You should be aware that the parking situation at Villa Marin is about to change Aug 1st. The building at the top of the hill shares the road and they are going to take all the parking on the right side of the road going up,and Villa Marin gets the parking on the right side of the road going down. Parking in the driveway will be limited to 2 hours. Villa Marin will continue to have the few spaces at the top of the hill at the turnaround in front of their building. That all means that the caregivers, employees and guests will be after those spaces. . .. and early birds get the worms. Kathy Devlin -----Original Message----- From: Joy Best [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 7:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MarinGenSoc] MEETING LOCATIONS FOR 2004 I get to maybe half of the meetings. Find Villa Marin to be convenient for me rather than driving further up to Hamilton. Certainly the facilities at Hamilton are nice. However I don't have a laptop so those assets aren't vital to me. Info on the screen has been nice to complement the oral commentary. So a toss up with pro's and con's. Generally a monthly meeting is fine except for December which should be a holiday. I can get to both weekend (except ski season) and mid week meetings so toss up there too. Joy Best Gene Pennington wrote: >We've been meeting at both the Villa Marin and at the MCF facility on >Hamilton this year. With just three (3) more meetings left for 2003, we >need to think about where to meet in 2004. > >Here are some options for you to think about. > >1. Should we continue to meet every other month at each location (i.e. one >month at Villa Marin, next month at Hamilton)? > >2. Should we only meet at Hamilton IF we can get the facility on Saturdays >each month? > >3. Should we only meet at Villa Marin and drop Hamilton? > >4. Or ???? (fill in your own option) > >I like both places but I have to admit that I really do like the parking, >the very nice facility at Hamilton (plus the free coffee, water, soft >drinks) and the way the conference room is laid out for us (network, >broadband Internet, projector, screen, VCR, TV, etc.). > >If we can overcome the issue of liability insurance for us to use the >Hamilton facility on Saturday, I think it is in our best interest to hold >all of our meetings there. > >Please send your reply to this mailing list, or if you prefer, you can send >them to me at [email protected] >Thanks, > >Gene Pennington >MCGS CIG >http://www.maringensoc.org/sigs.html > > > > > > >==== MarinGenSoc Mailing List ==== >Meeting address for the Marin County Genealogical Society is >1100 Las Gallinas Avenue, San Rafael, CA --- in the Terra >Linda area. Need directions or a map? Visit http://maps.yahoo.com/ > > ==== MarinGenSoc Mailing List ==== When did you last back up your data? Make sure you back up frequently in the event you have a difficulty with your computer, you will have less work to reconstruct.

Dear Jerry: Try http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22fonts+archives%22 There are 1860 hits for font archives. I checked my fonts that were easy to view and access: Algerian may be useful for headlines. So may BD Journal. Figaro MT may be useful for text. Playbill, too. Or Stagecoach. Perhaps others can suggest alternates. Happy Trails, Lauren

Has anyone ever seen a computer font that is designed to look just like the old newspaper printing? The linotype machine was invented in 1884, but still most smaller newspapers used individual fonts that were arranged, jammed into place, and every "e" and every 'b' looking slightly different and some of the "b's" and some of the "e's" were filled in and none of the letters looked perfect, like they do on computer fonts. I want to transcribe an obituary and have it look more like it did in the original paper. Jerry D. Moore --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software

I get to maybe half of the meetings. Find Villa Marin to be convenient for me rather than driving further up to Hamilton. Certainly the facilities at Hamilton are nice. However I don't have a laptop so those assets aren't vital to me. Info on the screen has been nice to complement the oral commentary. So a toss up with pro's and con's. Generally a monthly meeting is fine except for December which should be a holiday. I can get to both weekend (except ski season) and mid week meetings so toss up there too. Joy Best Gene Pennington wrote: >We've been meeting at both the Villa Marin and at the MCF facility on >Hamilton this year. With just three (3) more meetings left for 2003, we >need to think about where to meet in 2004. > >Here are some options for you to think about. > >1. Should we continue to meet every other month at each location (i.e. one >month at Villa Marin, next month at Hamilton)? > >2. Should we only meet at Hamilton IF we can get the facility on Saturdays >each month? > >3. Should we only meet at Villa Marin and drop Hamilton? > >4. Or ???? (fill in your own option) > >I like both places but I have to admit that I really do like the parking, >the very nice facility at Hamilton (plus the free coffee, water, soft >drinks) and the way the conference room is laid out for us (network, >broadband Internet, projector, screen, VCR, TV, etc.). > >If we can overcome the issue of liability insurance for us to use the >Hamilton facility on Saturday, I think it is in our best interest to hold >all of our meetings there. > >Please send your reply to this mailing list, or if you prefer, you can send >them to me at [email protected] >Thanks, > >Gene Pennington >MCGS CIG >http://www.maringensoc.org/sigs.html > > > > > > >==== MarinGenSoc Mailing List ==== >Meeting address for the Marin County Genealogical Society is >1100 Las Gallinas Avenue, San Rafael, CA --- in the Terra >Linda area. Need directions or a map? Visit http://maps.yahoo.com/ > >

We've been meeting at both the Villa Marin and at the MCF facility on Hamilton this year. With just three (3) more meetings left for 2003, we need to think about where to meet in 2004. Here are some options for you to think about. 1. Should we continue to meet every other month at each location (i.e. one month at Villa Marin, next month at Hamilton)? 2. Should we only meet at Hamilton IF we can get the facility on Saturdays each month? 3. Should we only meet at Villa Marin and drop Hamilton? 4. Or ???? (fill in your own option) I like both places but I have to admit that I really do like the parking, the very nice facility at Hamilton (plus the free coffee, water, soft drinks) and the way the conference room is laid out for us (network, broadband Internet, projector, screen, VCR, TV, etc.). If we can overcome the issue of liability insurance for us to use the Hamilton facility on Saturday, I think it is in our best interest to hold all of our meetings there. Please send your reply to this mailing list, or if you prefer, you can send them to me at [email protected] Thanks, Gene Pennington MCGS CIG http://www.maringensoc.org/sigs.html

It's time to start thinking about topics for our Computer Interest Group (CIG) meetings for 2004. I want to be able to finalize a list by our November meeting so we have plenty of time to arrange for speakers. Please send your suggestions to this mailing list, or if you prefer, you can send them to me at [email protected] Thanks, Gene Pennington MCGS CIG http://www.maringensoc.org/sigs.html

===================================================================== "LOST OR LOST INTENTIONALLY? YOUR FAMILY'S IDENTITY" by George G. Morgan: "Along Those Lines . . ." ===================================================================== People approach me at workshops and conferences, and send me e-mail, asking questions about their family identity. "Where does this name come from?" "What national or religious group does this naming pattern indicate?" "How can I learn more about my [substitute surname here] family's nationality? Let me tell you that these are really tough questions for anyone, and many genealogists have had to engage the services of a professional genealogical researcher who specializes in that geographical area, or that ethnic or religious group, to get the answers. This is particularly interesting when you are researching your ancestors overseas, perhaps in Central and Eastern Europe where political boundaries and governments have changed so frequently as to almost condemn your research to doing a pedigree chart of the governments before you can do one for your family. Our ancestors fled their native lands for a number of reasons. There are also reasons for which they changed their identity. Sometimes they were "wanted criminals" in their native land. They may have been political agitators merely wanting a different type of life. Perhaps they were members of an unpopular or rebellious religious denomination. A number of our ancestors, on arrival in the United States, may have Anglicized or completely changed their names. Often these folks are really difficult to trace because they did not follow a formal legal process. We think of ancestors from across the ocean. However, there are other groups whose ancestors were here since before our European ancestors' arrival here. The Native Americans--or "Indians" as they were dubbed by early explorers mistaking the North American continent for India-- what of their lost identity? In this week's "Along Those Lines . . ." column, though, I want to share an interesting story that appeared in the St. Petersburg [Florida] Times on Sunday, 20 July 2003, which paints a fascinating picture of an Indian tribe thought to have been extinct for hundreds of years. THE VANISHING OF THE APALACHEE The Apalachee Indians lived in Florida for hundreds of years before the first European explorers, Christopher Columbus, Hernando de Soto, and Ponce de Leon, arrived. Historians agree that evidence points to the Apalachee's ancestors settled in the Florida panhandle near what is now Tallahassee about 1,200 years ago. They were a fierce tribe, and they first appear in recorded history in 1528. In 1539, Hernando De Soto and his Spanish troops entered the Apalachee's territory for about five months. The Apalachee warriors, apparently painted in red ochre and wearing feathers, repelled de Soto and pushed his band back. During the 1600s, the Apalachee and the Spanish reached some accord, and the Indians submitted to Spanish rule, adopted their customs, converted to Catholicism, and helped establish a Spanish mission in their area. In the early 1700s, the white man, aided by the Creek Indians, began invading the area for the British. The Apalachee fled west into Louisiana and were given land by the French on which to settle. Other tribes, also fleeing the British, joined them and at the end of the Revolutionary War, more white immigrants arrived and the Indians ultimately sold or lost their land. The Apalachee moved farther west, and by 1827, there were at least ten Apalachee families in Texas. The tribe appealed to the U.S. Congress for reparations in 1834 but was denied any redress. And so it was that the Apalachee remaining in Louisiana migrated to Emanuel and Bayou Cypre areas of Louisiana. President Andrew Jackson, a fierce anti-Indian soldier himself who had fought and massacred Seminoles during the Indian Wars in Florida, after 1834 considered the tribe extinct and dropped federal recognition. In effect, the Appalachee vanished into the bayou environment rather than fight the white man in a conflict they could not win. They also successfully disappeared from the federal government's gun sights. GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Historians also agreed for over 250 years that the Apalachee were, indeed, extinct. The only remnants were the places that bore their name, such as the Apalachee Trail, the Appalachian Mountains, and other locations. However, they were not at all extinct. Over the centuries, the Apalachee descendants hid in the Louisiana Bayou, quietly living their lives in the shadow of the past. They became part of the amalgam of peoples that settled in that area, and soon began to blend in with the clothing, customs, and speech of the other peoples. Some of the traditions survived, though in a diluted form, but much of the Apalachee culture and all of the language was completely lost. Little of the culture remains except the baskets that they weave from white oak. Now the historians agree that the Apalachee do exist, but it seems that no one else in authority will recognize them. EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS But still the descendants of the Apalachee have survived. Some of them know that they are Apalachee descendents, and others do not. And still others refuse to admit the fact for fear of racial or social reprisal. One man, Gilmer Bennet, has emerged as a spokesman for the Apalachee to declare that the tribe has never been extinct. He also states that, with the federal government doling out funds for land and for college educations and legalizing Indian casinos, there is a lot at stake. On a more important cultural note, though, he and others believe it is time for the Apalachee tribe to be recognized again and to assume its rightful place among other Indian tribes in the United States. This requires a significant amount of work to prove who they are, and to establish the credibility that the State of Louisiana, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other federal agencies claim they require. Who knows? This case may make its way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Gilmer Bennett recounts his own family history in as much detail as he has been able to discover. He remembers that his grandfather was singled out, hunted down, and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Bennett himself once felt compelled to deny his race in a court of law. But he also can recount more Apalachee history than anyone, primarily because he has been collecting and preserving all manners of documentary evidence he could find. He has affirmed his racial and tribal background in public and wants to lead the way to writing a history that he and his people can look to with pride. In the meantime, if and when the federal recognition comes, he wants to help his tribe take advantage of whatever reparations are available today. HOW ARE WE LIKE THE APALACHEE? Over the centuries, many of our European ancestors struggled to fit in when they settled in their new American communities. They adopted the customs, clothing, and language of the neighbors, sometimes tossing their old belongings and customs aside. Native languages were lost, unintentionally or intentionally, and the cultural heritage and traditions of the old country were lost. We can identify with Gilmer Bennett's desire to uncover, document, and preserve everything he can of his tribe's heritage. We understand, too, what is at stake with our own family history. We do not want our own family identity to be lost. Our work should be performed in as scholarly a way as possible, with all the sources documented along the way. We want our family's descendants to be able to retrace their past in detail--and to see, touch, and experience the thrill of making contact with the physical documents and artifacts of their history. As genealogists and family historians, we are the conservators and archivists of our family history and heritage. While there will always be "brick walls" and "missing links" in our family history, at least we don't have the loss of culture and language to the magnitude of the Apalachee tribe. And that is why we empathize with Gilmer Bennett. And that is why we continue our important family history work. It isn't just a hobby. It is a vitally important preservation mission for future generations of our family. Happy Hunting, George REFERENCES: "The Apalachee Trail," Richard Raeke, 'St. Petersburg Times' 20 July 2003 (St. Petersburg, FL). Online version: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html?ts=1058886963 _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-2003, MyFamily.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Reprinted by permissino from the "Ancestry Daily News" and George Morgan.

--part1_b2.20442ebc.2c53d121_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This sounds pretty terrific! Cathy --part1_b2.20442ebc.2c53d121_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from rly-za04.mx.aol.com (rly-za04.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.100]) by air-za03.mail.aol.com (v95.1) with ESMTP id MAILINZA34-2ff3f22075510a; Sat, 26 Jul 2003 00:45:29 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [207.40.200.41]) by rly-za04.mx.aol.com (v95.1) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINZA47-2ff3f22075510a; Sat, 26 Jul 2003 00:45:14 -0400 Received: (from [email protected]) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id h6Q4ickf015891; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 22:44:38 -0600 Resent-Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 22:44:38 -0600 X-Original-Sender: [email protected] Fri Jul 25 22:44:37 2003 X-Originating-IP: [65.103.218.4] X-Originating-Email: [[email protected]] From: "Susan D. Slade-Grossl" <[email protected]> Old-To: "Norcal" <[email protected]> Subject: For our listers who had family in Nevada or on the border Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 22:39:06 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Message-ID: <[email protected]> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 26 Jul 2003 04:44:46.0154 (UTC) FILETIME=[A367F2A0:01C35330] Resent-Message-ID: <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Resent-From: [email protected] X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> archive/latest/107175 X-Loop: [email protected] Precedence: list Resent-Sender: [email protected] I got this from another list a few days ago. Unfortunately my Grandparents Henry and Lucille Voigts, both born in CA, are not on here. They had a daughter born in 1919, but the enumerator must have not "gone up the valley" far enough to find them. This is GREAT!! And it is easily searched using almost any criteria you want to use. *********************************** The state of Nevada's Online Census Database is now available for viewing. The Nevada State Legislature and the Historic Preservation Office funded this remarkable tool, which should be useful to researchers, genealogists, or anyone interested in the history of the American West. Nevada is the first state to offer all of its Federal manuscript census data online (1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920). Simple electronic indexes of names exist for some states, but the Nevada database is more comprehensive and allows for all sorts of research. Genealogists will immediately recognize the power of being able to request information on everyone bearing a certain last name. By browsing in the neighborhood of a specific entry, genealogists may learn of in-laws, of household servants, or of other aspects of a family's living conditions. Those interested in understanding the past more generally will discover that it is possible to find information on diverse categories of people. For example, using this data base one can identify all the widowed women supported by laundry work in Nevada in 1880. There are thousands of other possibilities. Please point your browsers to: http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/shpo/NVCENSUS/ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.502 / Virus Database: 300 - Release Date: 7/18/2003 ==== NORCAL Mailing List ==== Visit the NORCAL Lookup Library NORCAL Library http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/norcallib.html --part1_b2.20442ebc.2c53d121_boundary--

Dear Jerry: Thanks for the heads up. Isn't this modern age great? In days gone by you would have been faced with telephoning to alert others that the location had been changed -- even 20' away! If you know of other Society members that are online, but may not have subscribed to the MarinGenSoc list, this is a good example to share with them of why it is of import to subscribe. Happy Trails, Lauren

If you plan to attend Wednesday's meeting (7/23/03) of MCGS: If you happen to own a book published by any genealogy society anywhere of cemetery tombstone inscriptions, could you bring it so I can see a variety of such efforts? Thank you, Jerry D. Moore --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software

I was telephoned by the secretary at Resurection Church and told that we need to meet in the church instead of the Annex Building for this month's meeting because the Annex Building has been all arranged for children's bible school. So.....we meet the church, which is a whole 20 feet away from the Annex Building. Jerry D. Moore --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. (brand new site: http://www.eogn.com/) http://www.eogn.com/newsletter/#LongTermStorageMedia - Long Term Storage Media I am often asked about long-term storage of digital data. Many people are worried about the expected lifetime of CD-ROM disks and other storage media. Others like to point out that we may not have the required hardware to read such data, outside of a few systems housed in museums. I will suggest that the expected lifetimes of the storage media are unimportant. As the previous article about the Domesday Book shows, a little planning easily sidesteps these concerns. The original BBC Domesday project stored its output on storage media that is rare only seventeen years later. Yet the conversion to modern data storage technologies was accomplished with little fanfare. In almost all cases, storage of electronic data rarely needs to exceed twenty years. In fact, ten years is probably good enough for planning purposes; twenty years probably is an extreme case. One major advantage of electronic data is that it can be copied time and time again with absolutely no loss of quality from the original imprint. Unlike printed books and magazines, a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of the original documents still looks as good as the original. If the storage media change, who cares? I originally stored my genealogy data on 8-inch floppy disks that held about 90 kilobytes of data. Do you remember those? Very few home computer users have ever seen 8-inch floppies. My genealogy data at that time didn't fill a single 90 kilobyte disk. Five and a quarter inch floppies became the standard of choice about 1980. I copied my data to the new, smaller floppies that contained 360 kilobytes of data. By 1990 or so, the three and a half inch floppies became predominant. Each stored up to 1.4 megabytes of data. I copied my data to three and a half inch floppies. By late in the twentieth century, CD-ROM began to dominate, each able to store about 600 megabytes of data. Again, I copied my data to CD-ROM. A few months ago I purchased a DVD-ROM writer that stores up to 4.7 gigabytes of data on a single disk. I haven't copied my data over to DVD yet, but I now have the capability to move my data to this latest storage medium. Even after more than twenty years' of research, I can only fill a tiny fraction of the 4.7 gigabytes available on each DVD disk. As I stated earlier, the expected lifetimes of the storage media are unimportant. A little planning easily sidesteps those concerns. In my case and in the case of almost everyone I know, data gets copied from old storage media to new every few years. The important thing is the plan to keep copying data to new media every few years. Not only is the physical media important, but so is the electronic format. My data on the 8-inch floppies was stored in both ASCII text and in DB2 format, the predominant database standard of the time. Luckily, ASCII is still quite common; but when was the last time you saw a program that could read DB2 data? The same issue may hold true in future years. If you store your data today in the internal format of some genealogy program or as a GEDCOM file or as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, will there be software available 50 or 100 years from now to read it? Probably not. Instead, each time you copy the data to new storage medium, you also need to make sure that you are converting it to current software standards. You need to be proactive. You need to make sure you copy your data and convert its format every few years. If you are an active genealogist with a computer available, this will be easy. However, you also need to plan for the same conversions after you lose interest or after your death. Make sure you give copies of your data to someone else who cares, preferably a family member with a similar interest to yours. You might also donate copies to a family society, to local genealogy societies, or to other organizations who will keep an eye on it for you. I do not know of any national or international society that collects such data with the intention of preserving it and converting the data to new formats every few years. Obviously, the LDS Church and a number of commercial companies would like you to donate your data to them so that they can add it to their databases and store it for many years. Doing so will preserve your data for generations. However, you probably want to also preserve data on a more local scale.

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. (brand new site: http://www.eogn.com/) http://www.eogn.com/newsletter/#1986DomesdayProject - U.K. National Archives Rescues 1986 Domesday Project The Domesday book was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066. The first draft was completed in August 1086 and contained records for 13,418 settlements in the English counties south of the rivers Ribble and Tees (the border with Scotland at the time). The result was 35 volumes that listed the identities of the tenants-in-chief (landholders) who held their lands directly from the Crown, and of their tenants and under tenants. For more details about the Domesday Book, look at: http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/story.html Nine hundred years after the Domesday Book was written, the BBC commissioned a new survey. The map of the United Kingdom was divided into rectangles measuring 3km by 4km. A school or group of schools took ownership of each of these rectangles and collected data about it. Typically this consisted of the type of land cover, how many amenities existed, a set of photographs, and up to 20 pages of text. Over 14,000 schools and 2000 other groups were involved in this massive data collection exercise. The BBC Domesday project was completed in 1986. The collection of text and photographs was recorded onto the latest 1986 state-of-the-art storage media: two 12" videodiscs that could be played by using a BBC Master computer connected to a special LV-ROM player. Sadly, not many of those units exist anymore. The contents of these videodiscs have now been put on DVD, and new programs have been written so that PCs can access the data. Interestingly, most of the images and films were not recovered from the videodiscs, but instead were re-digitized from the original analog films at a higher resolution than the videodiscs contained. The curious reader can find more about how this data was recovered and re-recorded on the Public Record Office website at: http://www.pro.gov.uk/about/preservation/digital/domesday/default.htm

Independent Journal Wednesday April 2, 1980 Obituaries Joseffa Stewart Joseffa Conrad Stewart, wife of Boyd Stewart, longtime Olema rancher, died unexpectedly Monday in Carmel where she was on a holiday. Death apparently was due to a heart attack. Mrs. Stewart, 78, was born in San Francisco. She had lived in West Marin for 60 years. Stewart long has been a leader in the West Marin ranching community and perates a ranch there. Part of the former Stewart property is included in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Also surviving is her daughter, JoAnn Wisby of Olema; a sister Lou Phillippi of San Francisco; and one granddaughter. A Mass of Christian Burial will held Monday at 11 a.m.at Sacred Heart Church in Olema. Burial will be at Olema Cemetery. The family prefers memorial donations to the Music Scholarship fund at Dominican College in San Rafael. ________________________________________ Death Notice, printed April 4 & 5, 1980 STEWART -- Of Olema, March 31, 1980. Josefffa Conrad Stewart, beloved wife of Boyd Stewart of Olema, devoted mother of Jo Ann Wisby of Olema, dear grandmother of Amanda Wisby of Olema, loving sister of Lou C. Phillippi of San Francisco and the late Charles Anthony Conrad, devoted twin sister of the late Inez Conrad Hall. A native of San Francisco, Calif., aged 78. A founding member of the Marin Music Chest and a member of the Marin County Farm Bureau. Friends are invited to attend the funeral Monday, April 7, 1980, at Sacred Heart Church in Olema, Calif., where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered commencing at 11 a.m. Interment Olema Cemetery. Memorial gifts to the Music Scholarship fund at Dominican College, San Rafael. (3/4-3/5) Chapel of the Hills San Anselmo 453-8440 _______________________________________ Note: I am not related to this family. Typos in the original text have been preserved: (3/4-3/5) even though the dates were 4/4-4/5 Chapel of the Hills is located on "the Miracle Mile." Boyd Stewart remains living and is, at this date, over 100 years of age. He has been honored by the Marin County Genealogical Society as a member of the newly established Marin Centenarian Society. The Society can be reached via [email protected]

Dear Jerry: You might also contact Ted and Sharon Van Bebber. As I recall, they had attended one of her lectures a few years ago and have her book. Happy Trails, Lauren

Ether Kooiman tells me that the speaker at Sonoma's March meeting was a "Susan Cormack Bartolo" (sp??) who has written a book re: cemeteries. Anyone in Marin have a copy I could look at? Jerry D. Moore --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!

Hi all, Shhh, here is an advance publication heads up! Nora Hickey, whom many of us have enjoyed hearing lecture on Irish Research is planning a Specialized Research Week in Dublin 28 March - 3 April 2004! Limited to 12 participants, attendees are to make their own hotel and flight plans (so you can extend you trip to other parts of Ireland!) and for a consulting fee of $700, Nora will help you *ahead of time* create a research plan based upon the particulars of your individual research needs to greatly increase your chances of finding what you are looking for! I am setting up a website with more info, but it will not be up until next week: www.websweweave.net/~IrishResearch - please feel free to share the link with mailing lists you think would like to know! MCGS member, Sally Warren, as usual, is the local contact: Sally Warren [[email protected]] Jana

Dear Listers: Today is Independence Day, or for some, the Anniversary of the "Great Rebellion," as I have heard the Revolutionary War has been called by the Brittish. Americans spend the day with family and friends. Watching parades and fireworks displays. Eating "hot dogs", apple pie and watermellon. However, it is not just a day for beer and barbeques. It is a day that we honor those brave enough to bring forth this great nation and those who kept the Liberty we enjoy alive. Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Scottish Heritage. The Declaration, itself is based upon the Declaration of Arbroath, written in Scotland April 6, 1320. The ideals expressed are incredibly similar. There were people of many nations that helped the Americans fight for and form a new nation. And many that tried their darndest to defend against such a break from British authority! Please take a bit of time this weekend to share any Family stories or history or genealogy that you may have related to this era. I would love to hear the merits of Benedict Arnold as your forefathers knew him, even as much as others would admire George Washington. For those of you with no known ties to the Revolutionary War or Great Rebellion, perhaps you might share some other summer time tradition that this weekend marks for you. For those of you down under... gosh! Perhaps our Fireworks displays that light up our night can warm up your Winter day. It is hard to imagine the 4th of July just being an "ordinary" day. http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/charters_of_freedom/declaration/declaration.html http://www.constitution.org/scot/arbroath.htm Google has more links: http://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+independence+day http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/geo_america_ind.shtml http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/america/war.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/empire/american_revolution_01.shtml Have a great weekend, no matter where in the world you may be. Happy Fourth of July, Lauren List Admin

=================================================================== "TOMBSTONE RUBBINGS," by Michael John Neill =================================================================== Before anything else let me say one thing: Make certain you do no harm. It started out as a simple project, and it mushroomed. For a 4-H project, we were going to have my daughter create rubbings of stones of her ancestors through her great-grandparents. This would provide her with approximately twelve stones to rub--what we felt was a reasonable goal. Fortunately, we know where all but one of these ancestors was buried (William Apgar, born 1888, Chicago, where are you?) and all but three are within one hundred miles of our home. I was in for a learning experience as well. Despite the number of cemeteries I have visited, I had never made a tombstone rubbing. The stones used for the project were all relatively recent. The dates of death ranged from the 1920s to several years ago. Consequently, even though stones are not necessarily erected immediately upon someone's death the ones we would be using would be relatively easy to rub. For our 4-H project there were no old soft stones with weathered inscriptions on insecure mountings. Of course as a genealogist, I was not content with just working on relatively recent stones that were easy to read and contained information I already knew. I was more interested personally in the older stones. While rubbings are an excellent way to preserve a stone's inscription, they are also a good way to help the family historian to read stones that are partially illegible. However, as I learned, rubbings are not the only way to attempt to read an old, weathered tombstone. This week, we will discuss tombstone rubbing in general. Next week's column will discuss our specific experiences--both with recent and not-so-recent stones. Readers are welcome to send in suggestions and tips of their own for a follow-up article in August. PRACTICE FIRST As a general piece of advice, I would advise practicing on local stones first. This is especially advised if you have never made rubbings and plan to do it while on a research trip. The ability to get good rubbings takes a little bit of practice and experimentation with materials. The first rubbings I made were far from excellent. The time to practice is at home when you have the time. Your first rubbing should not done on the last day of your trip, 800 miles from home, 50 miles from a motel and when it looks like rain is imminent. GENERAL ADVICE Before making any rubbings: 1) Obtain permission (if possible) to make the rubbings from the cemetery or the sexton. They might even have additional information and be able to help you locate the stone more easily than walking through and visiting each stone. Some cemeteries do not allow rubbings and in some areas it is against the law to do so. Tombstones should be treated as the fragile works of art they are. 2) Obtain permission from the landowner where the cemetery is located if it is an abandoned rural cemetery. Getting shot while making a cemetery rubbing is not advised. LEARN ABOUT MAKING RUBBINGS How to do Gravestone Rubbings at SavingGraves.org: http://www.savinggraves.org/education/print/rubbings.htm There is excellent advice here on materials needed for making rubbings. Personally, I would try a variety of media: crayons and charcoal in particular. Different stones respond differently. I would also have a variety of rubbing media in my cemetery rubbing kit. SUPPLIES SOFT BRUSH--if you must, but no metal ones. Metal bristles can damage inscriptions, especially ones on soft stones. Leave your scouring pads at home. I generally only use the brush to get the bird droppings off more recent stones and do not use the brush on the inscription. Even getting the lichen off old stones may cause some of the stone to come off as well. You are not at the cemetery to re- carve the stone. WATER BOTTLES--to drink, and to GENTLY clean the stone and yourself. Leave abrasive cleaners at home. Do not rub old stones vigorously and do not use household cleaners on the stone; you are not cleaning your bathroom toilet. KNEELING PADS--like the ones used for gardening. If you plan to work on several stones and your knees have seen several decades of adult life, you will be glad to have a cushion. TOWELS OR RAGS--for GENTLY cleaning the stone and yourself. Again, you are not cleaning your bathroom. If you feel a need to clean something in a harsh manner, go wash your car after making rubbings. AN OLD BLANKET--in case you need to sit on the wet ground. OLD, COMFORTABLE CLOTHES--making tombstone rubbings can be dirty work. Heels, hose, and that $500 dress are best left at home. HAND CLEANER--your hands will get dirty, especially if you use chalk or charcoal to make the rubbings. HANDHELD GRASS CLIPPERS--unless you want to pull the grass with your hands. Do not bring a weed whacker. RUBBING SURFACE--some type of paper or light interfacing (Pellon is one brand). Getting paper in rolls allows you to more easily handle larger surfaces. Thin papers are okay, but easier to tear. If you use interfacing, make certain it does not contain adhesive dots. RUBBING MATERIAL--crayon, charcoal, chalk. Keep in mind that a hard rubbing material, such as crayon, may actually damage a tombstone made from a soft type of stone. GARBAGE BAG--so you can take your mess home with you. Do not leave litter in the cemetery. Peel crayons before getting to the cemetery. PAPER ATTACHER--tape may leave residue on the stone, which may accelerate the aging process. If you do choose to use tape, make certain you clean it off afterward. Rubber bands can also be strung together to make a larger band that will accommodate larger stones. FIXATIVE--a non-yellowing fixative is best to make certain the charcoal or crayon stays on the rubbing surface. PAPER TRANSPORTER--a tube or large portfolio to put your rubbings in before taking them home. CELL PHONE--if you are with a research partner, you can call each other if the cemetery is extremely large. If the cemetery is small and remote, a cell phone may come in handy if there is an accident or if you get hopelessly lost. Accidents do happen in cemeteries. WHAT TO PUT ON THE STONE Avoid anything other than air and water. A cleaner called Photo Flo is generally considered safe and results in minimal damage to the stone--but again, avoid vigorous cleaning of older stones. Some stones are very fragile and easier to damage than you may think. Wire bristles are a definite no-no, and using your car keys to clean off lichen is not advised either. Car keys on soft stones may do significant damage to the original inscription (would you use car keys to get bird droppings off of your car?). The Center for Gravestone Studies has cleaning suggestions and other helpful information at http://www.gravestonestudies.org/faq.htm. OTHER OPTIONS A rubbing may not be the only way to obtain a rendering of the transcription. Photos taken with a digital camera at varying angles, settings, etc. may also result in pictures that can be read-- especially when the pictures are manipulated with a photo-editing software. And snapping a picture without touching the stone is not going to cause any harm to the original inscription. We found that some of our pictures were significantly more legible than our rubbings. BE CAREFUL Not all stones are on secure mountings and stones can topple easily. If the stone appears wobbly or sounds hollow when you gently knock on it, do not attempt to make a rubbing. You may inadvertently knock over the stone. The stone may break or crumble into several pieces. If the stone is a large one, it may fall on you, leaving you lying under the illegible inscription until help arrives. TIME MAY BE CRUCIAL There was one stone I last viewed fifteen years ago. When I saw it this summer, I was surprised at how much it appeared to have aged. If there are old stones you have never read, rubbed, or photographed, consider putting this on your genealogy "to-do" list. Next week, we will discuss our rubbing experiences. Keep in mind that we are learning too. ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-2003, MyFamily.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Reprinted with permission from the "Ancestry Daily News" 02 July 2003

Help Make October Family History Month >HATCH URGES MONTH FOR GENEALOGY >Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says the world would act >more ike a human family if people did more genealogy. >So he passed through committee Thursday a >resolution to declare October as "Family History Month." >FULL STORY: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%2C510036134%2C00.html Copy of the Resolution: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:1:./temp/~c108yF5kry:: -- Iris Carter Jones President: Genealogical & Historical Council of Sacramento Valley