WELCOME

Welcome to the 22nd issue of the quarterly online newsletter supplement to "Self Portraits: The Self Family NetLetter," the Website dedicated to Self family research at http://www.selfroots.com

You are receiving this newsletter because you were kind enough to join "Self Seekers: The Self Family Association." We appreciate all of your contributions, large and small, and we hope you will continue to support our page, our surname list, and this newsletter.

The economy seems to be at an all-time low right now. Beginning with the stock market plunges directly following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, things have gone downhill at a rapid pace. So many citizens are out of work while prices continue to rise. The cost of gasoline is ridiculous, and yet today's shafting at the pump may seem like a beautiful distant memory in another few months. Everything is going up, it appears, and this cuts into disposable income set aside for fun things like genealogy and new computers. We want to take this opportunity to thank you for renewing your membership in "Self Seekers." It's very difficult to write articles every month with very little contributed data--but through your generosity, we're able to pay our ISPs and bring you the best Websites possible. In times of trouble, it's always so nice to have family to turn to!

We are so happy to be the largest repository of Self information. With three domains, a second Webpage at RootsWeb, a surname forum and a suite of cluster pages at RootsWeb (see the link on "Self Portraits"), a Listserv, a Collaboration Surname list on the LDS "Family Search" site, well over 5,000 pages of connected and unconnected Self lines, and over 1250 valid e-mail correspondents willing to share information, we are well able to help you with your family research. We are also the Surname Resource Center (SRC) for the surnames of Self, Selfe, and Selph. We also host SelfSite at RootsWeb, an extension of Self Portraits containing our Census pages as well as state-by-state and county-by-county "loose ends," Selfs presently unconnected to any of the major branches; and Self Family Album II which presents more old Self photos. Family Record Online enumerates families presented on our Self Family of the Week page. And each time a new "Self Seekers" newsletter is released, we upload the one for the same month from the past year to our public page for all cousins to enjoy.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

We would like to have your gedcom so that we can add your information to our database. With your permission, we will also list and distribute your gedcom on request (but only with your permission). Please send us gedcoms so that we can start a library that will help others. If you've already submitted one, kindly re-send so that we will have the latest information. We would appreciate being kept informed of new family members as well as other changes.

If you haven't joined our Self Surname Mailing List yet, please subscribe. Instructions will be found on the main page of our Website. Note that we also host the Swindle, Eden, Edens, Cease, Breeze, Brezee, Bishop, Snackenberg, Snackenberger, Schneggenburger, and Salazar Surname Lists as well as listservs for Erath County, TX., King County, TX., Bossier Parish, LA., Murray County, GA., and Clay County, NC. In addition, we host the King County, TX, Murray County, GA, Union County, GA and Clay County, NC USGenWeb sites. Our four county sites join "Self Portraits" in featuring a handy search engine for locating topics discussed in previous messages posted to their corresponding listserv--please click on the button directly beneath the instructions for joining the listserv on the main page of each site.

Membership fees remain the same in 2003: Regular Member, $12 and Charter Member, $25. If you are a Patron Member, your initial contribution is gratefully acknowledged and good for the lifetime of the "Self Seekers" association. Please send in your payment for 2003 if you haven't already done so.

And PLEASE contribute something to this newsletter. Photographs, articles, family trees, and reunion recaps will be gratefully received and enjoyed by everyone--and they will be released to the general public one year after first publication so that they can be shared with all cousins who visit our sites.

Long after the world has forgotten Rodney King, his rhetorical question will still ring in our ears: "Can't we all get along?" Race is just one of the dividing lines present in any large group of people. Perhaps such lines are the inevitable consequence of our ability to weigh both sides of an issue and choose one stance or the other. And while Mr. King was speaking of society as a whole, the problem of "getting along" exists in most groups, large or small. Most unfortunately, we have also witnessed them in sports and other recreational pastimes--even genealogy!

POWER AND CONTROL

To be truly powerful is to control the lives and actions of others. We've come to accept this fact in the world of politics. We've seen it in Academia. Thus, we probably should have anticipated the same problems in Cyberspace, but it took us by surprise. Forgetting that siblings often "fight like cats and dogs," we were shocked that our own relatives and webographical neighbors could show such hostility toward us and toward each other.

The main problems seem to be (a) getting along in a group; (b) sharing information; and (c) letting go.

GETTING ALONG IN A GROUP

When the World Wide Web gained its graphical interface in late 1995, the first thing we did was to search for sites devoted to genealogy. It didn't take long to discover RootsWeb and the USGenWeb Project. The Project claimed to represent every county in every state of our country, most of them hosted by the RootsWeb Servers. We also learned about listservs. Many of them were on MAISER at the time and moved to RootsWeb after the MAISER Servers were attacked by hackers. With the exception of the cumbersome commands on the old MAISER listservs, everything appeared to be well-structured and efficiently presented. We had no idea of the turmoil going on behind the scenes.

Listservs can sometimes be as miserable as they are informative. The heated messages that pass between individuals on a list are truly incredible at times. The "flaming" is akin to "road rage" where the people involved behave far differently toward an unknown person than they would if they met that same person in a business or social setting or if they were speaking with them over the telephone. Thinking of someone as "the other driver" or a faceless entity in Cyberspace seems to raise tempers to the boiling point very quickly. We've seen a lot of name-calling and angry accusations directed at those who make mistakes or fail to conform to someone else's way of thinking.

Surprisingly, the state-mandated lists have by far the worst mud-slinging of all. In almost every USGenWeb state, county coordinators are required to belong to a listserv open only to other coordinators on the state, regional, or county level. Some of the "discussions" on these lists have degenerated into nasty comments and accusations bordering on slander. Individuals are not hesitant to take personal arguments onto the list. All of this can obscure the topic at hand and become a real time-waster despite its "entertainment value." In two of the states where we host counties, the state coordinator has decided to make the mandatory list "read only"--a one-way "bulletin board" where he or she can share relevant news. There is a separate "discussion list" for those who wish to comment on just about anything, but subscribing to it is not a requirement.

Although the listserv is the most direct means of attack, one's website can also be used as a vehicle to express displeasure or animosity. For instance, some county coordinators have attempted to show their dissatisfaction with their state leaders or with the USGenWeb organization by refusing to put the official logo on their site. They will decline to upload someone's contributions, or a dissatisfied contributor may remove the files they originally donated to the Project. Discreet advertising is usually permitted, but some coordinators have nothing but links to their own commercial genealogy businesses on their pages. Still others have actually put inflammatory statements directed toward the Project or other volunteers on their sites. These infractions usually result in dismissal from the Project, but they can create havoc in the meantime.

SHARING INFORMATION

Our society has become very dependent on the law. It's a lot easier to follow the mandates of others than it is to think for oneSelf. If you're not an attorney or legislator, however, interpreting the law to fit everyday situations can be tricky. One of the cloudiest areas is copyright.

Copyright was designed to give protection to creative works. For example, you might copyright your painting, short story, or musical composition. Most copyright laws apply also to the Web. If you publish a poem on your page, that verse is protected at least by statutory copyright. If you design a border for the site, that artwork is also protected. If you use a combination of certain backgrounds and clip art which are "freeware"--i.e., in the public domain--you don't own that art or that background, but you do own the resulting combination. If your cousin takes a photo of your grandfather's grave and puts it on his personal site, you may not use it without his permission; however, you can take your own photo of the tombstone and use that one on your page.

Data such as names and dates are in the public domain. Anyone can put the name and dates of a deceased individual on their Web site. If your friend scribbles the names and dates from a particular Census onto a piece of paper and hands it to you to re-work into a pleasant Web display, it would be nice of you to give credit to that helper, but it wouldn't be absolutely necessary to do so. On the other hand, if you actually found formatted tables containing this data on your friend's site and highlighted and copied those tables directly to your own Web page, you'd better ask permission first and then give credit to your friend or you'll be in violation of copyright.

Since the source of raw data is almost always in the public domain so that copyright isn't an issue, there should be no problem in sharing data with others. If you correspond with someone and have a disagreement, please continue to exchange information anyway. It doesn't hurt to keep your bridges intact and your doors open. Remember that future generations won't care at all about your personal grudges.

LETTING GO

One of the hardest things to do is to let go. It's really difficult to leave a job you've held for many years, a homestead built by your ancestors, or a child who's going off to college. In many ways it's like a death in the family. Agreeing to the end of a relationship or routine, even if it's for the better, doesn't mean you have to like doing it.

This is also true in genealogy. I can remember my "first family" so vividly. I literally lived and breathed these people, spent every free moment I could working on their lines, and even dreamed about them at night. When I left them behind, I gave my paper files to a member of the family. A few years ago, I discovered that yet another person had put up a comprehensive Web site for this surname and included all the names and dates I had researched plus many more. Yes, I admit that I was nostalgic, shed a few tears, and even wrote to the webmaster to offer any help he might need. It was a chance to reminisce on an important part of my life. But I also realized that this work belongs to him now, and he's doing it his way. When I stopped my work on this family, I had to "let go."

Recently we had a terrible experience during the adoption of a USGenWebsite: the previous county coordinator refused to let go. Although her primary reason for giving the county up for adoption was the lack of time, she spent an inordinate amount of that commodity monitoring what we added or did not add to the site. She criticized our re-formatting and our decision not to include some of the things she had placed there. Moreover, these messages were also sent to the state and regional coordinators, most of them without a copy to us. She practically demanded that the county be taken from us. Fortunately, the leadership reviewed the sites and found them in total compliance with the rules set by the majority, even if they didn't meet her particular standards. Particularly unnerving were the vicious comments and name-calling that ran through her messages--especially since previous dealings with this person had been quite cordial. In the end, after having accused us of making our visitors unhappy, she amgrily removed her many contributions and thus defeated the purpose of all her complaints.

If you decide to turn your site over to someone else or simply to pass on your research to your grandchildren, remember that it will then be out of your hands. Everyone appreciates help from an experienced person, but you can't give something up and still control it. Chances are that no one forced you to make your decision--unless, of course, it was for health reasons--so try to think ahead of time: "Will this leave a huge gap in my life? Will I still want to be active in genealogy? Will I sit back and watch the evolution of a job well-done or will I try to interfere with things?"

SUMMARY

Genealogy, like many other pastimes, is supposed to be fun. Some of us approach it with more seriousness and determination than others, but all of us are working toward one goal: to find our ancestors and learn something about those who came before us. We should never let the desire to be powerful spoil the joy of research for ourSelfs or for others. Let's continue to be courteous to our cousins and fellow researchers and try "to all get along."

In July of 2002, we presented an article on musical Selfs. At the time, we were attempting to locate Robert Morritt who met and wrote a short biography on ALVIE SELF. Mr. Morritt has since contacted us, and here's what he has to say about his musical Self friend:

Alvie Self apparently has a Native American background. Once we can identify his parents and place him in the Self family, we may be able to show where this heritage entered his line, as there are several distinct Self branches with proof of maternal Indian ancestry. Mr. Morritt says: "Alvie never lived on a reserve and has always considered himself 100% American not as an 'Indian.' I say this not to be politically incorrect but to give some perception to his background." This is an important point since he came from Arizona, and his music may be interpreted mistakenly as having ethnic overtones even before it's heard. Alvie Self's love of country-western life is quite obvious in his upbringing. Mr. Morritt adds: "One thing that was unusual or interesting his Father had homemade film reels of MULES 'racing.' I saw these in 1962 so can attest that it is true. Alvie no longer has these films." It's too bad that these memorabilia aren't available because it might give us more to go on in our research. Mr. Morritt says: "Oddly enough I never paid much attention to his lineage....I know his Brother is a MELVIN SELF he lives I believe in Phoenix. His Father (was elderly in the early 1960's) I seem to recollect his Father was one of the early Pioneers in Northern Arizona. ALVIE's name--as far as I know is just plain old ALVIE SELF!"

If you have any further information on Alvie Self, we're anxious to add him to our "Big Document."

Once you begin finding out about your ancestors, you want to organize your information in such a way that it's useful to you and presentable to others. Depending on the focus of your research, there are several ways to do this: (a) by generation; (b) by location; (c) by descendant; (d) by line; (d) by family group sheets; or (e) by fan charts.

GENERATION DISPLAYS

We're one of the few genealogists who don't use a genealogy software to keep track of and display our information. We still use a word processor because it seems to work best for a repository containing a large amount of both connected and unconnected information. Our "big document" (individuals and families that are proven as connected or linked by "best evidence") is arranged by generation. The first file contains Generations 1 through 6, in order of Olde Robert Selfe's children from oldest to youngest, then his grandchildren in the same order, then his great-grandchildren...and continues to the Generation 15. Both sons and daughters are included, so that there are many surnames represented other than "Self."

We might tend to think of a family such as this one beginning with one man and spreading ever outward (and ever larger) as time progresses. This is probably the origin of the "family tree" concept. Indeed, this is probably true. But typical of most compiled genealogies, the files containing the most families fall somewhere in the middle, about the 8th through 10th generations. A chart would show a sine-shaped curve rather than a straight line from the bottom left to the top right. The "bulge" would encompass a good deal of the 19th century. The reason for this is twofold: (a) there were obviously less family members in the early generations; and (b) we know less about modern-day Self families, i.e., containing individuals born after 1900, because so much information is suppressed due to privacy concerns.

The "generational" format is easy to follow and easy to manipulate on a word processor. New information can be added in its proper place in a few minutes--as long as you aren't concerned with ragged page breaks. As you work with the files, you begin to know which one contains which branch(es) and can go right to the sub-document you want. And when someone writes asking for their specific line, you can cut and paste in a logical progression and use that opportunity to make sure the pages of the resulting report are formatted properly.

LOCATION

We have thousands of entries for individuals and families that can't be connected directly to Olde Robert Selfe at the moment. We decided that the best way to store this data is by location. This way, we can search our "big document" (and other location documents) periodically to see if these entries fit in anywhere--and we can come to logical conclusions by determining if the geographical location matches. In other words, if we match an individual whose birth is in our Missouri file with one who was married in Texas, we can see if there is a notation that his family moved to Texas at some point in time. Or, we can gain insight into migration patterns of which we were previously unaware. The whereabouts of entire families have often become clear from location matching--finding one brother can lead to another nearby. Arranging miscellaneous entries by location has formed the basis for our "Loose Ends" and "Dead Ends," and it is also a helpful arrangement for posting to County message boards and forums.

DESCENDANT CHARTS

Keeping your files as word processing documents is not exactly "charting." If you have a large connected file, such as a gedcom, and you enter or import it into a genealogy program, you can produce a report (usually in .rtf format) that looks similar to our documents created in Microsoft Word. But the genealogy programs can also create actual chartlike displays such as the ones we used to do by hand in the days before computers.

The Descendant Chart is sort of a cross between a document and a chart. Your program may call it something else, but it's a more visual representation of a large document than the word processed version. The Descendant Chart takes the form of an outline. The number "1" is assigned to the first generation on the chart. This person's children are all preceded with the number "2" to show that they are in the second generation; and their children all have the number "3," etc. Children are always indented beneath the parents who themSelfs may be joined by a plus sign ("+"). Sometimes there's other information added to the chart such as the person's birth, marriage, and death dates and the locations of these events.

LINE CHARTS

In most genealogy programs, you can SEARCH for an individual and generate a virtual line chart. This person and his spouse appear toward the left of your screen with their children listed underneath and their parents, if known, to the right. Clicking on the names or arrows takes you from one person to another, and you can go back and forth through the generations.

The program will probably also allow you to print out a line chart. More examples can be seen on the "Family TreeMaker" site which gives its users the option of creating a java-based "Internetree," searchable both backwards and forwards. The typical line or "ancestral" chart, though, starts with you or another individual and works backwards. The chart is definitely graphical with helpful lines connecting children to parents. You can buy blank line charts, too, often with spaces for 15-30 generations of ancestors and suitable for framing.

Another kind of line chart is often found in novels or biographies of historical figures. The progenitor resides at the top of the page, and his spouse is on his right. Then there is a short vertical line drawn to a long horizontal line which in turn has short vertical lines going down to each of his children; the pattern is repeated for all listed generations.

FAMILY GROUP SHEETS

Family group sheets are the equivalent of making a separate page for each family in a generation display. They used to filled out painstakingly by hand or using a typewriter; today they can be generated by your genealogy program. Each family can then be put into a binder in any order that makes sense to you...generational, linear, etc. You can choose what information goes on the sheet, typically names and dates and sometimes locations.

FAN CHARTS

Fan charts were very popular 50+ years ago. They're another way of representing the information an ancestral linear chart. The chart is in the form of a semi-circle which can be as large or small as necessary to accommodate the number of generations through which you can trace your lineage. Smaller semi-circles are drawn within the larger one, each an equal distance apart. A line runs through the middle of the semi-circle, dividing it into two sections, and stopping at the smallest inner semi-circle (at the bottom middle of the chart); then another line is drawn through each half, and each subsequent section is halved in turn.

Once the chart is drawn, you begin by entering your name and birthdate in that small semi-circle at the bottom middle of the chart. The left side above you is for your paternal line, the right for the maternal. You can continue to enter pairs of grandparents as you find them. These charts used to be sold by genealogical societies or stores and may still be available today although we haven't seen any in some time. Commercial fan charts were also suitable for framing.

SUMMARY

The storage, arrangement, and display of genealogical information can be done in several ways. This article has attempted to discuss some of them--there are probably other methods less common. Each kind of chart or display has a purpose--you need to decide which is right for you!

Note: You can find examples of line charts, fan charts, and family group sheets on the Web by using your favorite search engine

Maybe your ancestors used to tell stories about life in the "old days," stories you remember hearing as a child. Please tell us about them. We will even supply editing and formatting; but we'd all love to know about daily life in the Self families of old--and you may be able to help. Please contact us. And please state that your story is specifically for the newsletter.

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