Wednesday, January 14, 2009

CVGS Research Group Summary - 14 January 2009

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group met at the library today. Twelve fun-loving genealogists were there to share their research experiences and offer help to several attendees.

Randy Seaver just returned from a visit to The Generations Network (TGN) and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. He summarized his invited visit and tour of the TGN facilities, and the discussions with TGN staff about Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker 2009, and more. He had two days at the FHL and got a lot of research done.

Gary Brock is still working on his Roff surname in western New York in 1805. He has been looking at Quaker records and New York records. He's going to look for other Roff families searching for ties to his line.

Joan Largey is starting to research her mother's line. A grandmother came from England in the late 1800's at age 14 with her family that settled in Minnesota. An obituary and death certificate provided her parents names, so she asked what records to find next. The group suggested death records for the parents, naturalization records for the father, immigration records, US and England census records, and the English civil Registration records for the parents (or parish registers if before 1837). The web site www.FindMyPast.com was recommended as a place to obtain records for a reasonable price per unit.

Rita Clamser has started researching her husband's family. Apparently, there are no photographs from the family because "we didn't like our picture taken." She has data on his father and grandfather (parents born in Holland). She wanted to know how to find where in Holland. The group suggested obituaries, death records, census, immigration and naturalization records to determine the ancestral home and family members.

Shirley Becker brought a large map of New York State from 1804, which she bought recently on a web site. It is absolutely beautiful, even in black and white, with all of the rivers and streams and townships as they were in 1804. She is also working more on file organization and hopes to have a presentation for CVGS in April.

Shirley Harper brought in an article on DNA research in the magazine Neurology and passed it around.

Virginia Taylor summarized the SDGS meeting on 10 January with Lloyd Bockstruck, who gave four presentations to about 200 people. One of the talks was about Illegitimacy, and that records can be found in churches, and in name changes approved by state legislatures.

Dave McCracken thinks that one of his great-grandfathers in PA was named Robert Huntsinger and had his name changed to Emanuel Lehr after being adopted by a Lehr family. The group suggested he search for guardianship and court records in the specific PA county.

Dick McNulty is still waiting for the FBI to send him more information about his uncle, a resident of Leavenworth Prison, McNeil Island prison in WA, and other state prison systems. The uncle was incarcerated for stealing stamps from post offices. Dick's son was fascinated by the 200 page file already available, but said it was "disgusting."

John Finch submitted a query to a Pennsylvania genealogical society and received an answer - they found nothing that would help him.

Randy Seaver finished off the meeting telling about his research "finds" at the FHL - marriage certificates for several of Ed M's ancestors, probate records for his Smith family in Andrew County MO, and deeds for his Vaux family in Andrew County, MO.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be on Wednesday, 11 February in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library Conference Room (365 F Street, Chula Vista CA).

No comments: