Hey, Howdy! While I've been slaving away on re-doing the WRV website (1st link below my signature), I had an idea...and boy, did it pay off! I was trying to find some websites at Freepages at Rootsweb that might link up to our area, and lo, and behold, the server for Freepages is finally up! However...there's over 8,000 of 'em. In the interests of time, I tried to see if Rootsweb had some way of searching through those things, and guess what? You go to the homepage of Rootsweb (http://www.rootsweb.com) and type in the word "Taney" under "surnames" for Rootsweb's search. Came up with some 1,200 pages (on the results page, scroll down till you see "websites" or something like "other websites"--it's been a few hours and a lotta websites). Taney Co. MO is the only county thus named in the whole USA, and so you get stuff that mentions Taney Co. I don't know if it'd work so well for other county names, but you never know... Anyway, a bunch of my gen website pages came up, too (no, I'm not counting them), so you can just skip over them. They have the "~gregvonda" part in the link, which looks like the 2nd link below my signature. Saw some gorgeous fireworks at College of the Ozarks tonight...everyone, have a Wonderful 4th of July! Vonda ListMom for MO-AR-WRV http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gregvonda/ http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~vondak/

Actually, you can go to their "search thingy" and perform a search much like you would do for google or any other search engine. Use the ( ) + - etc, to your advantage. I received a recent message from rootsweb, while addressing their message boards, it works for other searches as well in their data bases. Maybe this info will help some of you who might not subscribe to their info updates. Everyone keep cool & enjoy this special holiday. Joy in MO Message was as follows: (Please remember that many of the RootsWeb Message Boards are gatewayed to mailing lists. This means that when something is posted to a board, it is also posted to the mailing list. When replying to a gatewayed message it is best to reply on the board where the original message was written, just in case the author is not currently on the mailing list where you found the message. TRD-H) GETTING THE MOST OUT OF MESSAGE BOARDS. http://boards.rootsweb.com/ You can search all message boards, search a category, or search only one board by selecting the appropriate button depending upon your location within the board hierarchy. To perform a simple search type in a surname (last name), a keyword, or a phrase, and click GO! In all searches, keywords or phrases will be searched for the closest to the least exact match in that order. For a more specific search click on the ADVANCED SEARCH link. A search of all boards is the default. Complete any or all of the items on the ADVANCED SEARCH form: --FIND MESSAGES CONTAINING: (list a keyword or phrase) --WITH SUBJECT CONTAINING: (searches only message subjects) --BY AUTHOR: (the posters' names will be searched) --POSTED IN THE LAST ____: (select a time period from drop-down menu) --WITH SURNAME: (searches only the Surname Box entries) also offers a check box to use a Soundex search. (For information about Soundex, a special index, see: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson9.htm ). --WITH MESSAGE TYPE: (Select from the drop-down menu: All, Query, Bible, Biography, Birth, Cemetery, Census, Death, Deed, Immigration, Lookup, Marriage, Military, Obituary, Pension, or Will). Searches support trailing wildcards represented by an asterisk (*) following a minimum of the first three letters of the keyword or surname. A trailing wildcard means you cannot begin a search request surname/keyword with an asterisk -- you must start with at least three letters prior to the asterisk. For example: a search for Joh* will find John, Johns, or Johnson. Search operators you may use are the plus (+) sign which may be placed in front of any word to indicate that this word MUST appear in a message for it to be considered a match, and the minus sign (-) which may be placed in front of any term you wish to exclude from a search. A search for '+jones john -paul' will return only those hits that contain the word 'jones' -- provided the word 'paul' does not also appear in the message. The word "john" may or may not appear in the message. Messages that include both 'john' and 'jones' would rank higher in degree of match (relevancy) than those that only include 'jones'. If you search and get no matches, enter less information or search only by a surname or a keyword. Regardless of the case (upper or lower) found in the actual posts on the message boards, typing all lowercase letters in the search box will make your search case insensitive, thereby yielding the maximum number of matches. Too many matches? Enter additional data on the ADVANCED SEARCH page to narrow down your results. If the surname for which you are looking is also a common word (such as HILL) use the ADVANCED SEARCH link and search on the surname by typing it into the SURNAME BOX. This enables you to search only message board posts in which this "word" is used as a surname. Searching only on the surname field eliminates authors' names from coming up in your search results. You also can narrow search results by selecting a specific data type or messages with attachments. By searching only for posts with attachments, for example, you can easily locate those messages that include pictures, scanned images, and GEDCOMs. Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 26, 26 June 2002. Vonda Sheets wrote: >Hey, Howdy! >While I've been slaving away on re-doing the WRV website (1st link below my >signature), I had an idea...and boy, did it pay off! > >I was trying to find some websites at Freepages at Rootsweb that might link >up to our area, and lo, and behold, the server for Freepages is finally up! >However...there's over 8,000 of 'em. In the interests of time, I tried to >see if Rootsweb had some way of searching through those things, and guess >what? > >You go to the homepage of Rootsweb (http://www.rootsweb.com) and type in the >word "Taney" under "surnames" for Rootsweb's search. Came up with some >1,200 pages (on the results page, scroll down till you see "websites" or >something like "other websites"--it's been a few hours and a lotta >websites). > >Taney Co. MO is the only county thus named in the whole USA, and so you get >stuff that mentions Taney Co. I don't know if it'd work so well for other >county names, but you never know... > >Anyway, a bunch of my gen website pages came up, too (no, I'm not counting >them), so you can just skip over them. They have the "~gregvonda" part in >the link, which looks like the 2nd link below my signature. > >Saw some gorgeous fireworks at College of the Ozarks tonight...everyone, >have a Wonderful 4th of July! > >Vonda >ListMom for MO-AR-WRV >http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ >http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gregvonda/ >http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~vondak/ > > >==== MOTANEY Mailing List ==== >"A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia."--David C. McCullough, "LA Times," 23 Apr 1978 > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >