Society Saturday – April 24 Reunion SIG Meeting

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

Last month's April 24 meeting of the Reunion SIG, consisting of two different presentations, addressed a variety of subjects pertaining to the Reunion software on the Macintosh. Unlike the more formal lecture format of the general meeting, this SIG meeting features a question and answer format that fosters a lot of discussion. Occasionally the discussion moves a bit further afield addressing general genealogical topics. For example, the second presentation at this meeting profiled the HistoryGeo.com website providing historical land ownership information.

April 24 meeting with Ron Setzer leading the discussion. Photo provided by Richard Hanson

Background: In 2011, a special interest group (SIG) was established by the Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society for users of the genealogy database software package called Reunion. It meets 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every fourth Wednesday at the Sacramento FamilySearch Library. The next meeting is scheduled for May 22. Group leader is Ron Setzer. Email Ron if you'd like to be added to the group's email distribution list.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.
Click here for details.

Root Cellar's May 15 Workshop Meeting

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

Fifteen people attended yesterday's workshop meeting. Photo provided by Richard Hanson.

Chaired by Root Cellar President John Jay, the meeting started with John scheduling mini-presentations on source documentation support by genealogy database programs. One per meeting will be presented by volunteers over the next several months. A presentation on Flip-Pay will also be done. The remainder of the meeting was an open forum for questions, announcements and discussions. Topics included Lulu.com, poster-sized pedigree charts, DNA matching, Heritage Quest, "Family Tree" on HBO, some brick walls and the hazards of walking in a rural Pennsylvania cemetery. The person planning that trek received warnings about ticks and chiggers along with solutions involving wearing dog flea collars and putting cone collars around the ankles.

This Workshop is a small-group meeting of the Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society. It meets 1 to 3 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month at Sylvan Community Center, 7521 Community Drive, Citrus Heights, California. It is a self-help group that addresses a wide variety of topics and frequently includes mini-presentations. Attendees are invited to describe their recent discoveries, successes and to seek help with their brick walls. The group leader is Root Cellar President John Jay. For meeting dates, see the events calendar on the Root Cellar website.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.
Click here for details.

Tech Tuesday – Calendar Juggling

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

When it comes to accurately documenting the comings and goings of our ancestors, nothing is simple – not even dates. That was aptly illustrated by John Jay's May 9 presentation described in yesterday's Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society blog. Not only have there been different calendars, but the Gregorian calendar in use today was adopted at different times in different locations. Historic calendars include Julian, French Republican, Hebrew, Islamic, Persian and Chinese.

General information about multiple calendars:

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

http://www.answers.com/topic/gregorian-calendar

Calendar conversion calculators:

http://www.rosettacalendar.com

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

http://calendarhome.com/converter/

One issue that came up during the discussion was the extent to which our genealogy database software supports calendar conversions. I use the Reunion software (Macintosh). After researching this issue using their online help and support forums, I found that Reunion does not do calendar conversions. But it does support custom dates.

Reunion custom date entry box. Screen captured by Richard Hanson.

Reunion stores both the entered custom date and the corresponding Gregorian value. But many users say that there is a better approach. Enter the Gregorian value into the database date field. Then enter into the associated notes field the original unconverted date plus the name of the calendar.

Readers of this blog, do you know how your genealogy database software handles the multiple calendar problem? Please check your software's online help and post your results here as a comment.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.
Click here for details.

Root Cellar's May 9 Meeting

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society's May pre-meeting started at 6:30 p.m. with a half-hour presentation by John Jay on the topic Calendar Confusion - How the 1752 Calendar Change Can Impact Your Family History Research. His talk described calendar changes starting in the Middle Ages and extending through the 20th Century, all such changes being location-specific. This brought up the issue of to what extent are these calendar changes supported by our genealogy software. Watch for future blogs that follow up on this software issue.

Annual business meeting. Photo provided by Richard Hanson.

At 7 p.m. John Jay hosted the annual business meeting. He introduced the slate of candidates, described the new digital ballot submission process (PDF form ballots created by Ron Setzer and being tabulated by Glenda Lloyd) and gave a status report on the Pension Records War of 1812 project fundraising by Root Cellar.

Presentation by Jim Rader. Photo provided by Richard Hanson.

The general meeting program, Old Online Genealogy Books Online, was presented by Jim Rader. He described the the tools and techniques necessary get the most out of the current and upcoming digital book resources posted the Internet. He also illustrated the importance of old books as a source of family history information.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.
Click here for details.

Saturday Society - Who's Who in Vegas at NGS

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner Benward

 

 

 So who showed up....... these are only a few of the Root Cellar SGS members and society friends

Dick Eastman blogging as he listens.[ I need to learn how to do that]

Lois

 

 

Beth

Barbara and  Billie

 

 

Tammy came in for Saturday to attend the special all day Ancestry,com Day [she and her husband are on their way to Disneyland for a few days. Have a ball1]

Lynne Roberts having a great time.

 

Ingeborg Carpenter representing the Sacramento German Genealogy Society at their booth

Kim vonAspern Parker (RC member and blogger)  and Kim Cotton (officical blogger out of the bay area)

 

Kathy a new friend from Sacramento. She is not a member but a supporter of Root Cellar.... using our library at the CA State Archives and she attends Root Cellar Spring Seminar. [she is considering membership] Hello Kathy.

Pat, a new friend also from Sacramento and a future member (September). She just moved to Sacramento, and decided to attend this conference. She sent Root Cellar an email wondering if anyone from the Root Cellar was attending. The email was forwarded to me here and we finally connected, Welcome to Sacramento via Las Vegas and we look forward to getting to know you this coming year.

 

James Baker (Sacramento German Genealogy Society, attended but no picture- sorry.

Katherine Doyle (California Genealogical Society in Oakland - official blogger) no pic - sorry 

 

I know I missed a lot of others, sorry, it was crowded, a well attended conference-

WELL OVER 1600!! plus more because Saturday had the special Ancestry Day all day program and Saturday was also Kids Camp..... 

 

 

Sandra Gardner Benward signing off- it has been fun!

 

Looking ahead, are you going to the Southern California Jamboree, Burbank in June?

They are having a special day of DNA. I think it is a must attend event.  

 

Also coming up, Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference, Fort Wayne Indiana in August. This is the home of the second largest library in the country - Allen County Library. This is also a must attend conference. They have an entire track on just helping societies.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.

Click here for details

Last Day in Las Vegas at the NGS Conference

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward

 

As an official blogger at the Conference there are some perks from time to time and one of those perks was this morning.........  a free breakfast sponsored by MyHeritage.com. The problem of course is that the breakfast is at 7am,,,,,,,, the sun wasn't even up then?  FYI: All official conference bloggers were invited so you can assume that there is going to be some type of  special announcement that can be blogged,or tweeted out.

 

YES you guessed it that is what It was. AND you are hearing this for the first time

 

...and YES I am wearing my Root Cellar name badge - always. Great ice breaker and again I made two new contacts from people at this conference- just from wearing it. I really get a lot of compliments on it and want to know where they can get one for themselves and for their organization. I sure wish I had an answer for them

 

 

...............drum roll please

 

MyHeritage.com has added a NEW feature meet the RECORD DECTECTIVE...  a breakthrough technology that will save you time with your family history research. It is smart, reliable, and unlike anything else. For every record you find, it'll identify other records and people linked to it. It finds this new information from searching billions of records, in seconds. It gives you links to the related records and family trees. It's extremely accurate, so you can trust the information and sources. As they say "Let the Record Detective turn your dead ends into new leads at MyHeritage  I am really excited about and can hardly wait to try it out for real when I get home. Try it!!  Did you know that there is a Mobile App - build your family tree and research on the go. Perfect for family get-togethers.

 

 

Another great day but sure was dragging at the end......

 

Session 1- "How Genealogical Societies Can Provide a Meaningful for their Distant Members" presented by David. I am always drawn to the sessions that are geared to help society's. David Rencher is very passionate about helping all societies. He wants them to succeed and thrive, make the changes they need to make in order to survive. This session really dealt with "What benefits do members receive that live a distant a way" But what about members that live close by but because of health OR other commitments are not able to make the meetings and some activities. How are we as an organization supporting them. Do you have a board that only meets face to face or do you allow distant members to run for an office or be on the board? How about having virtual board meetings so that distant members could participate in. How do you determine what services to provide to your members and how do you gather that information. There is something to be said to reevaluate your goals, mission statement and services every few years.

 

Session 2- "Using Emmigrant Guides for Genealogical Records" presented by Julie Miller. Julie is an extremely active member of NGS and was awarded the "Shirley Langdon Wilcox Award for Exemplary Volunteerism. The list of accomplishments were pages long. She is a go getter, patient, and very nice.  You would need to Google, Bing etc "emigrant guides" sometimes called travel guides. Apparently they have been around since the 1600's.Little booklets giving complete information about an area, and why you should move there, giving the weather, land, and whatever else is important for people to know.  Very interesting. I'll be keeping an eye out for these.

 

Session 3- "Pinterest - a Visual Tool for Genealogists" presented by Jennifer Crowder Daugherty. Yes, another social media website. I am told it is the third most popular website behind Facebook and Twitter. I am signed on, but not feeling the excitement yet. I will keep trying. If we can figure it out, it could be a great place to tell our story (Root Cellar) in pictures.   

 

National Genealogical Society GenTech Luncheon with the Ancestry Insider "The Future of Family History- According to You"......  how fun!!  Our speaker was 'Ancestry Insider' (Blogger) It was an interactive discussion of what we would like to see changed, improved, deleted, with Ancestry and FamilySearch, Very interesting ideas. 

 

 

 

Session 4- US Immigration and Naturalization presented by  Hal Bookbinder. We totally went over the progression of laws on Immigration and Naturalization over the years to current times. He used a family case study to show the different documents in the time frames they lived in. You really need to know the history of these things in order to know how to research for your ancestors. 

 

Session 5- "Face Recognition and Photo Tagging for Genealogy Research" with David Horowitz with MyHertiage.com.  Looks like it is my time with MyHeritage.com. Seems I have spent quite abit of time with them this conference. It is not a bad thing.  David has one these presentations in our area in the past so this is not the first or second time I have heard the information. But it is always fun to hear about.

It gets me excited about going back and trying it again. Things have improved over the years. (I believe Sammie is really into it and can lend some experience if someone has questions about the program.) And of course like I said earlier, there is an APP for this too. To get the most out of the program, you sign on, (FREE), upload a gedcom of your family tree or a branch of it. Now start uploading family pictures into one folder probably labeling it Family. And let the program do it's job with face recognition. Best to start with pictures that are directly on the face and only one person in the picture and it would be best if they were pictures of the family members you know for sure. Let the program learn your family and then upload group pictures and the 'mystery' pictures.  Good Luck 

 

THE END

 

I have ordered my shuttle for the morning. Called up my boarding pass for the morning. Packed my bags and will be ready to go too early to even think about. I am exhausted and need to come home to catch up on my sleep and then try out all these wonderful resources I have learned about.

 

 NITE all!

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.
Click here for details.

Friday Genealogy Slots In Las Vegas - NGS Day 3

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner Benward

 

 

Step Right Up, Pull the Arm and Take Your Chances!!

Yes, we are still in Las Vegas - a city open 24/7

 

 

Add another great day in Las Vegas (actually deep inside LVH & Casino - no daylight, no windows and no clocks - yes no clocks What is that all about?

I did forget to mention that just inside the Exhibit Hall there is a Press/Blogger area set up with connections and plugins. WHOOOPE'Y!! I am here a little early this morning so I had the place to myself for a while. A little piece of quiet sofor a few more minutes and then the Exhibit Hall will officially open.

              Katherine Doyle blogger for California Genealogical Society/ Oakland  -blogging away.


1- "iGenealogy: There is an App for that" with Shamele Jordon (a second session with Shamele- same as the first - excellent) The list goes on and on. There really is an app for EVERYTHING (yes Jack for everything) Did you know that APP was the number one word for 2010? Yes it was only 2010 and now look what has happened. Little known facts for 2012: $18 billion spent on mobile apps for smartphones and tablets; 65% of mobile devices are using IOS (Apple); 127 minutes spent per day using apps compared to other consumption rates of 168 minutes watching TV, and 70 minutes surfing the internet.  Impressive and Scary tidbits of information. Check these apps out: Evernote, Time Machine, Wolfram Genealogy, Evernote, Lincolngrams (for those Lincoln buffs)

                  I know you can't see it but all the icons on this slide are all quilted. Just too cool.


2 "Going Nuclear: DNA Discoveries to Trace All Lines of Descent" with Debbie Parker Wayne- good speaker especially on such a dry subject. Well, it is dry to me. It was a very basic session on DNA- what is it, how it comes about. Very well done. I wish I had pictures of some of her slides. Just too good. She spoke about the three main DNA companies: FamilyTree DNA, 23andME, and AncestryDNA of course there are many others but these are the top three.  A lot of comparisons. FamilyTree DNA was the largest one but the other two are doing a lot of business and are catching up, but FamilyTreeDNA still has a LARGE DNA database.  Check it Out

Quick Lunch and time for the Exhibit Hall

 

Foot Prints lead you right to the NGS Booth

 

MyHeritage.com with computer stations set up for participants to sign in and try it out and ask questions, so you feel comfortable when you leave them .

 

Someone familiar - our own book vendor from our spring seminar- small world

 

 

One of the many Ancestry.com demo's - lots of computer stations set up to try it out.

 

You recognize FamilySearch.org.  Also giving lots of demo's.

 

 

Remember way back - indexing the 1940 US Census - FamilySearch is still set up and continues to introduce more people to indexing and the many projects that are ready to be indexed. Great way to start off and get your questions answered.

 

Are you still continuing to index? Marilyn, Glenda and Sandi are. Are you? Want to get started? Contact one of us and we will help you get started.

 

 

 

 

,,,,,,,,and from Sacramento - so far from home: Sacramento German Genealogy Society

Good Luck!... and a shout out to Shirley Reimer, now recovering from surgery.

 

And FamilyTreeDNA and Robert. So what do they wear under those kilts?

 

3- "Discovering Your Genetic Profile Finding the Heart of Your Ancestry Using DNA " with Ugo Alessandro Perego- Ugo has given several sessions at our own local Family History Center.... sorry I did not stay for this session, it was too basic, it is just after lunch, the room is warm and I needed something else......  so I jumped ship and went over to...........

4- "Treasures in the Records of the US Congress" with David Rencher........  good speaker. He made a presentation through a family case study using the records he found in the US Congress records. Very interesting. (our own Pat Johnson, Archivist at the Center for Sacramento History did a similar thing at Family History Day- Sacramento by picking a family from the Sacramento area and then following them through their life with all the different types of documents that are available at the Center. excellent way to show off and let people know what you have)

5- "New York's Census and City Directories: Linking Ancestral Records across Decennial Gaps" with Terry Koch-Bostic - good presentation of what resources are available in New State and  New York City. Good substitutes for the missing 1890 US Census is the City Directories. New York is also a state that did its own state census in  between the Federal Census starting in 1925. The best chart for availability of the New York state census in the NY State Library table of remaining county schedules by county, by year.

PARTY TIME....  6-7pm Cocktail Hour and then 7pm National Genealogical Society Banquet
 "Do You Think Anyone's Going to Watch This Show? Mark  Hall-Patton AND Lucky 13:A Modest Proposal Regarding Genealogy Grants and Pawn Stores" Megan Smolenyak-Smolenyak. 

                Hey, can't say much more, you know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and that's my story and I am sticking to it  ........  sorry!! Nite.

Shop and Support Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.

Click here for details.