Self Seekers Newsletter Supplement, v. 7, no. 1

SELF SEEKERS:

THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

Editors
Tim W. Seawolf Self    
Barbara Ann Peck
   [email protected]
Volume 7, no. 1   January, 2004
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WELCOME

Welcome to the 25th 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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EVERY DAY'S A HOLIDAY...

All year long, we wait for the holidays, no matter which ones we choose to celebrate. Most of them fall somewhere in December. But with the coming of the new year, there's a certain feeling of let-down, deflation from the merrymaking and good will that consumed everyone for a month (or more, if commercial interests had their way). The days ahead seem empty, somehow, once the decorations come down. This year, let your interest in genealogy make every day a holiday. Celebrate your ancestors! Do you have birth dates for many of them? Circle those on the calendar. When that day arrives, think of your second great grandpa on his 200th birthday. What one gift would you give him if you could? What things would you show him if he suddenly appeared, and what questions would you ask him? This may seem like a childish game, but remember, he and all of your ancestors are still here--they're part of you. You know them very well...

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We are so happy to be the largest repository of Self information. With several 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 1450 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.

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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, Outred, Salazar, Snackenberg, Snackenberger, Schneggenburger, and Varian 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.

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SELF SEEKERS MEMBERSHIP FEES

SPECIAL OFFER FOR 2004 SUBSCRIBERS

You can become a member of Self Seekers for a lower cost if you will contribute something to our "Self Seekers Newsletter" at the time you subscribe or re-subscribe!!

REGULAR
MEMBERSHIP

CHARTER
MEMBERSHIP

PATRON
MEMBERSHIP

Formerly $12.00 Formerly $25.00 Formerly $100.00+
2004 special--
$5.00 and one
item*
2004 special--
$15 and two
items*
2004 special--
$50+ and three
items*

You pay just once for the entire year. You do NOT need to enclose money with each material contribution over the amount stated or any additional material contributions throughout 2004.

The items can be anything that is not previously copyrighted by someone other than yourSelf--for example, we will accept old photos, articles you've written, obituaries you've written, stories and poetry about Selfs, interviews with family members, Census records, family trees, anything that our readers will enjoy...

We would love to have new material for the Newsletter, and we'd also like to keep our members during these tough economic times!

Please consider joining us again this year!

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CLIMATE AND GENEALOGY
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

If we survey our family lines from our parents through all the couples who make up our various grandparents and multi-great-grandparents, we can see that the lack of just one of them would have resulted in a person other than ourSelfs. It's the same with climate. If just one couple had not lived where they did, we might not be here. Climate, weather--the entire environment--has a lot to do with our existence and with the choices we, in turn, make during our lifetimes.

To really get to know our ancestors in the context of their surroundings, we need to know what role the climate played in their decision to stay put or to move on. In turn, this decision influenced which individuals were chosen as mates.

EARLY TIMES

New archaeological finds are happening with increasing frequency. There are lots of surprises: old, old human remains found in Africa; pottery and musical instruments unearthed in China; and elephant bones discovered on Catalina Island off the coast of California. It is now believed that before the great Ice Age blanketed the earth, the North Pole was a tropical paradise for grazing animals. So much is speculation, and so many theories are proven untrue by subsequent excavations. But one thing is certain: humans were hunters first and then became farmers. Where they lived, how and if they survived and multiplied, were all determined by the climate that best nurtured animals and plants. Since not every even marginally habitable place was fertile, very hardy tribes learned to adapt to more inhospitable places such as deserts and lands perpetually blanketed with snow.

Legend has it that the Selfs are descended from the Vikings. This would mean that they came from what is now Denmark and surrounding areas. Since Denmark is considered a "temperate" country, the Vikings would have found food of all kinds to meet their needs. On their sea voyages, they were searching for places that resembled their homeland--a mild climate where the weather changed from day to day.

When the Vikings investigated the coast of England, they found fairly homelike conditions. They were near the sea. Although sometimes considered gloomy and damp, England also had spectacular sunny days, and the rainfall kept things green and growing. England (and most of Europe) were heavily overpopulated at the time of the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) so the land was obviously able to support a great many people at that point.

It's said that Leif Erikson once visited what is now the northern United States or Canada in his travels. For anyone who was brave enough to cross the angry Atlantic Ocean, the East Coast of North America awaited them with a climate reminiscent of home. So when the Pilgrims set off for the New World, they were surely happy to find the place they appropriately named "New England." A slightly warmer but similar climate welcomed the little band who settled on Roanoke Island and later became home to many Englishmen who sought their fortune in a faraway land. As did Massachusetts to folks in the North, Virginia became the cradle of early Southern living. The weather was especially kind to tobacco crops which were so important that their yield was used as currency in many business transactions and lawsuits. The Southeastern states were also ideal for growing cotton, one of the major cash crops associated with the region. Without the huge, rich plantations, the history of our country might have been very different--perhaps there wouldn't have been any slavery at all, and different economic conditions might never have given rise to a Civil War. And without the unusually cool weather influenced by volcanic ash many miles away, Joseph Smith might have left the family farm and moved on sooner--and never unearthed the Golden Tablets--and we would not have the LDS Church to preserve so much of our fragile history.

Of course this is a very simplistic explanation. People migrated to different countries and regions for a variety of reasons, some having nothing at all to do with the weather. For example, many individuals left England to practice their religion without persecution, others for adventure, and still more to get a fresh start away from family problems or debt. But when the land was hospitable, they had a better chance of achieving their goals within a helpful community setting.

This was especially true after the Revolutionary War. Instead of money, soldiers were often given grants of land. Sometimes there were disputes, such as that suffered by Francis Self; oftentimes the family decided not to move, and the land was sold; but enough people did leave their homes and move on to "greener pastures" so that our country opened up its mysteries to the settlers. The land awarded was in various places--some in other parts of Virginia and others in North Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, etc. There were some typical migration patterns--our family, for example, moved from Virginia to North Carolina to South Carolina to Georgia and then to Texas. The reasons for each move were different. For instance, while living in Georgia, the North Carolina/Georgia border changed around them--they didn't have to go anywhere to suddenly wake up and find themSelfs in another state. The move to Texas was prompted by a promise of better farmland.

LATER TIMES

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the push westward continued. One notable occurrence was that groups of families moved together from one spot to another--sometimes they were related, sometimes not. In most cases, from the earliest immigrants to the wagon train pioneers right through the "Dustbowl" days featured in "The Grapes of Wrath," these families were interested in farming. Most men were farmers in those days, but they lacked the agricultural theory that students learn today: conserve the land--plant a variety of crops, fertilize, don't wear out the soil. So all that was left was migration from places that no longer supported them to new locations that did. Because they tended to move in groups, marriages in the new area were often between the same surnames that were found in the old home state or county--an interesting and valuable clue to our roots.

Our ancestors had to be skillful at adapting to climates that were not quite what they expected. Our Selfs were mostly products of the warm and humid environment of the Deep South. The migrations northward through the midwest afforded them the challenge of much colder weather, frost, and even snow. The golden promises of California and the Southwest were whispered on winds that were hot and dry. Tim's great-uncle, Andrew Jackson Selph, was disappointed to find that by moving from Tennessee to Washington State, he had traded lush farmland for sandy soil that could barely support his family.

There's little doubt that the push Westward was encouraged primarily on the hopes of better farming conditions, mixed with the curiosity to explore and--in the case of the Gold Rush--the desire to get rich quick. Settlers who had escaped Indian attacks, starvation, snow, rain, and heat and who had actually found their new surroundings to be profitable, wrote glowing letters back home to fuel the wanderlust of those left behind. The prospect of fertile land was a good excuse for restless young people to leave home. Many were unprepared for what they would find to balance out their great opportunity, but overcoming the harsh and varied conditions during our country's early history gave rise to the fabled spirit of American independence and determination.

Today, people still give weather conditions as one of the chief reasons for making a major move from one area of the United States to another. They appreciate the warm Southern California winters. They live life as "snowbirds," going north in the summer and maintaining a condo in Florida during the winter. They move to the Desert Southwest for health reasons. But agriculture is no longer the huge consideration that it once was. Modern techniques make it possible to grow crops just about anywhere, many of them in giant greenhouses that let in the sunshine but keep out the elements and lend themSelfs to complete human control.

SUMMARY

Up until modern times, people were dependent on crops and livestock to feed their families. Their farms, in turn, prospered or failed with the climate and the weather it produced. The search for the perfect farmland influenced the Westward movement and the settlement of the land in what was to become today's United States. Even when conditions were less than perfect, the hardiness and ingenuity of our ancestors helped them adapt to their new surroundings and give rise to the cities and towns we now call home.

(NEXT: More on SPAM)

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OBITUARY
contributed by Cousin Barry

EDITH SELF YOUNG, age 88, a lifelong resident of Monroe County, passed away Thursday morning, November 20, 2003 at her residence in Madisonville, TN. She was preceded in death by her husband, Oscar Young; son, John Roy Self and step-son, James Ray Young. She was a member of Tevis Springs Baptist Church, where she served as a Sunday School teacher and was a member of the WMU. Survivors: daughters, Cordelia Young Wilson, Powell, TN, Shirley Young Thomas, Madisonville, TN, Mary Faye Young Bragg, Maryville, TN; sons & daughters-in-law, Ralph & Denise Young, Speedwell, TN, Carra (Slick) and Judy Young, Madisonville, TN, Carl & Terry Young, Maryville, TN, Floyd Young, Madisonville, TN Pera Lee Young, Knoxville, TN; step-son, Charles Young, Shelton, WA; 17 grandchildren; 24 great grandchildren; 5 great great grandchildren; nephew, Wilburn Self, of Texas. Family will receive friends 6-8 p.m. Friday evening in the Tallent Chapel with the funeral to follow at 8 p.m., Rev. Joe Torbett, Rev. Dennis Atkins officiating. Interment Saturday at 11 a.m. at Oak Grove Friends Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Blount County Hospice. Tallent Funeral Home, Madisonville in charge.

Edith Young was a daughter of the late Mark and Mattie Self.

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SELF PHOTOGRAPHS
contributed by Cousin Ed

Robert Edward Self

Robert Edward Self
of the Phayton Deolphus Self Line

Click HERE to see the photos

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WRITING HISTORY
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

True history makes some of the best reading--most especially biographies and autobiographies. These works inspire us to try our own wings and make our own mark on life. Last month, the interview with Edward Elias Self--lovingly transcribed by Cousin Elaine--made us wonder how many other stories are out there--stories that you could contribute with very little effort.

THE MEMORY BOOK

We know that very few of you are publishers. We've heard all of the excuses: "I never did like writing in school"; "I can't spell worth a darn"; "I don't have the patience to sit at a desk and think about what to say and how to say it." The Memory Book takes care of that! You don't need to compose anything--just know how to transcribe from tape. You can make one or more paper copies or leave everything digitized. Memory Books make nice gifts as well.

First, make a list of all your close relatives. You may be thinking: "I KNOW all these people. What I DON'T know is my 4th great grandmother!" But remember this--long after you find your elusive ancestor from the 18th century, your own descendants will be looking back on today's world as something from the dim past, and they'll want to know all about those who lived today. Who knows what wonders will happen between now and then? Certainly, we all thought we were "hip" in the 60s, but just think of the changes that have happened in the last 40 years! And also consider that if Olde Robert Selfe had made a Memory Book of sorts, we'd know all about his childhood in England and be able to link to our cousins across the sea.

Next, set a date for an interview with each person on your list. You might want to prepare a set of questions. Depending on the individuals you've contacted, the questions can be different ("What was going to high school like in the 1950s?"--"What is your favorite movie?") or the same ("Tell me about growing up in the mountains.") Or you could do a comparison of social conditions, favorite items, etc. between family members of different generations. Make sure you tell the person why you are interviewing them and get their permission to distribute their words. Then, sit back and turn on the tape recorder. You needn't interact unless you want to ask questions or prod a slow conversation along.

It may take a lot of pushing and a sore finger, but you should be able to transcribe the tape bit by bit, a few words at a time. When you're done, play the tape back and read along with what you've entered into your word processor. Hopefully you'll have a complete story. To be really faithful to your subject, you should copy EXACTLY what you hear--noting long pauses and "fillers" such as "er, um, and ah." Do eliminate coughs or other extraneous noises. Once you get started, transcription can become addictive!

When you're finished transcribing each interview, place it in a folder that is subdivided in such a way that you have a complete record of all interviews with all family members. You may want to index the important points if you're especially interested in a certain topic, for example, family relationships, jobs held by these individuals, moves and migrations, visits abroad, or weddings. Whether your Memory Book is in print or digital format, it's always more interesting with a photo of the subject and a caption including full name, birth date, date of interview, any genealogical data you'd like to enter, and perhaps a description of the photo itSelf (not necessary for a formal studio portrait).

If you decide to publish your Memory Book on the Web, make sure you get permission from everyone included in its pages. Don't include dates for living people unless specifically authorized to do so. Then give the URL to your family--and promote your site further by giving that same address to relevant surnames sites such as "Self Portraits."

SUMMARY

A Memory Book is a wonderful way to preserve the reminiscences of family members regardless of their age. The interview allows them to express themSelfs in their own words. Readers will then feel as if each individual is talking to them, telling them about life in their times and offering insights into their personalities. If you've come up against a brick wall in your efforts to trace your genealogy backwards, try preserving the memories of those you know and love. Today is tomorrow's yesterday.

(NEXT: Fragmented Self Lines)


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 1998-2004 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara A. Peck, All Rights Reserved


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