SELF SEEKERS:
THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT
Editors
Tim W. Seawolf Self
Barbara Ann Peck
seawolf@selfroots.com
Volume 1, no. 2 April, 1998
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WELCOME
Welcome to the second issue of the quarterly online newsletter supplement to "Self Portraits: The Self Family NetLetter," the Website dedicated to Self family research at http://www.inland.net/~tim.
You are receiving this newsletter because you were kind enough to join "Self Seekers: The Self Family Association" and to donate money that will be used primarily to contact Self cousins who are not online but who would like to exchange information. 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.
If you do not wish to receive this electronic publication, please take a moment to e-mail us.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the contribution by Charter Member Cousin Rachel of Selfs extracted from the Louisiana Census records of 1850-1880 and 1900 (see below). Have you copied any Census records you would like to share with us? Work done by members of "Self Seekers" will be published in our newsletter first and then released to the general Website at a later date. We have also received selected KY Soundex records for 1880 and 1900-1920 from Cousin Debbie. These records are available on our Website's Census Pages 1, 2, 3, and 4.
We would also like to have your gedcom. We will 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. And we would appreciate being kept informed of new family members as well as the passing of older ones.
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 Surname List as well as listservs for Erath County, TX., King County, TX., Union County, GA., Towns County, GA., Murray County, GA., Grayson County, TX., and Clay County, NC. In addition, we have adopted the King County, TX and Clay County, NC USGenWeb sites.
The Reunion of the William (Billy) Self and James Lewis and Rachel Self family will be held on July 5, 1998 in Hindsville, AR. This is the Newton County, AR Self line, and there will be many descendants there including lots of new cousins. For more information, contact Cousin Verna.
Because this newsletter is available in Web page format, we hope that you will find it easy to send mail to us or to view material from our Website simply by clicking on the links.
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HOW WE FOUND OUR ROOTS
At the beginning of this decade, Tim traced his ancestors back to his third great grandfather, Thomas R. Self of Union County, GA. But beyond that, he didn't have a clue. He assumed that he was descended from Olde Robert Selfe, but there was no link between that shadowy figure and the man who fathered 15 children in Choestoe. All he had to go on was the fact that the oldest man he could find in the North Georgia county Census records was named Job Self.
When we revisited this problem last year, we had certain other knowledge that was helpful to our search. First, the 1850 Census for Union County, GA showed four Self males close in age, all born in North Carolina. Two of these males--Thomas R. Self and Robert R. Self--had married sisters--Nancy and Martha Cook, daughters of William and Susannah Cook--and some of the children in each family had the same given names (one name was "Job"). So we felt comfortable that these males were probably brothers and that at some point there was a relationship to a Job Self. In addition, researcher Barry Self of Madison, TN., a descendant of John Jones Self of Lumpkin and Union Counties, GA., had corresponded with Tim for quite some time, and his ancestors had names very similar to those found in the families of the four brothers, including the name "Job."
Next, we learned from the Census that Celia Self of NC had married Thompson Collins and, after raising her family primarily in the Habersham County area, lived in 1850 with her youngest son, Ivan Kimsey Collins. Not only Ivan but all his brothers and sisters lived in Union County. While we guessed that the early Job Self who had gone from VA to NC had had a son named "Job," we found Celia listed on the "Ancestral Search" CD in our local Hemet LDS Family History Center as the daughter of Job, Jr. And long-time Self researcher Larry Brown had pointed out to us that Celia Self and Jesse Self--husband of Mary Narramore--had had identical migration patterns, moving from the Buncombe County area of NC to Habersham County, GA. Both had also owned land in AL at one time.
While some of Celia's descendants distinguished themSelfs in politics and community service and led fairly public lives, most of the other Union County Selfs appear to have been average, quiet citizens, making them harder to trace through paper documents. Add to this the fact that there are very few such documents extant today--thanks to courthouse fires and the ravages of the Civil War--and the prospect looked pretty bleak for formulating even a hypothetical line back to Olde Robert Selfe.
At this point, Fate introduced us to Cousin Virginia--Regular member of "Self Seekers" and subscriber to several of our listservs--who just happens to live in Western NC. She has easy access to courthouses and landmarks in Clay and Cherokee Counties in North Carolina, Union and Towns and other North Georgia counties, and even Eastern Tennessee. Although Cousin Virginia's line split from ours perhaps 9 generations ago or so, she has become a very close friend as well as an avid and tireless researcher of our family line, sending us information that ultimately has solved much of the riddle of Tim's ancestry.
Through Cousin Virginia, we learned that Thomas R. Self had not broken his ties with his home state of NC. In fact, like many Selfs of his day, state and county borders shifted around him. His marriage to Nancy Cook was the first to be recorded in Union County after it split from its parent county of Cherokee on December 3, 1832. His first son, William Washington Self, Tim's 2nd great grandfather, was raised in Union County, GA but moved back to NC where he married Elizabeth Avoline Loyd, daughter of William Loyd of Clay County. The Loyds may have known the Selfs in the Buncombe County area since William's wife, Elizabeth, came from Lincoln County, NC. William Washington Self owned a farm in a tiny place called Shooting Creek, NC. When his brief life ended in 1865, he was laid to rest in the cemetery of the Shooting Creek Baptist Church. Cousin Virginia has sent numerous photographs of his gravesite. Thomas R. Self's own property suddenly became part of the newly formed Towns County in 1856, and he was sworn in as Sheriff of Towns County in 1875. He is also associated with the present county of Cherokee, GA since he married his second wife, Nancy Garner--mother-in-law of his daughter, Mattie and a Cherokee County resident--on Nov. 2, 1879 . The 1900 GA Soundex shows Nancy Self as a widow, living with her son in Cherokee County.
The other, and most exciting discovery, was the existence of an older Job Self in Union County, GA. His age was right to place him as father of the four brothers, thus making him Tim's fourth great grandfather. In Census records prior to 1850, the rough count given of males and females also makes it likely that he was the father of John Jones Self, born in 1830. There are several daughters, most as yet unidentified. We later found that other independent researchers of this line also had concluded that this Job was the father of these five men. Although it would be wonderful if we had a will or an old Bible that confirms our findings, we feel that we have traced Tim's ancestors based on the "best evidence" available. Cousin Virginia verified that Job Self had also first come to Habersham County, as had Celia and Jesse, making it most likely that he was their brother and that his own father and grandfather had been Job Self II and Job Self I, respectively.
One interesting piece of visual "evidence" of the relationship of Tim's family to Barry Self's ancestor, John Jones Self, can be seen on our "Family Album" page. With Barry's permission, we have scanned and placed a picture of Rev. C. C. Self--son of John Jones Self--under that of Andrew J. Selph, Tim's great-uncle (see vol. 1, no. 1 of our newsletter...). It took us some time to compare the two photos, and we did so one day simply by accident. We think you'll agree that the family resemblance is remarkable.
During the Christmas holidays, we were contacted by Cousin Cat whose ancestor, Sarah (Self) Daniel, is apparently yet another sibling to Job, Jesse, and Celia. She also lived in Union County, GA. Cousin Cat was excited because her WFT information showed several Celias in this family. One daughter, Elizabeth (Daniel) Cain had very little data, however. Strangely, just three days later, we heard from Cousin Melinda, a descendant of the Cain family, who filled in the rest for us. We have also been corresponding with some cousins descended from Jesse and Celia Self and two descended from Ruth (Self) Flowers, Tim's 3rd great aunt.
There are still questions that remain. First, we would love to have documentation to reinforce our conclusions--but we understand that these paper copies may simply not exist. Second, there may be a generation omitted from Tim's line; yet adding any other Job Selfs, for example, would be purely hypothetical. Third, we hope to find more branches of Tim's line, especially those with other surnames, in the future so that we can add both early and present relatives to our "Big Document." Fourth, we realize that there may be errors in our findings and would welcome proof to the contrary as well as confirmation of our research. Finally, we would like to learn the exact migration routes that Tim's ancestors took on their way to Union County, GA.
Tim's ancestry, as we believe it to be, from present to past, is: Tim W. Seawolf Self--Los Angeles/Orange/Riverside Counties, CA; Walker Lambert Self--Erath County, TX/Los Angeles/Orange Counties, CA; Homer Self--Erath County, TX; George Washington Self--Cherokee County, NC/Towns County, GA/Erath County, TX; William Washington Self-- Union County, GA/Clay County, NC; Thomas R. Self--NC/Union County/Towns Counties, GA; Job Self--NC/Union County, GA; Job Self--NC; Job Self--VA/NC; Stephen Self--VA; Robert Selfe--England/VA; Olde Robert Selfe--England/VA
If you have a story about the procedures and discoveries of your own Self research that you would like to share with others, please write and tell us about them.
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SELF SHELF
There are numerous books, articles, and documents that contain information about our Self ancestors. Last fall, we received many requests from cousins who wanted to know where they could obtain these items. And we also pounced on any source that could provide information for our own "Big Document" as well as interesting material for our Website, Surname List, and newsletter. So it seems appropriate that we dedicate our "Self Shelf" section of this issue to answering the question of how and where to find Self sources.
If the resource you want is on our "Help YourSelf" page, please contact us. We have quite a few electronic documents and databases in addition to those listed there. Cousin David compiled the list of items on "Help YourSelf," and he can advise you on how to find the print items listed there.
Some of the titles, though, are not in Cousin David's possession. They are works he has consulted throughout the course of his many years of research. Also, you will come across other titles of interest posted on listservs, presented in bibliographies, or recommended to you by cousin correspondents. It is important that you know some facts about the availability of these items.
Many books on genealogy or local history were privately published or exist in looseleaf or stapled format. Most were published in limited quantities. And many of them are also out of print. They now reside in libraries that may or may not be willing to share them with you.
When the item you want is an actual hard-cover or paperbound book, and when most of it is dedicated to your family line, you will probably want to own it. In some cases, there is an actual small press that distributes copies or acts as an "agent" for the author(s). It is a simple matter of writing to this publisher. If you are currently using the book, you might find the address of the publisher on the title page or its verso. If you don't have access to a copy and the press is not local, you may be able to find its address and/or telephone number online. The same information can be found online for individual authors who have published their own books. If you have no luck online, you may be able to obtain the address of private presses from the Reference Desk Librarian at your local City or College library.
If you want to read the book or copy information from it but don't actually need to purchase it, you may want to try to obtain it through Interlibrary Loan. Make sure that you are prepared to give the librarian as much information about the item as possible: author and title are imperative; it also helps if you know the name of the publisher and place and date of publication. Your librarian will be especially pleased if you can provide an OCLC number (or a comparable ID from RLIN or other online system), but that is optional and more difficult to obtain, especially for older or more ephemeral items. Another drawback to requesting genealogical or historical works through Interlibrary Loan is that many libraries place them in special collections, such as Reference or Archives, and therefore, these items may not circulate.
We are looking for reviews on books and articles that pertain to Self genealogy and history. Please tell us about a book in your possession--or perhaps you are writing a book or have written one in the past that chronicles Self ancestry. We'd love to feature it here--and find out how to get copies for our own enlightenment.
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COMPUTERS AND SOFTWARE
One of our most popular subpage groups on "Self Portraits" is "Family Album." Everyone enjoys looking at photographs of Selfs of Yesterday and Today. We're very grateful to all of our cousins who have shared their family photos with us, and we hope that you will send us something if you haven't already.
Of course you don't want to lose your valuable photos in the mail. So while we have received some that way, we'd really rather have you scan the image yourSelf and send it to us as an e-mail attachment. This is a great way to become friends with your Scanner and also to digitize your photos so that they will be preserved for future generations. There are many brands of Scanners on the market, and many different pieces of photo-enhancement software as well. While we can't cover them all by name in our newsletter, we would like to offer some general pointers on scanning and submitting photographs that are suitable for publication on the World Wide Web.
Hopefully, your Scanner is a flatbed model. The portrait of Tim's great grandfather and his family was done using a black and white hand Scanner. It came out surprisingly well, but it took quite a lot of work to "stitch" the pieces together. Since the typical hand Scanner is limited in width, you may have to scan all but the smallest photographs in "columns" and then work painstakingly to fit them together. Sheet feed models can do an entire photograph at once, but they are best suited to the standard 8.5" x 11" format, or at least to photographs that are fairly large in size. Tiny faces clipped from your hardcover family album may get lost in the mechanism during scanning.
The software that came with your Scanner probably allows you to make some adjustments before you actually scan your photograph. Many programs allow you to choose options such as size, number of colors and clarity as well as giving you the ability to "crop" the photograph and eliminate excessive background. It is best to keep the finished scan no larger than about 3"x5" if possible. The reason for this is twofold: the conservation of storage space on the Web Server and the ability to display the image in its entirety on the screen without the need for scrolling.
If you've used a hand Scanner in the past, you remember setting the clarity indicator in terms of pixels--usually 300-400 dpi (dots per inch). Newer flatbed Scanners take care of color and clarity in one adjustment, often referred to as "photograph," "sharp," or some similar term. Always choose "photograph" or "sharp" quality--there should be one for color and black and white, respectively. Don't be alarmed by a very low dpi count. This count is for your monitor's display, and choosing "sharp" or "photograph" settings will always result in an approximate 400 dpi scan. Finally, you may be able to edit out unwanted colors such as excessive sepia tone or water stains by adjusting the hue, brightness, and saturation and/or cropping the photograph in a "preview" mode before you actually perform the scan.
Your Scanner software may default to a single, inflexible format--such as .tif or .bmp--when it saves your finished scan. Remember that the two formats used on the Web are .jpg and .gif which are capable of maximum compression with minimum loss, thus taking up very little space on an ISP's Server. Part of your Scanner's bundled software should include a "paint" program that will also convert images to and from a wide variety of formats.
Sometimes you really do want to scan a large photograph to 100% of its original size. We have access to a flatbed Scanner and color printer that are so good that we've placed the resulting printouts in frames and stored the photograph away for safe keeping--and no one can tell the difference unless they look really closely. This is fine for your own purposes--but remember to use your "paint" program to edit the scanned image down to size and save it under a different name so that you can send it to us or to another Webmaster in a form that's ready to publish. This is probably the greatest problem we've had when receiving photographs from cousins--sometimes they are so large they won't display at all and/or they use all of our system's resources and cause it to crash; other times they have produced gigantic "attachments" comprising 10 or 20 MB. If we can see the image, we will immediately resize it, and, if necessary, retouch it for publication, often squeezing a 5 MB submission down to under 1/20th of its original size.
If you are new at scanning photographs, we're always happy to help. Let us know that you have a photo for us, and tell us what type of scanner and software you are using, and we can probably help you submit a Web-ready image the very first time!
Next issue--OCR Scanning. What other computer topics interest you?
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GEORGIA SOUNDEX--1900
DICKINS COUNTY
SELF, John G b. Mar. 1864
Micki J b. Apr. 1873
Edmund b. May 1890
Taylor C. b. Dec. 1891
Carl M. b. Feb. 1894
Martha W. b. June 1895
William O. b. Apr. 1897
Claud C. b. Nov. 1898
Lawrence b. Mar. 1900
DODGE COUNTY
SELF, John b. July 1828
SELF, John b. Jan. 1830, enumerated with J. M. Bowen, sister-in-law
SELPH, Love b. Apr. 1873
Agnes b. Mar. 1880
Susie b. Jan. 1892
Lizzie b. Jan. 1894
Bennett b. Mar. 1898
CLARK, R. F. (mother)
SELF, Odessa K. b. dec. 1896 (daughter)
Sallie E. C. b. Mar. 1877 (niece)
DOOLEY COUNTY
SELF, Andrew J. b. June 1858
Sallie A. b. Mar. 1855
William b. Oct. 1881
David W. b. Sep. 1883
Archibald b. Dec. 1885
Andrew J. b. May 1888
Sarah B. b. Dec. 1890
Elizabeth b. Oct. 1893
Mildred b. Aug. 1899
FANNIN COUNTY
SELF, John H. b. Oct 1861
Martha b. Feb. 1868
Eliza b. May 1885
Millie b. June 1886
Homer b. Jan. 1892
May b. May 1898
FLOYD COUNTY
SELF, John M b. Sep. 1869
McDAMON, Felix
SELF, Mary b. Nov. 1872
SELF, Nick b. Dec. 1856
Callie S. b. Dec. 1855
Clara b. Oct. 1879
Olive b. Feb. 1882
Harvey b. Mar. 1889
Rufus b. May 1894
Annie b. Nov. 1897
SELF, Oldin T. b. Sep 1866
Anna b. Mar. 1873
George H. b. Aug 1890
Bessie F. b. May 1892
Annie R. b. Oct. 1893
Rattie G. b. Dec. 1896
Lillian b. July 1899
FULTON COUNTY
SELF, A. (possibly A. D.) b. Mar. 1877
Jessie b. 1880
SELF, George b. Mar. 1837
Mattie b. July 1846
John b. May 1877
Charlie b. June 1893
SELF, J. W. b. Jan. 1859
Ida R. b. May 1849
Annie b. Sep. 1881
SELF, Mary J. b. May 1872
HILL COUNTY
SELF, James W b. May 1837, laborer for Will White
HOUSTON COUNTY
BROOKS, G. R.
SELF, Clinton b. Mar. 1891 (grandson)
SELF, Fannie b. Nov. 1845
Jonnie S. b. 1879
Rony C. b. 1882
Henry J. b. Feb. 1887
SELPH, George W. b. Sep. 1835
Lavina b. Mar. 1841
Nancy E. b. Sep. 1873
James J. b. Aug 1875
William b. May 1877
ROGERS, James
SELF, Howell J. b. Sep. 1878 (nephew)
SELF, Jack b. Nov. 1850
Bonnie b. Aug. 1867
Cleveland b. Mar. 1887
Willa b. Dec. 1888
Marnie b. July 1890
Manda b. Dec. 1894
Pauline b. Aug. 1896
ROOKS, J. B.
SELF, Lonnie b. May 1890 (grandson)
SELF, S. J. b. Apr. 1867
Mary b. Feb. 1876
William b. June 1877
Behethabel B. b. Apr. 1835
NOT ALL SELFS IN THE ABOVE COUNTIES HAVE BEEN LISTED YET
TO BE CONTINUED...
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LOUISIANA CENSUS RECORDS
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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 1997 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara A. Peck, All Rights Reserved
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