Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - October 2008

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The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for October 2008 include:

** Saturday, October 4, 9:30 a.m. to around 3 p.m., Research Trip to SDGS Library in El Cajon. Car pools will leave the downtown Chula Vista parking garage at 9:30 a.m. and return by 3 p.m. We plan to be at the library between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., bring a lunch. Contact Randy Seaver (see below) for reservations.

** Wednesday, October 8, 12 noon, Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library -- CVGS Research Group meets in the Library Conference Room. We will review the latest genealogy news, share success stories and information, and discuss members research problems, and potential solutions, based on the collective knowledge and wisdom of the group.

** Wednesday, October 15, 12 noon, Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library -- CVGS Computer Group meets in the Library Computer Lab. We will visit some helpful genealogy web sites. This is an opportunity for those members who haven't used computers for genealogy research to practice with a mentor to guide them.

** Saturday, October 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library - CVGS Discover Your Family History Seminar in the Library Auditorium. Jean Wilcox Hibben, PhD, CG, will make three presentations -

*** Clue To Clue: Tracking a Family over Time and Miles;
*** John Adam Hollaender: Survivor;
*** Bringing Your Civil War Ancestor Back to Life: Songs & Stories of the War of the Rebellion.

There will be a light lunch (make your own sandwiches, fruit, veggies, cookies) provided at 12 noon (donations appreciated!).

** Wednesday, October 29, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library - CVGS Program Meeting in the Auditorium. After a brief business meeting, the featured speaker will by Peter Watry on "Images of America - Chula Vista."

On Monday afternoons (12 noon to 2 PM) - October 6, 13, 20 and 27 - Genealogy Table Talk with Dearl Glenn and John Finch in the Family Research section of the Chula Vista Civic Center Library. They are ready and willing to help people with their research, discuss a problem or success, or just tell stories.

The Chula Vista Civic Center Library is located at 365 "F" Street in Chula Vista - between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, midway between I-5 and I-805 (take the "E" Street exit from the freeways).

We welcome guests and visitors to our CVGS programs and events - if you are in the Chula Vista area and want to attend our events - please come and introduce yourselves. If you have questions, please email Randy at rjseaver@cox.net or phone 619-422-3397.

Monday, September 29, 2008

CVGS Research Trip to SDGS Library on Saturday 4 October

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society has a Research Trip to the San Diego Genealogical Library in El Cajon on Saturday, 4 October.

The SDGS Library is at 1050 Pioneer Suite E (go east on Interstate 8, off at Johnson Avenue, go north, turn right on Fletcher Parkway, then first left is Pioneer, it's on the left, park in the lot on south side of building, map and directions at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~casdgs/directions.shtml).

The SDGS Library has a good collection of surname and locality books and a good collection of periodicals. The library catalog is at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~casdgs/librarycatalog.shtml. On Saturday, October 4, the Family Tree Maker User Group will meet at 10 a.m. in the library conference room.

If you wish to carpool with the group, please let me know (rjseaver@cox.net). We will leave the Chula Vista parking garage at 9:30 a.m. (second level, midway between the Fuddruckers (south) and Marie Callender's (north) entrances. We will leave the library for our return to Chula Vista at about 2 p.m.

I need to know how many are going in the carpool. If you are going to drive yourself, please let me know so that I can tell them how many visitors from CVGS to expect. I need to know by Thursday this week!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"Internet Safety" by Tom Underhill

Tom Underhill, the founder of Creative Continuum, and writer of eight books, presented Internet Safety for Genealogists and Everyone Else to the Chula Vista Genealogical Society today at the program meeting held at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library. The summary of Tom's talk and his CV are here.

Tom's presentation was based on ideas and concepts found in his recent book (co-authored with Andy Pomeroy), Lock the Boogie Man Out of Your Computer. The talk was more than about genealogy research and personal computer use - it also focused on risk avoidance and Internet safety for all family members, including children. The talk included segments on understanding the danger, keeping your computer system up-to-date, computer location in the home, social networks and online dating guidelines, user passwords, understanding your browser, email security, and dealing with Instant Messaging (IM), texting, peer-to-peer (P2P) and cell phone images.

For me, the most useful segment was setting secure passwords - Tom recommended avoiding using names, birthdays, dates or easy words, and he recommended using letters, numbers and non-standard characters in one word that you can remember. His example was b0xc@r (where the "o" is a "zero" and the "a" is an ampersand). Then have a unique password for every web site based on your "secret word" by combining it with the web site. For instance a password for http://www.dell.com/ might be b0xc@rdell and for http://www.blogger.com/ might be b0xc@rblogger. That sounded pretty easy to me. Now for a secret word to remember...

His warnings about Internet browsing was to understand how popups work, and to not click on them. For email, he advised that you not open attachments, and be very wary of email from banks and web sites that might be scams or hoaxes. You should keep your operating system, browser, and email software up-to-date. He pointed out that most anti-virus software is reactive, not proactive.

Tom recommended that parents reserve the right to check all emails and messages to and from their children (and do it), and that the family computer be placed in an open area where everybody can see who is using it and what they are seeing online.

All in all, this was an excellent program for everyone with a computer and children (or grandchildren). Tom has five children, so he has lots of experience in dealing with these issues. His book expands on the issues, and many more, that he discussed here.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Index to Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850 - Volume II: Surnames A and B

The Southern California Genealogical Society published three volumes of the work by Marie E. Northrop titled Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850 (Published by Southern California Genealogical Society, Burbank, California. Volume I - 435 pages. Volume II - 396 pages. Volume III - 525 pages). A description of the work by Northrop, and researchers before and after her, are here.

The index for Volume I is here.

The families in Volume II with surnames starting with A and B are:

Volume II - A Surnames:

page 1 - Jose Abrego (1812-1878)

page 2 - Jose Maximo Alanis (1761-1851)

page 4 - Francisco Maria Alvarado (1817-1860)
page 5 - Mariano Alvarado (18181-1859)
page 7 - Ysidro Maria Dolores Alvarado (1811-1903)

page 8 - Asencio Alvarez (????-????) m. ca. 1785
page 9 - Juan Pedro Alvarez (1760-1828)

page 11 - Jose del Carmen Arana (1758-????)

page 12 - Jose Prudencio Arangura (????-????) m. 1700's

page 12 - Joseph Ygnacio Archuleta (1754-1817)

page 13 - Manuel Ramirez Arellano (1742-1800)

page 14 - Bruno Ignacio Avila (1788-????)

page 16 - Jose Calixto Ayala (1763-????)
page 18 - Jose Crisogono Dolores Ayala (1793-1866)
page 20 - Jose Maria de la Asencion Ayala (1808-????)
page 21 - Juan Pablo de los Santos Ayala (1803-????)

Volume II - B Surnames

page 22 - Juan Lorenzo Bruno Bandini (1800-1859)

page 25 - Francisco Xavier Beltran (1744-1808)

page 25 - Jose Canuto Boronda (1792-1882)
page 27 - Jose Manuel Boronda (1750-1825)
page 29 - Jose Manuel boronda (1803-1878)

page 31 - Juan Antonio Maria Botiller (????-????) m 1774
page 32 - Jose Joaquin Botiller (1786-1849)
page 33 - Jose Vicente Botiller (1814-1863)

page 34 - Jose Antonio Briones (1739-????)

page 35 - Jose Manuel Bustamente (1752-1816)

Monday, September 22, 2008

CVGS Program on Wednesday - Tom Underhill on "Internet Safety"

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The next Chula Vista Genealogical Society program meeting is Wednesday, September 24th at 12 noon at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library. After a brief business meeting, the guest speaker will be Tom Underhill, who will speak on "Internet Safety."

The program summary:

" 'Internet safety? I’m only using Google, eBay and Ancestry.com!' Make this class a priority and learn the top 12 Internet safety faux pas and how to avoid them. While this class could save your life, I guarantee it will help protect your identity and it definitely will save you time and frustration."

Tom's curriculum vitae:

"Tom Underhill is the publisher and senior designer at Creative Continuum, a book design and publishing company specializing in high-quality, short-run books. During the last several years, Tom and his company produced more than 375 family history heirloom books, printed more than 9.5 million pages and scanned more than 10,000 photographs.

"Tom is the author of eight books including Lock the Boogie Man Out of Your Computer, an easy-to-follow checklist to online security. This fun-to-read book presents methods to stay safe on the Internet."

Please join us for this free meeting. Guests and visitors are welcome at all CVGS meetings. We request that you enter via the Conference Room door near the East entrance of the library in order to register, gather handouts, buy an opportunity drawing ticket and have a snack. We will start the meeting in the auditorium at 12:20 p.m.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Online Library Newspaper Databases

While at the CVGS Computer Group on Wednesday, I decided to check which newspapers are in Library Databases at the Chula Vista Public Library. These newspapers are also accessible from home - you don't have to be in the library to access these records.

The Chula Vista Public Library has the following newspaper databases in digital format (either images or transcribed) on the Internal Databases list:

1) Newsbank (20 sources) - including:

* Al Dia (Dallas) - 9/29/2003 to present
* Arizona Republic (Phoenix) - 1/1/1999 to present
* Arlington (TX) Morning News (Arlington TX) - 4/1/1996-1/12/2003
* Boston Globe - 12/12/1979 to present
* Chicago Tribune - 1/1/1985 to present
* Chicago Tribune Red Eye - 10/23/2002 to present
* Dallas Morning News - 8/12/1984 to present
* Denver Post - 6/1/1989 to present
* La Opinion (Los Angeles) - 4/1/2000 to present
* Las Vegas Review-Journal - 9/29/1996 to present
* New York Post - 11/21/1999 to present
* New York Times Book Review - 1/2/2000 to present
* New York Times Magazine - 1/2/2000 to present
* New York Times - 1/1/2000 to present
* Orange County Register (Santa Ana CA) - 1/1/1987 to present
* Quick DFW (Dallas TX) - 11/10/2003 to present
* San Diego Union-Tribune - 12/5/1983 to present
* San Francisco Chronicle - 1/1/1985 to present
* Seattle Times - 1/1/1985 to present
* Washington Post - 1/1/1977 to present

2) San Diego Union-Tribune

* San Diego Union - 12/5/1983 to 1/31/1992
* San Diego Evening Tribune - 12/5/1983 to 1/31/1992
* San Diego Union-Tribune - 2/1/1992 to present

3) Chula Vista Star-News -- 1938 to 1969, not complete.

4) New York Times

One reason to use these online databases is to be able to search for key words, or by dates or type of news that have been indexed.

The Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library has the following newspaper records on Microfilm (in file cabinets along the West Wall near the community computer stations). You can use the microfilm reader near the file cabinets.

* San Diego Union - 1/1/1973 to 1/31/1992
* San Diego Tribune - 1/1/1990 to 1/31/1992
* San Diego Union-Tribune - 2/1/1992 to present

* Otay Press - 1889-1890
* Chula Vista Star and Star-News -- 1930 to present

* New York Times - 1977 to 2002.

The library also has microfiche of the San Diego Union newspaper card file index that covers the years 1868-1902, 1930 to 1975, and 1976 to 1980. This microfiche set is in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet containing the more recent Chula Vista Star-News microfilm boxes.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

United States City Directories

City directories may be one of the most under-utilized resources for genealogy researchers. Why? Because they are usually held only in local repositories. And very few have been digitized or transcribed and are online in a searchable index.
However, some of them are available in online databases or regional repositories.

The web site http://www.uscitydirectories.com/ provides lists - by state and city, of city directories that are available at major repositories, like the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the National Archives, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and several other repositories. The repositories listed on the web site include:

* Alabama Department of History
* Brigham Young University
* Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library; TN
* Colorado State Archives
* Columbus-Lowndes Public Library; Columbus, MS
* Excelsior Springs Historical Museum; Missouri
* Family History Library
* Flint Public Library; Michigan
* Grand Rapids Public Library; Michigan
* Idaho State Historical Society
* Kansas State Historical Society
* Kentucky Historical Society
* Library of Congress
* Logan Library; Utah
* Lyon County Historical Archives; Kansas
* Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society Library, Wichita, KS
* Minnesota State University; Mankato
* Monterey Family History Center; Seaside, CA
* National Archives
* Tennessee State Library and Archives
* Texas State Library
* University of Utah
* Washington Memorial Library; Macon, GA
* Wyoming State Archives

There is an opportunity for local societies to submit lists of city directories from local repositories not on the above list. See the submission page at http://www.uscitydirectories.com/submit.htm.

www.Ancestry.com has a number of City Directories available online - check the Directories and Member Lists here. I found that they had Leominster, Massachusetts (my father's home town) City Directories from 1880 to 1963 (not every year, but a great selection).

In the case of the LDS Family History Library, they often have the city directories on microfilm listed in the Family History Library Catalog. For instance, the FHLC has City Directories for Leominster, Massachusetts from 1883 to 1935, with two to six directories on each film. I could order these films at the local Family History Center (FHC) for about $6 each and read them when they arrive at the FHC.

The FHLC also has the San Diego City Directories on microfilm from 1897 to 1935. Of course, the San Diego Public Library, the National City Public Library and the Chula Vista Public Library have nearly complete collections of San Diego City Directories up into the 1980's.

Many of the City Directories I've seen have an alphabetical listing of the residents and a reverse directory - with street-by-street address listings of the residents.

City Directories can provide clues to the persons living in a residence, their occupation(s), the address of the residence, whether they own or rent the residence, and their neighbors. Reviewing the City Directories over many years can provide a trace of the family as they moved from house-to-house and job to job. There may be listings or advertisements for the companies where the residents worked.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Index to Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850, Volume 1

The Southern California Genealogical Society published three volumes of the work by Marie E. Northrop titled Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850 (Published by Southern California Genealogical Society, Burbank, California. Volume I - 435 pages. Volume II - 396 pages. Volume III - 525 pages). A description of the work by Northrop, and researchers before and after her, are here.

The indexed names for families included in Volume I are here:

* Surnames A and B.

* Surnames C, D, E and F.

* Surnames G, H, I, J and K.

* Surnames L, M and N.

* Surnames O and P.

* Surnames Q, R and S.

* Surnames T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

CVGS Research Group Report - 10 September 2008

The September meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group was today at the Library. There were 14 attendees at this meeting, and they all had something to share. We started with a brief review of some of the Genealogy News highlights as discussed here.

Then we went around the table and each person shared their research efforts over the past month or so:

* John founds some interesting books on New Hampshire genealogy at Carlsbad Library. He has been researching his daughter-in-law's English family, and ordered two birth records through the FreeBMD service.

* Angie is working on the German and English ancestry of one great-grandmother, and the Spanish ancestry of her other great-grandparents. She found a census record for her grandfather.

* Joan has been searching for more newspaper articles from the 1915-1920 period for her mother-in-law. She passed around one clipping of Ann Darling (her stage name).

* Dearl has his new computer running, and has been reorganizing his paper files.

* Dave has been working in FTM 2008. He is trying to download a GEDCOM of his database on Ancestry so that he can use it in FTM 2008 without re-entry of data.

* Terry enjoyed the Carlsbad Library trip, where he got a library card. He has been working in HeritageQuestOnline trying to find census records. He made an Inter-Library Loan request to Oklahoma to find a newspaper article about his grandfather's accidental death.

* Bobbie has been trying to find immigration dates for her father's German Titus line. She went to a recent GRA meeting and asked the speaker for some help. He provided the name of another researcher in Germany, whose wife is Bobbie's distant cousin. They are exchanging information.

* Bob T asked where he might find records from Czech Republic and Hungary before 1910. He only knows his grandfather's birth date and approximate location. The group suggested checking message boards, the FEEFHS organization, and determine if the LDS FHLC has films for his localities.

* Olive just started doing research. She knew the name of one great-grandparent before she went to a family reunion and received information from a nephew with lots of ancestral information. She wanted to know how to effectively do genealogy research.

* Virginia took a trip to Indiana to visit the Allen County Public Library genealogy holdings (it's a big place, she said!) and found three books she was looking for. She then went to the Midwestern Roots Genealogy conference for two days and brought back a syllabus and several useful genealogy items, including a genealogy clipboard and a small ring notebook that holds foldout family group sheets.

* Dick has done a bit more on his aunt's military records, and is attending Judy Helton's weekly genealogy classes at Chula Vista Adult School.

* Charlotte had a long road trip across the USA. In Kentucky, she met a second cousin with a wealth of family photographs. The cousin's scanner died, so she will send images to Charlotte later. She and her cousin found that they had received similar dolls from two generations of grandmothers.

* Bob P. had a response to a message board post from 2001, and is working with his correspondent. He signed up for the $89 Y-DNA test on Ancestry DNA.

* Randy discussed his Carlsbad Library finds, and passed several copies around. He discussed his success finding an obituary on Google News Archive Search, and passed it around.

We had only one problem solving question: Bobbie has been looking for male Titus cousins to take part in a Y-DNA study. She has 1930 census data, and identified cousins, and their male children, in California, Arizona, Michigan and New Jersey. She has made two calls to cousins, provided family information to them, but they have not yet agreed to do the test. She's going to work on living male cousins in the other states. The group suggested www.veromi.net as the best people-finder site for living people.

Look at that list of 14 people and the variety of experiences, localities and research topics we talked about this month. The time went by extremely fast!

The CVGS Research Group meets every second Wednesday at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library. The group shares their experiences, passes around interesting and helpful documents for show-and-tell, and tries to help attendees solve their research problems.

Genealogy News Summary for September 2008

Here is the Genealogy News summary for September that we briefly discussed in the CVGS Research Group today (and emailed to the CVGS members):

1. INTERESTING GENEALOGY WEB SITES

a) http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames -- The Public Profiler site plots eight million last names using data from electoral rolls and phone directories. The site covers 300 million people in 26 countries, showing the origins of names and where families have moved to. The site also reveals which of the five million first names (forenames) are most closely associated with different surnames and lists the top regions and cities for each surname.

b) http://howmanyofme.com/search/ -- This site tells you how many people in the US share your first name, your last name, and your first-last names.

c) http://www.indgensoc.org/membersonly/ -- The Indiana Genealogical Society recently added its own collection of searchable databases. These databases are available to IGS members as a benefit of membership. The databases are searchable by first and last name, and include the ability to search by Soundex.

d) http://www.veromi.net/ -- On this "people-finder" site, you can search dozens of databases and billions of records in a single search to locate your subject. Our database is the same database used by the government and law enforcement. This is the best site I've found for finding living people.

e) http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History_Family/State_Genealogy.shtml -- Genealogy Resources, by State. Official information and services from the U.S. government.
f) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/ -- The National Archives of the United Kingdom has this site on Paleography to read old handwriting 1500 - 1800, with a practical online tutorial.

2. NEW GENEALOGY DATABASES

a) at http://www.ancestry.com/ - subscription site (US = $155.40, World = $299.40) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC (Institution with World databases) or Chula Vista Public Library (Ancestry Library Edition). Ancestry has over 7 billion names in over 26,300 databases. See new content at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx. New databases include:

** Colonial Virginia and Maryland genealogy anthologies
** North Dakota State Census 1915 and 1925
** Cook County (IL) birth (1916-1935), marriage (1930-1960) and death (1908-1988) indexes
** England and Wales Christening and Marriage Records (need UK subscription)
** Many Canada books (need Canada subscription)

b) http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ - subscription site (US = $49.95 for 2 years, World = $149.95) -- now available for FREE at the San Diego FHC. Over 10,700 databases, over 1.1 billion names. Recently added content is at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/recentcontentlisting.aspx. New items are FREE at WVR for 10 days. New databases include:

** More than 140 titles from Quinton publications: Many books in the collection are mid-western American records from Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and updates for Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and British records from Yorkshire, York, Surrey, and Yarmouth.
** Hundreds of books and manuscripts about Canada family history (needs a World subscription to access)

c) http://www.footnote.com/ - subscription site ($59.96 annual retail, $7.95 monthly) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC, they offer 7-day FREE trial. 405 Titles, over 43.8 million images, over 1 million free. Content list at http://www.footnote.com/documents.php. Information added this month includes:
** Confederate Soldiers compiled service records for Florida, Kentucky, Missouri
** Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 - the "Tan" Books (over 37,000 page images)
** Massachusetts Vital Records (1841-1895) Indexes
** Naturalizations for NY Southern, NY Eastern and Ohio Northern districts

d) http://www.genealogybank.com/ - subscription site (trial $9.95 for one month, $69.95 for 12 months). It has archives for over 2,500 U.S. newspapers in all 50 states, from the 1600s to the present day, with over 224 million family history records, over 28 million obituaries, more than 122 million historical newspaper articles, and more than 11,700 historical books.
** Added content from 87 newspapers in 25 states

e) http://www.findmypast.com/ - a UK subscription site (6 months 54.95 pounds, 12 months 89.95 pounds, also pay-per-view options) offers England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland databases (over 600 million names).
** 3.2 million Parish Records added - now over 18 million records

f) http://pilot.familysearch.org/ - the LDS FREE site for indexed and browsable databases -- new content includes:
** 1885, 1935 and 1945 Florida State censuses
** Norway baptisms, marriages and burials, 1700-1900
** West Virginia births, marriages and deaths

3. GENEALOGY EDUCATION

a) The Genealogy Guys Podcast celebrates its 150th episode this week! Co-hosts George G. Morgan and Drew Smith published the first episode of the weekly podcast at http://www.genealogyguys.com/ on 4 September 2005. Since that time, the free podcast has become the longest continuously running, regular podcast in the world.

b) The Corona Genealogical Society (CGS) is proud to announce their "2nd Annual Stones, Bones, and Ancient Tomes" Genealogy Event. This event is FREE and open to the public. A combination of presentations and displays, it will be held at the Corona Public Library, 650 S. Main St., Corona, California, on Saturday October 25, 2008.

c) Two genealogy related classes, taught by Pam Journey, are available at OASIS in the San Diego area - see the post at http://www.geneamusings.com/2008/08/genealogy-classes-at-san-diego-oasis.html

4. SOFTWARE

a) FamilyTreeMaker 2009 -- The Generations Network has released the Family Tree Maker 2009. The 2009 version includes many new features suggested by users as well as many new bug fixes. Registered owners of Family Tree Maker 2008 can obtain a free upgrade to the new version.

b) The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding Version 7.01.1 was announced and is now available on the v7 downloads page - http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php.

c) Legacy Family Tree, is now available in two new languages: Deutsch (German) and Svenska (Swedish). The software, used by beginners and professionals to record, plan, and share their family trees, is now the premier choice for German and Swedish researchers. Legacy is also available in Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and English editions - see http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/.

d) There are Family Tree Maker software deals at http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/ - see my post at http://www.geneamusings.com/2008/09/familytreemaker-deals-at.html.

e) A series of blog posts demonstrating use of FamilyTreeMaker 2008 is online at http://www.geneamusings.com/2008/08/using-familytreemaker-2008-summary-of.html

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS

a) ProQuest formed a partnership with Google to digitize hundreds of millions of pages of local newspaper content for the open web. The old newspapers which are now digitized will be accessible by searching the Google News Archive at http://news.google.com/archivesearch.

b) Ancestry was chosen to digitize and host City of London’s historical ‘London records’- the most comprehensive collection of historical London records, covering 500 years of the city’s history, from London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and Guildhall Library Manuscripts. It will take several years to digitize and index these records.

c) Ancestry.com launched the World Archives Project to Preserve and Provide Online Access to Historical Records. The World Archives Project is a global public indexing initiative designed to give individuals everywhere the opportunity to help preserve historical records. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) has partnered with Ancestry.com, enlisting genealogists and family history enthusiasts to help test the software and prepare it for a more public release.

d) Library and Archives Canada (LAC) announced the launch of a new online database -- Second World War Service Files: Canadian Armed Forces War Dead. Through this online database, researchers can access references to the service files in the Department of National Defence Forces (RG 24) for the members of the Canadian Armed Forces who lost their lives during this conflict. The database is available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/war-dead/index-e.html

e) General Register Office (GRO) of the United Kingdom declared the suspension of a major effort: the £16 Million (roughly $30 Million US Dollars) project to digitize 250 million records of births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales from 1837 to the present day.

f) A lineage society for Early Settlers of Spanish and Mexican Land Grants (ESSMLG) was formed. This is the first national lineage society that recognizes and preserves the contributions of the Spanish / Latino culture in the early settlement of the United States. Even before Jamestowne was founded and the Pilgrims landed, Texas and the southwestern U.S. were being explored. By the 1600s there was a rich Spanish culture in place. The early settlers of the southwestern U.S. included such diverse groups as Spaniards, Canary Islanders, French, Irish, English, Scots, Jewish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and Native Americans from both sides of the present day U.S.-Mexico border. See their web site - http://spanishgrants.com/

g) The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, and JewishGen, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching and promoting Jewish genealogy and an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, announced a partnership designed to provide easier online access to millions of important Jewish historical documents. JewishGen’s collection of databases will be integrated and be made available for free on Ancestry.com, making these historical Jewish records and information more accessible than ever before. As part of the agreement, the JewishGen site will also be hosted in Ancestry.com’s data center. To get a sneak peek of the Jewish collections that will be available on Ancestry.com, visit www.ancestry.com/JewishHeritage.

That's the news as I see it. What did I miss?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Index to Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850, Volume 1: Surnames T-Z

The Southern California Genealogical Society published three volumes of the work by Marie E. Northrop titled Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850 (Published by Southern California Genealogical Society, Burbank, California. Volume I - 435 pages. Volume II - 396 pages. Volume III - 525 pages). A description of the work by Northrop, and researchers before and after her, are here.

I posted my reasons for creating this index to the families in the first post here, which also has the index for surnames beginning with A and B. The second post has the index to heads of families with surnames C, D, E and F. The third post has the index to heads of families with surnames G, H, I, J and K. The fourth post has the index to heads of families with surnames L, M and N. The fifth post has the index to heads of families with surnames O and P. The sixth post has the index to heads of families with surnames Q, R and S.

This post includes the heads of household for surnames T through Z:

VOLUME 1 - T SURNAMES

VOLUME 1 - U SURNAMES

VOLUME 1 - V SURNAMES

page 340 - Antonio Maria Valdez (1816-????)
page 341 - Antonio Maria de Santa Monica Valdez (1784-1859)
page 342 - Eugenio Valdez (1755-1838)
page 345 - Jose Basilio Valdez (1786-????)
page 346 - Jose Crescencio Valdez (1782-????)
page 348 - Jose Maria Encarnacion Valdez (1814-1871)
page 349 - Julian Valdez (1809-????)

page 350 - Ignacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo (1748-1832)

page 352 - Jose Maria Verdugo (1751-1832)
page 354 - Juan Maria Verdugo (1762-????)
page 355 - Mariano de la Luz Verdugo (1746-1822)

page 356 - Juan Jose Villa (1743-1796)

page 358 - Eleuterio Joseph Villavicencio (1782-????)
page 359 - Francisco Pascual Villavicencio (1779-1814)
page 360 - Jose Antonio Villavicencio (1777-1817)
page 361 - Rafael de Jesus Villavicencio (1751-1831)

VOLUME 1 - W SURNAMES

VOLUME 1 - X SURNAMES

VOLUME 1 - Y SURNAMES

page 363 - Antonio Yorba (1746-1825)
page 366 - Bernardo (Fernando) Antonio Yorba (1801-1858)
page 369 - Joseph Antonio de los Remidios Yorba (1785-????)
page 371 - Teodosio Juan Yorba (1800-1863)
page 373 - Tomas Antonio Yorba (1787-1845)

VOLUME 1 - Z SURNAMES

This completes Volume 1 of this three book anthology.

Monday, September 8, 2008

CVGS Web Site Updated

Wrbmaster Gary Brock has updated the Chula Vista Genealogical Society web site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/. Gary made a presentation to the CVGS Board of directors in July offering a choice of web design templates, and the Board picked this template. Gary requested some pictures from the members and used them, and many of his own, for the picture collages in the web page headers.

On the CVGS web pages, you can read about coming events, past editions of the monthly newsletter, submit a query to CVGS, read articles submitted by the members and others, a surname index for members ahnentafels, useful genealogy links, and a number of genealogy forms.

If you haven't checked out the CVGS web pages recently, please do so!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Genealogy class at Chula Vista Adult School

CVGS Member Judy Helton emailed me with information about her Chula Vista Adult Education class (at 1034 Fourth Avenue in Chula Vista, between Moss and Naples Streets, 619-691-5760). The Adult School brochure says:

ARTS & CRAFTS - RECORDING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY (SCRAPBOOKING AND PHOTO ENHANCEMENT)

To help adults plan, document, organize, record and enhance their family histories through creative historical records, using up to date genealogy programs on the internet and digital imaging software to restore and enhance family photos.

Chula Vista Adult School M 2:30-5:30 CVA Rm 301

Judy wrote in her email to me:

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I do hope some of the students will come to my class at Chula Vista Adult School starting this Monday 2:30-5:30 p.m in room 301. It is air conditioned and we need enough students to keep the class going through the school district. It is FREE and we will have FTM 2008 on the computers as well as access to Ancestry.com.

This Monday is our first class and I'll be sharing some of our great adventure as we just returned from a three month "GENEALOGY TRIP OF A LIFE-TIME".

Please encourage folks to join us for these classes. I really love the FTM 2008 and have shared it all across the USA this year.

Judy Helton


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I know some of our members attended this class last year and benefited from it. If you want to learn how to use FTM 2008, and to access Ancestry.com, this is a good place to do it once a week!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Visit the Stein Family Farm on Grandparents' Day, 13 September

The Stein Family Farm is located at 1808 F Street in National City, California. Their web site is http://thesteinfamilyfarm.org and the docent is Susan Walter (619-426-5109). Charles and Bertha (Pallas) Stein were the builders and original owners of The Stein Family Farm in about 1900.

To celebrate Grandparents Day on Saturday, 13 September, the Stein Family Farm will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A donation is requested. The program includes:

* Demonstrations, displays and activities.

* Tour the Farm House

* Check out the plantings, feed the worms, pump water from the century old cistern, do washboard laundry, make lime and lemonade to your own taste, maybe even pat the rooster.

* Arts and crafts and seeds to plant to take home

* Special guest, Jackie Lancaster, daughter of Marian McQuade, the founder of Grandparents Day.

* Fill out a Family Tree chart

* All grandparents will have the opportunity to do a brief tape recorded interview with the subject of "one thing different when I was a child than now was..."

This is a wonderful opportunity for inter-generational family history activities - for the younger generations to learn what it was like to live a century ago. I hope to visit it on Grandparents Day and to take my grandchildren there when they next visit us.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Index to Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850, Volume 1: Surnames Q-S

The Southern California Genealogical Society published three volumes of the work by Marie E. Northrop titled Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850 (Published by Southern California Genealogical Society, Burbank, California. Volume I - 435 pages. Volume II - 396 pages. Volume III - 525 pages). A description of the work by Northrop, and researchers before and after her, are here.

I posted my reasons for creating this index to the families in the first post here, which also has the index for surnames beginning with A and B. The second post has the index to heads of families with surnames C, D, E and F. The third post has the index to heads of families with surnames G, H, I, J and K. The fourth post has the index to heads of families with surnames L, M and N. The fifth post has the index to heads of families with surnames O and P.

This post includes the heads of household for surnames Q, R and S:

VOLUME 1 - Q SURNAMES

VOLUME 1 - R SURNAMES

page 280 - Joseph Jacinto Reyes (1788-1837)
page 282 - Juan Francisco Reyes (1749-1809)

page 284 - Juan Esteban Rocha (1730-1813)

page 285 - Jose Manuel Rodriguez (1759-1846)

page 287 - Juan Maria Romero (1747-1816)

page 289 - Mateo Rubio (1750-1822)

page 291 - Efrigenio Ruiz (1745-1795)
page 292 - Juan Maria Ruiz (1758-1833)

VOLUME 1 - S SURNAMES

page 293 - Domingo Saez (1806-1853)
page 295 - Jose Miguel Saez (1773-1825)
page 296 - Juan Maria Saez (1778-1846)
page 299 - Justo Rosario Saez (1741-1796)

page 300 - Hermanegildo Sal (1746-1800)

page 301 - Jose Tadeo Sanchez (1756-1811)
page 303 - Juan Francisco Sanchez (1780-1804)
page 304 - Juan Maria Sanchez (1791-????)
page 305 - Telesforo Tomas Sanchez de Colima (1804-????)
page 306 - Vicente Anastacio Sanchez (1785-1846)

page 307 - Bernardo (Fernando) Sepulveda (1814-1875)
page 309 - Francisco Sepulveda (1775-1853)
page 311 - Francisco Xavier Sepulveda (1742-1788)
page 312 - Jose Antonio Andres Sepulveda (1803-1875)
page 314 - Jose Antonio y Inez Sepulveda (1811-????)
page 314 - Jose del Carmen Sepulveda (1818-1883)
page 316 - Jose Dolores Sepulveda (1793-1824)
page 317 - Jose Dolores Sepulveda (1823-????)
page 318 - Jose Dolores Sepulveda (1813-????)
page 319 - Jose Faustino Sepulveda (1809-????)
page 320 - Jose Henrique Anselmo Sepulveda (1791-1844)
page 322 - Jose Loreto Sepulveda (1815-1881)
page 324 - Jose Manuel Sepulveda (1770-1800)
page 324 - Juan Bautista Miguel Sepulveda (1800-1850)
page 326 - Juan Capistrano Sepulveda (1814-????)
page 327 - Juan Joseph Sepulveda (1764-1808)
page 328 - Juan Maria Sepulveda (1828-1868)
page 330 - Patricio Jose Antonio Sepulveda (1789-????)
page 331 - Pedro Alcantara Sepulveda (1833-????)

page 333 - Joseph Francisco Sinoba (1752-1824)

page 335 - Francisco Antonio Sotelo (1753-1824)

page 336 - Guillermo Soto (1751-1819)
page 337 - Ygnacio de Soto (1749-1807)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

CVGS Research Trip to Carlsbad on Saturday, 6 September

Our next Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Trip is to Carlsbad Cole Library on this coming Saturday, 6 September.

Our carpool will leave the Chula Vista parking garage (second level, midway between the F Street (Marie Callendars) and 3rd Avenue (Fuddruckers) entrances) at 8:45 a.m. in order to get there by about 9:30 a.m. We will try to leave the library at 2 pm. so we are back by 3 pm. We encourage you to join us in the carpool in order to save gas costs.

To get to the Cole Library in Carlsbad -- it's at 1250 Carlsbad Village Drive. If you are going on your own - go on I-5, take Carlsbad Village Drive offramp, turn east, go through one light, turn left into the parking lot. The genealogy section is on the entire second level. There is an elevator.

Why go to Carlsbad Cole Library Simply because it's the San Diego county library with the largest available genealogy collection.

The library catalog is online at http://cbcl.sirsi.net/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/49/.

The genealogy collection is described at http://www.carlsbadca.gov/library/genealog.html.

In addition to books and periodicals on the shelf, they have Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuestOnline, NewEnglandAncestors, NewspaperArchive and footnote available for free use on the library computers.

One more good reason to go to Carlsbad - to obtain a FREE Carlsbad library card, which can be used to access, at home, HeritageQuestOnline and NewspaperARCHIVE databases. I use mine all the time!

If you are going, I suggest that you use the online catalog to make lists of books and periodicals that you want to access while you are there. also, take some coins and/or small bills for the copy card which you load up and then use on the copy machines. The copy machines take only cards, not cash.

If you want to go in the carpool, then I need to know by Friday. Please call me at 619-422-3397 or email me at rjseaver@cox.net.