April 2006 Self Seekers Newsletter

SELF SEEKERS:

THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

Co-Hosts
Tim W. Seawolf Self
Barbara Ann Peck
[email protected]
Volume 9, no. 2 April, 2006
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WELCOME

Welcome to volume 9, no. 2 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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A WACKY WORLD

These are wild and crazy times. The War on Terror rages on in Afghanistan and Iraq. Housing prices are soaring out of sight. The United States is bracing for an invasion of mad cows and sick birds that has already claimed both animal and human victims in other countries. Food that's bad for you today will be beneficial tomorrow, as will the prescription medicine you're taking--if you can figure out what's going on with Medicare. And the global warming is causing the poles to melt and the snow to fall here in Southern California. It's a wacky world. We love genealogy for many reasons--it's mysterious, challenging, and addicting. But most of all, our forays into the past allow us to escape to what seem like simpler times. Often, that supposition is debatable. But now, our ancestors are hopefully at peace. We hope they bring you relaxation and carefree hours of research--and the assurance that all things, both good and bad, pass into the comfort and familiarity of yesterday to help shield us from the question marks of tomorrow.

A Good Idea: Please join us at our VIRTUAL REUNION
It only takes a few minutes to scan a photo and write a short paragraph about your research,
your other interests, your children and grandchildren...whatever
Please do check out this opportunity to share with your distant cousins

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SELF SEEKERS MEMBERSHIP FEES

Please send us your 2006 contributions soon...
We are going through our membership list and hope to find your name on it!!
At the end of this calendar year, the Charter Page will be revised. Please consider renewing your membership...

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LOST AND MISSING COUSINS
by Barbara Peck
Edited by Tim Seawolf-Self

During the past few years, we've been searching for "lost" cousins--Self relatives who have corresponded with us but whose e-mail addresses have become invalid. This article presents statistics on these "drop-outs" with a discussion of their implication for future Self genealogical research.

TOTAL FIGURES

We've heard from 2801 Self cousins since September 1996. Of those, 1305--or 47%--have been "lost" somewhere in Cyberspace. 1496 remain as of Christmas 2005. (See figure 1) The highest number of correspondents (439) made first contact in 1997 while the lowest number (137) initially wrote in 2005. Excluded from the count are the mere 12 new cousins who discovered us in the first three months of our existence (October-December 1996) or those whose dates have been deleted by computer crashes and/or upgrades. (See figure 2)
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FIGURE 1

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FIGURE 2

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The first indication of a "lost" cousin usually comes in October when we send out our annual greetings. Addresses that "bounce" back to us are extracted from our main cousin roster and put into a separate file named for the year of the greeting. In 2005, we sent out two inclusive mailings--one in April to announce our new "Virtual Reunion" site and one in October just to say hello to everyone. We were appalled at the number of invalid addresses that turned up. The April announcement was just six months after the 2004 annual greeting. We couldn't believe that 98 cousins had "gone missing" in that short a time. October was a little better with just 69 bad addresses--but together that totaled to 167, the highest number of "drop-outs" in one year since we began "Self Portraits."

Next comes the hard part: trying to locate a new e-mail address for those "lost" cousins. The best resource is the Web. There are many ways one can find someone, and we try them all, not just once, but continually through the following years. We begin with a search on the individual's name followed by the prefix of their old address. If there are no results, we try the entire old address. Often that search will reveal certain other "keys" such as other surnames they are researching and possible forums for newer postings, the names of spouses or children, the area in which they live, or other hobbies and interests. A more unusual key might lead to the main website of their former ISP which can yield clues such as location or a previous workplace, church, or organization. A good guess is that one in fifty is found on the first try--but we don't give up easily.

WHY ARE THESE COUSINS "LOST"?

There are many reasons why a cousin becomes a "lost" correspondent. The following are a few of the most common:
(a) Death
(b) Illness or infirmity
(c) Loss of interest in family research
(d) New hobbies
(e) Family, work, or social obligations
(f) Frustration (hitting the proverbial "brick wall")
(g) Completion of their research
(h) Defunct ISP (changed address)
(i) Too much spam (changed address)
(j) Moved to another location (changed address)
(k) Marriage, remarriage or other name change (changed address)
(l) Dissatisfaction with ISP (changed address)
(m) Switch to cable or DSL (changed address)

Those whose reasons are c through g may never get back into research; on the other hand, receiving a message from us (assuming we can find them) may spur them on to a fresh start. Cousins with reasons h through m have almost always forgotten where they've posted or written in the past. The Web is full of gedcom pages and queries with bad addresses, especially when the particular site hasn't been updated for a long time...

Unfortunately, we've even run into some very hostile Self descendants. They seem friendly enough when they first contact us, but suddenly we'll get an angry e-mail saying that they don't wish to receive an "annual greeting." At this point, they are lost to us because we'll never be sure we have a correct address on hand. We have yet to be given a reason for this behavior...

Finally, some ISPs interpret our messages as SPAM. We've gotten kind replies from cousins and noted the presence of the word "SPAM" in the subject line. Why a greeting would be considered "JUNK MAIL" is beyond me since we never send anything in bulk (though lots of bulk mailings get through to US). Each message to each cousin is sent individually--one of the fun parts of this job since we can also attach personal lines wherever we want. We even take the time to work with Earthlink's annoying filter where you have to fill in some cgi boxes and then type in letters from a wavy graphic. We also don't expect acknowledgments--it's just our way of keeping in touch...

LOST PERCENTAGES BY YEAR

The years 1996-2001 are fairly close in the number of "lost" cousins as of December, 2005. Though not always the largest in any given year, the percentage of those "lost" who disappear in the year immediately after first contact would probably seem significant to a statistician (see figure 3). This may indicate that genealogy was a sudden interest that died out quickly when answers were not immediately forthcoming.
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FIGURE 3

YEAR	ADDED	LOST +1	% LOST	LOST +2	% LOST	LOST +3	% LOST	LOST +4	% LOST	LOST +5	% LOST	LOST +6	% LOST	LOST +7	% LOST	LOST +8	% LOST
1997	439	40	0.09
1998	431	24	0.06	13	0.03
1999	350	19	0.05	19	0.05	8	0.02
2000	358	21	0.06	18	0.05	19	0.05	28	0.08
2001	277	26	0.09	31	0.11	19	0.07	19	0.07	10	0.04
2002	278	16	0.06	16	0.06	16	0.06	24	0.09	14	0.05	16	0.06
2003	214	18	0.08	13	0.06	14	0.07	24	0.11	15	0.07	18	0.08	15	0.07
2004	188	16	0.09	22	0.12	23	0.01	18	0.1	18	0.1	24	0.13	22	0.12	22	0.12

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We have identified three more trends:
(a) We attract fewer new contacts each year, possibly because we already know most serious researchers, possibly because genealogy as a pastime has reached
its peak and there is either less interest or more proven success;
(b) We can expect the number of correspondents whose first contact was in 2002-2005 to decline steadily until at least 1/3 of them are "lost";
(c) The average new researcher will contact us at an increasingly younger age

The last trend needs some explanation. In 1995, the year before we began "Self Portraits," the Web went graphical and opened up its treasures to anyone who could access them. Although personal computers had been around for awhile by then, a lot of people hesitated in making a purchase because (a) they were very expensive and (b) most programs and features were difficult to use, usually requiring a knowledge of command language that was different for every version of every application, proper spelling, and the ability to type well. Then suddenly, Windows became popular, and the Mosaic interface made the Web easy and fun. The amount of users caused ISP prices to plummet, and as more people bought computers, their cost went down as well. Before the turn of the century, thousands of new households joined the information revolution. The excitement convinced seniors who had previously feared the new technology to sign on to the Internet, and they joined groups, chat rooms, e-mail lists and discovered fledgling sites that were intented to deliver the most information at the fastest speed. One favorite senior pastime--genealogy--seemed tailor-made for the Web. Correspondence and sharing, once the greatest obstacles to research, were now accomplished often within the hour in contrast to the days and weeks required by snail mail.

Today--ten years later--the Web is an everyday companion. It's something that children are growing up with, never realizing how difficult it was to communicate with distant relatives and friends in the "stone age" days before they were born. But as for seniors, probably all that want to get wired are wired by now. Unless the problem is financial, it doesn't seem as if we're going to convince those holding out that it will change their lives for the better. So a large proportion of the population with an interest in family research will probably never come online. On the other hand, younger people may adopt our pastime at an earlier age and tap those precious resources before they're gone. When I began doing genealogy at age 14, back in 1959, I was a novelty, almost a freak to my friends and to adults who couldn't understand a preference for dusty books over sports and parties. Today, that stigma is disappearing, and we regularly hear from teenagers who are fascinated with their forebears.

SUMMARY

The number of new Self cousin correspondents is declining. We are also "losing" almost 1/3 of each previous year's contacts as each new year goes by. While the interest in genealogy seems to have peaked among seniors, more young people are picking up the family history where they left off. Other factors, too, have combined to remove once avid researchers from our ranks. Among them are illness, family or work obligations, and--most unfortunately--the preponderance of SPAM that comes to anyone whose e-mail address can be "harvested" from the Web. We would encourage cousins to notify us of address changes and to continue our online relationship even if they don't plan to post queries or join the listserv. It's taken so many years to find them that letting go is very hard to do.

(NEXT: "When 'Official' Records Conflict")

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OBITUARY
contributed by Cousin Barry

VIOLET J. SELF BEST, age 81, widow of Doug Best, of 203 Smokey Branch Road, Vonore, Tennessee passed away 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 16, 2006 at Sweetwater Nursing Center. She was of the Baptist faith and a member of the U.A.W.

Survivors: daughter and son-in-law Dawn B. and Larry Bailey, son Carey D. (Dougie) Best, two very special great grandsons Peter D. and Trevor D. Bailey, all of Vonore; brother Dillard Self, Tellico Plains, TN; several nieces and nephews.

Preceded in death by son Carey Edwin (Eddie) Best; parents Will and Mae Bryson Self; sister Reba Roberts; brothers Arnold and Clarence Self.

Funeral was 8:00 p.m. Sunday, February 19, 2006, Biereley-Hale Chapel, Rev. Marvin (Bud) Millsaps, Rev. Mike Best officiated. Interment 11:00 a.m. Monday in Big Toqua Cemetery. Family received friends 6-8 p.m. Sunday at Biereley-Hale Funeral Home, Madisonville, TN.

Violet was a great granddaughter to John J. and Lydia A. Waters Self.

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PLEASE CONTRIBUTE BIOGRAPHIES AND PHOTOS TO US

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MINOR SELF LINES
part 10
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 installment, we've included Self branches from Minnesota and Missouri. We hope to feature more small family lines in the following newsletters.

MINNESOTA

THOMAS SELF: Thomas Self was born in England in 1822. His wife, Ann, was Irish, born in 1817. They emigrated to Hennepin County, MN. They apparently had no children. Who were Thomas Self's parents?

EDWARD SELF: Another Englishman, Edward was born in 1819. He lived in Ramsey County, MN. We know nothing more about him.

SARAH S. SELF: Born 1859 in Minnesota, Sarah married Daniel H. McGuire and lived in Ramsey County, MN. Their daughter, Maria M. McGuire, was born in 1879.

MISSOURI

THOMAS SELF: This Thomas Self was born in Missouri in 1881 and married Josie (mnu). His mother's name was Lizzie. His children, born in Bollinger County, were: Charles, Ida, Horace, Maggie, and Mandie.

ELIZABETH SELF: Elizabeth (Self) Hahn and her husband, Daniel, also lived in Bollinger County. She was born about 1865. They had five children before Daniel's death in 1910.

JAMES SELF: He gave his father's birthplace as England--which may or may not be true--and his mother's as Virginia. James Self was born in 1817 and lived in Buchanan County, KY. His wife, Mary, was allegedly born in Scotland. Their known children: James A. and Mildred.

GEORGE C. SELF: Calloway County, MO was home to this Self and his wife of unknown name and origin. They had two children before the turn of the 20th century, Goldie M. and Margaret L. Self.

JAMES A. SELF: Although he apparently lived in Buchanan County, MO., James A. (or P.) Self was also associated with Cape Girardeau. His wife, Josephine, was born in Illinois in 1870 and was 13 years his junior. They had four children: James T. and Francis X. (possibly twins), Joseph L., and Les A.

LEVEGA SELF: Early in our Web presence, we had a query about Levega Self. We didn't know much about him then, and only a bit more today. He was born 1849 in Carter County, MO and married Martha J. The family was in Wayne County, MO by 1900 which is suggestive of ties to the Moss family who lived in the same area. Their four children were also born in Wayne County: Emery, Ezra, Ruthie, and Walter.

WILLIAM J. SELF: William J. Self was a native of Crawford County, MO., born in 1841. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and she was supposedly born in 1845 in England. Ida, Alice, George L., and Walter were the names of his children.

THOMAS SELF: Yet another Thomas Self was born in 1850. He and his wife, Anna, lived in Dent County. They also had four children: Hattie [or Katie], Bill [or Belle], John, and Clarence, all born in the 1870s.

JOHN H. SELPH: Four children were born to John H. Selph (b. 1860) and Della Jane Snider. Lora B., Florence, Hattie (m. Harold Eugene Goss), and Sylvesta grew up in Greene County.

WILLIAM SELPH: Yet another mystery is William Selph, b. 1858 in Greene County, MO. Son Claude L. was born in OK, but the other children--Grace E., Clifford, Daniel B., and Axie Semar--appear to have been born back in Greene County to William and his wife, Mollie.

SARAH SUSAN SELF: We'd love to know the ancestry of Sarah Susan Self. We have no birthdate or birthplace for her, but she m. Silas L. White on July 28, 1853 in Greene County, MO and had at least one child, Silas Lee, b. in 1863 and d. in 1929.

LETITIA MARY SELF: Francis Blattman (1797 in Germany to 1862 in Jackson County, MO) married Letitia Mary Self, ancestry unknown. Their six children born in Kansas City, MO were: Martha Agnes, Henry Elliot, Sarah Ann, James Alexander, Emilia Josephine, and Mary Letitia.

JOHANNA (JANE) SELF: She died in Jackson County, MO in 1882, but we don't know where or when she was born. She married Thomas Hypolite Vasquez in 1854. They had five daughters: Clarissa Jane, Margaret Emily, Mary Elizabeth, Lucy Alice, and Eliza Ann and lived in Kansas City, MO.

JOHN M. SELF: Another resident of Jackson County, MO was John M. Self. His first wife, Rebecca Anne Fitzwater, was the mother of his son, Warren Raymond. When she died in 1878, he married her sister, Mary Ann Fitzwater and had two daughters, Mary and Annie.

JAMES SELF: Who was James Self, born 1858 in Macon County, MO? His wife was Sarah Owens, and his daughter was Nora Self.

ANN ELIZA SELF: Two confusing Self women lived in Marion County, MO. Ann Eliza Self m. Charles B. Chesley in 1847.

ELIZA ANN SELF: It's possible that this is the same person as Ann Eliza Self above--or it could be a sister or other close relative. She was born May 17, 1830 and m. on the same day, John Bunbury Chesley. Her children were Mary Frances Chesley and William Short Chesley.

JONAS F. SELF: Born 1861 in Ohio, Jonas F. Self and his wife, Huldah, lived in McDonald County, MO. Eldest child, Jonas A., was born in Kansas while daughters, Lillie L. and Vina L., were born in Missouri.

ELIZABETH ANN SELF: Wife of Aaron Clark Coberly, Elizabeth Ann Self of Morgan County, MO had five children: Angeline M., Elizabeth E., Caroline, John Hiram, and Margaret J. We have descendants for all of them, but no ancestors for Elizabeth.

ELCEY ANN SELF: The name may have been Elcey/Ailsey/Alcey/Elsie/Alice--these names were often interchangeable in the years before the Civil War. Elcey Ann married Jacob Andrew McFarland Smith, also of Morgan County, MO. Their large family consisted of: Elijah Theadore, Jacob, Joseph, Elizabeth, Tabitha, Agnes, Ellen, Julia, Mae, Tom, and William.

JOHN H. SELF: Another mysterious family of Morgan County was that of John H. and Mattie Self and their three children, Nancy, Samuel, and Martha.

UNKNOWN SELF: We don't even know the name of this individual, nor do we know the name of his wife. We do know that he had two children, living in Perry County, MO. One was another unknown male who had three children (Francis M., Martha C., and Willis Osborne), and the other was named Hezekiah. Who were these Selfs?

SAMUEL W. SELF: This family lived in Phelps County, MO. Sarah P. Self was the wife of Samuel W., who was born sometime between 1852 and 1858 according to two different Census records. The couple had nine children: Daniel O., John M., Martha A., Mary L., George T., Elizabeth J., Moses, Sarah L., and Samuel W.

ELIZABETH SELF: Elizabeth was the wife of John H. Jester of Polk County, MO. Their eleven children were born between 1868 and 1888: William H., Charles A., John H., Lewis A., George T., Harriet B., Benjamin, Samuel O., Martha A., Ida M., and Clara E.

JOHN W. SELF: Another resident of Polk County came there from Vernon County with his wife Ellen Murphy before 1873 and had at least two daughters--Susannah Bell and Lulia Ellen--and one son, James A.

JANE SELF: Jane Self was born somewhere in NC in 1823. She m. Madison M. Robb from KY and ended up in Polk County, MO with at least one son, William Robb.

WILLIAM H. SELF: His wife's name was Elizabeth T. They lived in Polk County, MO. Their children were Mary J., Nellie, William C., Raymond, James Oliver, and Ida R. Who were they?

STEWART SELF: Forming a large "minor" line is the family of Stewart Self. He was born in 1802 in Frederick County, VA. He and wife, Nancy Ann Silvers, went to Morgan County, MO and then on to Ralls County. We have descendants for 10 of his 14 children (Eliza Ann, Mary Jane, Francis Marion, Sarah E., Lucinda Rebecca, Martha M., Emily D., John R., Amanda E., William G., James R., Thomas H., Alice V. B., and Elijah Jamison), but we can't place Stewart into his proper line. Stewart may have been his middle name.

UNKNOWN SELF: Dying before 1880 in St. Genevieve County, MO., this unknown individual married a woman named Caroline who was allegedly born in Prussia in 1842. Several Self families claim to be from Prussia--and we'd like to know their history--whether they had emigrated from England or some other place in Europe and then come to America from Prussia in the 19th century. This Self had three children named William, Emma E., and Anna.

CHARLEY A. SELF: Born in Ohio in 1862, Charley A. Self was reported as being born in Kentucky in the 1910 Census. His wife, Harriet, was born 1856 in Iowa. Their child was named Oernie A., possibly a misspelling for "Ernie" or "Ernest"--but then again, maybe not...

UNKNOWN SELF: This unknown Selph also may have died before 1880 since he doesn't appear with his family on the Shannon County Census for that year. He m. Susan (mnu), born 1844 in TN. The entry beside his oldest child, John D., says that his father came from Tennessee also. The other two children were Mary T. Self and Nancy J. Bly Self.

DAVID D. SELF: Stoddard County, MO was home to David D. and Nancy J. (Cook) Self and their three children, Martha W., Frances C., and Doris A. David was born in Missouri, but where and to which parents?

SUSAN B. SELF: She was born 1873 in Vernon County, MO where she later married her husband, William Frederick Westerhold. The family of seven lived in Vernon County. The names of the five children were: Maude, Fredric Everett, Lula, Joseph, and Edward.

ANGELINE SELF: Mother of Isaac Steven Mobley, Angeline was born in 1832. She lived with her husband--whose first name is unknown--in Wright County, MO.

MARIAN A. SELF: Marian A. Self was born in Missouri in 1851, but her husband, Thomas J. Crowther, was born in England. Their children--George J., Mary Harriet, and Mildred Self--were all born in Missouri, exact county unknown.

LARKIN SELF: Larkin Self is a familiar name to most researchers. The one who comes to mind was born in the eighteenth century in Virginia. But there was another Larkin Self, born in 1862 in Indiana. His mother was also from Indiana, and his father from Missouri. He m. Alice and went on to Kansas, finally settling in IT (Indian Territory, or modern-day Oklahoma) by 1898. His children were Isaac, Ella, Bertha I., and Rosa.

BAYLIS R. SELF: Baylis was born in 1843 in Missouri and his wife, Augusta, in 1848 in Kentucky. By 1872, he was at home in Bollinger County, MO where his children--Willie, Lula D., and Vister--were apparently born.

WALTER [OR WILLIAM] SELF: Another nineteenth century Loose End is Walter Self. His name may actually be William. He and wife, Viola, traveled around, too. He lived in Missouri, Texas, and Indian Territory. His eight children were named William E., Lizzie, Ethel, Jesse, Bessie, Joseph, Fred, and Ernest.

G. F. SELF: Pascal, Ralph, Frank, Charles, and Jessie were children of G. F. and Etta Self of MO. G. F. was born in Missouri while Etta was born in Wisconsin. By 1889, when Pascal was born, the family lived in Lancaster County, Nebraska.

JOHN WILLIAM SELF: Born 1867 in Missouri, John William Self was the father of Charles Lee Self. Charles's mother was Josefine Hackworth.

SARA SELF: Sara Self married Lewis Harper and had two daughters, Sarah Ann and Augusta. They lived somewhere in Missouri.

SUMMARY

If you know about any of these Selfs from Minnesota and Missouri, 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 11)

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!!

If you do not wish to receive this electronic publication, please take a moment to e-mail us.

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