Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - November 2011

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The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for November 2011 include:

** Saturday, 12 November, 1 p.m.to 3 p.m., Bonita County Library (4375 Bonita Road) -- Outreach Workshop meets in Community Room. Susi Pentico will present "The Development of the First Counties of Pennsylvania."

** Wednesday 9 November, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Research Group meets in the Library Conference Room, led by Randy Seaver. 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, 16 November, 12 noon to 1:30 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Computer Group meets in the Library Computer Lab, led by Shirley Becker. Sharpen your computer skills and investigate online genealogy resources.

** Wednesday, 30 November, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- General Society Meeting meets in the Auditorium. Local appraiser Georgie Stillman will present "Heirloom Discovery Day" by evaluating CVGS member ephemera and antiques.  There will be a society business meeting before the presentation.

The Chula Vista Civic Center Branch 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).

The Bonita Library is located at 4375 Bonita Road in Bonita - just west of the Otay Lakes Road intersection with Bonita Road, on the north side of Bonita Road. The Chula Vista South Library is at 389 Orange Avenue (southeast corner on Fourth Avenue) - parking lot is off of Orange east of Fourth.

We welcome guests and visitors to our CVGS programs and events - if you are in the greater San Diego area and want to attend our events - please come and introduce yourselves.

Program Summary - "Refighting the Civil War - Part 2"

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The October 26th Program meeting for the Chula Vista Genealogical Society featured CVGS member Susan Zimmer (on the Union side) and Robyn Adair (on the Confederate side) discussing their Civil War soldiers, the San Diego area heritage organizations, and resources that should be consulted to find information about Civil War era ancestors.  They were in "period dress" for this presentation.  Thirty three persons were in attendance.

There were no "pistols at ten yards" for this showdown commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.  Susan quizzed the audience on the event that started the Civil War, the bloodiest battle, asked if more American lives were lost in the Civil War than in World War II, the years the war began and ended, who were the generals at Appomattox Courthouse, and if General Grant allowed the Confederate soldiers to keep their weapons.

Susan described the role of California and San Diego in the War.  There was only one incident in San Diego County - near Lake Henshaw, called the "Affair at Minter's Ranch."  The Yankees captured a group of Rebels and they were put in Yuma Prison.  The only California battalion was raised by Massachusetts.  Their role was to protect the western frontier, prevent the Confederates from gaining a foothold, allowed soldiers to return east, and to prevent Indian uprisings.  She also defined some of the cemeteries in San Diego where Civil War soldiers are buried, showed several local war memorials, and described some of the memorial services held.

Robyn's Confederate soldier was Everard Blackshear, of the Georgia Blackshear Guards.  She described three generations of female ancestors who were members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), showed the four-page UDC application, and noted the activities of her UDC chapter in San Diego.  and noted that Footnote.com (now Fold3.com) has the Compiled Military Service Records of Confederate soldiers online.  The National Archives does not have Confederate records, but the different State Archives do have service and pension records.

Susan's Union soldier  was First Lieutenant Amos W. Downes, of Company F of the 49th Illinois Infantry.  She described finding his records, filling out the three-page Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War application, and the activities of her DUVCW Nancy Hanks Lincoln Tent #5 in San Diego.  The Compiled Military Service Record for Union soldiers costs $25 at the National Archives, and the Union Pension Files start at $75 (for up to 100 pages). 

In order to determine if an ancestor was a Civil War soldier, they suggested looking for males born after 1816, check the 1890 U.S. Census Civil War Soldiers Census (but A through K is lost), check the 1930 U.S. Census, which lists veterans.  They provided a one page list of links to websites with Civil War information, and information on the different Civil War heritage organizations in San Diego.

CVGS Computer Group Review - by Gary Brock

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At the 19 October meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Computer Group, attendees were asked to relate any specific problems they were having in operating their computer or an application on their computer.

Marie, working on Windows 7, said she was having some problems with Source Citations. Randy went through some of the common problems between different versions of Family Tree Maker (FTM) and other similar programs.

Tvette, working on Windows XP, said she was still trying to come up with a good system for organizing her Photos and Images. Randy talked about some of the methods he has developed for media organization and warned that it is important to know whether your FTM software embeds media files in your data-base or only saves a link to the file in your data-base.

Jane, on XP, said she had old CDs of FTM research databases which came with an older version of FTM. Could she somehow access these old files? Gary mentioned he had tried several approaches to unlock these files with no success. Randy said she may need to re-install the old version of FTM to gain access to the research data-base. There was also conversation about how to un-install old versions of FTM software.

Jackie, on Windows 7, was still trying to find her way around in Rootsweb and FamilySearch.  Randy briefly demonstrated working in the Rootsweb WorldConnect database and finding FamilySearch collections using keywords, like states or countries, to narrow the search.

Virginia, on XP, wanted to learn more about how to create, rename and move folders.

Joanna talked about how she was unable to get the results from her submission to Family Tree DNA. She enters the code provided to her from FTDNA and gets everything except the DNA Results. Her brother, who is very knowledgeable on computer usage, was not able to get the results either.

The next meeting of the CVGS Computer Group will be on Wednesday, 16 November at 12 noon in the Computer Lab at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.

October 26th Program Meeting - "Refighting the Civil War, Part 2"

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The Wednesday, October 26th program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, from 12 noon to 2 p.m. at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, in Chula Vista) Auditorium, will feature:

“Refighting the Civil War, Part 2” by Susan Zimmer and Robyn Adair

The purpose of the program is to remind people that we are commemorating 150 years from the Civil War.

They will share information about the Civil War connections in San Diego, discuss the two women's organizations which connect to the war, talk about the membership requirements for Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War and United Daughters of the Confederacy, and share tips for researching Civil War veterans.   The presenters are:

Susan Zimmer: Susan joined the Chula Vista Genealogical Society in 2002, after she retired from 31 years teaching at Sweetwater High School.  Her interest in genealogy began when her grandfather shared a hand-drawn map of Germany, showing his birthplace. Genealogy success has led her to membership in Daughters of the American Revolution, United States Daughters of 1812, and Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865, of which she is currently president of Nancy Hanks Lincoln Tent 5.

Robyn Adair: Robyn was born in Coronado and grew up there. She joined Oliver Wetherbee Chapter DAR in 1966, the year she and Roy were married.  His Naval assignments allowed her to visit much of the east coast and prowl through family cemeteries and courthouses over the years. She is president of the Stonewall Jackson Chapter 476,  United Daughters of the Confederacy, a member of United States Daughters of 1812,  Daughters of the American Revolution and others. 

CVGS Research Group Summary

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The CVGS Research Group meeting on Wednesday, October 12th was attended by 16 avid genea-philes. 

During the first hour, Randy presented "Lessons Learned on my Midwestern Family History Mystery Tour."  He described his two week September vacation in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, which included:

*  Attending the FGS Conference in Springfield, Illinois
*  One day researching at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana
*  One day visiting friends in St. Joseph, Michigan, highlighted by a visit to replicas of the Pinta and Nina.
*  One day researching in Dodge County, Wisconsin
*  One day researching at the Wisconsin Historical Society and Norwegian-American genealogy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
*  One day finding ancestral homes and graveyards in Dane County, Wisconsin.
*  One day at Old World Wisconsin (a WHS building collection) in Eagle, Wisconsin
*  One day sightseeing in Chicago.

During the presentation, he showed many photographs, research examples and results.  The lessons learned included:

*  Allen County Public Library is marvelous!
*  Check open hours of libraries and societies.
*  Some local libraries have wonderful resources
*  State Archives have excellent resources, but are difficult to use. Some permit digital pictures of fragile documents.
*  Heritage, ethnic and religious societies have excellent resources.
*  Use 19th century plat maps to find ancestral land holdings, and 21st century plat maps and Google Maps to find ancestral homes.

During the second hour, several attendees described their research successes and challenges:

*  Ruth described some of her Cherokee research, finding a picture of an ancestor in Indian dress, and finding names in treaties in state archives.

* Bobbie used Google to search for Lake county, Illinois information, and found the newsletter article that she submitted about her visit several years ago.  She and Dennis went to North Dakota on vacation in search of his Russian German heritage, found some ancestral graves, and met a third cousin, sharing information and pictures.

*  Ann used tips she learned at Jamboree from Tom Underhill about using Picasa facial recognition software to identify unknown persons by finding similar faces on computer files.

*  John notede that FamilySearch has added mamny collections with Germany and Mexico records.  However, many are not indexed yet.

*  Viola displayed the four-generation family history book that she wrote, which includes many stories and pictures.  She wrote this after her daughter asked Viola's mother who the people were in the box under the bed.  It was beautifully done.

After the meeting closed, Randy briefly demonstrated using Family Tree Maker 2012 and describing his experiences synchronizing with an Ancestry Member Tree.

The next meeting of the CVGS Research Group is Wednesday, 9 November 2011 at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, in Chula Vista).

October 2011 issue of CVGS Newsletter

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The October 2011 issue of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Newsletter was published this week.  It is freely available on the CVGS website at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/page04.html.

The October 2011 issue features:

*  page 1 - October 26th Program 
*  Page 2 - President’s Message
*  Page 3 - Ask Gene E. Allogee, Tips and Techniques
*  Page 4 - November 12th Saturday Workshop
*  Page 4 - Research Group Notes

*  Page 4 - Computer Group News
*  Page 5 - CVGS Fall Seminar Review
*  Page 6 - September 28th Program Review

*  Page 6 - Lemon Grove Research Group News

*  Page 6 - Seminar Committee Report

*  Page 7 -  Computer-Related Genealogy News

*  Page 8 -  Upcoming Webinars in October and November
*  Page 8 - Upcoming Chula Vista Centennial Events
*  Page 9 - CVGS Society Information
*  Page 9 - San Diego Genealogy Events
*  Page 10 - Genealogy Days in Chula Vista

CVGS Workshop - "Expanding Your Usage of the Internet"

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The October CVGS Workshop will be at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, 8 October.  CVGS Member Shirley Becker will lead "Expanding Your Usage of the Internet."

 Please bring your laptop as we will be doing things on the Internet, but we will not be able to print. The first part will be on exploring your computers and the second on expanding Internet usage. If you don't have a laptop and know someone willing to share, you are welcome to bring them. If you think you might be getting a laptop and want to sit in, again, you are welcome.

This Library has wireless access and is a little more up-to-date than the lab in Chula Vista, so we will be able to to go to a few sites not available on our third Wednesday Computer Group meeting.

If you have questions, both Gary with a Windows laptop and Shirley with a Mac will try to answer them. We will demonstrate a little bit of copy and paste technique for those not sure how to use it with an internet site.

For more information, contact Virginia via email (irishdoll@cox.net) or phone (619-425-7922).

CVGS Program Review - "Finding the Living, and Maybe the Dead"

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The 28 September 2011 program speaker for the Chula Vista Genealogical Society was Arnie Botts, on the subject of "Finding the Living, and Maybe the Dead."  Arnie is a retired Chula Vista Police Officer, and currently works as a Private Investigator for a local security firm. 

His firm does two types of searches - a Basic Locate Search of a specific person (which includes identity checks for companies and agencies) and Court Record Searches (for civil and criminal cases).

The Basic Locate Search is done on a computer using an unidentified LexisNexis program.  The search program needs information such as a full name, date of birth, Social Security number, last known address, past addresses, names of family members, known subscriptions to magazines or newspapers, etc.  His company can access public records, and some company records (e.g., Sears, Amazon - they sell their information to the service) anywhere in the USA for a basic cost of $50, and can be obtained within 24 hours.  The information stays in the system for at least seven years, and may be available for up to 20 years.  The success rate is good to excellent, as long as the subject has some identifying information.  The report may look like the Sample Person report at https://w3.lexis.com/consumeraccess2.0/sample/person_report.htm.

For a Court Record Search, the search program needs the full name, date of birth, race, and a location of the records.  Most locations are computerized, although small and rural areas sometimes are not.  Specific searches usually yield results, but general searches are often difficult and time consuming.  The Basic search cost is $25, but difficult searches are more. 

Privacy issues are considered, and the search has to be justified.  For example, a request by a current family member or a crime victim.  Companies or agencies using these programs are audited by the federal government to assure that the searches are legitimate.  Customers need to provide a reason for their search - no "fishing expeditions." 

The audience asked many questions, including:

*  Can you find ex-husbands and/or missing fathers?  Yes.

*  Can credit reports be obtained?  Yes, property, bankruptcy and lawsuit data can be obtained, but not credit ratings.

*  How do you become a private investigator?  You can pass a test, pay $300, and get a license.

*  How can I find an ex-girlfriend's current name and location?  Using school records, alumni or reunion information is best. 

Unfortunately, Arnie had to leave early for a business conference in Los Angeles.  This was an interesting look at a research area that could help find living persons, but it costs money and there are restrictions on its use.

Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - October 2011

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The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for October 2011 include:

** Saturday, 8 October, 1 p.m.to 3 p.m., Bonita County Library (4375 Bonita Road) -- Outreach Workshop meets in Community Room. Shirley Becker will present "Expanding Your Usage of the Internet."

** Wednesday 12 October, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Research Group meets in the Library Conference Room, led by Randy Seaver. 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, 19 October, 12 noon to 1:30 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Computer Group meets in the Library Computer Lab, led by Shirley Becker. Sharpen your computer skills and investigate online genealogy resources.

** Wednesday, 26 October, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- General Society Meeting meets in the Auditorium. Susan Zimmer and Robyn Adair will present "Refighting the Civil War, Part 2." There will be a society business meeting before the presentation.

The Chula Vista Civic Center Branch 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).

The Bonita Library is located at 4375 Bonita Road in Bonita - just west of the Otay Lakes Road intersection with Bonita Road, on the north side of Bonita Road. The Chula Vista South Library is at 389 Orange Avenue (southeast corner on Fourth Avenue) - parking lot is off of Orange east of Fourth.

We welcome guests and visitors to our CVGS programs and events - if you are in the greater San Diego area and want to attend our events - please come and introduce yourselves.

CVGS Fall Seminar Summary: Donna Bradley – “American Indian Research"

The afternoon presentation at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Fall Seminar on 24 September was by Donna Bradley, titled – “American Indian Research."

This was a 90 minute lecture without notes, and without a syllabus.  Donna's ancestry and experience includes Scots-Irish and Native American in the southeast and Native American in California, and her presentation reflected that experience.

She noted that Scots Irish migrated to the colonies, then moved down through the Appalachians, Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge. Indians lived in these places, and lonely white males found Indian wives. It was rare to find Indian males marrying a white woman. 

Where did the Indians come from? She said that they were here when the continents split apart, and those on the North American continent were always there. They stayed in approximately the same place for thousands of years. Indians didn’t keep written records. They lived mainly in hunter-gatherer societies as tribes, and their history was oral – told in stories, chants, etc. 

Donna defined these Indian groups:

*  Mestizo - in Mexico, Central America

*  Athabascan - in Alaska and North America
*  Navajo/Apache – in Southwest North America
*  Aztec/Mayan - in Mexico and Central America
*  Cherokees from Florida and Georgia – Trail of Tears to Oklahoma

She noted that tribes are specific groups with a distinct culture, but there are bands within tribes. Different tribes may have different dialects or linguistic characteristics.

To understand the history of Indians in North America, you have to understand the white man’s government. White men wanted land, but Indians had no concept of property. White men brought destruction to Indian tribes through war, annihilation, disease, broken treaties and servitude.  For example, there were two million Indians in Califronia before the white men came in the late 1700s, but only 16,000 were enumerated in the 1900 census. 

Donna said that American Indian research is not like any other genealogy research.  There are no cemetery plots - Indians usually cremated bodies rather than bury them. Indians were considered lower than black slaves by whites, and the 1863 emancipation did not apply to Indians.  In 1924, Indians were given U.S. citizenship, given the right to own land and to vote in federal elections, and were given the right to vote in state elections in 1932. State censuses show many Indians, but they often have only a first name (for example, the 1852 California census).  There were no California birth, marriage or deaths of Indians until 1924. There were many name changes as Indians moved between Indian culture and the American/Mexican government records.

Tribes work on a lineal descent. Each tribe has a blood quantum level to qualify for membership.   No tribe will help you do genealogy research – there is no cooperation because  the tribes don’t want you to be Indian – they will have to share their casino profits with you. A person needs to prove to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that they have Indian ancestry, and obtain a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Once proven, the tribes may accept you, but tribal law is paramount.. 

Certain DNA markers mean certain things and are associated with certain races, tribes and/or certain locations. Look at the www.DNATribes.com website. 

If you think that you have Indian ancestry, follow these suggestions:

* Do a DNA test to determine if there is Indian haplogroups
* Check Indian school records
* Check Indian Rolls like Dawes roll and Miller roll.- here is a lot more nformation than what is on Ancestry.com
* Ask National Archives for records of tribe.
* Check Indian census rolls.
* Do census searches on Ancestry using no name, but in a place and an age range.
* Find history books and manuscript collections in libraries, local or state historical/genealogical societies or archives.

This was a challenging presentation.  It was California-centric, and some of Donna's historical facts and conclusions were curious to this reporter.  Many of the statements made conflict with the summary on Wikipedia in Native Americans in the United States.