WELCOME

Welcome to the twelfth 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 colors of autumn leaves often remind us of the colorful Selfs in our extended family. We'd love to have some stories about these characters. Photos can accompany any writings, or just articles and pictures by themSelfs will do.

In the meantime, we are proud to be a very large 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, a site on "My Family.com," SelfSite at RootsWeb, Family Record Online, well over 5,000 pages of connected and unconnected Self lines, and over 1130 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.

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.

Visit our supplemental Self site at your earliest convenience. This site is for Self Seekers only. Feel free to change or update your own profile to enable services that will be of most use to you. For example, you cannot send e-mail unless you provide your e-mail address in the profile. We would especially like you to upload photographs and articles to this site.

Membership fees: 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.

Last July's newsletter is now available to all cousins at our RootsWeb FreePages site. We had some great photos and articles in that issue. We'd like to present more of the same, but we can't do it without your help. PLEASE contribute something. Photographs, articles, family trees, and reunion recaps will be gratefully received and enjoyed by everyone.

While my job is primarily that of network administrator and computer technician, my specialty is in automated library systems. The patrons in our library access everything using a Web interface. Gone is the old "card catalog," replaced by an online index that lives on an Intranet WebServer available to both in-house and remote users. And if you want to read a magazine or look up something in the encyclopedia, you can simply click on another link, and there you are.

Ever since we automated in 1988 and began juggling bukly CD-ROMs in a huge tower Server in 1994, we've heard both sides of the print/online debate. Students think it's wonderful that they can now plunk down in front of the screen and have everything but their textbooks--even class assignments--available at the click of a mouse. Their somewhat older professors, though, often lament the digital replacement of hardcopy magazines, reminiscing about the feel and the smell of their pages.

Inevtiably we're asked the question: "Print or online--which format is better?"

Focusing on genealogy, we might narrow this question down to: "Which format is best for storing and researching family history materials?"

PRINT FORMAT

PLUS

Even before genealogy became the popular pastime it is today, you could find or subscribe to print resources to help you in your quest. Many local libraries have maintained genealogy sections and historical archives for years, and there are also some large libraries specializing in local and family history. There are also businesses, societies and family associations that publish periodicals with similar contents. Massachusetts--and possibly other states--issued a series of volumes of Vital Records to approximately 1850, covering over half of its cities and towns. The libraries housing these materials often make use of closed stacks or locked cabinets to ensure that they're available to all users during open hours. Some society libraries will even lend their books to members through the mail.

Aside from their smell and feel (and I kind of like musty old volumes), print materials have some definite advantages. You can carry them to other tables and other rooms. You can digest their information in whatever way is convenient for you: pen and paper, laptop, or copy machine, to name a few. You can flip quickly to their indexes. And aside from membership fees or mailing costs--especially if your view the resources in a local library--there is no charge for using them. You need no special equipment except a pair of good eyes or reading glasses and some writing materials to gather a good deal of helpful information.

MINUS

The same security used to safeguard print materials may also prevent you from checking them out of the library. This is especially true if the resource qualifies as a rare book or is part of an archival collection. This means getting dressed, fighting traffic, paying for gas--any number of small inconveniences that you hardly think about, but that exist nonetheless. Every means of obtaining the information in these materials involves either an expense (copy machine fees, for instance) or extra work (writing, typing, etc.) Some libraries limit you to certain tables or areas, and many of these locations have inadequate outlets or space for laptop computers. Almost all libraries have a ban on eating or drinking, so you can't be as comfortable there as you'd like to be, and stepping out for a break may mean surrendering your book during that time. Indexes to books and periodicals may be inadequate for your purposes--for instance, they may index surnames but does not given names within the surname grouping.

The real problem with genealogical materials, however, is that despite the attempt at transcribing and publishing some vital records, most of them--including births, marriages, deaths, Census, Parish, and Court documents--were recorded by hand. They remained in that format until the beginnings of the great microfilming projects by the LDS and other groups that began in the middle of the last century. During this time, they became faded and brittle and often fell victim to the inevitable fires that ravaged courthouses all across the country. To have hired people to transcribe these records and keep copies of typewritten manuscripts in several places would have been a tremendous expense. Microfilm provided a low-/no-cost one-time solution to this problem. The microfilm, however, is still just a copy of the original--and as such, it is only as good as the document it has captured. Even high quality film can't make a poor document look better--and today, one of the biggest complaints is that the film is difficult to read--even impossible in some cases. And making hard copies of bad film is a nightmare. Finally, unless there is a Soundex to help you locate your ancestor on a specific page of a specific county, you'll have to do a lot of cranking to find him.

ONLINE

PLUS

There's almost no one who doubts that the online availability of genealogical resources has promoted our hobby as nothing else could have done. We can search the contents of both Web- and CD-ROM-based databases at our convenience from home, from the library, or during breaks at work. We can communicate with cousins and other researchers in several ways such as e-mail, chat rooms, and message boards and receive swift--sometimes instaneous--replies. The resources in Cyberspace are really overwhelming with offerings from the LDS, RootsWeb/Ancestry/MyFamilyCom, FamilyTreeMaker, Gendex, and many others including surname sites such as "Self Portraits" and individual homepages as well. The Internet is a perfect vehicle for mass reproduction and distribution.

When you peruse a genealogical document or database online, you don't have to put up with musty odors or crumbling leather. Unless limited by apportioned time periods in a library, you can return to your computer screen over and over again. And you can bring your own laptop or notebook computer to the library if you're working with microfilm or print sources. When you search an online database, the program usually offers you a selection of pre-sorts, sometimes with many options and modifiers. And when you find something of particular interest, you can download it in a variety of formats and carry it away on a diskette or send it to yourSelf via e-mail. You can also print to a local or networked printer if you'd like a hard copy of the material. And if you are viewing transcribed records (as vs. scanned-in copies of originals), someone else has already done the difficult job of decipehring and interpreting old-fashioned handwriting so you don't have to. All you need to do is press the "Find" or "Search" key and discover in minutes what it might take months to learn from microfilm or print.

MINUS

The greatest drawback to online documents is that you need a computer or Web-capable device to access them. You also need some type of storage (floppy or fixed disks) and a printer for hard copies. If you research from home, you'll need to pay a monthly fee to your ISP and install a fast modem and perhaps another analog or digital telephone line. You may want to purchase a laptop computer to take with you to libraries or your local Family History Center or National Archives. Some data online is available only to members of certain groups or on a pay-as-you-go basis. So the expense of online research can be considerable.

Perhaps the most intimidating aspect of online resources is that there's often "too much of a good thing" out there. The amount of material can be overwhelming. Searching the free databases can take hours, weeks, or months, and yet when you finish with one, new data has already been added. Then there are those areas that are usually available to paid members only--sometimes they're opened up for trial memberships or special features, and the researcher feels as if he or she has to rush to take advantage of information that will be lost when they can no longer afford to make use of it.

COMMON GROUND

In spite of their differences--their benefits and their drawbacks--both print and online genealogical materials have one major purpose: to preserve our heritage for us and for future generations. Books and periodicals were a vast improvement over oral tradition. The recording of births, marriages, and deaths has ensured that our roots are not forgotten. But because print materials degrade with age and are subject to ruin by the elements, microfilm and then digitizing have enabled mass distribution of the information contained in these resources. We are now assured that even in times of disaster, at least some copies will survive. And let's not forget other means of preservation such as photography (both film and digital), sound, and video recordings.

So which is better--print or online?

The answer appears to be that both formats have their place. Both contribute to the preservation and distribution of knowledge and can be used according to preference, cost, and method of retrieval. While we've come a long way in computerizing our records, there will always be a place for books and magazines and for microfilmed copies that allow us to view the wonder of the fragile originals they represent. It's not really a question of which format is better. It's really a matter of having the best of both worlds.

"Hi! I'm new to genealogy. I just got this new computer and found your site. I'd like to know more about my fifth great grandfather Self. He was born about 1800 in [pick one: a) Ireland; b) Scotland; c) Germany; d) Holland; e) some other country]..."

With new Selfs swelling our database of over 1,100 corresponding cousins each week, we receive variations on the above message several times a month. Although it's almost 100% certain that our Southeastern American Self progenitor, "Olde" Robert Selfe, came from England--as did the majority of colonial American families--it seems that people always want to be from somewhere else. Why is a matter of psychology--perhaps having origins in countries other than "plain old vanilla England" seems more exotic. But what really happened is fairly well documented and follows the development of early American as well as world history.

EARLY SELF ORIGINS

We've seen references to both sides of the debate regarding the origins of the surname Self. One story ascribes the name to the Vikings while the other sees it as a corruption of the word "shelf," a synonym for cliff or rocky overhang where our ancestors may have lived.

To tell the truth, we have never seen the latter explanation in any published book of the origin of surnames. The Encyclopedia of American Family Names by H. Amanda Robb and Andrew Chesler (New York: HarperCollins, c1995) states that the name Self derives from "Seawolf" or "Saewulf" via the Middle English contraction "Saulf." The --- Correspondence with cousins has revealed that the name may have been "Sewlf" (also meaning "Seawolf") in its earliest form, and it may have belonged to a Danish prince who lived in a now-extinct city or town named after him. While surfing the Web, we've found several sites that prove the existence of individuals named both Sewlf and Saewulf in the annals of early England. Sewlf lived in pre-Conquest times and was a minister during the reign of King Cnut. The first Saewulf we've found was a landholder (or perhaps more than one person) as recorded in the Domesday Book at the time of William the Conqueror. Searching our SELF List archives for "Saewulf" will also bring up one of our past postings involving a religious man (whether monk or layman is uncertain) of this name who traveled extensively in the Holy Lands during the Middle Ages.

From the first entries penned into Parish registers, there were Selfs recorded in much of England. Although we still have no proof of the birth date and location of Olde Robert Selfe, we do know for certain that there were many Self(e) families in England, and their descendants still live in the United Kingdom today. Apparently there were some other Selfs who sailed to the New World, arriving in Barbados or the surrounding islands, and it's possible that they may have had offspring. But most evidence points to Olde Robert Selfe as the progenitor of most, if not all, of the Selfs whose branches first made the Southeastern part of the United States their home.

During the 19th century, more Selfs did come to the United States from England. Almost all of them settled in the northern half of the country, notably in and around New York City and in the midwest/Dakotas. Most stayed, but some returned home.

In addition, there is a small contingent of Afro-American Selfs in the United States. You can find some of them listed in the Census records at "SelfSite at RootsWeb." These Selfs lived primarily in the Midwest, especially around Leavenworth, Kansas. We've also seen some Black Selfs listed on the CD-ROMs at our local Family History Center. They were enumerated in North Carolina during the 19th century. Presumably these Selfs were descended from former slaves who either "belonged" to masters named Self or took the surname of someone they admired.

BUT MY GRANDMOTHER SAID...

Most cousins who say that their earliest Selfs came from countries other than England have no documentation to prove their claims. Their sources are usually oral traditions handed down through the generations. In most cases, the "exotic" nationality came from the maternal branch of the family. When a woman from a different culture married into the Selfs, her male children would of course then have a heritage that was only half-Anglo. Because of the great influx of immigrants into the colonies--especially the Scots-Irish arrivals during the eighteenth century--many Self males had quite a few nationalities in their backgrounds even by the 1850s.

Were there Selfs living in other countries? Definitely there were many in the mid- to late-1800s. We have records of Self families in and from Scotland and Wales, Austria, and Germany, and other European countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. But while we haven't determined the lineage of these particular families, they most likely had their origins in England or possibly the United States. The only other possible explanation is that they changed their surnames at some point or translated them from their native languages.

NATIVE AMERICAN SELFS

One other statement frequently made to us is: "My great great grandfather Self was a full-blooded Indian." Our reply is: "No, he wasn't--unless, like the Afro-American Selfs, he took the name for some reason." In fact, there are probably very few "full-blooded" Native American women who married Selfs--they were almost always products of the union of an Anglo (or sometimes French) man and a mother of Choctaw, Creek, etc. descent. But yes, there are quite a few Self branches which intersected with Indian lines, and their descendants can indeed claim Native American heritage. The branch that comes to mind instantly is that of the brothers John and Baxter Self who married sisters Catherine and Susanna Berryhill. Their mother was Elizabeth Derrisaw, a Native American Indian woman, and many of their descendants were awarded land in Indian Territory based on their descent from her. One of these individuals was Thomas Gilcrease. Beneath his parcel was a rich abundance of oil, the money from which helped him to acquire a great collection of art which later became the basis of the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma City. There are many other Selfs who can prove Native American ancestry as well.

SUMMARY

Many researchers today, far from adopting an ethnocentric attitude, truly embrace a diversity of heritages. If your background includes the surname Self, you can be sure that you're from English stock--and who knows, there may be a Danish prince hiding in the shadows as well. But within that Self heritage there are probably quite a few intermarriages with people of other nationalities as well. Have fun digging your roots, and see who you can find!

A new scam has recently been the subject of discussion on several RootsWeb listservs. It appears that at least one site is charging visitors to use its links. What's worse is that these links go to free pages such as USGenWebSites and surname/personal pages. The results of the search may be displayed in frames that make it appear that the linked page is actually a part of the charging site.

While raw facts--such as names and dates--cannot be protected by copyright, the format of a Website that bears a copyright notice is private property. For instance, if we receive a transcription of a Census record, we can't claim ownership to the data we decide to place on one of our Websites. However, the transcription--often subject to interpretation because of old, ornate handwriting or bad microfilm copies--is the property of the transcriber. And if we place the data into a table with annotations, that format and those notes belong to us.

Even if you have a simple one-page site, it is a very very good idea to ask for permission to link to someone else's page. When you create your link, state exactly what it is that you're linking to. While we're very pleased and flattered when someone includes a link to our site(s) on their Webpage, we'd like to know that this is being done.

And never try to charge anyone to use your links. If the linked page is one that requires a membership fee--such as Ancestry or FamilyTreeMaker--that fee belongs to the people associated with that linked page and should be clearly stated on that page once your visitor gets there. You may require membership for your own site(s)--such as we do for this newsletter--but that should also be stated on the original site where membership is solicited.

So please remember--if you want to join a site for members only, that's fine. But don't pay anyone simply to use a link on their page. And if you find anyplace suggesting that you pay them to view one of our Self sites, please let us know!

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. Please contact us.

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