We had nine eager genealogists at our 8 December meeting of the CVGS Research Group. Randy encouraged attendees to sign up quickly for the Holiday Luncheon on 15 December, and passed around the latest copy o.f Family Tree Magazine, the American Ancestors magazine, and the book If This Land Could Talk.
* Ann described her two week vacation to Germany to visit her son, and her genealogy trip to Luxembourg, where her great-great-grandfather was born in Medernach. She had visited in 1982, but did not take pictures of the family gravestones found in the cemetery. Those markers are apparently long gone, since they recycle burial plots in parts of Europe. There were stones for her family names, but they were not older stones. She went to the local record office, and left family group sheets there. After she returned, the office wrote a letter to her, and provided some birth and death records of her family members from the early 1800s. The group suggested that Ann look in the FamilySearch Library Catalog for available microfilmed records, and to check the Luxembourg message boards to try to find cousins and determine what other records might be available in Luxembourg.
* Myrna's Christmas gifts came early - two books on her Born family written by her mother's cousin, a family historian, that Myrna contributed to with photos and family information. Volume 1 covered the families of the immigrants from Todenhausen in Germany after 1850 to northern Ohio, up to 1940. The second volume covered the next generations, from 1933, and contains much information about living family members. Myrna will place Volume 1 in a number of libraries, but Volume 2 will be held by family members only. Myrna found this cousin on Facebook, and will visit the author on her next trip to Ohio.
* Shirley is reviewing the sources in her database, and is editing place names so that the correct historical place name is used at the time of the events.
* Virginia's shared the family book made by her husband's aunt using the MyHeritage web site, and sent it to Virginia's daughters. The book included pedigree charts, vital information, notes, descendants charts and other information.
* Kevin's great-great-grandfather was named John Brown, who lived in the San Francisco Bay area between 1880 and 1905, and then disappeared. He knows the year he was naturalized, and wanted to know how to obtain the naturalization record. The group noted that the National Archives would have any federal court records, but county courts might have them also. The group said that Kevin should check city directories, voters registrations, newspapers and California death records to obtain more information.
* Ruth talked about the Chula Vista centennial celebration in 2011, and the part CVGS members could play. She said her 2011 resolutions were to manage her genealogy research better, and to have fun with genealogy and the centennial events.
* Randy bought a new computer with Windows 7, described his travails with email archives, using PhotoScape for photo management, using the FAN Club to track down elusive ancestors, and some details of his weekend visit to Julian historical museum, cemetery and library.
The next Research Group meeting will be on Wednesday, 12 January, at 12 noon in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library Conference Room.
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