Dear Cousins, As you know, American Crossroads is a part of Rootsweb in that both the website and the discussion list are hosted by Rootsweb. I highly recommend their e-mail newsletter, Rootsweb Review, ably edited by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, a longtime genealogical idol of mine. The first contribution of today's newsletter included a letter, "Links to the Past Touch the Present," which beautifully captures the concept and atmosphere of a virtual community, which I have hoped to foster at American Crossroads. I want to share this letter with you, and hope it is not redundant, if you already receive the newsletter. Recently I have been getting re-acquainted with several childhood friends via e-mail, and it has brought such delight to me. And through this list itself and others like it I have gained new cousins who are as familiar and comforting as the friends and relatives I've loved since childhood. Connection and re-connection with a like-minded community is a vital thing in our distracted and often emotionally isolated lives. The other Rootsweb news is the Swedish Census, which I am sure will be of interest to many of you. Summer has arrived here in Eastern Oregon with a vengeance. We were freezing last week and now we resemble fried taco shells! Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn From Rootsweb Review: "2b. SWEDISH CENSUS RECORDS. Thanks to work by Dick Östlind for Arkion, a unit within the National Archives of Sweden, which is a project-based unit that produces databases within various areas, such as industrial history and local history projects, you can now search through more than 4.5 million records (136,222 distinct surnames) from selected Swedish counties and parishes of the 1890 Swedish census (excluding City of Stockholm). In addition to the search instructions in English, they are also in Swedish -- thanks to Östlind: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/sweden/ "The Swedish censuses of the past are similar to directories, where you can find people -- not in alphabetical order -- but by place of residence. Since 1749 population censuses have been taken in Sweden, and they often were the extracts from the household examination rolls made by the Swedish state church. Swedes were registered in their home parishes with name, year of birth, parish of birth, gender, occupation, and marital status. "Arkion's (http://www.arkion.se) 1890/1900 census archives contain the following information: Persons in the household; information about each person's home parish, residence, county, year of birth, place of birth, occupation, Titel [sic], marital status, gender, family status, and other details. Unfortunately children (in 90 percent of the cases) were not given a last name [surname] by the preachers in 1890 census books. Therefore it is not possible to say what surname they took later in life because they often took the surname from their father's Christian (given) name, who often had several of them. So, what surname did they take? It is impossible to know until you check the 1900 Sweden census. Is it to be presumed that the surname is the same as their father's? The answer is no -- in most cases. "It is assumed that researchers will know at least the Christian (given) name, and when they see the birth year and county they can figure out that this could be the person they want to know more about. They can write to find more information in Sweden's other records. http://www.ra.se/indexengelska.html "This particular user-contributed 1890 census database does not require that a surname be entered for searches. "First name only" searches are possible, due to the circumstances mentioned above. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/sweden/ "For more on the patronymic surname problems of Swedish research see this posting in the SWEDEN-L (mailing list) Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/SWEDEN/2001-10/1002121428 See also: RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: Scandinavian Roots: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson23.htm#Swedish "Links to the Past Touch the Present "By Rancher rancher@gci.net http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hero/navylink.html "As the Internet becomes more of our everyday world at times you send or receive an e-mail that changes you. I met Bob this way when I was researching my great-grandfather, Walter TOY. Walter had been a member of an elite group of men known to have been at one time a "Ganges boy." "I knew very little about it until the Ganges Association of England so kindly put a Web page up for the entire world to see. Within it they allowed Bob to express in his words what many of us wanted to know -- what was it like on the HMS Ganges? "Bob's research and attention to detail enthralled me and I corresponded with him wanting to know so much more, but not wanting to overtax or bother this author. He kindly informed of things so familiar to him and so foreign to me. I being 400 miles and more from any ocean on all sides of me had much to learn about the Royal Navy and life at sea. The people behind the "@some-place-in-the-world" addresses have the same world in many ways as you do: Family, jobs, responsibilities, pressures of daily life -- all a part of their 24-hour days. In some cases you can have a working relationship with a person and never have a picture of them or hear them speak. In time though you "know" them. After a few e-mails back and forth it became more and more of a pleasure to see a letter from him in the e-mail. We sorted out many things about the ships Walter TOY had been on. We learned more about which ships were where during the pre-1900s. As time went by I met his family through e-mail and he met mine. "One particular day opening an e-mail from Bob brought shock and sadness. A quick and fast illness of his wife had taken her away. The pain and sadness was equal to any other friend I could run to and help support. A friend comforted me with, "And as surely as we must find a way to come to closure and acceptance of those who are physically in our world, we must do the same in regard to those who enter our world by this medium [e-mail]. In the midst of sadness and pain, the route to peace is to find the meaning in what you knew of the life of that person." I really haven't lost my friend because I knew her and I know Bob. He has still found ways to encourage people. His efforts to make a person feel better through words of appreciation or just plain words are still coming forth through e-mail. At times I know his sadness over the loss can be almost unbearable. "Random acts of kindness can bring rewards unknown. Connect through RootsWeb today. You never know, you might brighten someone's day or life."