MISSING LINKS: RootsWeb's Genealogy Journal Vol. 4, No. 35, 25 August 1999 Circulation: 352,504+ (c) 1996-99 Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley Editor-at-Fault: Julia M. Case Co-Editor-to-Blame: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG CONTENTS: The Draining of Hatfield Chase; Web Links; Alabama Genealogical Society Fall Seminar; Book Links; Successful Links: Snow Wars; Special Delivery; Two Reunions; Family Reunions; Somebody's Links; Letters to the Editors; Humor; Reprint Policy; Call for Articles DONATIONS HELP ROOTSWEB HELP YOU AND ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. For details about support levels, benefits, and payment options, visit or e-mail . RootsWeb's mailing address is: RootsWeb.com, Inc., P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. * * * * * THE DRAINING OF HATFIELD CHASE by Rita Effnert Hatfield Chase, situated a few miles northeast of Doncaster, was a Royal Hunting ground until approximately 350 years ago. In extent it included the parishes of Hatfield and Thorne and the eastern parts of Fishlake. Rich in fish, game, and deer, roughly half the area was low-lying, sparsely wooded moorland, the other half meres, streams, and marshes watered by the Rivers Torne, Idle, and Don. At that time the Don divided into two channels near Staniforth, one course meandering northward to join the River Aire at Snaith, the other taking a more circuitous route to the Trent at Aldingfleet. Water provided the chief, sometimes only, mode of transport. Communication between Hatfield and Thorne was usually by boat, wedding and funeral parties frequently having to row to church at Hatfield. One of the meres between Thorne and Tudworth supported 20 fisheries, each of which paid a tribute of 1,000 fishes to the lords of Conisbrough. Though the area included some common land it was generally unlawful for the local inhabitants to take fish, game, or especially venison from the Chase. However, they had a reputation for showing little respect for the law, which was upheld only spasmodically and with great difficulty. Poaching was rife. On 24 May 1626 King Charles I granted a charter to Cornelius VERMUYDEN giving him the authority to drain the Chase and adjoining marshlands in the Isle of Axholme. Cornelius was the son of Giles Vermuyden and Sarah (nee WERKENDET) and was born in 1590 on the Isle of Tholen in Zealand, Holland. By 1625 he had gained a reputation as a skillful drainage engineer and was living in London. After visiting the Chase at the invitation of the King, Vermuyden agreed to drain the area in return for one- third of the reclaimed land. Another third was to go to the Crown, the other to local tenants. Vermuyden brought over a number of Dutch and Flemish (probably) Walloon settlers and actively engaged them in the reclamation work. Some of them, along with wealthier compatriots of Vermuyden, bought shares from him to raise capital for the venture. The shareholders became known as the "Participants." According to some sources, a number of French Protestants -- Huguenots -- also joined the colony, which eventually comprised some 200 families, and settled at Sandtoft to the east of Hatfield just over the Lincolnshire border. Amongst other foreigners who settled near Hatfield about this time was a person called DIMALINE or DU MOULIN, who had two sons. One settled at or near Crowle and the other at Hatfield Woodhouse who was called Peter Dimaline and he was my 5th-great- grandfather, paternal. The line goes down from him via two Peters, Richard, and James, whose daughter Caroline was my great-grandmother. I got a bit of a shock when I received her marriage certificate, Caroline DIMBERLINE, thought it must be wrong, and that it sounded like a heroine out of a Barbara Cartland novel. Once I found that she was born in Doncaster, I joined the South Yorks Family History Society and came in touch with a man who had been researching this family for the previous 10 years, and he handed everything to me on a plate. I would just like to add that I have a son called Richard and a granddaughter called Caroline -- both just sheer coincidence. The man in Doncaster by the way is my 5th or so cousin and we meet each time I am in Chesterfield. There is the likelihood somewhere in the Yorkshire connections that there is a connection with George Washington -- but that's another story. * * * * * WEB LINKS: AUSTRALIA. DEATH AND OBITUARY NOTICES INDEX. The Sydney branch of the Dead Persons Society (DPS) is indexing death and obituary notices from the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD and the DAILY TELEGRAPH. The Web site now contains more than 50,000 entries relating to "Herald" deaths, about 4,500 to "Telegraph" deaths, more than 900 to "Herald" obituaries, and more than 100 to "Telegraph" obituaries. The "Herald" death entries are growing at about 15,000 per month (1,500 current, the remainder historical). An additional index includes about 300 entries from the "RSVP" column of the "Herald," public notices, about 2/3 of which have genealogical content. Send queries about the project to John Graham or to the Sydney DPS mailing list at . The index is at . CANADA. POST-1901 CENSUS PROJECT. Send queries about Canada's Post-1901 Census Project to Gordon A. WATTS or subscribe to . Find Project news at . CLAYCOMB/CLAYCOMBE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION GENEALOGY PAGE OUR LOOSE ENDS, a new genealogy column by Lynna Kay Shuffield in the TAYLOR DAILY PRESS (Texas) TRANSLATION SERVICE FOR GENEALOGISTS. This free translation service now has a page in English and is available in 23 languages at: * * * * * ALABAMA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY FALL SEMINAR will be held Saturday, 16 October 1999, in the Milo Howard room of the Alabama Archives, 624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama. Marilyn Miller Morton, retired Executive Director of the Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research in Birmingham and founder and retired director of Samford University's British and Irish IGHR will be the speaker. For more information, e-mail: or . * * * * * BOOK LINKS: In 1881, a history of Clinton and Marion counties, Illinois was published. This "remarkable publication" is being republished and will be available in October 1999. Orders may be placed with the Clinton County Historical Society, 1091 Franklin St., Carlyle, IL 62231, until 30 September 1999 ($40 plus $6 for mailing). William F. Barrett, Jr. * * * * * SUCCESSFUL LINKS: SNOW WARS by William Norin My ancestors were Scottish immigrants who settled in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Their name was MAC DONALD. In about 1984, while I was visiting the graveyard adjoining the small parish where my grandfather was baptized in East Bay, Cape Breton, I came across an interesting stone for a Dougal Mac Donald. The inscription said that Dougal died in an avalanche at Rogers Pass, British Columbia in 1910. I later learned that Dougal was a third cousin. Years later my wife and I, while on vacation in Canada, had occasion to pass through Rogers Pass, one of the highest passes in the Canadian Rockies, and while at the visitors' center we viewed an excellent film which described the "Snow Wars." It seems that for several decades the pass had been plagued by fearsome avalanches, which without warning would cascade down tons of snow upon the railroad tracks and close down the Canadian Pacific Railroad for weeks at a time. Therefore, the railroad hired crews of day laborers to dig out the tracks following these natural disasters. On one such occasion, on March 10, 1911, while a crew of 62 workers cleared the track from an earlier snow slide, there was a tremendous roar and down came the mountain again, killing all 62 men. Before leaving, at the gift shop I picked up a book which gave additional information. It confirmed that a burly foreman by the name of Dougal Mac Donald had been one of the victims. Early newspapers in nearby Revelstoke described how Dougal's body was taken home for a large family funeral and burial in the small cemetery adjoining his home parish in East Bay, Nova Scotia. I thought that ended my record keeping on Dougal Mac Donald for, obviously, there were no descendants. A number of years later, I learned I was badly mistaken. In the spring of 1996 I was contacted by a priest from Ontario, Canada, who was seeking genealogical information for a Clarence Kenneth Mac Donald, grandson of Dougal. I informed the priest this couldn't be so for Dougal died a single man at Rogers Pass. The good father informed me I was only partially correct for although single, Dougal, nonetheless, had impregnated a young girl before his death. She immediately, before anyone could get her name, left the baby at an adoption home. Well, the baby grew up and now one of his three sons was looking for his grandparents. I would like to say that I helped him to find his grandmother but I did not. Up to this time all he has learned about her was that she was probably from a prominent local family in Revelstoke. However, I have provided him with contacts to many living relatives and he has visited that small cemetery where Dougal is interred -- Dougal, whose seed was not wiped out by the avalanche and who did leave a legacy. * * * * * SUCCESSFUL LINKS: SPECIAL DELIVERY by Gordon Rampy It's a characteristic of those of us who immerse ourselves in the fascinating pursuit of our personal pasts that we expect others to feel at least some of the thrill we experience when we uncover a tidbit of memorabilia. But it's just not so. And we begin to get the picture when we're cornered by a fellow genealogist who bores us to yawns with the same sort of ecstatic spiel we love to proclaim. What follows is, I'm afraid, a good illustration of the phenomenon. My father was born and reared at the turn of the century on a sharecropper farm near Salado, Texas. He hoped, as we all do, that someday, after he was gone, there would be those who were interested in his life story. Thank the Lord! He put it all down in a book titled CHOICE AND CHANCE, and now we know him better than we did before his death in 1976. One of the memories he recorded was of his first train travel. He was 12 years old and the year was 1910. He said goodbye to his mother while a horde of envious brothers and sisters watched him get into the buggy with his father. The trip from Salado to the railroad station in Belton took about an hour and then he climbed alone onto the train with all the excitement any boy would feel at such a time. His destination was Aunt Sally's home in Benoit, Runnels County, Texas, 150 miles away. My father's writing gives no more details of the adventure, so it remained for his reader just one of the rather ordinary incidents he recorded. But then, nearly 80 years after it happened, I received a tangible link to that event, which, for me, gave it a brand new perspective. One of my relatives sent me a postcard that had surfaced in a central Texas antique store. It was addressed to "Mrs. T. J. Rampy, Salado, Texas," and was dated August 19, 1910. It bore a one cent stamp and the postmark, Benoit, Texas. In a child's barely legible scrawl was the message, "Hello, Mamma How are you I am all right I have just got off the train and am at Aunt Sallie's now. I didn't have any trouble. Randall" On the front, nestled in a pretty floral design were the words, "To One I Love." To me, that scruffy postcard is priceless, though there is not another soul on the face of the earth who would offer a dime for it. The pursuit of the past brings unsharable rewards. * * * * * SUCCESSFUL LINKS: TWO REUNIONS by Teri Vaughn At the age of 19, I found my father. Growing up, I believed that I had no real extended family -- what we had was just us. I was wrong. After finding him, his wife, two half sisters, and 10 sets of aunts and uncles, the resulting cousins, and their children, I found out just what I had missed over the years, and a love that wasn't missing, but had been put on hold until we were reunited. It was a bittersweet moment I'll cherish. A few months ago, I struck up quite a friendship with my best friend's mother-in-law, a kind, sweet-natured woman, who had for years taken care of those around her. Easily liked by all, as well as easy to talk to, we began chatting about our childhood. I told her of my experiences, and she shared with me the wish that she had been able to do the same. Separated from her father very young, she was led to believe he had died almost 40 years previously. Ten minutes on the Internet showed to me that he had actually passed away in 1987, a crushing bit of information to find, but at the same time opening up a new door -- did he have more children? Were there siblings? Thirty minutes later, I found myself calling her back. There were indeed siblings, one of whom had posted on every genealogy message board I came across, mentioning his name, and looking for siblings. Secrets and questions almost 50 years old came to a well-deserved end. Old issues were buried, new relationships were made, and a family reunion came to be. She and her newly- found half sister swap photos and loving letters, and work together to find their families' roots -- something that perhaps would never have happened, nor meant as much as it does now -- and it reinforced something I truly needed to know. Everything happens for a reason. I needed to know that had I not learned from my own experiences the lessons that I had, and been given the gift of family that I not only never knew I had, I perhaps would not treasure the bittersweet experience of finding them nor been able completely to understand or be driven to help someone else who was wearing my old shoes. I had walked that mile, and I knew the path well. Outcomes such as these aren't always the case. Sometimes the past needs to be left alone, bitterness can build over the years. But I surely do feel blessed to have been a part of both of these sagas. * * * * * FAMILY REUNIONS: Find and post family reunion notices at: (N.B.: Everything between the angle brackets is a part of the URL.) * * * * * SOMEBODY'S LINKS: I am in possession of photographs, marriage certificates, and an obituary from the Homer DUNN/Maud ACRES family of Denver, Colorado. The photos are of Sarah Newman Acres, Lydia Marlow Acres, Thomas Richard Acres, and Maud Acres. There is a photo and obituary of George B. Dunn, who died 4 Sep 1887 at Barr, Colorado. The marriage certificates are of David SANDERSON and Adelaid Dunn, 1894, and Homer Dunn and Maud Acres, 1894. If there is anyone researching these families I would like to be in contact with them. Ruth Jeffries * * * I have an old photo album book with unidentified persons, that was rescued from a garage sale (I think), which includes newspaper clippings that mention the surnames SUTTER, MCFARLAND, CAMPBELL, ZOOK, and DENHAM. There are many photos, all probably taken between the late 1800s and the 1940s. Most have photographers' names and residences, which were from the Kansas City (both Kansas and Missouri) area, and also St. Joseph, Missouri, Topeka, Kansas, and Cumberland, Maryland. If you can prove a connection to the people in this album, it's yours. James Birkholtz at * * * I would like to find the rightful owners of a document I have. It is in German (a friend told me what it said) and is for the communion of Jacob SCOER from the Church--Carlsburg, Germany, April 11, 1875. There is a picture in the middle of Jesus with his Disciples. Beneath the picture is the church's name and, in handwriting, the name and date. Ruby Badger Pruitt * * * I have a Bible (about 4"x6") inscribed "To Arthur M. FORRESTER from his brother, 25th July [18]88, on the occasion of his leaving home to go abroad." If anyone recognizes this name and would like to see this Bible back in the family, please e-mail me and I'll send it to you. Jill Groce * * * Looking for the family of Osa Lee ISAACS. I recently purchased at a garage sale a document with her name on it. It appears to be a diploma of some type. It is dated 1911 and is from Kansas Normal School. If there is any relation who would be interested in having it I would be happy to send it to them. Staci Roe * * * The following items were picked up at various rummage sales, auctions, and flea markets. If they may be connected to your family or research please contact me and we can work out the details of getting them to you. A passport dated 30 March 1928 for Edward James WOODWORTH from Fort Collins, Colorado, lists the names of Mrs. A. W. THOMPSON to contact in case of death or accident. It has picture of Edward and wife and daughter, Ethel and Elizabeth WOODWORTH. Annual report booklets from Marlow, New Hampshire, dated 31 Jan 1928 and 31 Jan 1929. These list many of the town's members from these years in various reports. Evening Trade School diplomas for James and John SHERWIN of Brooklyn, New York, dated 14 May 1913 for "machine shop practice" and "trade pattern making," signed by the principal, Henry T. WEED. Michelle Scott * * * * * LETTERS TO THE EDITORS: In connection with W. Robert Chapman's "Noah's Ark Encounters the Mayflower" [ML 4:34]: "Obviously there were never one septillion people on this earth, and there never will be -- the number is just too huge to contemplate. What happened? Do I have all those ancestors or don't I? The answer is in the marriage of cousins. We all have marriages between cousins in our genealogies, and usually we do not have to go too far back to find them." APPLIED GENEALOGY by Eugene A. Stratton (Ancestry, Inc., 1988), pp. 18-20. It is the marriage of cousins that creates what is known as a pedigree collapse, meaning the number of unique individuals on your family tree is reduced because you may be related to a particular ancestor in one or more different lines, or put another way, a particular ancestor may appear in more than one place on your pedigree chart. * * * Librarian Chapman's numbers are probably right. I didn't check the math. BUT, keep in mind your chromosomes only hold a certain number of genes and each gene, as far as we know, can hold only a finite number of molecules. Therefore, you may not have inheritance from every one of your "ancestors." Right now, this is a purely academic question, but with molecular genetics, we might have a way of knowing in the future. It gets more interesting every day! Edwin Troutman * * * I was amused to read Robert Chapman's "Noah's Ark Encounters the Mayflower." In theory Mr. Chapman makes an excellent point. The fact is however that, for many of us, the lines of exponentiality (if that is a real word) are often confused and distorted. For example, my mother's mother, Ella WILLIAMS, married a cousin, George Franklin WILLIAMS. Grandma was 13 when she first saw her future husband. When he rode up into the yard on a big white horse she ran and hid behind the woodpile. After he entered the house she told the other children: "There goes the man I'm going to marry." Ten years later they were married. Grandma was a blushing bride of 23 and Grandpa was 50. The honeymoon cottage was a wall tent in a sawmill camp where Grampa worked as an "engineer." But I digress. The point being that sometimes the branches on the family tree are much closer to the trunk than Mr. Chapman's theory would indicate. There can be an advantage, however. The research becomes much less complicated when family history intertwines. Albert L. Armer * * * Actually we are all descended from only two people. On another note, on one side of my family (HASHMAN) there are more than 40,000 descendents from a father and three sons who landed in Philadelphia in 1751 (HIRSCHMANN also spelled HARSHMAN, HERSMAN, HESSEMAN, HORSMAN). Fred Barber * * * On 2 Jan 1766, Christian GRABER (b. 1742, d. 30 Mar 1808) married Maria ROTH (b. 1747?, d. 28 Feb 1824). They were Swiss Mennonites who were living in Montbeliard (Wurttemberg). They had eight children, one of whom married (the oldest girl, Kattrein) but for whom there are no known descendents, and one who died early in childhood. The remaining six children are my direct ancestors: (1) Elisabeth Graber m. 30 Jan 1791 Peter C. KAUFMAN (5th-great-grandparents); (2) Christian Graber m. 1795? Kathernia STUCKY (5th-great-grandparents); (3) Johann Graber m. 4 Jan 1801 Barbara Stucky (4th-great-grandparents); (4) Peter Graber m. 8 Dec 1803 Katharina GERING (4th-great-grandparents); (5) Daniel Graber m. 17 Apr 1805 Maria RUPP (4th-great- grandparents); and (6) Jacob Graber m. 3 Jan 1815 Maria GORDIA (3rd-great-grandparents). I would guess that being a direct descendent of six children from the same family must be close to a record. David E. Ortman * * * . . . As I have followed my ancestors further and further back, [I have found] a number of cousins marrying . . . -- mostly Dutch and Friesian, but those early Massachusetts settlers mixed things up a bit, too. . . On the Dutch side alone, I have two TAMMING lines, two WUFFEN lines, three MEIJERING lines, and possibly two (maybe three) BAVING lines. . . Cornelia Warner * * * I came from south Georgia and since I started tracing my family tree, I have found many cases where an individual is related to me on both sides of my family and several more who are related from several different grandparents and great-grandparents. It has happened so often that when I see a family tree on the Internet of anyone from Thomas, Grady, or Decatur counties in south Georgia or in the north Florida/southeastern Alabama areas, I investigate and it is a rare occasion that I don't find at least one relative, no matter what the main family names are. Christine M. Burton * * * * * HUMOR: Thanks to Peter F. Wells . There was a sailor who purchased a beautiful cat-rigged boat in the classic mode, a heavy canvas mainsail laced to the boom and with rings which slid up the mast. He found a mooring spot in a classic small boats harbor, and enjoyed his craft each weekend. One year when he launched his boat and returned for his first full weekend aboard, he was faced with a catastrophic situation. A pair of catbirds had decided that his main would be a perfect place to raise a family. They had, therefore, constructed a nest on it, and left tokens of their appreciation for his hospitality spread liberally within the confines of a certain line defined in the water. Recovering quickly from the catatonic state temporarily induced by his discovery, he catapulted the already laid eggs into the water and checked into the category of bird repellents. Over the course of the next few weeks he tried statues of owls and cats, reflecting streamers, plastic whirligigs, and many devices ordered from various catalogs. Nothing worked. One weekend as he rowed out to his pride and joy he noticed an old salt climbing aboard a boat similar to his. The man was obviously also starting his weekend, and his boat was spotless. Striking up an acquaintance, he told the man of his problems and asked his advice. "All you need to do is buy some baker's yeast, and rub it all over your sail before you leave on Sunday," he was told. Desperate, and willing to try anything by now, he questioned not and did as he was told. The next weekend his boat, too, was once again spotless and free of the pesky birds. The next time he saw the old salt he thanked him profusely, but could not resist asking the reason for the effectiveness of the remedy. "Very simple," came the reply, "you just have to remember that 'Yeast is yeast, and nest is nest, and ne'er the main shall tweet.'" * * * * * PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from MISSING LINKS is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) a copy of this notice appears at the end of the article: Written by . Previously published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, Missing Links: RootsWeb's Genealogy Journal, Vol. 4, No. 35, 25 August 1999. RootsWeb: CALL FOR ARTICLES, STORIES. MISSING LINKS welcomes articles about genealogical research methods and sources from all parts of the world. Please send your article for consideration for publication to . MISSING LINKS also welcomes delightful, amusing, amazing, cautionary, or otherwise wonderful and educational tales of genealogical research for the "Successful Links" section and articles acknowledging the efforts of particularly helpful librarians, archivists, town or county clerks, and other frequently unsung heroes, for publication in the "Virtual Bouquets" section. Please send such stories for consideration for publication to Julie_Case@rootsweb.com. BACK ISSUES of MISSING LINKS are available for download from and of ROOTSWEB REVIEW from . TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE from MISSING LINKS and ROOTSWEB REVIEW, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the message area to: .