Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter Vol 1, No 2, 1 March 2006, (c) 2006 PA-Roots
Copyright 2006, PA-Roots
Editor(s): Nathan Zipfel Carol Eddleman
Contents · About the "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter" · Latest News from PA-Roots · Digitizers · Research tools · Letters to the editor · Reprint Policy · Subscription Information
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About the "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter"
The "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter" was created to keep the visitors and friends of PA-Roots informed about what is happening with PA-Roots. We are providing helpful information on how to utilize PA-Roots and resources to assist you in your research.
We are pleased that you have utilized the services of PA-Roots in the quest for information on your family history. Our goal is to provide resources and tools to assist researchers such as you.
If you don't want to be included in our periodic mailings of this newsletter, un-subscription information is included at the end of this issue.
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Latest News from PA-Roots
3 February 2006 - PA-Roots has acquired a copy of "History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania" published by J.H. Beers & Co in 1890. The Digitizer Team has finished extracting the biographies for Potter county and are well on their way with the Cameron County biographies, posting them to the corresponding county Biography DataBoards.
9 February 2006 - PA-Roots has acquired 6,026 death notices extracted from several Westmoreland county newspapers beginning in the 1860s until about 1899. Due the work of a tremendous group of volunteers they have been transcribed and posted at: < http://www.pa-roots.org/data/list.php?841 >
9 February 2006 - PA-Roots has acquired a court docket that recorded the cases brought before the Justices of the Peace in Rural Valley, Armstrong County from about 1886 through 1905. We are beginning to transcribe them. The cases present an interesting picture of the social life of that area everything from murder to public profanity and everything in between. This project will take a while to complete due to the condition of the book and the handwriting. The extracts are being posted at: < http://www.pa-roots.org/data/list.php?59 >
15 February 2006 - The transcription of the 2,900 obituaries copied from the "Morning Call" newspaper, Allentown, Pennsylvania for the years of 1895 and 1896 is now complete. A special thanks to Sue Jones for donating them and to Martha Sargent and Terry Ruth for helping us post them. Visit the link below to read through them. < http://www.pa-roots.org/data/list.php?504 >
19 February 2006 - Laura N. Mallett has joined the Board of Directors as the Treasurer for PA-Roots. We appreciate her willingness to serve.
22 February 2006 - A new webpage has been created to serve as a bibliography of most of our biographical and historical volumes currently being used for transcription to our various Pennsylvania counties. Some of this information is held at the DataBoards and some is on the county pages. Links are provided to take you to the location where possible. You can find this new resource at: < http://www.pa-roots.com/history.html >
25 February 2006 - A new logo was designed and implemented across the project, updating the look and streamlining the image of PA-Roots. The new motto, "...bringing the past into the future" also was added. New "buttons" for links which appear for PA-Roots on other pages are being added, also.
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Digitizers
PA-Roots has a dedicated Digitizer Team: Joan Christopher, Terry Ruth, Martha Sargent, Lila Baier, Sharon Ashcraft, Sheryl Kelso, Christine Wilt, Nan, Millie Mowrey, Abbie Paip-Ebert, Sharon Sheldon, Barbara Lorensen, Diane Swartz, Jo Nelson and contributions from Geri Brennan and Annie Whiteman, and others working with Carol Eddleman on digitizing records throughout Pennsylvania. Some of the projects are small bits and pieces of data while others are large collections of data such as cemetery records for Bucks county, where there are now over 26,600 individual cemetery records posted on-line. We greatly appreciate each member of the team, who live all over the U. S., but are each interested in Pennsylvania history.
Do you have time to help with a transcription project? If so, you can contact Carol Eddleman on the Help Desk < http://www.pa-roots.org/data/list.php?880 > She will help you get started and even provide you with data, if needed. It's fun and easy.
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Research Tools
Have you ever spent time search maps trying to figure out which county a town or other location is located in? If so you might want to try out our Location Finder tool. We've obtained the database from the United States Geologic Survey with over 49,000 locations included. You can click on the county name and be taken to the PAGenWeb Project county website. < http://www.pa-roots.com/location.html >
Have you ever been annoyed while researching on the internet by clicking on a link with promising data to aid your research only to find that the webpage no longer exists? It can be very frustrating. A solution to help you with that is the "WayBack Machine" at Archive.org. Copy the URL for the page that is missing and then go to http://www.archive.org/ and paste the URL in the search box and go "Way Back" to retrieve the page if it was archived.
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Data Boards
Never before in history has this particular assortment of data been available under a single index. Each and every item added to the files increases the power of the system to find a key to someone's heritage. The Data Boards are the place to post your Queries or to submit Obituaries, Birth Records, Deeds, Wills, etc… There are currently over 328,275 records available to assist in your research. Over 17,600 records were added during the month of February. Visit the Data Board page < http://www.pa-roots.org/data/ > to see the available resources.
How busy is PA-Roots?
To give you an idea of how much traffic PA-Roots receives, during the month of February we had over 4 million unique page hits!
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Letters to the Editor
We'd love to hear from you. Please send your comments to nzipfel@pa-roots.com
I grew up in Clearfield County, however, most of my ancestors came from Armstrong County. I have spent hours studying your site while researching my Smith, Schreckongost, Gould, Rupp, Thomas, and Rumbaugh roots. I want to thank you for the wealth of information and the organized, professional manner in which it was presented. - Diana
When it was decided to change the PA ROOTS format - I must say I was somewhat upset -- maybe I don't like change -- but anyway I found in just this short time that the site is much more exiting -- very easy to follow -- and well laid out -- much better than before -- my congratulations -- Jerry
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Reprint Policy
Permission to reprint articles from the "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter" is granted unless otherwise indicated for an individual article. Reprints may only be used for non-commercial, educational purposes. The following must be included with any reprints: "Published by PA-Roots in the 'Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter', Vol 1, No 2, 1 March 2006 PA-Roots http://www.pa-roots.com/"
Back Issues of the "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter" are available from the archive located at < http://www.pa-roots.com/newsletter/ >
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Subscription Information
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the "Friends of PA-Roots Newsletter", send an e-mail to the following address pa-rootsfriends-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
