) ( ) Good Morning Family! .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . \| |// ...and we even have decaf, | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! \ / ------ Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. NEVER give up! 3. A few hints, tips and tricks If you've been with the family for at least three weeks, you'll probably want to skip the following paragraph… TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur ancestors or any of the 81+ variant spellings we research that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. Our home is Bower Community, located at <http://bowercommunity.com>. There, we currently have two sites: The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our primary homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://bowercommunity.com/homestead>. Smaller is our sister site, the Bower Cottage, houses most of our projects including an online GEDCOM fed by quite a few cousins from our lists. The Cottage is still small as far as material goes, however give us time and we'll have it filled really soon. The Cottage is at <http://bowercommunity.com/cottage>. NEVER GIVE UP! We've had cousins leave us and others are wanting to. They're so discouraged they're just setting their Bower(s)/Bau(e)r research aside and going on to other names. This isn't good ~~ not for them... not for us who are still in the family. They take information with them that we might be able to use, while they leave without their sought-after answers. It becomes a lose-lose situation. Cousins, we didn't begin coming together until August, 1998 ~~ not all that long ago, really. But in that time we've had quite a few people find each other. What would have happened if just one of those cousins had left the family? The same can happen to you. In your frustration to find these elusive ancestors you leave the family... and wouldn't you know it???... an inline cousin finds and joins us two days later??? Isn't that the way it always happens? :-| With enough work and trading of information between us, we can all break through these brick walls. If you're tired of reading email that seems to help everyone else except you, then change over to the digest. That way, you won't have a load of email you're not interested in. (Digests are all the messages in a (for us, anyway) 12-hour period grouped together into one message.) While you're waiting for this ONE inline cousin to find us, you can fill those boring hours by helping us to fill the Homestead and Cottage with data... all sorts of it. The larger our databases get, the more people will come back to us; and the more they come back, the more they'll talk about us. The more they talk, the better our chances of them talking to somebody we NEED to come into our fold. We also have our super project... the Continuum, our state and country project. We ALWAYS need help there, as well. Just don't give up and leave, though. Please, stay with us and help us grow by spreading the word about the family. The more cousins that find us, the better our chances are... A FEW HINTS, TIPS AND TRICKS During my 25 years of research, I've learned some tricks and I'd like to share some of them with all of you today. Perhaps one will help you rip a brick out of that wall! 1. Save all letters! One of the best sources of information are old, and even current, letters from family members. Most people write at least some small thing about their family and relatives in their letters. Old family friends writing to your relatives may ask about the son you've been unable to locate and give you a clue. The postmark and recipient's address will also identify where at least two people were on a given date ~ the letter writer and the person receiving it. 2. Do you know what county, province, or district your ancestor was from? Why not try sending a letter to the letters-to-the-editor column of that area's newspaper asking to hear from anyone with that particular surname? By using this suggestion you'll reach the general public and not just the limited population of genealogists. 3. Have you studied an old map close to the time your ancestor was in the area? Do you see mountains, rivers or swamps between your ancestor's town and the county seat? Yes? Then try looking in the county next door, closest to where your relative lived. Many times those topographical boundaries were enough to send your great grandfather to another county where the courthouse was just an hour away over easier terrain. 4. And you ARE watching those county lines to make sure you're even searching in the right county, right? You're not? Then you should know the little story about the great grandfather I keep asking all of you about. Isaac Bower(s) was born 1776 in New York, but where ~ I've yet to determine. He died in 1844 in Havana, Chemung County, New York. Over a period of 40 years, Isaac, although still residing in the same area, showed in TWO different towns and TWO different counties. Havana (also called Mill's Landing) was originally part of Catharine's Town which formed in 1798. The town changed its name to Havana in 1829. The Village of Havana was incorporated in 1836, the same year Chemung became a separate county from Tioga. Havana changed its name to Montour Falls in 1860, 6 years after the area broke off and became a part of Schuyler County along with districts from two other counties. So, during the 1800 - 1820 censuses, Isaac is found in Catharine's Town, Tioga County; in 1830 he's in Havana, Tioga County; and in 1840 in Havana, Chemung County. If I hadn't known about the boundary changes, I could very well have missed him completely in those last two censuses. The tip to remember here is... lines move; land doesn't... unless there's an earthquake; but we're not going to get into that! :) So, you would do well to watch your dates and those boundary changes. The records you're seeking may be in another county altogether. 5. Post messages all over the Web, especially on locality-based and surname forums. If you're doing a locality (for example, a relative from Stuttgart, Württemberg, Germany), be sure to post not only on the Germany board, but on the Württemberg one as well. If you can locate a forum for Stuttgart, be sure to post there, also. You just never know where your inline cousin will look for you. Don't forget the query forums at our own sites. They each have their own query rooms. I have more, which I'll happily share with you in another Coffee. Family... it's what we're all about. I really enjoyed this time with you. It was so nice. I hope you all have a fantastic upcoming week. I wish you a week filled with health, fun, productivity, and above all, filled with love. ) ( ) _.-~~-. (@\'--'/. Colleen ('``.__.'`) `..____.'