From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

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It's Hot, John!!!

Yesterday, Evansville had a record high of 99 degrees for the middle of July! It was very, very hot & humid... not a pleasant day to be out & about doing genealogy or anything for that matter! I was at Burdette Park's neat Discovery Lodge yesterday and noticed how cool & refreshing the waterfall looked. It is right at the entrance to the lodge.

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest

From My Email Box - "Local Vital Records"

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From: Terry Winchester
To: INVANDER@rootsweb.com
Subject: [INVANDER] Vital Records in Vanderburgh County


This is regarding the discussion about Vanderburgh County's new policy concerning limitations on Death certificates. Birth Certificates have the same limitations.


I initially received the same cold shoulder when I asked about a Birth Certificate for a client a few months ago. However, on a positive note, after being a bit persistent, but polite, I did receive it because it was 75 years old. The birth year was 1927. On the form, I was told to mark "genealogy purposes" under the Relationship section. Cost was $10. I don't know if they will treat Death Certificates the same, but I don't see a difference if it's more than 75 years.

On a rather frustrating note, however, the information from the original book was typed onto a certified certificate of birth, and the worker did not include the maiden name of the mother (as per policy for the new certificates, reported she).

The Indiana State Board of Health in Indianapolis may be a better resource. Their application is online at: http://www.in.gov/icpr/webfile/formsdiv/49606.pdf

Their website states:

To apply for a birth or death certificate by phone: Call 1-866-601-0891 (VitalChek Network).
To apply for a death certificate in person or by mail and pay by check or money order:

Please print form 49606. The form includes applicable fees, identification requirements, and mailing address. The cost for the first certificate is $8.00 and $4.00 for each additional copy. Please make check payable to Indiana State Department of Health. (Average Processing Time: 3 to 4 weeks. Processing time begins the day the ISDH Vital Records office receives the request.)

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

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Evansville had a refrigerator company by the name of Servel... it left Evansville in the 50's for St. Louis. Many that worked at the plant moved to St. Louis. The move was very bad for the Evansville economy. In the photo below, taken this morning, you can barely see the name Servel on this old rusty water tower (at least the letters "Serve..."). This old tower stands as a 50-plus year old reminder of one of Evansville's largest employers. My father worked at Servel, but did not move to St. Louis. Economic conditions are often very important reasons for migrations of families. [Click on photos for larger images.]
Recently the refrigerator company that took over most of the old Servel plants by the name of Whirlpool decided to leave Evansville... this time though the company took the plant to another country. Mexico was chosen to have cheap labor and recently cute little vehicle window stickers have been popping up and I thought I would share a photo of one. I guess it is somewhat offensive to some (forgive me), but Whirlpool's move is even more offensive to the workers that are now unemployed!

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

Marker/Plaque/Monument Monday

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Burdette Park Administration Building...

The below plaque is just inside the main entry doors for the Admin building at the Vanderburgh County Burdette Park.

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest

"Recovering Some Lost Genealogy Web Sites"

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"404 Error!" "Site not found!" "OH, NO!!!"

I am sure you do something like I do when I find a very good web site with lots of data... you save it as a favorite to go back to again & again as you need it. And isn't it great when you find a web site that has a very promising link to another site that might contain info you are looking for? You click on the link in your favorites or on that link on a website and you get "SITE NOT FOUND!" "OH, NO!" [Expletives deleted.]

I am going to ask you to not panic when this happens, I have discovered ways to find these lost pages. I have 4 suggestions to find that lost site:

1. Often it is a simple error as to whether the link was posted correctly. Change the "htm" or "html" file extension to the opposite... if it has "htm" at the end it may need the "l" to make it right or vice versa.
2. Sometimes the web master will change the page extension from something like "West.html" to "Thomas West.html" because he has added "John West.html" to the site. The site might have been: htp:/evansville.net/mylines/West.html [using a bogus link for example]... it would be essentially impossible to guess it was changed to have "Thomas West.html." What you do is take off the file name at the end, like htp:/evansville.net/mylines/ this should bring you to the main page that would have links to the page with the new file name. You may have to add "index.html" or "home.html"or "main.html" to get the entry page.
3. Well, great, John, neither of those ideas worked! Then try this from the "Internet Archive WayBackMachine" the archive of almost all sites and even has updated links for the site over a period of time. You have to have the old URL (web site address). Go here for this great research tool: http://www.archive.org/index.php "The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public." Please remember that even though these pages may no longer be on the Internet (at least at that link), the pages & perhaps the data is copyrighted!
4. And, finally, a new way to find some sites that were on GeoCities.com. This was on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter [Geocities? Reocities! 10 Jul 2010]: "The Ancestor Search Blog has an interesting story about online genealogy information that was thought to be lost forever. Quoting from the article: 'Back when the Internet was new, one of the places genealogists started putting their family trees was Geocities. During these last 15 years, a whole lot of genealogy info was stored on Geocities. Family trees, Civil War regiments, burial locations, you name it. When Yahoo closed Geocities last year, a lot of info was lost forever for Internet genealogy researchers. While many active webmasters moved their sites, all too many did not.' The article then goes on to describe a newly-found repository that seems to have most of the information that was on Geocities when the service was shut down. You can read the full article at http://ancestorsearch.blogspot.com/2010/07/geocities-reocities.html The article says to change "geocities" in the URL of your lost page to "reocities" (in other words change the "g" to "r") to get an archived page! They are not sure how many pages was archived, but try it to see if you can find it.

- Compiled by JGWest