Self Seekers Newsletter v.8, no.2

SELF SEEKERS:

THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

Co-Hosts
Tim W. Seawolf Self    
Barbara Ann Peck
   [email protected]
Volume 8, no. 2   April, 2005
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WELCOME

Welcome to the 30th 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.

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TIME FLIES!

It's so nice to welcome Spring back again!  It's been a crazy, wet winter here in Southern California--but I understand that you've had some unusual weather where you are, too.  Today, though, the sky is blue;  the leaves are green;  and there are those big, white, puffy clouds moving in from the West.  Never mind about tomorrow.  As we've seen through the progression of the generations, it will take care of itSelf.  So relax, read for awhile, and then go outside and enjoy the sunshine with the people who are most important in your life.  Spring is the time to thank our ancestors for the beautiful earth we've inherited and treasure every moment of NOW as the incremental changes occur around us.

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SELF SEEKERS MEMBERSHIP FEES

If you haven't made your 2005 contribution yet, please do so now...

Why Reply?
By Barbara Peck
Edited by Tim Seawolf-Self

In any endeavor that involves other people, communication should be the top priority.

I've said this before in several articles, in e-mail messages, at work, and on the phone.  But a few recent experiences have frustrated me so much that I felt it necessary to devote an entire piece to the importance of communication. 

In genealogy, as in any other business, communication is the cornerstone of the finished product--in this case, the gedcom or family tree.  Just imagine the chain of events that have happened in so short a time.  It took decades, even centuries, for our families to expand, split apart, move away, and lose touch with each other.  Writing letters by hand was a chore that busy folks had little time to pursue.  Even with the invention of the typewriter, it took days to mail a letter and receive a reply.  But it's taken just a few brief years for us to find our lost cousins once again, thanks to the personal computer and the Internet.  We still remember the first Self cousin who ever wrote to us when she "stumbled" across our fledgling site on the Web.  We were ecstatic!  With the help of recent technology, we've since been able to correspond with people all over the world instantly and learn in an hour what it might have taken weeks to discover just twenty years ago.

As the use of e-mail becomes commonplace, we've noticed an alarming but inevitable trend:  many people are falling into the same old habits that plagued them when they wrote letters by hand before the popularity of the personal computer.  That is, they're placing messages in a folder somewhere and forgetting to answer them.  This neglect can be chalked up to laziness or forgetfulness when we deal with individuals;  but in business, it's an extremely irritating and shameful practice.

MY RECENT EXPERIENCES

Part of our work involves requesting permission to reprint previously published items.  These may be articles, stories, photographs--usually from newspapers, but sometimes from magazines and other web sites.  In addition, our Self-imposed policy requires us to write for permission to link to other sites if they don't have a notice to that effect on their page(s).  In the past, we've received pleasant messages back most of the time, and --rarely--a few that actually deny republication or even linking.  But lately, we've amassed a folder full of copies of requests that have gone unanswered and unacknowledged.  We don't know why this is happening--the webmasters and publishers may be too busy, or they may accidentally delete the message if it's buried in an avalanche of SPAM.  Or perhaps they think, as some people do, that because the Web functions through links, linking to any site is implicitly allowed.  As with written and telephone correspondence, though, the lack of any reply at all doesn't speak very well for the entity involved.

I guess the non-responsiveness of a midwestern school district bothered me the most.  In the last (January 2005) issue of the "Self Seekers" newsletter, I wrote about a favorite schoolbook written by a woman who had a school named for her.  I was truly hoping that the staff there could contribute some more information about the author--maybe even a short biography or a photo--and tell me if they have any memorials to her on campus.  She really did shape a great deal of my life, and her stories were the very first to interest me in genealogy and American history.  I wrote to the suggested e-mail address on the school site last fall, but I never got a reply.  Feeling that perhaps it got lost in the excitement of the holidays, I tried again during the vacation.  As I write this brief article, school is back in session, and yet there hasn't been one word or even an acknowledgment of either message.  This doesn't say a lot for the school or our education system in general.  I'm sure that when the author was a child, she was taught the value of correspondence.  Most of us senior citizens remember well the agony of writing those hated "thank-you notes" after every birthday and every Christmas--we scribbled a few lines and licked the stamp--but only now that we're old folks do we realize that we could have copied a passage from a book for all the gift-giver cared.  What he or she valued most was knowing that the gift was received and that there was a fine thread of communication established between donor and recipient.  Courtesy and consideration are always virtues, no matter how old you are.

PARANOIA:  REAL AND IMAGINED

Have you noticed?  The "Genealogy Revolution" that accompanied the beginnings of the graphical World Wide Web in 1995 has slowed down.  Just take a look at our Lost Selfs page, and you'll see how many former corresponding cousins have simply disappeared into Cyberspace.  We have a good success rate in finding them, but still, there are an awful lot of names listed there.  When we do locate a lost cousin, they often have suffered through valid problems such as a computer crash, financial constraints, or illness. Some have the responsibilities of growing families and demanding jobs.  Many who are not as computer-friendly as others have lost our URLs and addresses and have become frustrated by the hits produced when they entered "SELF" into their favorite Search Engine.

Other people have dropped out of genealogy for reasons that may or may not indicate paranoia.  One cousin decided to give up family research because her inbox was now stuffed with SPAM instead of ancestors.  She just couldn't see (and understandably so) why she should waste her money on an e-mail account that was nothing but a nuisance to her.  Others have gotten tired of fighting off the same boring, destructive viruses and the ravages of "spyware."  Still more have changed providers without telling anyone and never post anything or, if they do, make sure their e-mail address cannot be harvested by advertising spiders.  They also dump their "cookies" every day so that SPAMmers have a much harder time tracking them down.  Beyond SPAM, of course, are those who are really trying to steal identities, credit card information, and social security numbers.  Determined hackers can find all kinds of loopholes through which to squeeze into your memory banks, gaps frequently left by buggy software or careless ISPs and network administrators.

The result of all these hazards and nuisances is that people and businesses are abandoning the wonderful tool of e-mail.  Some businesses never began:  just ask your doctor or dentist or even your auto insurance company to send you bills, test results, and notifications for checkups via e-mail.  And now, businesses that used e-mail heavily are treating it as something undesirable because for every legitimate message there are 10 pieces of totally unwanted SPAM.  Individuals change their e-mail addresses several times a year just to avoid mail they never asked to receive.  Unfortunately, spiders are forever, and search engines still show these businesses and individuals under one or more addresses they've had in the past and now abandoned--and the chances are that they probably didn't keep track of where they visited so they can notify webmasters to make the necessary corrections.

REPLIES

Whether you're researching all the surnames you can in your personal family tree--or whether you host a large single-surname or county site(s) as we do--the most important thing you can do is answer your e-mail.  You may have just that small piece of information--one name or one date--that someone else has been searching for.  You may be the long-lost cousin that someone has been trying to find.  You may be the lifeline that keeps an elderly researcher from despair.  You may make a friend.

If you're a decision-maker at your job, please reply to those researchers who write to you, no matter how trivial or unimportant their message may seem.  It works both ways:  answering a question or giving permission to reprint or to quote you may result in more traffic to your page, more business for your enterprise, and more individuals in your gedcom.  Not answering your e-mail may result in such bad "p. r." that the rejected inquirer will tell his or her friends not to do business with your company at all.

If you're an individual researcher, please reply to everyone who writes to you.  Even if they're not related, but especially if they are, do establish a correspondence.  And if you're forced to change your e-mail address for whatever reason, reply to old friends who find you.  Sometimes that can be a long and difficult process, and the very least you can do is to acknowledge receipt of the message and tell the writer if you're the person they're looking for.  You can never have enough correspondents, and you never know when you may need them.  Don't burn your bridges. 

SUMMARY

Answer your e-mail.  Make sure your in-box is empty before you do anything else.  As with any business, for profit or not, contacts are treasures to be nurtured and cultivated.  You can see from the Web how networking (both in the human and the electronic sense) has provided answers to almost any question from people all over the world.  Your correspondents are the blossoms on your family tree...

(NEXT: "THE 1890 CENSUS")

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OBITUARY
contributed by Cousin Barry

BLAIR, BOBBIE RUTH, age 67 of Covington, Kentucky, passed away Monday, March 7, 2005 at St. Elizabeth Medical Center North, Covington, KY. She was a bar maid with Bellevue Vets and a member of Bellevue Vets Ladies Auxiliary, American Legion Ladies Auxiliary and the Lewler-Hanlon VFW Post Ladies Auxiliary, Newport. Her husband, Craig B. Blair, Sr. died in 1984. She is survived by sons, Darrell Wood of Covington, Dale Wood of Cincinnati, OH, 2 grandchildren. Funeral was 11 A.M. Friday, March 11th in the A.C. Dobbling & Son Funeral Home, Bellevue, KY. Interment was in the Vine Street Hill Cemetery, Cincinnati, OhioBobbie was the daughter of the late Harvey Payne and Stella Grace Self Payne. She was a great-great granddaughter to John Jones Self.
Submitted by Barry Self

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE SELF OBITUARIES!
ALSO BIRTH AND MARRIAGE NOTICES!

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MINOR SELF LINES
part 5
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

In 2003, we presented an article on the major unconnected Self lines.  Now we'd like to concentrate on the minor lines that are still not connected to Olde Robert Selfe, even by "best evidence."  In this third installment, we've included Self branches from Hawaii and Illinois.  We hope to feature more small family lines in the following newsletters.

INDIANA

JOSEPH SELF:  Joseph Self appears in the Allen County, IN Census for 1880, along with his wife, Catherine.  His entry says that he was born about 1845 in Ohio.  Who were his parents?  And what happened to his children:  Alice M. (1872), Dolly (1873 and unmarried in 1900), Cora (1875), and George A. (1878)?

WILLIAM SELF:  William Self is another mystery.  Born in 1821 in KY, he was a blacksmith in Bartholomew County, IN.  His wife, Isabella, was born in 1822 somewhere in Indiana.  What was her maiden name?  We also have no record of the descendants of his children:  John T. (1843), Isaac (1846), Colin (1848), Martha A. (1850), William S. (1852), Walter O. (1855), Isabella (1857), and James (1860)

DAVID SELF:  Born 1859 in Ohio, David Self lived in Benton County, IN with his wife, Angeline (maiden name unknown) and four children:  Carrie (1886), Edward (1888), Charles (1893), and Emmet (1899).  We've found no further record of this family.

SIMON PETER SELF:  Crawford County, IN was home to many Selfs in the 19th century.  One such family was headed by Simon Peter Self (b. 1827 in IN) and his wife, Matilda (b. 1834 in IN)  We know nothing about Matilda's background.  Nor do we know anything about his children:  Mary (1856), Sarah E. (1857), and Jasper N. V. (1859)

WILLIAM A. SELF:  This one should be easy, but it isn't.  William A. Self was born about 1835.  He m. Sep. 20, 1855 in Crawford County, IN., Amelia Douthit...and after her death in 1917, he married Nancy Douthit.  We know about the wives, but we're curious about the origins of William himSelf.  Their children were Nancy Elizabeth (1856), Ervin H. (1858), Jonathan (1858), Mary Ellen (1862-1939), Lydia Alice (1865-1897), Sarah Ann (1867-1872), Clearcy Jane (1873-1955), and William Thomas (1876)

UNKNOWN SELF:  Who was the Self in Decatur County who m. Catherine ??? and had at least two children:  Sarah E. (1842) and Ruth H. (1844).  What happened to these girls?

JOHN F. SELF:  Also in Decatur County, we found John F. Self (1848) and his wife Martha A. (1848).  Both of them were born in Indiana according to the 1880 Census--Martha's name is still unknown.  The census lists children:  Etta (1870), Nancy P. (this may be Nancy Prudence Self, 1872), Maud (1874), Nellie (1877), and John L. (1879)

S. J. SELF:  Doesn't it drive you insane when only initials are listed in the Census?  In 1880, S. J. Self and his wife, R. A., lived in Decatur County, IN.  At the time of the census, S. J. was 62 years old and he claimed that while his father was from Virginia, his mother was from Vermont!  That may be a mistake for "Virginia," though.  His wife was 9 years younger, born in Ohio.  In his household lived another Self (whose relation to them is specified as "other") named C. C., b. 1864 in Ohio of Ohio parents.  He was a clerk in a store.  Who are these people?

IRVIN SELF:  Another Self that we should be able to identify, but can't, Irvin Self, b. July 1839 in IN and his wife, Mary A. (Wright) Self, b. Dec. 1841 in IN.  Their children, living in Dubois County:  John (1864-1935), Irvin A. (1866), Charles S. (1868), Amos S. (1870), Mary C. (1872), Sam Tilden (1877), Silas C. (1879), Sarah A. (1880), David A. (1885), and Nancy Elizabeth (no date).

JOHN THOMAS SELF:  John Thomas Self was born 1825 in IN.  He married Sep. 9, 1860 in Dubois County, Amanda Melvina Lewis, b. Jan. 29, 1842 in IN and d. Dec. 25, 1913 in Martin County, IN.  They had 9 children:  Edward Thomas (1862-1920), Laura Jane (1867-1951), Sarah E. (1869-1869), George Franklin (1870-1934), Joseph (1872-1895), Barbara Etta (1874-1932), Mary Elizabeth (1877), Delphia Ann (1879-1895), and Simon (1880-1882). We've accounted for all of them except Mary Elizabeth.  Did she marry and move away or remain single?

UNKNOWN SELF:  Another Unknown Self m. Mary T. (MNU), b. May 1852 in IN.  Who was he?  And what happened to Robert L. (1880), John S. (1883), and Ethel C. (1887), his children.  The family lived in Floyd County, IN.

MARY SELF:  Mary Self shows up in Hancock County, IN by 1836.  She died there in Aug. 14, 1855.  She was probably from Harrison County, VA since she married there in Dec. 5, 1799.  Her husband, Joel Plummer, was born in 1773, possibly in PA., and died 1850 in Hancock County, IN.  We know more about daughters Nancy (1801), Martha (1804-1876), Delila (1813-AFT 1880), and Mary (d. 1886).  We don't know what happened to sons Joel H. and Job (1822)

JAMES H. SELF:  Born in 1814, he m. Permelia ???, b. 1818 in KY and lived in Hendricks County, IN.  Who was his wife?  What happened to his three children, Mary E. (1840), William H. (1842), and Lewis A. (1844)

JANE SELF:  Another resident of Hendricks County, and possibly related to James H. Self (above), was Jane Self, born before 1823 and m. in 1846 to William H. Bonnifield.  The couple was eventually divorced, but not until they produced two children, Mary J. (1856) and Luther Frank (1860-1909)

ELIZABETH SELF:  Associated with Johnson and Nicholas Counties in Indiana, Elizabeth Self (1766-1840) could have been the sister of John Self of Orange County, VA and possibly the daughter of Vincent Self of Bourbon County, KY.  In 1783, she m. John Perry Barnett, born in 1764 and d. in 1828.  Their eleven children were:  James (1784), William (1786-1854), Spencer (1788), George (1790), Sarah (1793), Lucy (1796), Thomas (1798), John (1800), Vincent (1803), Elizabeth Ann (1806), and Ambrose Dudley (1809).  The family names suggest a strong relationship to the Presley Self family.  We'd be grateful for any proof or theories.

JOHN T. SELF:  His wife, Indiana (MNU), was born in 1865, 13 years his junior.  John T. Self of Knox County, IN had at least two children--Omonie (1882) and Carrie (1900)--and nephews Clarence and Albert Ross.  We know that Albert Wilson Ross was the son of John's sister, Emma--but we'd like to know more.

SIDNEY SELF:  Kosciusko County, IN was the home of Sidney Self, b. 1841 in Ohio, and his wife Louisa, b. 1856 in either Indiana or Ohio.  In 1900, his aunt, Elizabeth Linebaugh (1823) also lived in his household, along with his five children:  Roscoe Manfred (1878), Ollie D. (1881), Valera (1882), Sidney J. (1885), and Russell (1898).

UNKNOWN SELF:  Also in Kosciusko County, this Self m. a woman named Anna E., b. 1833 in KY and was deceased by 1900.  He had a daughter named Enna H. Self (1872) and a grandson [James S. Watson, b. 1891] by an unnamed daughter.

NANCY JANE SELF:  One more resident of Kosciusko County was Nancy Jane Self, b. 1849 in Ohio.  She and her husband, Isaac Harrison Hall (1848-1893) had two children, Nora B. (1858) and John H. (1879).  Supposedly she was the sister of William Self (b. 1852 in IN) and John T., above.  Her father may have been named John Self, b. 1810 in Ohio, and his family possibly came from Pennsylvania. 

EDWARD E. SELF:  Born May 1877 in Indiana, Edward Self m. Mary E. ??? b. May 1881.  Their child, b. 1899, was named Charles E.  Edward also had a niece named Pearl Dickover.  The family lived in Marion County.

THOMAS S. SELF:  Thomas S. Self, b. 1839 in OH, and his wife, Esther, b. 1844 in OH, lived in Martin County, IN.  By 1880, they were in Elkhart County.  Their children were:  William (1864), Clarissa V. (1865), Lillie (1868), Oliver (1873), Daisy (1875), and Charles (1879)

JESSE SELF:  Morgan County, IN was the home of Jesse Self (b. 1864 in NC) and his wife Fannie (b. 1870 in TN).  Their two children, Horace C. (1887-1966) and Merle (1889), moved to California.  They also had a niece named Emma Fields.

ADOLPHUS SELF:  Puna (MNU), b. 1870 in Indiana was married to Adolphus Self, b. 1861 in NC.  There were at least three children in this family--Virgil (1891-1984), Clausen (1892), and Harry (1895).  Where in NC did Adolphus come from, and who were his parents?

UNKNOWN SELF:  One of the many Selfs who lived in Orange County, IN., he was married to a woman named Anna, b. 1848 in IN.  He was deceased by 1900 when the Census shows Anna with one child, James E. Self, b. 1888.

JOHN L. SELF:  Who was John L. Self?  We know he was born in 1833 in Indiana and that his parents came from Kentucky.  He m. Barbara E. Purkiser, b. 1839, and had two children:  Rudolphus Allen (1862) and Alonzo E. (1865-1954)

NANCY E. SELF:  A contemporary of John L. Self (above) was Nancy E. Self, b. 1832 and married in 1863 to Morgan Sanders, b. 1822.  They had at least five children.  John Sanders was born 1857.  We're not sure if he was actually Nancy's child or Morgan's son from another marriage.  The others were Benjamin (1864), Mary (1866), Nellie (1869), and Alice (1871).  Living with this family was Jane Self, b. 1856, who may have been another child of Nancy's, or possibly her younger sister.

FELIX SELF:  Yet another unconnected Self from Orange County, IN is Felix Self, b. 1864 in IN and d. 1950.  His wife was Margaret Pittman, b. 1863 in IN.  He had two daughters--Oma (1887) and Goldie (1891)--and one son, Benjamin (1893)

BERDINA SELF:  Berdina Self is an interesting person.  She was married in 1832 to Richard Breeze, b. 1813 in Harrison County, IN and d. 1883 in Marion County, IL.  Berdina is an unusual name.  Another researcher has her listed as "Brittany" which is highly unlikely during those times.

CHARLES SELF:  Charles Self lived in Porter County, IN.  He was born in 1844, son of Maryland parents.  His wife was Annie ???, b. 1860 in IN.  Their son was Charles A. Self (1879)

RANDALL S. SELF:  Living in Rush County in 1860, Randall S. Self (1828) and his wife, Nancy F. ??? (1827) had at least 3 children:  James Frank (1849), Ruth (1851), and Freemont (1856).  Were there more children?  What was Nancy's maiden name?  And what happened to the three known children?

LINCOLN J. SELF:  Sullivan County, IN was home to Lincoln J. and Minnie M. Self in 1900.  Lincoln was born in 1860 in IN.  His wife was 7 years his junior.  Their two boys:  Wayne K. (1895) and Rex J. (1898)

PRESLEY F. SELF:  A seldom-mentioned Presley, this Self was born in August 1856 in Indiana.  His wife, Phoebe J., was born in January 1851, also in Indiana.  Their 3 children were Emma P. (1882), Leonora E. (1884), and Goldie E. (1885).

CHARLES SELPH:  Charles was born 1872, somewhere in Indiana.  He m. a woman named Helen, who was born 1878 in Michigan.  The family had moved to Franklin County, WA before 1911.

S. L. SELF:  What was this person's full name?  He was born in Indiana in 1847, married to Jennie E. ???, b. 1850 in Indiana, and lived in Miami County, KS.  Their son, Sydney E. Self, was born in 1872 in Kansas.  He is probably related to an Unknown Self who m. Katy Perry, b. 1835 in Indiana, and living with her brother, Andy, in Miami County, KS. in the 1900 Census.  Another Self born in 1835 in Indiana was Belinda Self.  We're not sure if she was born a Self or married into the family.  She was living alone in Miami County, KS in 1910.

FRANK L. SELF:  He was born somewhere in Indiana in 1852 and married Mary I. (Lee) Mulkins, b. 1849 in Iowa.  The family--consisting of Charles F. (1880), Carlos M. (1897), and possible twins Mary A. and Sam L. (1901) lived first in Bates County, MO and then Jasper County, MO.  By 1906, they were in Cherokee County, KS.

JOHN H. SELF:  This family moved around quite a lot.  The 1900 Census finds them in Woodward County, OK.  We're not exactly sure where John H. Self was born, but we know that his wife, Margaret (1851), came from Indiana.  Son Frank was born 1887 in AR;  William, 1891 in OK.  The youngest child, Zella, was born 1894 in Kansas.

REBECCA ELLEN SELF:  Rebecca Self m. Levi Wells, b. in 1826.  Their daughter, Alice, was born in Illinois in 1861.  The rest of the children--Levi (1861 [sic]), James M. (1865), Addie (1868), Lowery (1870), Sherman (1872), and Alexander P. (1874) were born somewhere in Indiana.

SUMMARY

If you know about any of these Selfs from Indiana, please send us a chart or gedcom showing their ancestry.  In the issues to follow, we'll be listing other "Loose Ends" from other states.  You'll find these people listed on the "Loose Ends" section of "SelfSite" as well.  We'd just love to put them in their place!



NEXT: Minor Self Lines, part 6)

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.

LOOSE ENDS

Please go to our "Loose Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.

DEAD ENDS

Please go to our "Dead Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.

SELFS IN SPACE

What would you like to see here? This space is reserved for any topic of interest to Self cousins. Express YourSelf!!

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DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY

Some parts of this newsletter contain information contributed by individuals. The editors may not monitor or censor the information placed on these Pages. We do not invite reliance upon, nor accept responsibility for, the information posted here.

Each individual contributor is solely responsible for the content of their information, including any and all legal consequences of the postings. We are in no way, in whole or in part, responsible for any damages caused by the content in this newsletter or by the content contributed by any person.

We do not warrant, or guarantee any of the services, products, or information used for these pages. We do not make any warranty, expressed or implied, and do not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any of the information disclosed in this publication, or represent in any way that the use would not infringe privately owned rights.

NOTICE: The information in this newsletter is Copyrighted, and must not be used for any commercial purposes or republished in any form without prior permission. This newsletter is copyrighted, except where previous copyright applies.

Copyright 1998-2005 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara A. Peck, All Rights Reserved

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