Saturday, September 17, 2011

CVGS Research Group Summary - September 14th

by Gary Brock:

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group meeting on September 14th had nine members in attendance. Our illustrious leader, Randy Seaver, was absent, however. Randy played hooky for this session to attend the FGS conference back in Springfield, Illinois then to Fort Wayne to do some research at the Allen County Public Library followed by a stop in Michigan to visit blogger friends and finally to Wisconsin to complete his genealogy tour with Linda. You can follow him on his tour at www.geneamusings.com

In the first hour and a half, the group watched a Legacy Family Tree webinar by Thomas MacEntee who presented "BACKING UP Your Genealogy Data," which Randy obtained at the SCGS Jamboree in June. The handout attachment was sent to all members the day before the meeting for them to print out and bring to the meeting. In the presentation, Thomas discussed Making a data backup plan, Identifying data for backup, Types of backups and several Online data backup services.

After the presentation we had an open sharing, with research highlights, questions and answers, etc.
The highlights:

* Karen shared a discovery that may explain how an ancestor named Leland Stanford Steeves got his name. Leland Stanford, of course, was a prominent early California tycoon, governor and founder of the now prestigious Stanford University. She learned that her ancestor was born just seven days after the death of his famous namesake and his parents probably used the news of Stanford’s death to pick a name for their new son. Maybe for good luck or prestige in life. Karen has so far found no connection between her Steeves ancestors and the Stanfords.

* Shirley has been working in the 1790-1840s on her Pearsals, Millers and Graves lines. She found it interesting that her ancestor Thomas Graves enlisted twice in the War of 1812, and has a pension file. The file enabled her to find his family in the 1810 US Census in Minden, New York. It appears that he would not have been much over twelve years old on his first enlistment. John Graves, the father, enlisted in the War of 1812 also.

* Verena told us about her confusion while working on her Debra Magroo. It seems there are so many Magroos in the area where she is researching that it is hard to know who is who.

* Dearl said he had the same problem with his Glenn line in South Carolina. In looking for one of his Glenn ancestors in the early censuses he found fifteen men, (heads of household), all with same name.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be Wednesday, October 12th at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library. No topic has been selected but Randy will probably have much to tell us about his Midwest Genealogy Tour and the FGS conference.

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