* * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB DONATIONS TO HELP SUPPORT ROOTSWEB ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, please visit: <http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> or send e-mail to: <RW-info@rootsweb.com>. RootsWeb's address is: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please include your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks.) * * * * * * * * CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Thanks for sharing your stories. I have many RootsWeb success stories, and have met a number of cousins who have become my good friends, sometimes even becoming part of my extended family. My first big success resulted from being a look-up volunteer. I got a request to check a book for someone's grandfather. It turned out that the grandfather in question was my great-grandmother's brother. The person who asked that question and I have become close, share a lot of our research, and have been very helpful to each other. Since then, I have joined several other cousin groups at RootsWeb, two of them with their own e-mail lists that work together. When GenConnect came along, I posted a query about one of my dead ends and had a response from another cousin, who has my whole line with documentation back to the immigrant ancestor, born in France about 1742. She needed more on my direct line which was entangled. I have just sent a small donation to RootsWeb in honor of my RootsWeb cousins. I know that I would not be nearly as far along in my research without RootsWeb, nor would some of the people I have helped. I think we are breaking new ground in family research here, and I am pleased to be a part of it as a participant and volunteer. Pat Thomas <ptthomas@hbci.com> * * * I was starting to research my OHLHAUSEN roots and noticed two postings for that name on the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL). I replied to the one that seemed more probable to be in my line and guess what? It was! I found a cousin in Abilene, Texas (I am in Colorado) and he was able to tell me that one of my relatives had done extensive research on the Ohlhausen family (a five-volume book). I have been able to find out so much about the family in such a short time that I wanted to let you know. Thanks for RootsWeb. Kim Elkins <kelki@aol.com> * * * I am in the middle of fixing turkey, dressing and all the fixings for dinner tomorrow, and I was thinking about "thankfulness." It occurred to me that I was thankful for all the obvious things but one very important thing, as this year I discovered the Internet and more importantly RootsWeb. When we sit down and say Grace tomorrow, RootsWeb will be included. Due to the fact that RootsWeb exists, we have found so many ancestors. Last month I decided to send my $12 in for each ancestor that I found from this point on. This is not going to be possible because of the gold mine I hit this last weekend. My bank account is not that large. Up until Saturday, I knew the name of my 4th-great- grandfather, Samuel Lane RICHARDSON. He died in 1820 in Vigo County, Indiana. I figured that LANE might be a family name, but was unable to get back any farther. Because RootsWeb has taught me so much and so well, I now have information to check out that probably will take me back to 1610 England on my Richardson line -- and Lane WAS a family name. How can anyone put a price on that? Thank you RootsWeb for "being." You are very much appreciated. Roberta Hammer <kdhx6@swbell.net> * * * I have always been interested in genealogy only as a kibitzer; however, when I bought my computer three years ago, I went into high gear. The first genealogical site I visited was RootsWeb, and I began searching for the names I was interested in. The first person I found listed in the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) looking for contact with others researching LUMBY answered me immediately and said he had more than 5,000 references dating back to 1500 and knew my branch back to the parents of my great- grandfather, Joseph Rawson Lumby, professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, UK in the late 1800s. He had not been able to trace my grandfather, a son of Joseph Rawson Lumby. I was able to fill in the gaps with information that John Rawson Lumby had immigrated to Canada at the age of 18 and had worked as a cowboy and farmed just outside of Winnipeg. He had become a fairly well- known newspaper editor in Fort William, Ontario, and died in 1942. Another contact I made through RootsWeb was David Bellhouse. We had a BELLHOUSE in our background, so I got in touch and we found that his great-grandfather had married a STACPOOLE, who turned out to be a sister of my maternal grandmother. He was able to provide me with a direct lineage (confirmed by Burke's "Irish Family Records") through her (Lizzie Grace Stacpoole Lumby ) to Bartholemew Stacpoole, who is noted in the source mentioned as being the bailiff of Limerick, Ireland in 1596. Through my paternal grandmother, Corrine May TACKETT, I was able to trace the Tackett line back to a Louis (Lewis) TACQUETTE, a Huguenot, who arrived in Virginia in 1686/87. Corrine May Tackett's mother was a DURKEE, with direct line back to William Durkee b. 1630, Heath, Ireland, d. 1704 in Maryland, who was deported to the Caribbean by Oliver Cromwell, made his way to the colonies, married a colonial girl, and started a line that comes down to me. I owe this all to RootsWeb. Thank you very much. Ralf L. Aldrich, Thunder Bay, Ontario <lumby@air.on.ca> * * * * * SgtGeorge Listowner