Sometime ago a question was raised about castles in Ireland. The request was for a list of such castles. I bought a book, Castles and Stronghouses of Ireland, which features 350 buildings which the author, Mike Salter, chose from the 2,500 or so fortified buildings of the period 1180-1680 known to have existed in Ireland. The most notable buildings are included. He suggests that readers use the Ordance Survey 1:126,720 scale maps to find monuments in the provinces. Grid references are given in the gazeteers. He included maps of each of the provinces with dots to indicate the location of the castles. If you Email me privately, I will lookup your castle but you must have some firm tradition linking your ancestors to it. Ellen

Oops! I made an error when I stated that Arthur and Nancy (Anne) Sewell came over in 1847, they actually came over in 1849 with 7 children, one died just as they arrived in Canada. Arthur Shewel was in the Irish Tithe Appoltment Book (1828) reel# 256629 in the County Cavan. Diocese of Killmore, Kildallan Parish, Tullyhunco Barony- Arthur Shewel-Townland of Carn Gross amount of Survey 1-0-00 First Quality: 1-0-00 Amount of Composition: 0 pounds. 1 shilling. 2 pence Help! When he first signed his name here in Canada he did use Shewel, later it was Sewell. Can another one help. His wife was his first cousin. Arthur Sewell was a weaver by trade in Ireland as well as a farmer. I hope there is someone out there that knows of these people. Kathy Hoeldke hoeldke@beeline.ca

Now that I have landed aboard this fine Irish vessel. One can plainly see why this beautiful vessel won such an award. Tis a fine ship lass! That it is! Now I be asking a question? I'm looking for Sewell's in Cavan and Monaghan about 1804, I can't find them! Where do I start looking, now I know they were well off when they left for Canada in 1847 for they names were in a Tithing book. But do you think that has helped? Not one bit. Help for I am really lost and adrift. Kathy Hoeldke hoeldke@beeline.ca

Hi Mary, yes just address to -D instead of -L :) Waterlilys wrote: > Congratulations on the award! > > mary > > PS is there a Digest mode for this list?

I am looking forward to using and supporting this list which I am new to .. I thought I'd get in quick, while the list is still short, (! some hopes) .. with my list of what I'm looking for, in case any of you might see a name that rings a bell .. They are mainly FORDEs, but the spelling did keep changing!! This is what we know so far ..( you may want to go and make a cup of coffee before reading this - it's pretty long!!) A list of all the known Fordes in our tree, with the dates and places we know. (I've kept the spellings as they are in the family Bible): Gideon fforde born 1619, in either Wiltshire (Semley?) or Dorset. Emigrated to Massachusetts 1644 - no evidence as yet; BNR 1124 has been given to me as a source of this information - an American University Library in New England, supposedly. settled in Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway, nr Bandon, Co Cork 1651. The next name (his son ?) is Samuel fford (note the change of spelling), born 1647.Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway? Then another Samuel fford b.1672, Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway? followed by William Ford (another change of spelling) born 1708, died 1810, Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway? then John Ford born 1742, died 1798, Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway? George Forde (spelling change again) born 1788, died 1865 Carrigaskullihy, Dunmanway? He had eight children who were: 1. William (see below), 2. John, 3. Elizabeth, 4. George, 5. Thomas(?), 6. Susan, 7. Mary(?) and 8. Anne(?) (Some of these names are uncertain, as the writing is difficult to read). We have no evidence for dates of birth, death, marriage etc for any of them. The only one of these we have any further information about is .. William Forde born 1816, died 1886 or 1898. We know that he married Anne Hazel (date? presumably in Dunmanway?) and that they had 13 children. They moved to Cloyne with the first three of their 13 children in 1847 from Coolkilure, Dunmanway. We believe that they are buried in St Colman's C of I Cathedral in Cloyne. The family story is that they both died on the same day 14 July 1886 or 98. This I would like to know! The children were: 1. George Augustus Forde born 10 May 1852 in Dunmanway 2. Margaret Forde born 12 May 1843 in Dunmanway 3. John Forde born 4 February 1845 in Dunmanway (again no evidence for these dates, and nothing more known of them) this family moved to the house called Lisanley, in Cloyne Co Cork about 1847 4. William Hazel Forde born 7 Feb 1847 in Castlemary, Cloyne (my husband's ggrandfather) 5. Thomas Forde born 10 Dec 1848 in Cloyne (he is the grandfather of Mrs Patricia Kingston née Forde of Cloyne, who we were able to contact through the good offices of Brendan Sisk) 6. Samuel Forde born 2 May 1850 (died aged 7) in Cloyne 7. Mary Jane Forde born 8 Oct 1852 in Cloyne 8. Susannah Forde born 19 April 1854 in Cloyne 9. Richard Forde born 21 Feb 1856 (had a hardware shop in Cloyne with his brother Henry ; later emigrated to New Zealand) 10. Henry Forde born 6 Dec 1857 in Cloyne 11. Elizabeth Anne Forde born 3 June 1859 in Cloyne 12. Robert Michael Forde born 28 July 1861 in Cloyne, died 1948/9 (We have information about his qualifications as a doctor of medicine, and addresses.) 13. Louisa Anne Forde born 12 July 1863 in Cloyne The children of William Hazel Forde were: 1. George FitzWilliam Forde born 1881 died 1932, also a doctor, and my husband's grandfather 2. John Reid Forde, born c1888, died c 1960, also a doctor 3. Katherine (always called 'Kit' or 'Dickie') born c 1890 died c 1970 (one of the first women to graduate from (we think) Trinity College, Dublin, and was 'marooned' there during the Easter Rebellion in 1918.) Married a Frank Vaugh, no children, lived in Dublin. 4. Ina (called 'Bunny') born c 1890 died, married, divorced, no children? George FitzWilliam Forde was a doctor, served in the First World War in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and, like his uncle Robert Michael, and brother John Reid, lived and worked in West Africa for the West African Medical Service. His address in the 1932 Medical Register is given as The Vicarage, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, England. He died that same year. We know that George FitzWilliam married Kathleen Victoria (called 'Dolly') Church (who had a brother Binny who emigrated to the USA); their only son was: George Robert Duncan Forde born 1918, died 1982 , married Vera O'Connell, born 1921, Born and grew up in Ballgeaney, Ballycotton, Ireland; attended Epsom College (public school) in England, graduated as a Civil Engineer from Trinity College, Dublin. Worked for the Admiralty in the second World War, and later for Taylor Woodrow in various parts of the UK. John Reid Forde was married to Ina, (always called 'Ina John') and had two daughters, Peggy (presumably Margaret) and Eileen, who died in 1998. Kathleen ('Kit/Dickie') was married to Frank Vaugh, and had no children Ina 'Bunny' is believed to have married and not to have had children. I'm sorry that this is so long - If any of you can find links to even one of the above I would be incredibly grateful! Some of the spouse names I have noticed in various Bandon Protestant documents, like Hazell and Church. Many thanks once again - you will qualify for Sainthood if you have even read this far! best wishes, Moira

Hi to all the Fianna. First of all I want Chirho to know how impressed I am at all of the wonderful work she has done in reorganizing, adding to and generally working hard on the Fianna pages in our behalf :) Isn't it great to have the award for the Irish pages. We all know who made it possible (((((())))))). I am so honored that I have had a very, very minuscule part in getting it together. I went to the "Birthday Bash" and put one of my end of the line queries in. How surprised I was to get back a reply with in hours taking my Cantonwine lineage back to Bavaria. I knew the name had to be a transmute but could not find a connection. Turned out to be "Kuntenwein", of Bedford Co., PA, immigrated from Bavaria.. Chirho has posted my pages for this term. Since I have also been in Fian Writer's Class, I have a series of pages in progress on my immigrant family of LENAGHEN. It is linked to <http://www.angelfire.com/id/deeproots> (some pages are still under construction). Cheers and Blessings to all Echos

Direct from the award: Ethnic/Specialty Sites that focus on ethnic heritage and research or other special genealogical needs worldwide. Fianna Study Group Hideaway and Guide to Irish Research http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/ Final Votes: 162 >From a legendary band of mighty Irish warriors this group derives their name, and the site presents fascinating historical and Irish heritage resources. The study group and its site originated as part of a class in genealogy at Virtual University in late 1997. The Guide to Irish Research section is comprised of various tips from members of the study group and links to other resources. There's a Surname Research Guide here, where you can see and submit Irish surnames being researched. There's also an interesting section where you can find "modernizations" of ancient Irish and Celtic surnames. The Fianna Study Group's site is chock-full of interesting historical trivia relating to Ireland and Celtic culture (even including a bit of Gaelic for the curious), and a good bit of "just for fun" stuff, too. This site is both entertaining and potentially useful for the researcher of Irish ancestry. -----Original Message----- From: Deborah Donegan <info@buyersmarketplace.com> To: FIANNA-L@rootsweb.com <FIANNA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Monday, May 18, 1998 6:19 AM >Congratulations to Fianna for winning the Genealogy GemSites award in the >Ethnic/Specialty category! Great gob. Keep up the good work :) > >Deborah Donegan "Irish" >info@buyersmarketplace.com > >

G'day all, My search for my family ancestors seems to have reached its limits here in Australia where I have traced back to my g/g g/father James Brennan, a coalminer, who emigrated to Sydney with his family (ship IDA) from Scotland in 1863. He was born at Eaglesham, Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1830 to parents John and Ann, religion RC, and married Janet McGee (religion CofS) at Kilbirnie, Ayrshire on June 19 1848. I can get no information here about his parents. John Brennan was listed as a stonemason. LDS Scots entries (257 vol 14; 4998 vol 3) list a marriage of John Brennan to Ann Carroll in 1830, although James' death cert lists his mother as Ann Jamison? The shipping list shows James' name spelt 'Branan', he was from Johnston, Renfrewshire and that his parents were deceased by 1863. I'd like to trace where John was born (c1800?) and his parents etc. back to Ireland where I assume the Brennans have come from. Shipping lists of the Irish to Scotland seem not to have been kept. Can anyone please help? Regards, Terry Brennan.

Ken Wheeland <kwheelan@aei.ca>says: >I am trying to trace my ggfather Thomas Wheeland who apparently was born in >1812 and emigrated from Carlow to Ontario as a "youth..... I can find no >trace of "Wheeland "in Ireland in general and in Carlow in particular..... >have checked church records, census returns, civil records etc. I am totally >stumped. Ken..I agree with Poppa Joe in that WHEELAND has been changed from its original Irish...Your choices are Whelan,Peelan,Pelan,Phelan,Whalan,Whalen, Whealan,Whealon,Wheelan,Whelahan,Wheleghan,Whelehan,Whelen and Whelon. Many of these spellings appear only once in the 1890 surname study by Masterson, but WHELAN appears 127 times in Co.Carlow in the 1852-53 Griffith's Vluation and WHELEHAN not at all. Hope this is of some help to you. Jim Good Luck and God Bless You JJKenny_Houston_Texas@Compuserve.com(70444.222) JJ.Kenny@BBS.Hal-PC.org

Hi all, After various absences for hols and sick and "because my mother needed me to be somewhere !!" I will be returning to the regular slot for #Ireland-gen chat this week. Hope to see you there !! Reminder of the IRELAND Genealogy Chat meeting: When: Monday at 9pm UK time (20:00 GMT) (for a time conversion visit.. http://www.iigs.org/webmasters/faq/time_chart.htm ) Where: Server : irc.IIGS.org port : 6667 or 7000 Channel : #Ireland-gen For details on how to join if you are new .. visit http://www.iigs.org/irc/index.htm or contact: HLA@carebear.demon.co.uk Thank you for your time. Regards Lisa HLA@carebear.demon.co.uk http://www.carebear.demon.co.uk

I have looked in all my books and the closest I can get is WHELEHAN of which the more familar WHELAN is an abbreviation.Appears as such in Tipperary and Wexford,but rare in Ulster were it appears as PHELAN as it does in Kilkenny and Waterford. They derive from the Gaelic "O Faolain" (faol,wolf). Hope this is helpful,take care, Joe Coastal CarolinaUSA PoppaJoe@webv.net

Valuation Office of Ireland Irish Life Center Abbey Street Lower Dublin 1 Ireland Tel 353 1 817 1000 FAX 353 1 817 1180 (sent at night, it costs US$.80)

I recently posted a "tough" w\question on Ireland Genweb, but have had no helpful responses. I am trying to trace my ggfather Thomas Wheeland who apparently was born in 1812 and emigrated from Carlow to Ontario as a "youth. Ontario records are very poor until about 1870, so I cannot find his marriage certificate or ant info re his parents or other relatives (except his wife and their descendants. I can find no trace of "Wheeland "in Ireland in general and in Carlow in particular. He was a blacksmith/farmer in Ontario from before 1830. He did belong to the Congregational church in Ontario at least from 1850 on, but no info re affiliation earlier. I have checked church records, census returns, civil records etc. Also, many of the "Wheelands" in the US for example appear to be of German origin, and I have not located any Wheeland who can trace their roots to Ireland around 1800...... I am totally stumped Any ideas??

Thanks for posting this to the list I just subscribed and this is great site but it doesn't do everything I tried the place name I know the parish and poor union but not the townlands and thought I might be able to get a listing og townlands to look up but no such luck it said I had to list a place but that is exactly what I am trying to find. also some place that lists discriptions of places like how many acres what churches it has something like a gaziteer wood list. Rob Forrest rforrest@interisland.net web site http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/4792 -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Roorda <b.roorda@msc.net> To: FIANNA-L@rootsweb.com <FIANNA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, May 16, 1998 12:51 PM Subject: [FIANNA-L] Irish Ancestors >Hi guys, > >I have been hearing references to a new site called Irish Ancestors. I kept >meaning to look for it sometime. The URL was included in today's Ancestry >newsletter. Apparently it is an new addition to the Irish Times website. > >The URL for Irish Ancestors: > >http://www.irish-times.com/ancestor/ > >Bye for Now > >Gail in MO >O'Possum the Lost > > > > > >==== FIANNA Mailing List ==== >Yes this is the Fianna Mailing list! >list maintainer: schmidtm@3-cities.com > > >

Some of you will receive two copies. That means you're in a currently active Fian AND have signed up for the Fianna-L and THAT'S GOOD :) Some of you are on the Fianna-L and not in an active fian. No problem. :) Some of you in an active fian only got ONE copy :( :( PLEASE ! Go sign up for the Fianna-L TONIGHT so we won't lose track of each other! * * * * * * * * * The start page to our Fianna Guide to Irish research finally got too big and broke itself into two pieces :) One is at http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/start.html and the other? Well we moved all the prose to (now who would guess ;) http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/start1.html hehehehe * ** * * * * * * * This term, so Marthe doesn't have to work so hard checking out new things we gave her a page of her own ;) complete with our mascots!!! Hohohohoho!!! It's a bit early, lots of folks are still furiously working on their projects, but we could sneak a peek if Marthe doesn't catch us on her personal page at http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/marthe.html * * * * * * * * * * Lots of little changes on our front page, and one "big" one! You folks have done such a wonderful BEGINNING ;) job, that you've gone and won yourselves an award for BEST in Category of Ethnic Sites in Genealogy, from Terri Lamb at the Mining Co. Her review of the site is copied below: " Genealogy GemSites Category Winner Dateline: 05/16/98 Ethnic/Specialty Sites that focus on ethnic heritage and research or other special genealogical needs worldwide. Fianna Study Group Hideaway and Guide to Irish Research http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/ Final Votes: 162 From a legendary band of mighty Irish warriors this group derives their name, and the site presents fascinating historical and Irish heritage resources. The study group and its site originated as part of a class in genealogy at Virtual University in late 1997. The Guide to Irish Research section is comprised of various tips from members of the study group and links to other resources. There's a Surname Research Guide here, where you can see and submit Irish surnames being researched. There's also an interesting section where you can find "modernizations" of ancient Irish and Celtic surnames. The Fianna Study Group's site is chock-full of interesting historical trivia relating to Ireland and Celtic culture (even including a bit of Gaelic for the curious), and a good bit of "just for fun" stuff, too. This site is both entertaining and potentially useful for the researcher of Irish ancestry." CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL, Members old and new, for your contributions which help to develop this site as a resource for genealogists lucky enough to have some Irish ancestors! Peace. Anne .chirho@prodigy.net http://www.hoseahouse.org http://www.geocities.com/~hoseahouse/genealogy/index.html http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/index.html

The Ceide Fields of Co. Mayo is an area that is indistinguishable from the miles of bogland that stretch far to the west on the Belmullet peninsula. The Ceide Fields site, in County Mayo, covering more than four square miles of ordinary farmland, comprises the oldest enclosed landscape in Europe. Buried for almost fifty centuries, Ceide Fields is a snapshot of the Irish countryside from five millennia ago. One of the qualities that distinguishes Ceide Fields from other settlements is that, unlike places in Europe that have been under continuous cultivation for centuries, agriculture stopped 5,000 years ago. The plants which grew there did not fully decay and piled higher and higher through the centuries. These partially decayed plants buried this region of North Mayo under as much as four meters of bog. Ceide hill is covered by mosses, heathers, purple moor grass and plants not found in the normal landscape. The bog is very wet and this is the reason it has formed. Because no living things can survive the normal plant cycle in which plants grow, wither, fall over flat on the ground and are returned to the soil by the micro-organisms which devour dead plants is disrupted. The sequence changed to grow, wither, fall over for almost 5,000 years. The undecayed plant material now covers the entire landscape over hundreds of square miles. There are several theories on what caused the bog to grow. One is that human impact on the environment caused the soil to deteriorate and allowed the bog-forming plants which require minimal sustenance to proliferate. The other is that the high number of rain days (over 225 per year) along the west coast leads to the inevitable formation of bog because the rain washes out the minerals in the soil and provides the saturation conditions required for a bog. Another theory is that man was indirectly involved by removing the forest. The rain-water would previously have been trapped and evaporated from the canopy of the coniferous forest. The total removal of the forest allowed a grassland economy to thrive for a few generations before the inevitable decline began. A site this large cannot be fully excavated but archaeologists have been able to trace the ancient walls by using iron probes driven into the bog. A bamboo pole is placed wherever the probe strikes a solid object, such as the stones that made up the walls, and by repeating the process across the fields, the Stone Age enclosures can be clearly defined. Using this simple method, the Ceide Fields have been traced and mapped over an area of four square miles though it is known that they extend even further than this. The residents of Mayo 5,000 years ago were not afraid to get their hands dirty. The primeval forest had to be cleared before agriculture could begin and dividing the landscape into fields required a sizeable community cooperating in putting a quarter of a million tons of stone into the walls. Excavation gives archaeologists an opportunity to look at a landscape of fields as they were. It is a countryside of regular rectangular fields almost certainly for cattle though some smaller fields have been found where wheat and barley would have been grown. The walk through the bog follows the boundary of one field of five acres, less than a quarter of one percent of the area of Ceide Fields. Remains of early civilization have been found on the site, in an oval enclosure, with a low wall a small amount of domestic material was discovered. A radiocarbon date for a hearth beside the house indicated that the family lived here a few centuries before 3000 BC. A few broken pieces of pottery vessels in use at the time is similar to that found in Stone Age tombs and in western Europe generally and occasional flint objects such as arrowheads show that these people who built the fields were part of the community of early European farmers. However, the people moved away from the location when the climate changed a mere 2 degrees Centigrade, became wetter and less fertile. No cataclysm brought it to an end, just a gradual decline over maybe one or two centuries. Those who left probably went no further than a few miles down the road. The bog never grew and farming continued around Ballycastle and eastwards along Killala Bay. Even though prehistory and history show new peoples coming into the region, they would not have wiped out the native population. It is very likely that there natives of North Mayo today who have the genes of these first farmers, twenty generations later. The cutting part of a primitive plow has also been unearthed at Ceide Fields, a clue to its significance as an early, but stable, agricultural community. A small oval enclosure, which was at first thought to be a house, was later determined to have been a pen for small animals, such as calves. The sizeable community appears to have lived in peace conditions: otherwise individual families could not have lived in this dispersed pattern scattered over the landscape without any defensive walls. The Stone Age dwellings indicate a developed social order for hundreds of families at Ceide Fields, and thousands throughout North Mayo. They belong to a common west European farming tradition which began before 6000 BC in the Near East. The Office of Public Works has opened an outstanding interpretative center at Ceide Fields, open every day year round, with reduced hours in winter. It is not well signposted. Interpretative guides are available for the outdoor exhibit. This is my show and tell. Ellen

Hi guys, I have been hearing references to a new site called Irish Ancestors. I kept meaning to look for it sometime. The URL was included in today's Ancestry newsletter. Apparently it is an new addition to the Irish Times website. The URL for Irish Ancestors: http://www.irish-times.com/ancestor/ Bye for Now Gail in MO O'Possum the Lost

A chara: Looking for info on Martin Mccarty who emmigrated from Ireland in 1851. Slan, Ray McCarthy

From:(Helen) AustinART@aol.com I am searching for Irish information about John R. FLANAGIN b abt 1765 Ireland, county unknown, who married abt 1791 perhaps in SC. and came to North, Alabama, Lawrence County before 1820. He died abt 1845 in Mountain Springs, Lawrence Co, AL and is buried at Mountain Springs Church in Bankhead National Forest. He had one wife, name unknown who was b 1760/1770 and d between 1840 and 1850. Can anyone help me with clues about his emigration from Ireland probably about 1783-1790 ? I would love to find more information about his roots. Thanks, Helen

Hi all. :) If you haven't already run into it, the TOURBUS is a net institution. Lots of goodstuff comes by on it and it quietly comes to your mailbox twice a week. Easy to delete, but often worth the time to glance through. Some of the info below is of MAJOR importance! And the genealogists among you may well enjoy the Tudor pages :) Peace. Anne This post contains inline ASCII graphics that look best in a monospace font like Courier. Text-to-speech readers should turn off punctuation now. _________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _ / | / | | / | \ | "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \ |__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \ / /______|----\ | FREE International Phone Calls | | Save On Your International Phone Calls. Low Worldwide rates. | | Sign-Up before 31st May 1998, and get one month of FREE of | | International Calls!! Agents Needed WorldWide... | | http://www.hasada.com/phones.html | \____________________________________________________________________| / \ / \ / \ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S TOURBUS STOPS: ANOTHER STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS POST TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESSES: YEP ... THEY'RE ADDRESSES ALRIGHT Howdy, y'all, and brace yourself for yet another "stream of consciousness" TOURBUS post (in other words, a TOURBUS post that has absolutely no comprehensible outline or plan whatsoever). As always, we have a bunch of stuff to talk about today. Before we do that, though, I want to give a tip of the hat to the folks who are making today's TOURBUS post possible: "hasada.com" and "oddparts.com." Make sure you stop by and thank both of these sites for sponsoring this week's post. --------------> SAVE MONEY! SAVE MONEY! SAVE MONEY! <------------- Refill your inkjet printer. Black ink: $21.95/pint. Color: $23.95/pint. Call 1-888-728-2465 or visit our website <a href= "http://www.oddparts.com/ink" > Inkjet Refills </a> +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ And now, if you look out the left window, you can see our first stop ... -------------------------------------------- URBAN LEGEND #1 -- A FREE MODEM FROM PC MALL -------------------------------------------- Alert TOURBUS rider Jo Ann Pfeiffer asked me to investigate the following email message she recently received: From: modemX2@premiumproducts.com Subject: PC Mall Inc. Dear Internet User, You're the first person from our list of thousands, to win a FREE US Robotics 56K bps with new x2 technology, voice modem from PC Mall. PC Mall has been randomly giving selected internet users FREE 56K x2 bps voice modems ... [stuff deleted] We will need you to pay for the Shipping and Handling with your Credit Card Only. For FedEx 2nd Day it is only $10.95. For UPS GroundTrac it is only $3.95. We will not charge for the shipping until the item is shipped ... [more stuff deleted] Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it is. While PC Mall (http://www.pcmall.com/) has over 45,000 PC and Mac products and over US$1.8 billion in available inventory, they are not giving away any free 56K modems: If you receive e-mail notifying you that you have won a modem or other prize from PC Mall or MacMall that asks for your credit card number, please be aware that PC Mall or MacMall did not send this e-mail. Please do not reply with your credit card number or any other information! [quoted from http://www.cc-inc.com/cfm/frames/creative/info/warning2.cfm] So, for the record, the "free modem" message is yet another Internet hoax. Remember, folks, if you receive an email message (or a phone call or a snail mail letter) saying you have to pay a shipping fee (or an administrative charge or a processing fee) for something you have "won," it is a scam. ------------------------------------------------------ URBAN LEGENDS #2 AND #3 -- THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION ------------------------------------------------------ There are two "new" urban legends floating around the Net that target United States veterans. The first message says that veterans will permanently lose their benefits if they don't register at a local veterans medical center by October first. The story is an simply not true. According to the US Veterans Administration VA is required by law to establish an enrollment system for health-care services to be in place by Oct. 1, 1998. While veterans must be enrolled to receive care, it does not mean that veterans who have not applied for enrollment by that date will lose their eligibility for VA health care. Veterans can apply and be enrolled at the time they are in need of VA health care. Veterans who have received VA health-care services since Oct. 1, 1996, will have an application processed automatically on their behalf. US veterans can find out more about this by visiting the VA's super- confusing "The Facts About Enrollment for VA Health Care" page at http://www.va.gov/pubaff/enroll.htm or by visiting the VA's much-easier-to-understand "VA Clarifies Rules For Health-Care Enrollment" press release at http://www.va.gov/pressrel/enroll98.htm If I were you, I'd visit the latter (that's where I nabbed the quote from). :) The second veterans hoax says that Congress recently passed a bill that entitles veterans to a dividend on GI insurance (SGLI) which military personnel held while in the service. Any current or former military service man or woman is entitled to this dividend regardless of whether they still carry the insurance. The Veterans Administration will not be reviewing each case individually to determine eligibility ... [stuff deleted] ... If you think you are eligible, you must apply for the dividend. The message goes on to say that to apply for your dividend you must send your name, address, GI number, and branch of service to a post office box in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this too is a hoax ... FROM THE VIETNAM ERA!! Here's the real story: in 1950, the Department of Veterans Affairs' predecessor, the Veterans Administration, did pay dividends to the World War II veterans who held the World War II version of the current Servicemens' Group Life Insurance plan. In 1965, the 1950 announcements inadvertently reappeared and were published in a few newspapers, and the story has going around ever since although as time progressed the scope of the of the supposed dividend was enlarged to encompass all veterans. Alas, even the original dividend program has been done away with (by act of Congress in 1970) and the current life insurance plans only rarely pay dividends to veterans but only to veterans who kept their policies in force after leaving the military, and those payments are made automatically. Special thanks goes to David Emery at the Mining Company for debunking this urban legend. You can find David's complete article on this hoax (including the above quote) at http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa050698.htm While you are at it, you really should check out David's main page at http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/ Hands down, David runs one of the best urban legends sites on the Net (even though he looks like David Copperfield). ---------------------------- THE NEW NETSQUIRREL.COM SITE ---------------------------- I am happy to announce that my Web site http://netsquirrel.com/ has been completely redesigned! I changed the site's look by dumping a LOT of graphics (including the infamous "skunk"), so the pages should load pretty quickly now (my main page, including graphics, is under 10K). I am also happy to announce that _ALL_ of my Web pages now reside on my new site, including: - Information about the Atlas workshop; - Every lesson from my Roadmap96 workshop; - A searchable archive of every Advanced HTML (ADV-HTML) mailing list post since October 1995; - My "personal" pages, including a copy of my bookmarks file, my resume, and even a picture of yours truly; and - A COMPLETELY UPDATED "SOUTHERN WORD" PAGE (FINALLY)! By the way, the new "official" address for the Southern Word homepage is http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html The page is kind of big (51.86 K), but it contains every Southern Word we have used over the past three years (as of 30 April 1998). -------------------------- THE TUDOR ENGLAND HOMEPAGE -------------------------- By now, you should know that both my dad and I have been using the Internet for years. Well, I am happy to announce that my mom has taken her first steps onto the Information Superhighway. You can see her new Web site at http://hiwaay.net/~crispen/tudor/index.html What's unique about my mother's first Web site is it actually contains some _CONTENT_ (each of her Web pages discusses a particular aspect of Tudor England). My mother's Tudor Menu is still a work in progress, but the 8 pages she has completed are absolutely amazing: - The Tudor Family Tree - Tudor Chronology - The Arts in Tudor England - The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Tudor Heraldry - Cause of Death of Henry VIII - The Music of Henry VIII - The Duke of Norfolk Worship Page One word of warning: most of these pages are pretty graphics-intensive (it is kind of hard to show Tudor Heraldry without using a bunch of graphics). If you have a slow Internet connection, it may take a little while for these pages to load. Trust me, it is worth the wait. (And I am not just saying this because these pages were created by my mom). I also have to tell you that I disagree with my mom on the cause of death of Henry VIII. I think he died from a combination of Ebola and rabid squirrels. My mom thinks ... well, I'll let you visit my mom's "Cause of Death of Henry VIII" page to discover what my mom thinks. I have a favor to ask of you. If you know anyone who might be interested in Tudor England (literature or history teachers, history buffs, etc.), give them the address of my mom's new Web site. You can even forward them a copy of today's TOURBUS post if you like. :) That's it for this week. Have a safe and happy weekend, and watch out for squirrels! - ------------------------------ TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY - ------------------------------ MAYTER (noun). A red vegetable used in ketchup. Usage: "I'm hungry. Git me a mayter sandwich!" You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day on the Net at http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html =--------------------------------------------------------------------= For info on my book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway" Visit http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/atlas.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- =====================[ TOURBUS Rider Information ]=================== The Internet TOURBUS - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238 Copyright 1995-98, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com ===================================================================== .~~~. )) (\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen /o o \/ .~ {o_, \ { **NEW** crispen@netsquirrel.com **NEW** / , , ) \ http://www.netsquirrel.com/ `~ '-' \ } )) _( ( )_.' Warning: squirrels. '---..{____} .chirho@prodigy.net http://www.hoseahouse.org http://www.geocities.com/~hoseahouse/genealogy/index.html http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/index.html