"Jim Lyons" <jim@jimlyons.com> wrote: > I guess I owe you an apology. In the interests of saving > bandwidth I only printed a small part of what was on the Internet. > Here's the entire article: Why would you need to apologize? Thanks for a most interesting article. If you kept the others, would you mind emailing them to me? Thanks. Richard richardpence@pipeline.com

"Donna Hrynkiw" <Donna.Hrynkiw@kwantlen.ca> wrote: > Terrific! Thank-you Richard. You've given me several new avenues > for investigation. > > > Note that the state line between North and South Dakota is on the > > border between Range 128 North and 129 North > > Could you tell me how you inferred this? Or is it something you > just knew from growing up in the area? I grew up in a Township that was in range 127 North and knew there was one additional township between it and the state line. I confirmed the numbering by finding maps of both Dickey County, ND, the county directly across the state line into North Dakota and McIntoish County, the one you are interested in and the one just to the west of Dickey County. The southern tier of townships in both counties are in Range 129 North. There is additional information confirming this ast the McIntosh County GenWeb site. > "Joseph Lutz" appeared on your list as one of the > homesteaders and is the name of one of the brothers I'm > investigating (although it appears there were several Joseph LUTZ's > in the Dakotas in this period. I'm trying to determine which one > belongs to 'my' LUTZ family), and the family is indeed German from > Russia. Have you done your census work? A quick check shows a Joseph Lutz in McIntosh County, born 1853 in Russia. Several children, no Franz, last child born in 1890 in North Dakota, the next older born 1888 in Russia. Wife was Magdalene; they were married for 20 years, oldest child in household was 15, meaning Franz could be elsewhere, but only the name Frank found in index and I didn't look at those. Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

Here's an unusual method of searching that has surprisingly resulted in finding 2 ancestors (my grandfather's sister, and my grandmother's brother) for me recently. http://anybirthday.com/ It's to look up living people's birthdays, which is a lot of fun in itself. There's no fee to look up names, and just about everybody in the U.S. is listed! The database seems to be a few years old, which has been to the benefit of my research, since the aunt and uncle I found there passed away in 2002. The results show a person's birthday and zip code. I was actually looking for older family members whom I had heard (from my aunt) were probably still living. The birthdates confirmed to me if they were approximately the right age for the ancestors I was researching. I then checked their names and, with the zip code, their addresses, in www.411.com under "white pages" to look for their phone numbers. When I didn't find it, I checked the social security death index records and, VOILA! There they both were! The SSDI shows birthdate and last residence, to confirm info already acquired. I was fortunate enough to find two newspapers in their locality that I could check for their obituaries in, in the online archives. Their parents and other information matched up. And I found living relatives in the obituary to look up. Unfortunately, I found these two relatives too late to interview. But I did find my grandfather's sister, (what a wonderful surprise that was!) and was able to meet with her and get a lot of information. It was a nice visit. Anyway, this is what worked for me. I guess my point is, sometimes we have to get creative and not stick with just the standard routes. I have recommended to several people to type in just the surname and beginning zip code of the places where their ancestors came from, to see what names come up in the http://anybirthday.com site. It sometimes has interesting results. Margie "Margie" <margie92@earthlink.net>

I would like to thank everyone who responded to my question regarding funeral home research. I received an array of responses, with varying results. Most people stated that they had a positive reception from the funeral parlor staff, even if they weren't able to retrieve information. Some people did receive helpful information. It's worth a try. Thanks again. Margie "Margie" <margie92@earthlink.net>

I am looking to get the passenger lists for two ship that entered New York. I am looking for the passengers on the ship Poland arrived New York City 18 May 1834 and the ship Havre arrived New York city 13 June 1834. Michael A. Rife rife@sssnet.com (Michael A. Rife)

SadieOkate3@aol.com wrote: > As it seems there are those on this list who seem to have a > broad base of 'know how' re a variety of areas, I would like to ask > if anyone has any suggestions on the following: > > I am trying to find my sister, who has been missing for some > years now. Her last communication to me (which supposedly had > contact info) was lost before I could open it. I have over the > years contacted a couple of companies that advertised that they > could find anyone..... for only $30.00? . Most recently I was given > three addresses in CA - but I think they simply gave me addresses > for which the first initial, last name matched. I cannot affort a > private detective. I should think writing a snail-mail letter at 40c each to each of the addresses you were given might not hurt the cause much. It's certainly where I'd go next. Writing a letter will not blind-side her and shouldn't make her feel pressured as a phone call might. (And, chances are she'll even open a letter with a real stamp on; which you can't say about a phone call with all the solicitations going on.) And of course the SSA will forward a letter from you to her, as will the IRS I'm told. Cheryl singhals@erols.com

> Once you've taken the bother of either process though, don't be > surprised to find such useful inscriptions as "Chris' babies" or > "Dan's great-grandmother." If anyone in MY family ever wrote "John > Jacob Jingleheimer, with wife Dora on left, mother Sally on right, > and (left to right) George, James, and Mary-Alice; taken at Sally's > home --1312 Main Street, Tupelo, KS -- at 2pm Sunday March 25 1902" > on a photo, I've never found the photo. (g) > > Cheryl <singhals@erols.com> And you hope the inscriptions are in a readable handwriting! <Warning: long, rambling post with a little bit of useful information follows> There are inscriptions on many of the pictures my grandmother had, but her left-handed, previous-century script is difficult to read - and it's all in pencil, much of which has faded to nearly the same shade as the photo backings. There are several pictures with complete names. One has two people and names listed are Mary Raines (my grandmother), Casa Bowers Raines (most likely her mother's sister, Catherine Hannah - listed as Hanna Catherine on her death certificate). Another has three men and three women in it and the names listed are John Elmer Raines (my grandmother's brother) and Ollie Howard (his future wife) - but the other 4 people are not identified. Which one is who? I've scanned front and back of everything to have copies to work on. I have a lot of experience with image manipulation, having started with a black and white film darkroom and migrated to a "digital darkroom". Even so, there are letters and words that aren't decipherable after extensive image "tweaking" - Is that woman's name "Mittice" or "Wittice"? (If I could just find another reference to that person...) You may also find the same name spelled differently - sometimes in the same reference (birth/death/marriage pages of her family Bible). But those pages did provide her mother's name (Mahala Bowers), which I had never known. I also learned that she was one of 12 children. I've been able to follow her ancestry (in her mother's line) back to France in 1680, by correlating several on-line references which also show that her father and his brother married sisters. The photos have allowed me to determine the approximate time of their move from Illinois to Arkansas. There's a photo of one of my grandmother's sisters (Minnie Albertine, born in 1882) that was taken at a studio in Murphysboro, IL, when she was about 16, making the photo date around 1898. The sister died in 1902 and was buried in Poinsett County, AR. This places the move south in the period 1898 to 1902. Not exact, but it will limit the amount of material to be researched when I look for property records (among the many pieces of information I don't have - and there's no one left to ask). (Thanks to Marjorie Day Huber for surveying the cemetery and posting her findings at http://www.couchgenweb.com/poinsett/walkerc.htm) My compliments to Illinois for their on-line databases! I was able to find the marriage and death records of several of my grandmother's family members. Plus, they include information on where and how to order most documents. I also found "missing pieces" that gave a little insight into my grandmother. When she was angry with someone, she would cut them out of the picture - literally! There are several picture "halves" with just a child on them... More about me: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/ VB3 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vbsource.html VB6 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vb6source.html VB6 - MySQL how to: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/mysql.html johnecarter atat mindspring dotdot com Fix the obvious to reply by email. the Wiz <look@message.body>

SadieOkate3@aol.com wrote: > I am trying to find my sister, who has been missing for some > years now. A credit report, which under normal circumstances we cannot get for another person, can give clues to someone's location. Some companies require credit reports for various reasons; also, a judge or the police could work through this with you. good luck. --charles Charles <lmno@mindspring.com>

SadieOkate3@aol.com writes: > I am trying to find my sister, who has been missing for some > years now. I find many people for my genealogical research by doing this: http://anybirthday.com/ It will give you their exact birthdate and their zip code. (no fee!) I then go to: http://www.411.com/ click on "white pages". do a search from there. Good luck. Margie "Margie" <margie92@earthlink.net>

List, I've been trying to get some or any info on my deceased father, who served in WW1. I am subscribed to Ancestry.com, and I thought that my methods produced nothing because of my own thick-headedness. Can anyone point me in the right direction ? ___________________________Dave RSVP to : adrjamtg@cs.com Subject : K. C. P. Thank you

> My father died 9/10/2001 and I would like to get a copy of his will. > I am sure it has gone through probate. How would I go about getting > a copy? > > "Laura Gilbert" <lauragilbert@sdc.cox.net> Any record in the court house should be a public document unless sealed for specific reason by a Judge. In Pa we would go to I believe the Probate office. If they charge you to look, you may look for the file yourself. Being that you as a taxpayer are basically one of many owners. Different Jurisdictions have different rules, but I would find it hard to believe that any Court House or Public record would not be accessible to a citizen. rick "Rick Polaski" <r.polaski@att.net>

> My family Lu has a long history. So the books of family are > accumulating. Unfortunately, they are all in old form of printing. > I am trying to digitialise them. But I cannot type one by one. I > need a software. Can anybody help. I am living in Beijing, China. > > dclu@yeah.net It sounds as though you are looking for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. When used, you scan the paper document with a scanner and then the OCR software reads the scanned image and converts the characters into digital form. If you use the Google search engine at: http://www.google.com/ and give it some keywords such as: OCR optical recognition you will find quite a few websites where you can read about what is currently available. It quite often requires quite a bit of manual editing after conversion. One problem I am wondering about is if the printing uses a Chinese graphical character set. Does it? That may be a difficult problem for OCR. I'll leave it at that right now just to get the discussion going. Bob Robert Heiling <robheil@attbi.com>

SadieOkate3@aol.com writes: > I am trying to find my sister, who has been missing for some > years now. If you will check this list's archives, you will find explanation of having SSA forward a letter to a living person. Fran powell@closecall.com

Try the Salvation Army. Also ask at your local Social Security Administration office. "RUTH ARMSTRONG" <armstron@silcon.com>

> Does anyone have ideas on how I can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> Lorraine, Before you do anything to the photos I agree with some of the others that you should scan them (if possible) and then try removing them from the pages. Now, putting the photos in the freezer may very well work (and I am not saying that it won't) but when doing this when you take the photos out and they reach room temps it will cause the photos to sweat and you can ruin them. Again, I am not saying that it don't work this is just to say "what" could happen. Now, I have found that you can get photos and documents loose from albums by placing them in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds (depending on the wattage) and it will "soften" the glue instead of making it hard and brittle. You then can lift the photo off the page without any damage. Again, this is the method that I have used and am not saying that it is the "only" way to do it. This is just a suggestion. I wish you luck with your project. Join Now! Subscribe: KYHeritageFolklore-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Terry Thacker Doing genealogy is like writing OUR own family Bible. Our ancestors are the ones that have came to pass, and our descendants are the ones to fulfill it.

"Charles" <lmnoNOSPAM@mindspring.com> wrote: > > I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > > can get these items off the pages? > > > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> > > I am not going to *precisely* answer your question at this moment > (dinner is cooking & i gotta scoot). but I would begin to tackle > your problem by photocopying each page of your album onto acid free > paper. (that is, your baseline info will be preserved.) (other > people may prefer to scan each page or some other method.) <snip> Charles and Lorraine, You mentioned a very good method of "backing up" the photo album. Have each page copied onto "quality" paper on a color copier. As the person who does it for you to try it first in black and white. I find that the clearest method. If you copy it in color it will tend to emphasize the yellow in the paper and photos making it too yellow. That has been my experience anyway. It will cost about 99 cents per 8 1/2 x 11 copy or maybe about 69 cents on sale. I have two other brief ideas on getting it copied. First, don't plan on trying to reformat the picture size too much. It gets too time consuming and the technician will not take the care needed. Secondly, check to make sure they are using acid free paper. It doesn't have to be real glossy but very good quality bright (94 or better) paper would be good. Oh yes, I would suggest not using a Kodak photo machine. It will do a great job but at $5.00 to 10.00 per page rather than the 99¢. John "The Wilson's" <wjp5@icehouse.net>

My father died 9/10/2001 and I would like to get a copy of his will. I am sure it has gone through probate. How would I go about getting a copy? Thanks in advance -- Laura in Virginia "Laura Gilbert" <lauragilbert@sdc.cox.net>

> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> I am not going to *precisely* answer your question at this moment (dinner is cooking & i gotta scoot). but I would begin to tackle your problem by photocopying each page of your album onto acid free paper. (that is, your baseline info will be preserved.) (other people may prefer to scan each page or some other method.) (an archivist would completely dismantle the album, but that may not be your next step at this point.) An x-ray-type machine might be able to pick up and then reverse the words on the back; but that is outside of my ability and i am thinking not readily available to any of us. (in other words, there is expensive technology out there that would salvage everything from the album.) heck.. gotta go. This problem takes a lot of TLC and usually requires professional materials/time to work through, but it IS possible to get that info.... warmest, charles Charles <lmnoNOSPAM@mindspring.com>

[ IMPORTANT. Because this is a moderated newsgroup/list, one of the things I just can't approve (for liability reasons) is any specific discussion of how to find a particular living individual. However, I don't see any risk in a generic discussion of tracing living individuals. - Mod ] Hello, Everyone, As it seems there are those on this list who seem to have a broad base of 'know how' re a variety of areas, I would like to ask if anyone has any suggestions on the following: I am trying to find my sister, who has been missing for some years now. Her last communication to me (which supposedly had contact info) was lost before I could open it. I have over the years contacted a couple of companies that advertised that they could find anyone..... for only $30.00? . Most recently I was given three addresses in CA - but I think they simply gave me addresses for which the first initial, last name matched. I cannot affort a private detective. I consuted a psychic-- an author, someone of good reputation and who has been successful with other matters....The descriptive details she gave were accurate, and I was told she was probably in NY (some felt San Francisco; both are reasonable to assume), and there were a few other details, but, of course, no address. Time is a consideration, and there are others reason too, that I feel that this is a good time to move on with the search again. I intend to splash my information even further on the Internet, and I am ticking off the different ideas as they come to me. Do you know of any groups whose focus is finding a living family member or friend? Or some other resource (I bought one of the 'detective' CDs for sale on the Inet, but I have learned more just on my genealogy searches (not a lot, am learning still). But there might be something just under my nose that I am not seeing. Would it be appropriate to put a query in various lists that might relate to the geographical area that I might expect to find her in? (I intend to subscribe to 'Classmates' or another such site). I would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have. Thank you. Kathryn Rocha (sadieokate3@aol.com).

My family Lu has a long history. So the books of family are accumulating. Unfortunately, they are all in old form of printing. I am trying to digitialise them. But I cannot type one by one. I need a software. Can anybody help. I am living in Beijing, China. dclu@yeah.net