Interactive list searches support trailing wildcards only (wildcards coming at the end of a word). Use an asterisk * to represent zero or more unknown or variable letters at the end of a word after you have specified a minimum of at least the first letter. Interactive list searches work on whole words and not strings of letters. In other words, if you search for john and a message includes johnson it won't come up
in your results -- but if you search on john* it will.
One benefit of the searches applying to words rather than strings of letters is that a search on sy will pick up the given name or surname Sy but will not yield words which include the string "sy" such as the word "easy".
Exploring the Mailing Lists Threaded Archives and using the Interactive Search capabilities in creative ways may reward you with some previously buried genealogical treasures.
1b. QUICK TIP. Thanks to: -- Kate Johnson kkkkaty55(a)yahoo.com Perhaps this is obvious to others, but it wasn't (initially) to me. If you are looking for a name, and use quotation marks to limit the number of hits you get on the Web (i.e., "John Smith"), you should also reverse the order and try the search the other way (i.e., "Smith John"). If your ancestor is on a list somewhere that is alphabetized by the last name, the second search may find him, but the first won't. I found my great-
grandfather on a list of documents held at the Museum of the Confederacy, and without doing the search with the names reversed I would not have found that reference.
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: Vol. 5, No. 41, 9 October 2002.
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The following is an excerpt from the Rootsweb Review letter:
4. New Webpages at Rootsweb
----------------------------
Some of these might not yet be accessible. If one that interests you isn't up yet, please check again in a few days or next week.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ [accountname] Note that the ~[tilde]
before the Web account name is required. Example: The Adams County, Idaho page can be found by going to: http://www.rootsweb.com/~idadams/
CANADA
nbnorthu -- Northumberland County, New Brunswick
U.S.A.
alcsilve -- Silverhill, Baldwin County, Alabama
ctcfarmi -- Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut
idadams -- Adams County, Idaho
misaghs -- Stockbridge Area Genealogical/Historical Society (Michigan)
molca -- Lobb Cemetery Association (Missouri)
okjeffe2 -- Jefferson County, Oklahoma
tnsevier -- Sevier County, Tennessee
txalhn -- Texas State site for the American Local History Network
vtaddiso -- Addison County, Vermont
vtcaledo -- Caledonia County, Vermont
vtchitte -- Chittenden County, Vermont
vtorange -- Orange County, Vermont
vtorlea2 -- Orleans County, Vermont
vtrutla2 -- Rutland County, Vermont
vtwashi2 -- Washington County, Vermont
To request a free Web account: http://accounts.rootsweb.com/
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: Vol. 5, No. 41, 9 October 2002.
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