Rockdale County GaArchives History .....Rockdale County Genealogical Society-Newsletter August 2007 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Larry C. Knowles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002854 March 16, 2009, 5:09 pm JEANS & GENES Publication of the Rockdale County Genealogical Society-August- 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 12, 2007, Meeting The Rockdale County Genealogical Society will meet on Sunday, August 12, 2007, at 3:00 p.m., at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1275 Flat Shoals Road, S. E., Conyers, GA. The program for this meeting will be a Share Day. Come and learn about the families your fellow members are researching. Visitors are welcome and encouraged to attend. There are no monthly dues, but donations are accepted and appreciated. For information call 770-922-5680 or e-mail claudin1@bellsouth.net. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Library Visitors List Names Researched Dorothy C. Keilen, Benton, AR. No names given. Sandria Perritt, No names or address given. Bailey Perritt, No names or address given. Gordon Hart, No names or address given. Donald Pence, Conyers, Ga. No names given. Nathan & Kaydle Mathews, P O Box 1975, Fayetteville, Ga. Researching Travis. Kim Y. Conyers, P. O. Box EE15574, Nassau, The Bahamas, (242) 326-4735. Researching Conyers Family History. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Programs Planned for the Rest of the Year September -- John Brown is scheduled to present a program on “Restoring Family Photos with Computer Graphics Programs” October -- Judge Lillis Brown will speak on “WILLS”. November -- Our annual Birthday/Anniversary Celebration December -- No meeting January 2008 -- Janet Skelton, Regent of the Col. John McIntosh Chapter, will do a program on the DAR. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Collection Books Reorganized The Nancy Quinn Library staff has been restructuring the arrangement of books in the special collections room. You may find it easier to located the books which you need to review. The books are now shelved according to geographical location. Everything regarding Rockdale, for instance, is on the shelves together. Likewise, if you need Newton County records, you will find the books shelved together. This may require some study, if you are accustomed to the way the books were originally shelved. The new arrangement should make it easier for novices or out-of-town visitors to use the books more efficiently. The old hands may find it initially somewhat difficult to locate the books which were used frequently. No one ever said that progress was going to be easy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Family Search Web Site Noted Family Search is the LDS Church website. Much of the information formerly provided by microfiche and CD-Rom is now available on-line at www. familysearch.org. Twenty-five million names are organized by families and pedigrees called the Ancestral File. The IGI, or International Genealogical Index is a database of deceased individuals from many sources. A family History Library Catalog lists two million microfilms and hundreds of thousands of books. Searches can be made of the files. Each file allows you to customize your search. A custom search of the Ancestral File will get you a list of matching names. Clicking on the name will retrieve the individual record. Clicking on the pedigree button will retrieve a four-generation pedigree chart. Subsequent pedigree buttons will retrieve further pages of the pedigree chart. Some of the search options require registration. This requests you to submit a GEDCOM of your research for inclusion; or, requests that you list your website (if you have one) to the Family-Search Internet Search list. This is a vast all-inclusive web site. If you don’t find it here, you probably won’t find it on-line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Letter to My Friend Beginning His Research Dear Jeff, It was surprising to learn that you have become interested in researching your ancestors. Welcome to the club. Genealogy is certainly one of the most engrossing and rewarding hobbies that you could find. It is also becoming one of the most popular. Millions of people worldwide pursue this hobby. This fact has not been lost on those who would use this to further their own aims. For this reason, I regard the new on-line services somewhat disdainfully. Yes, you can do a lot of research on-line. You will also find that there is a lot of misinformation. Then again, many people have become reluctant to allow their hard-earned research to become part of the copying, and reposting of information which is prevalent today. The fact is, there is no way that the on-line information can possibly provide much of the essential information which is necessary to confirm and prove the family lines that are so carelessly posted on many of the services. Nothing takes the place of viewing the original documents yourself. Nothing beats the thrill of finding the document with the signature of your ancestor. Also, many sources of information will never be posted on-line because the information is contained in copyrighted books. You have to go the libraries to find the books with this information. I doubt very seriously that the on-line services will ever be much more than a place to start. You can start very easily at any good library which has copies of the microfilmed census. All libraries don’t have every census location. Here is where the on-line services have the advantage. If you need to find a census for another state, you probably can locate it on-line. Never be let said that I said that on-line services should not be used. On-the-contrary, the interaction of individuals by email and web sites often brings together people who share a common ancestor and allows them to exchange information which would otherwise not be located. Allow me to congratulate you on your new-found hobby. Since you would like to do your research by computer, I offer these web sites for your use: www.familysearch.org www.cyndislist.com www.usgenweb.com www.genforum.com www.rootsweb.com www.ancestry.com www.genealogy.com Also, you might want to read the information on the Family Search Web Site mentioned in an article in the August "Jeans and Genes" newsletter at: http://mtf.home.mindspring.com/newsltr.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cenotaphs Explained A cenotaph is an empty grave. Three major types of cenotaphs can be found. 1. A cenotaph memorializing a person whose body was lost or was buried at sea, i.e., Amelia Earhart, Oliver Cromwell. 2. A cenotaph memorializing a person who was originally buried at that location but later the body was moved to a different location, i.e., John Quincy Adams, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 3. A cenotaph simply memorializing a person of note as a gesture of respect and honor(many occurrences of this can be found at Westminster Abbey in London), i.e., Lord Byron, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Method of Taking Care of Your Genealogical Records A Genealogical Will “Genealogical Codicil to My Last Will and Testament:" To my spouse, children, guardian, administrator and/or executor: Upon my demise it is requested that you DO NOT dispose of any or all of my genealogical records, both those prepared personally by me and those records prepared by others which may be in my possession, including but not limited to books, files, notebooks or computer programs for a period of two years. During this time period, please attempt to identify one or more persons who would be willing to take custody of the said materials and the responsibility of maintaining and continuing the family histories. [If you know who within your family or friends is a likely candidate to accept these materials, please add the following at this point: “I suggest that the persons contacted regarding the assumption of the custody of these items include but not be limited to” and then list the names of those individuals at this point, with their addresses and telephone numbers if known] In the event you do not find anyone to accept these materials, please contact the various genealogical organizations that I have been a member of and determine if they will accept some parts or all of my genealogical materials. [List of organizations, addresses and phone numbers at bottom; include local chapters, with their addresses, phone numbers and contact persons if available as well as state- national contact information and addresses]. Please remember that my genealogical endeavors consumed a great deal of time, travel, and money. Therefore, it is my desire that the products of these endeavors be allowed to continue in a manner that will make them available to others in the future. Signature Date Witness Date Witness Date ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lithonia-Davidson Library Celebrates 100 Years The Lithonia-Davidson Library recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. It was established by Ms. Lula Almond on June 30th, 1907, in her home. She donated fifty books. The library was moved from her home to a building on Main Street in Lithonia and later to a room in the Lithonia Women’s Club. The library was renamed the Lithonia-Davidson Library in 1992 to honor Mrs. Charles Davidson, chairperson from 1940 to 1971. This library preceded the Nancy Quinn Library by ten years. The library has little if any genealogical materials. Dekalb County houses most of such materials at the Dekalb Historical Society which is located in the old Court House Building on the square in Decatur. Another great genealogical library in Decatur is the Decatur City Library which has excellent materials and great microfilm readers. Either of these two libraries would be a good place to do research. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keeping Up With Web Sites Keeping Up with New Web Sites for Genealogy & FH Webmaster - Webmasters: Domain Names Registration. Keeping Up with New Web Sites can currently be done online at What’s New in Genealogy & Family History Resources. http://www.academic-genealogy.com/whatsnewingenealogyfamilyhistory.htm What’s New in Family History, Genealogy & Local History Books. http://www.academic-genealogy.com/whatsnewbooks.htm shows samples of new book publications forthcoming to A.D. 2010. Currently, it is fashionable to check two particular sites for genealogy submissions to the Internet; namely: What’s New on Cyndi’s List? What’s Really New in WWW Genealogy Pages. Various other organizations have disparate collaboration lists, or specialized membership connected groupings. Family Genealogy & History Internet Education Directory, a scholarly mega site map of World Wide Internet Resources, lists another methodology at Domain Names: http://www.academic-genealogy.com/genealogywebmasters.htm#domain In particular, the Domain Directory Wiki - AboutUs is “a website about websites that you can edit”. It includes “Family History” and “Genealogy” searches, and has currently listed, approximately 4,957 indexed domain names in the Category:Genealogy sections, http://www.aboutus.org/Category:Genealogy http://www.aboutus.org/category:genealogy as well as related Categories. ” AboutUs is a wiki whose goal is to create a free and valuable Internet resource containing information both about websites and other related data. The site was pre-populated with information about many different websites and thousands of updates are now being made by people each day.” http://www.aboutus.org/AboutUs http://www.aboutus.org/aboutus . . . “Having a great AboutUs page will help expose your site to people surfing the internet and major search engines, making it easier for people browsing the web to find you. In addition to maximizing exposure, AboutUs itself can also be another source of additional traffic.” http://www.aboutus.org/Welcome http://www.aboutus.org/welcome Respectfully yours, Tom Tinney, Sr. Who’s Who in America, Millennium Edition [54th] through 2004 Who’s Who In Genealogy and Heraldry, [both editions] Family Genealogy & History Internet Education Directory http://www.academic-genealogy.com/ “V. Chris and Tom Tinney, Sr.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accessing Web Sites Shown on the Newsletter Web sites shown on this newsletter can be accessed more easily by going to the web site maintained by your editor. Generally, links are provided on the on- line version of the newsletter which can be accessed by one click of your mouse. However, some sites may not be current. It is not possible to verify in each instance that each site is being maintained. Go to: http://mtf.home.mindspring.com/newsltr.htm [See additional comments] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JEANS & GENES is a publication of the Rockdale County Genealogical Society. % Nancy Guinn Library, 864 Green St. SW, Conyers, Ga. 30012 President: Norman Swann V. President: Bill Freese Treasurer: Ellen Trainer Secretary: Jane Conn Program Chairman: Claudine Jackson: Membership Chairman: Jenel Ship Trip Coordinator: Ann Walker Board Member: Bertha Little Newsletter: Marion T. Farmer 1500 A. Pine Log Rd NE Conyers, GA. 30012 mtf@mindspring.com http://mtf.home.mindspring.com _______________________________________________ Additional comments: This back issue of the Rockdale County Genealogical Society newsletter has been copied with permission from the personal website of editor, Marion Farmer, as his website is nearing capacity. For simplicity the few photos or graphics have not been included here. Websites previously linked from Marion’s site will not be operative here. Sites that are still active may be found by entering their listed URLs. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/history/other/rockdale88nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/ File size: 14.9 Kb