SKU enews Fall 2009

Skinner Kinsmen Update – Fall 2009

Emails returned:
Chris Skinner: CJANDEESKINNER@aol.com

Francis Allen Skinner: fsk78897@bigpond.net.au

Hello to All!

You are receiving this email because at some point in time you have been involved with the Skinner Family Association website.

http://skinnerkinsmen.org

New website additions

For new website additions, please click on the “What’s New” link on the Skinner Family Association homepage.

http://skinnerkinsmen.org/files/whatsnew.html

Well, it certainly has been a while since I checked in with everyone. I hope you all had a great summer and are planning to do a lot of research now that we’re all getting a bit snug to stay warm as fall and winter set in.

First: I would like to thank all of you who have been clicking through the Skinner Kinsmen website (http://skinnerkinsmen.org/files/support.html) when you make purchases at Amazon.com. For every dollar you spend, Amazon.com gives us .03c. Doesn’t sound like much, but it sure adds up even when 10 people spend $25 in a month. That brings in half the amount it costs to keep the Skinner Kinsmen website up! If we can double that to 20 people, we’ve got enough each month to keep Skinner Kinsmen online! So, with holiday shopping coming up, please think about modifying your Amazon.com favorites link to connect through the link at the Skinner Kinsmen website (http://skinnerkinsmen.org/files/support.html). It does not add any cost to your purchases! An easy way to help keep Skinner Kinsmen online!

Next: We’re on Facebook! If you’re on Facebook, be sure to ‘Join” Skinner Family Association. Key in “Skinner Family Association” in the Facebook search box. Let’s see how many Skinner relations we can get to join. Estimates indicate there are over 2 million in the USA. Maybe we can beat Ashton Kutcher if we get in all Skinners and Skinner descendants worldwide!

Skinner Files on Ancestry.com

A couple of months ago I had this great idea to put the Skinner Kinsmen files up on Ancestry.com (A.c). My though was that there were so many “hints” that could be incorporated into the data files just by “clicking on the green leaf” which made it unnecessary to transcribe the data into the files I currently have, then create the online files, then upload them to the Skinner Family Association online data base, then hope they get cataloged by the Yahoo search engine.

So, I began uploading a few of the files, and gave them the initials SFA. So, if you’re on Ancestry.com and do a search, you might see that the information on a person is from the SFA John Skinner of Georgia file, or the SFA Britton Skinner (1763- ) file. Trouble is that there are a LOT of people who are researching Skinners in Ancestry.com. As such, hundreds of little green leaves started popping up all over the place! Having worked with the Ancestry.com Family Tree hints for a number of years, I have found that they might not be entirely accurate. As a “precaution” I am only connecting historical documents to those people that I am getting hints for.

I would like your opinions pro or con on using the Ancestry.com as a place to “store” the Skinner Kinsmen data rather than at the website. Do you think it’s a good/bad idea, and why?

My first concern was the ability to access the data, although one can do searches without a paid account. However, without a paid account, one can’t see the green leaf hints that are provided. On the other hand, it seems as if there are so many people on Ancestry.com that it’s a feasible place for us to store our data. Unfortunately, no, I don’t get any kind of a kickback from Ancestry if someone subscribes to their service.

So, please, let me know your thoughts and I’ll present your responses in an upcoming enewsletter. Thanks!

Next: Very, very slowly I have been trying to scan in all of the paper data that I have collected over the last 30 years. Quite a collection in the file cabinet! I received most of that data when we were doing the paper copy of Skinner Kinsmen Update. Usually, it had some kind of documentation attached to it. As such I am trying to include the documentation when I put something into the A.c files. It’s a long, slow process, so I sure have something to keep me busy when I retire. Of course, that won’t be for a while yet. One page at a time!

My Legutk- Project

I have been trying to split my time between Skinner stuff and Legutki stuff. Not to rest on one project at a time, I am trying to collect all the Legutki, Legutko, Legutka, Legutke, Legutky and any other variant of the name from people who have accounts on Facebook. Then I am entering the data on A.c, as well as mapping them using Google maps. What a project that has turned out to be! I thought I could get that “done” in a couple of weeks, have a full chart of everyone, and move back to Skinner work. Was I wrong! I’m trying to keep things organized, but every time I get another record, two more show up. Does this sound typical? (http://sites.google.com/site/legutk/)

New and Returning

But, back to Skinner. I was very happy to receive some emails the past couple of months from someone new (to us) and famous, Aaron Skinner (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2576699/), actor extraordinaire who is eager to add his ancestry to our data banks, to old friends like Dorothy Jewel (Skinner) Martz who reconnected after quite a few years, to new friends like Barb Antonelli who is searching for her Skinner ancestors (Mercy Skinner, wife of Alexander McGregor)! Needless to say, I could never keep up with everything, so I just take the emails one at a time. I appreciate everyone’s patience!

We also want to welcome those who found our website and said hello, including:

Wallace, Alberta, Canada; Richard, Nova Scotia, CANADA; David, Naestved, Denmark; John, S. Yorkshire, England; James, County Cork, Ireland; Matthew, CA; Linda, FL; Terry, GA; Ashleigh, MS; Sandra, MD; Howard, AR; Donna, CA; Josh, CA; Louise, GA, Neta, KS; George, MD; Barbara, MI; Joyce, NC; Bonnnie, NY; Corwin, NY; Clarence, OH; Tony, OK; Derek, SC; Karen, TX; Warren, VA; Earl, WA; Kathelene, FL; Lynda, MI; Sandy, MI; Joanne, MO; Joyce, NC; Norman, OH; Rebecca, OH; Terry; Amy; Kathryn;

Website Survey

We’ve had 68 people complete the website survey in the last 6 months. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank those who took the time to respond. We always like to respond to those who also made specific comments:

Comment: “Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a thorough site. Do you have sourses for all of your info. What a wonderful collection you have pulled together. Did I say THANK YOU!!!” Response: We certainly appreciate comments like this, so thank you! As for the sources… In the most part, the sources for the posted material are listed below a person’s sheet in a “Notes” section. If there is no Notes section, one of two things are going on. 1. When the data was uploaded to the website, for one reason or another the Notes did not get included with the move. 2. When a person provided a GEDCOM file which was uploaded to the website as a file, the originator of the GEDCOM file did not source reference the material. In either case, just contact me (gregg@skinnerkinsmen.org) and I’ll see where the problem is. When doing so, please be sure to include the searched person’s name, as well as the url (ex: http://skinnerkinsmen.org/filename/file.htm) of the page on which you’re looking for information. I’ll be able to pinpoint the file directly with that information.

Comment: “It has not been updated in 3 years.” Response: Actually, the website is in a constant state up being updated. However, not every page gets updated on any regular basis. Many times a page that has static information may not be updated in years, while other pages are updated more often. If you find a page that you believe should be more current than the “Last Updated On…” indicates, please let me know (again, please include the url). I would hope that things don’t get too stale at the website.

Photos:

One question that seems to be asked with some regularity is about photographs at the website. For some reason, over the years that I was collecting Skinner data to create the original database and the online files, I never received too much in the way of photographs. As such, there was never too much in the way of photos to upload. If you have some photos that you’d like to include in the collection, or if you’d like to make them part of the Ancestry.com files, please let me know where they are how to access them. I’d be happy to have some pictures to include, either at the website or in the A.c data files.

DNA:
One of the projects I had on my list for 2009 but have not yet gotten around to doing is a DNA project. I guess it would be easiest to start off asking if anyone out there has had their DNA analyzed and added to any of the online databases? Perhaps we can find out for sure if Thomas Skinner of Malden is recently related to Richard Skinner of Woodbridge. Perhaps they are 2 of the supposed 5 brothers that came to America and went their separate ways!

Lastly: I want to thank everyone who sent in some clarification regarding the UK, Great Britain, England, etc. issue that I screwed up in the survey. I think that I have it right now. If not, please feel free to let me know. I am always open to constructive criticism.

Have a great Holiday Season and a great winter!

Gregg Legutki

http://skinnerkinsmen.org

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