Clan Shaw Society announces 2004 annual awards
Named Clansmen of the Year are three first-year state conveners, Cynthia Shaw for Alaska, Sandra Shaw for Nova Scotia, and John Andrew Shaw for Virginia.  This is a reprise for Sandra in Nova Scotia, after a hiatus of several years.  Andrew has also recently assumed the duties of society quartermaster.
No one was named to the Order of the Dagger for this year.
Named to the Order of the Dirk, the society’s highest honor, are Richard A. Shaw, society trustee and long-term printer of the newsletter, and Jack Jungroth, long-term membership secretary.  Both had previously been named Clansmen of the Year and to the Order of the Dagger.
For further information on the Clan Shaw Society, contact William C. Shaw, Secretary, 1121 North Quail Lane, Gilbert, AZ 85233.

The ten most endangered battlefields in the nation?
The 10 most endangered battlefields in the nation, as compiled by the Civil War Preservation Trust are: 1.  Chancellorville, Virginia 2.  Fort Donelson, Tennessee 3.  Franklin, Tennessee 4.  Glendale, Virginia 5.  “The Hell Hole” (Pickett’s Mill, New Hope Church, and Dallas) Georgia 6.  Mansfield, Louisiana 7.  Morris Island, South Carolina 8.  New Bern, North Carolina 9.  South Mountain, Maryland 10.  Wilson’s Creek, Missouri
For more information, visit <www.civilwar.org>.
Thanks to WAGS Newsletter, Whittier Area Genealogical Society, PO Box 4367, Los Angeles County, Whittier, CA 90607-4367.

Here’s a little bit of this and that
When you need to research an ancestral town or city within the United States, a useful collection of data can be found at this web site. 
You’ll find maps, statistics, schools, libraries, airports, zip codes, area codes, and much more.  Select the state, then links to cities over 6000 residents, cities, towns and villages between 1000 and 6000, and to towns and villages with fewer than 1000 residents. 
Visit <www.city-data.com>.
Need a strategy for finding recent obituaries in another county or another state? 
This web site provides links to each state, then to a list of newspapers within that state.  Most newspapers include a searchable archive of obituaries, some going back four or five years. 
Visit <www.newspapers.com>.
Details of ancestors’ ships, passenger records, contemporary immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, and much more can be found on this unique web site. 
Visit <www.theshipslist.com>.
Check this comprehensive source for American political biography, political history, and cemeteries.  Currently 120,948 politicians, living and dead, are listed. 
Visit <www.politicalgraveyard.com>.
Thanks to  The Quarterly Newsletter of the Cleveland County Genealogical Society, 205 West Main, PO Box 6176, Norman, OK, 73070.

Speaking of old wive’s tales...
This one’s about quilting as collected and contributed by Donna Benedict.
1.  Unmarried boys and girls gathered around a new bridal quilt and tossed a cat on it.  The person closest to where the cat landed would be the next married.
2.  If a girl has not made a quilt by the time she is 21, no man will want to marry her.
3.  Using the marriage symbols of hearts, cupids, doves or love knots on a quilt before the girl was officially engaged was to court spinsterhood or a broken engagement.
4.  A vine or cable appliqued or quilted along the border of a bride’s quilt must not be broken, because a break in the design foretold a marriage marred by tragedy or a life cut short by disaster.   
Our thanks to Rootdigger, a publication of the Marion County Genealogical Society, PO Box 1206, Ocala, FL 34478-1206.

Online access to Scots Wills for first time now available
The final wills and testaments of some of Scotland’s most famous and influential figures have been made available online for the first time. 
Every known will and testament written in Scotland from 1500 to 1901 is featured on the Scottish Archive Network (Scan) website <www.scan.org.uk). It includes those of Rob Roy, Robert Burns, David Livingstone, Robert Louis Stevenson, and James Young Simpson, the pioneer of anaesthesia. 
Archivists at the National Archives of Scotland, who are behind the new site, hope it will help thousands of professional and amateur historians all over the world to find out more about their family histories. Source:  Palmetto & Thistle, Scots-American Society of Brevard, PO Box 3325, Melbourne, FL 32902-3325.

She sold doilies
As a new bride, Aunt Edna moved into the small home on her husband’s ranch near Snowflake.  She put a shoebox on a shelf in her closet and asked her husband never to touch it.
For fifty years Uncle Jack left the box alone, until Aunt Edna was old and dying. 
One day when he was putting their affairs in order, he found the box again and thought it might hold something important.  Opening it, he found two doilies and $2,500 in cash. 
He took the box to her and asked about the contents. “My mother gave me that box the day we married,” she explained.  “She told me to make a doily to help ease my frustrations every time I got mad at you.” 
Uncle Jack was very touched that in fifty years she’d only been mad at him twice.
“What’s the $2,500 for?” he asked.  “Oh, that’s the money I made selling the doilies,” she answered.
Thanks to MOCG Newsletter, Mission Oaks Genealogy Club, PO Box 216, Carmichael, CA 95609-0216.

You may subscribe to the new, free electronic newsletter from the Allen County Library
The Allen County Public Library Historical Genealogy Department in Fort Wayne, Indiana is pleased to announce their electronic newsletter, Genealogy Gems: News from the Fort Wayne Library.
Each month learn about new collections, department special events, source highlights, new acquisitions, websites, and much more!  Learn what is going on in the Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library.
We will keep you up to date on our outstanding temporary location, where the books are on open stacks, available for your perusal.  Information about the construction at the old library site, and our plans for moving back in 2-3 years will also be included.
To subscribe to this mailing list, send a message with ACPL NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to <kspears@acpl.lib.in.us>. 
You will NOT receive a confirmation message; you will just begin to receive the newsletters, which are scheduled to be published approximately once a month. There is no fee for the newsletter.
For more information, please call or write to Sue Kaufman, Librarian, Allen County Public Library, Historical Genealogy Department, PO Box 2270, 200 E. Berry, Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270, or phone 260-421-1225.