From: Sharon Rhodes <sharon(a)MARSHALLNET.COM>
Reply-To: sharon(a)marshallnet.com
To: USGENWEB-NATL-L(a)LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
Subject: MAY USGenWebNEWS
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:07:33 -0500
The USGenWeb Project
N E W S
Volume 2, Number 4
May 2005
2006 FEDERATION OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES (FGS) CONFERENCE
D. Joshua Taylor - Member USGenWeb at FGS 2006 Program Committee
The USGenWeb Project is proud to announce that in celebration of our 10th
Anniversary, USGenWeb will sponsor a track at the 2006 Federation of
Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference. The conference will be held in
Boston, Massachusetts, home to the oldest genealogical society in the
United States and the local host for the 2006 conference - the New England
Historic Genealogical Society, August 30-September 2, 2006
We are currently seeking proposals for lectures from members of the
USGenWeb Project relating to the subject(s) of Technology and Genealogy,
Using Specific Projects or Aspects of USGenWeb, and Internet Publishing for
Genealogy (i.e. website development, website publicity, website building,
strategies for converting data, etc.)
Lecture sessions will be 50 minutes, plus 10 minutes for questions.
Two-part sessions are also welcome (i.e., two lecture periods). USGenWeb
will sponsor a total of 20 lecture sessions during the four-day conference.
USGenWeb cannot offer compensation for travel, meals, or speaking time.
USGenWeb can offer speakers the chance to participate in the national
conference and share their methods and ideas with hundreds of genealogists.
In addition, selected speakers will receive a complimentary free
registration to the 2006 FGS Conference.
Speakers may submit any number of proposals, and may be able to present
multiple lectures at the conference. Speakers are not required to have
experience presenting material at a regional or national conference before,
but some previous presentations on the subject are encouraged. An example
of a submission may be found at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~kylewis/callexample.htm .
The people selected to speak at the conference will be notified no later
than June 1, 2005.
Those who are selected will receive detailed information about preparing a
syllabus for their program. The syllabus will need to be submitted by
January 1, 2006.
Please send your submissions in PDF, Word, or WordPerfect format no later
than MAY 18, 2005. Submissions should include:
-Class Title
-Your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address
-Designation of audience level (beginning, intermediate, advanced)
-Length of presentation
-Class Description (1-2 sentences)
-Brief Class Outline
-Speaker Bio (2-3 sentences)
-Audio-Visual Needs
-List of Recent Lecture Experiences
-List of USGenWeb Involvement
Submissions and any questions should be directed to Josh(a)DJoshuaTaylor.com
.
Thank you for your interest, and we look forward to receiving your
proposals!
NATIONAL ELECTIONS
Tina Vickery - Election Committee
In order to receive a voting password for USGenWeb national level elections
and polls you must be registered with the EC (Election Committee). To
receive a voting password for the USGenWeb National Election, you must be
registered no later than 31 May, 2005. If you have previously registered
and your registration (i.e., email address, participation within the
project, etc.) has not changed, you do not need to re-register. If you have
questions about your registration, please contact your Elections Committee
representative prior to submitting a new registration.
If you were a member of USGenWeb on or before 1 February 2004 and your name
was submitted to the EC by your State or Project leadership, you were
automatically registered. If you are unsure of your registration status,
you may ask your area EC Representative, or you may submit a Registration
form.
Members joining USGenWeb or those who have taken on additional roles will
not be automatically registered, and must register themselves. Example: You
were a CC in a particular state. You resigned that county, and now have a
county in another state. To ensure you will receive a voting password for
that region, you must inform the EC that you have changed states.
If you are currently registered but do not wish to receive a voting
password, or if you leave the Project entirely, please contact an EC
Representative to have your name removed from the Registered List.
The EC has an online registration form:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwelections/register.html
To learn who to contact on the EC, go to:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwelections/current.html
Please bookmark the EC website for the latest Election and Registration
news:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwelections/
***Registration information is confidential to the Election Committee, and
will not be shared with Project leadership or other members. It is used
only to send voting passwords. Do not depend on your SC or other project
leadership to see that you are registered, or that appropriate changes are
made.
Thank you,
The USGenWeb Election Committee
RESEARCHIN' MISSISSIPPI
Ellen Pack - MSGenWeb State Coordinator
A genealogy workshop was presented by MSGenWeb volunteers at the new
Brandon Public Library, Brandon, Rankin County, MS on April 16, 2005.
The event was coordinated by MSGenWeb CC Jackie Rhodes. It was sponsored
by The Rankin County Historical Society, and The Friends of the Brandon
Library, with special assistance by library contact Jonelle Anderson. The
goal was to help raise funds for the new Genealogy Room.
Approximately 22 MSGenWeb volunteers and family members from around the
country attended and/or participated in the day long event. Others who
could not attend were extremely helpful in the preparation. This was truly
a whole state effort. The turnout was excellent, and the reviews have been
great.
This seminar is the fourth such activity in which MSGenWeb has participated
over the years. That's a tremendous tribute to each and every MSGW
volunteer. It's not an easy task to pull something like this together via
a mail list and an occasional phone call, sometimes scurrying at the last
minute to solve an unexpected problem. Yet the MSGenWeb volunteers
accomplished it well. They helped a lot of researchers, made new friends,
and had a *lot* of fun and laughs in the process. I am honored to be State
Coordinator for such a great group of volunteers.
For more information and photographs:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~msgenweb/seminar/index.htm
Thank you,
Ellen Pack
State Coordinator, MSGenWeb
GRAVE CLUES
Sharon Rhodes - Editor
Graves can often provide information beyond the names and dates on the
tombstone.
1. Check the stone for markers that might give clues to church or group
membership.
2. If you can't find the grave of a relative, check the local history for
epidemics. Check cemeteries in the area for mass burials.
3. Sometimes the position of the grave holds clues. "Christians believe
[believed] that the Angel Gabriel would appear in the east on Resurrection
Day, bodies in the cemetery were often buried with the person's feet
pointing to the east. The thought being when they arose from the dead, then
they would be facing the east to see the Angel Gabriel."1 Blacks were often
buried facing east. "One freed slave explained that the dead should not
have to turn around when Gabriel blows his trumpet in the eastern sunrise.
Others have suggested they were buried facing Africa." 2 Early Quaker
cemeteries often contain unmarked graves in cemeteries where individuals
were buried in rows as they died. 3
Gravestone Markers
Veterans Administration images of church crosses for headstones.
http://www.cem.va.gov/hmemb.htm
Gravestone Marker symbols from the International Black Sheep Society Of
Genealogists
http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/acronym.html
Epidemics
An informative article from the University of Hartford.
http://uhavax.hartford.edu/bugl/histepi.htm
Some class notes from Indiana University
http://www.indiana.edu/~h333/notes.html
List of known epidemics with a source for the list.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaclinto/resources/epidemics.htm
Mass Graves
http://www.wilmingtontoday.com/History/CivilWar2.html
http://www.stmaryonline.com/history.html
http://oldcitycemetery.com/cholera.htm
Burial Customs
Davison Community Schools list of links, Davison, MI
http://www.davison.k12.mi.us/dhs/english/burial.htm
1. Old Wives' Tales. "Funeral and Burial Traditions". Accessed Apr 2 2005.
http://www.oldwivestales.net/articles/1017.html
2. Chicora Foundation, Inc. Grave Matters: the Preservation of
African-American Cemeteries. "What is the History of African-American
Cemeteries?". 1996. South Carolina Information Highway.
http://www.sciway.net/hist/chicora/gravematters-1.html
3. Margaret Sherman Lutzvick. "Old Quaker Cemetery, Macedon Center,
Macedon, Wayne County, New York". Accessed Apr 2 2005. Wayne County
NYGenWeb Site.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywayne/cemeteries/quaker.html
The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors and
are not necessarily those of the USGenWeb Project.
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To submit articles, letters and ideas, write to sharon(a)marshallnet.com
The USGenWeb NEWS is archived at
http://www.usgenweb.org/newsletter/index.shtml
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NEWSLETTER STAFF
Editor: Sharon Rhodes
Copy Editor: Greta Thompson
Contributors: D. Joshua Taylor, Tina Vickery, Ellen Pack, Sharon Rhodes
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© 2005, The USGenWeb Project. Permission to reprint articles from this
newsletter is granted when the author and The USGenWeb Project News are
credited.
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