My name is Crystal Kimsey, daughter of William (Bill) A. Smith. My dad fired the last steam engine in the State of Georgia and there was an article that came out in the Savannah newspaper. Because he is very ill, we wanted to locate the article, which also has a photo of that steam engine, and have it framed for him. Can you please help me? I believe the time frame was between 1956 and 1960. Whatever you can do, I would greatly appreciate it.

Crystal Kimsey
msga80@wildblue.net

Can anyone here help this person?

The Savannah Morning News main telephone number is 912-236-9511.

dave

I almost hesitate to get involved with this one for fear of being seen as some sort of unfeeling wet blanket towards the plight of widows and orphans, but Dave is actually on the right track here. Messages like the one posted at the outset of this thread are all over the Internet, and frankly, about eighty percent of them are part of a phishing scam of some sort.

Think about it. If there really was an article about her father, a simple telephone call to the local newspaper (The Savannah Morning News) would get her to someone in the newspaper's morgue, and a copy of the article could be obtained, perhaps for a small fee, from there. If they no longer have a copy of the story, they can refer her to the historical library with their back issues on microfilm or some other such medium. The entire premise of the supposed email is suspect.

This is not a new scam. Just last week I received a similar message from someone purporting to be seeing information on her "father" about his military service in Vietnam. The "daughter," it is always from a daughter or widow, wanted to find some of his old buddies, and had my name from some ancient list or other because I supposedly served with his old unit during the proper time period. I did not answer. Why? Well, first she gave the name of the unit incorrectly, and then there was the fact I had received virtually the same message about a month ago. The only differences were the names of the people involved, and the unit involved. The text was verbatim in both messages, and indeed is almost the same as the message posted here.

The scam artists of the Internet are out on phishing expeditions all the time in more ways than you can count. Lists of active email addresses are a valuable commodity, so they probe constantly, and in hundreds of ways, looking for someone to answer a message like this just to collect the fact the address is valid and active and the person connected to it fits a particular profile triggered by the subject matter of the message.

Do not make the mistake of thinking they would only find someone answering this message has an interest in railroads. An answer to it also shows the person is a soft touch for emotional pleas (good for sale to charities), the person has an interest in history (good for sale to magazine and book publishers), the person has the time to become involved (good for sale to purveyors of liesure activities), and a host of other things too numerous to mention here. These psychological levels of these profiles are much more sophisticated than you can imagine.

The real harm here is the destruction of trust. I can ignore any spam this sort of thing might generate, but the method overshadows any real and honest plea for help out there. That hurts all of us.

I was not aware of this level of sophistication for collecting email addresses, but did suggest she contact the newspaper first. The person has not replied yet, so it may well be a scam. Most of the spam I receive offers Rolex watches, Christian mortgages, or is just jibberish. Penis enlargement offers seem to have dropped off. I guess some people don't have much to do. And they think we're geeks....?

Since we are speaking of phishing methods to obtain email addresses, I thought I'd pass along one I'm familiar with because it happened to my email. There is an email virus out there that causes a phony address to pop up when someone hits reply to your email. The reply then goes into cyber-limbo, and the scam artists have another email address. I have seen this pop up frome time to time on MSN and Hotmail, and the anti-virus programs don't seem to phase it. So, if you are replying to an email, even if it is from someone you know well, watch the return address. If it comes up different from the address you received the email from, do not reply. Send a separate message instead. Otherwise, you will get a lot of unsolicited "stock tips" and gift card offers.

While the possibility of such a "phishing" expedition may well be about, I would not be so quick to dismiss out of hand the nature of this inquiry.

Go to any seemingly authoritative source of railroad information--the national NRHS library in Philadelphia, the state railroad museums, the NRHS information query website form, the R&LHS, or anything comparable--and you will most likely find that 80% or better of the inquiries are related to genealogical searches. They range from the amazingly detailed ("My great-grandfather Cornelius P. Leghorn, known on the railroad as 'Crusty', was an engineer out of what is now Rice Yard in Waycross, Georgia on the ACL from 1936 to 1942 when he transferred to the AB&C because of a supervisor who hated him....") to the ridiculously scattershot ("I had a great-great uncle or something who worked as a trolleyman in Maryland; his last name was Smith or Smythe; where can I find out about him?").

Genealogical books encourage searchers to employ as scattershot a search technique as possible. The general idea seems to be to find work records that can indicate information about a deceased relative. Unfortunately, many searchers with little else to do attempt just that, with the mistaken belief that state museums hold the total employment records of a state's railroads. The stock answer is to attempt to refer the searchers to the state archives and/or the Railroad Retirement Board. The manpower also just isn't there to search for specific names throughout available resources, although once in a long, long time we run into the moral equivalent of someone who literally asks about their ancestor John Luther Jones, who apparently worked on the Illinois Central and died in a wreck in Mississippi in April 1900........

As for the person who seemed clueless enough to not approach the newspaper first about that photo/alleged newspaper appearance? From the people I've heard from here and there, never underestimate the cluelessness of some people.

Umm . . .

Errr . . .

Nah, too easy.

;)

JAC

John, you are truly sick (although that is a quality I admire.......)

Hi Bob,
I would never consider you a Geek
Andrew

I am not sure why Savannah would have a story covering the Gainesville Midland's last steam trip. It would have been September 19, 1959. 203 and 301 double headed the last Gainesville Midland steam run.

HOWEVER, the last steam powered run of mainline SG steam was probably circa 1991. Just before NS crashed and burned.

TVRM runs steam in NW Georgia a few times a year. So the last run was 2006 <grin>

Photos of 203 and 301 are available from several places on the web. Frequently on e-Bay. I found many sources for them for my Gainesville Midland Book including the Georgia State Archives.

Doug vV

Personal knowledge. Have just been informed that this was on the Southern (ex CG) - young lady in question has been connected with the last forman of the Southern operations here in Savannah - (I work for this man's son). The gentleman had photos of the trip, a ticket stub, and other memoribilia he had saved that he shared with the young lady asking the question, and did not remember Mr. Smith till hearing his nickname...then recalled him clearly. She may have meant "Central of Georgia" rather than "State of Georgia", I don't know.

My boss remembers riding on this trip as a child. So, William "Dingey" Smith got reconnected with some memories.

Amazing how paranoid we've all gotten.

Rudd in Savannah.

Remember, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you..........................:)