I hope that I have finally gotten rid of my hacker. Time will only tell. I have added some lists as I know some of the Messer families were living in these area and I would like to contact as many of Frederick and Anna Hunter Messer descendants as possible and have them get in touch with me if I do not have their family data as I am finishing up their family history. I had to delete The Messerville Gazette as I found some hidden code in the pages where he or she somehow had invaded my Yahoo / GeoCities Account and I believe that this is how the attacker managed to invade my system. Of course time will only tell. Below is the news letter that I had written to tell you about the events of the last month and the coming events of the next couple months. I will find a new site and try and get The Messerville Gazette back on track as soon as possible. I am finally back on track with the new email address and with a new computer that will not be connected to the Internet. The new one now contains all of my research materials, my database and my important files. A hacker had somehow managed to implant a "virus" into my system which is none other than a server that dials out to the Hackers service on a regular schedule and he or she was trying to take my data by way of pictures, adobe files, word files, Corel files and most every other program that I had on my system. On April 4 when I had my 480,000-name database open, it completely destroyed it. I had already started to catch on to what was going on, but was not 100% sure until later on. After this destruction, I put in my backup and boom the same thing happened and the program that it was using destroyed the CD that it was on and I could not use as it was a data CD and the file was named the same thing as the original. Fortunately I had a backup made earlier with 40! 0,000 names and was all was not lost. After much searching and trying to figure out what was going on and have the system into a technician and he agreed with my synopsis of the situation. My daughter thought I was going batty until the person invaded her Yahoo account on her Messenger site and was talking to her friends and then started exploring her system too. She and I are on a home network, but we do have a firewall installed with all the security features installed. The interesting thing about this is that I am running Windows XP and this person is uploading from Windows 2000. He or she changed the driver on my CD writer from Verities to a Microsoft driver. He or she completely demolished my scanner driver to the point that it damaged the entire scanner and I had to buy a new one. Fortunately I had a 2-year extended warranty on it. The new computer will not be connected to the Internet, so all of my data and research will be protected. My system checks 100% free of viruses. Although the hacker is still trying to send me Trojan horse viruses every time that I turn around and thank goodness for Norton's as it is catching them. It is a shame though that I have an 80-gigabyte computer that is only used for Internet and email; but the alternative was to lose all of my data, either through theft or by it being corrupted. If I worked on a file more that 30 minutes, the file suddenly became corrupt. If I had the Family Tree Maker File open, suddenly the system froze and all of a sudden about 200 to 300 entries appeared at the beginning of the file that were <unknown> and this is not something that I or anyone else that I know would do. When I would open the file again, it would suddenly act very erratic. I was able to reformat my hard rive but the hacker has still managed to somehow get by all of the kn! own security measures but it seems all he is wanting is my data and there is no data to be found on this system and there will be none here ever, so I guess I will just have an unwelcome guest if he or she is determined to continue this quest then I am determined enough to fight with the culprit on my end. I did lose my address book in my email program as well as all of my email messages in my inbox while trying to get rid of him / her but there was nothing important there that I could not recover in time. I am sure that I have not yet recovered all of my email addressees but that will take time. Now for the news! The Pvt, E. F. Athur Camp #1783 [Sons of the Confederacy] and Lois Feltner Oliver cordially invites you to a Memorial Service for Conrad H. "Coonrod" Messer to be held at London, Greenmount, Laurel County, Kentucky on June 28, 2003. The service will take place at 12:00 Noon at the Feltner Family Cemetery with Luncheon following. The meal will be provided by Lois Feltner Oliver for those attending. An RSVP is requested so that she will know how many people to prepare for. Please if you plan on attending, send me a note telling me how many will be coming from your family so I can transmit the information to Lois so she can plan appropriately. I need to know how many people will be attending no later June 15. Here is an excerpt from the initial letter that I received from Jennings Krahenbuhl, a member of the Sons of the Confederacy; the Pvt, E. F. Athur Camp #1783, asking for information about Coonrod Messer: "Conrad Messer died on the march on October 18, 1862 in Laurel County Kentucky. The county site is London which is located half way between Knoxville, Tn. and Lexington, Ky. on Interstate 75. Most likely he was wounded in a skirmish at the Battle of Wildcat Mountain in Laurel County. This took place on October 18, 1862. Conrad's unit was chased by a group of Union soldiers. They attempted to evade these troops by taking to the back roads in Laurel County. By the time that they had gotten to the community of Greenmount on Boone's Trace, they saw that Coonrod was dyeing and was unable to continue with them. They left him with a family of women. The soldiers told them that his name was Conrad Messer and that he was from the Carolinas. Shortly after, this Conrad died and the women afraid of reprisals by the Union soldiers buried him in a shallow grave across the road from the house. At that time his grave was in a fence corner and they covered it with leaves. Shortly thereafter the Union troops did come through that area searching for the Confederates. While we do not know the exact location of Conrad's grave, today he lies in a woods approximately 200 to 300 feet from The Feltner Family Cemetery. The story of Conrad's death and burial has been passed down by the Feltner Family since they bought the land in the late 1890's. They had also attempted to trace him in order to get him a tombstone. They had found a Coonrod Messer but did not realize that this was Conrod's nickname. I was doing research on Boone's Trace in Laurel County and called Lois Feltner Oliver and learned of Conrad. She had promised her father at his death to do two things. Fence in an old cemetery on their farm and get Conrad a stone if they could confirm his name. Our sons of Confederate Veterans unit will order Conrad a tombstone. The stone will be placed at the entrance to the Feltner Cemetery. We will also place a marker by the edge of the woods close to the spot where he was buried. It is our desire to have a ceremony in his honor sometime this next spring. We wish to invite his descendants and the Haywood County SCV Unit, if one exists." I have provided the unit with the family history of Coonrod and I am trying to finish the book of his father, Uncle Fed Messer. With all the problems encountered with the computer, I am a month behind, but I will prevail. I should know how much the book will cost by the first of June and will send a new email out to anyone who is interested, After I received this message from Mr. Krahenbuhl, the descendants of Uncle Fed finally got me to agree to finish the project that they have been prodding me to do for over a year now. It will have a lot of great surprises in store for everyone! ************* Messer Family Reunion The Family of James and Rachel M. "Tiny" Barnes Messer All Messer Family Members Welcome Dandridge, TN Dandridge Fire Dept. May 26, 2003 Located off the Dandridge Exit of 1-40, Dandridge, TN. Everyone Welcome This is one of the Greatest Families that I have had occasion to visit with!! Everyone had a great attitude and no they treated everyone with respect and there was no one trying to outdo the other. They treated the "new family members" as though they had been in their loving arms all of their lives. Last year people began arriving about 10:30. Lunch was at noon and we had a great time! James was the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Palmer. Rachel was the daughter of Henry H. and Catherine Caldwell Barnes. ********* I had the obituaries ready to post to the Gazette when I noticed this code on the pages as I was changing the email address on all of the pages and did a double take and decided to delete the account as a security measure for everyone. I will gladly email the updated obits to anyone who would like to have them and makes a request for them. I also have pictures of the site area where Conrad "Coonrad" Messer is buried, as well as the Feltner Family Cemetery in Laurel County, KY and the house where he died and Boone's Trace if anyone would like for me to email copies to them. I lost some of the updated emails of the people on The Messerville Gazette during all of these changes and this losing of information. If anyone has a copy of the last couple emails from the Gazette, I would appreciate it if you could forward it to me so I could update my list. I am working from a saved address book from a long time ago. My computer is Virus Free so there is nothing to fear from this email. Have a Happy and Safe Summer. If you were corresponding with me, please send me an updated email address and a brief outline of your family just in case I lost your info in the 80,000 names that I lost. Please if you plan on attending the event in Kentucky and will be staying for the meal, I need the RSVP no later than June 15. Regards Brenda Messer