Friday, August 31, 2012

Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - September 2012

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for September 2012 include:

** Saturday, 1 September, 12:30 p.m.to 3 p.m., Bonita-Sunnyside (County) Library (4375 Bonita Road) -- Outreach Workshop meets in Community Room. Susi Pentico will lead a  "JSTOR Workshop."  

** Wednesday 12 September, 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 September, 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.

** Saturday, 22 September, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road) -- 
free Seminar/Workshop.  The theme of the Seminar/Workshop will be "Show Me My Roots."  There will be demonstrations of Family Tree Maker, Roots Magic, My Heritage, and Reunion.  Don't forget to register online at: www.rootsweb.com/~cacvgs2/ 

** Wednesday, 26 September, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS General Membership Meeting in the Auditorium.  John Finch will present "The Civil War and Onslaught of Modern Warfare."

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-Sunnyside (County) Library is located at 4375 Bonita Road in Bonita - turn left on Billy Casper Way, just west of the Otay Lakes Road intersection with Bonita Road, on the north side of Bonita Road. 


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.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

CVGS Workshop on Saturday, 1 September

The September CVGS Workshop is Saturday, 1 September 2012, at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road, turn left at Billy Casper Drive) from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

You will have the opportunity to share and socialize from 12:30 until 1:00.  Susi Pentico will present the program  "JSTOR," and the program will start at 1:00 p.m..  (Web definitions: JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is a United States-based online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995..." source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

CVGS Annual Picnic Summary

The 2012 Annual Picnic was held on Monday, 20 August in the Community Room at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library.  We had over 25 in attendance, including several new members, and two guests.  The theme of the picnic was "Who Is Your Neighbor."  

Tables for different U.S. geographic regions were set up in the room (e.g., New England, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, West), with the idea that persons with common locality interests would share their pedigree charts and, hopefully, find similar surnames and be able to share research interests and ideas.  Pedigree charts were shared with several tables.  

Several members had larger, foldout pedigree charts with up to 15 generations on them.  Member Randy Seaver displayed his large 10-generation Seaver ancestry wall fan chart (done by a calligrapher).

Several attendees found common names on the pedigree charts, were able to share research tips and tricks, and were able to have research questions answered by other attendees.

After everybody enjoyed their lunch and all of the sharing, President Gary Brock emceed a "Thirteen Colonies Trivia Contest" where the prizes were miniature Hershey candy bars.  The person who called out the answer to the question, usually in a Jeopardy format, won the chocolate candy.

To top the day off, we celebrated Gary's birthday with a wonderful chocolate cake, courtesy of Virginia Taylor, the CVGS First Vice-President of Programs who is home recuperating from knee surgery.  Thanks, Virginia - it was great!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

CVGS Annual Picnic is Monday, August 20th


 MONDAY AUGUST 20th  ANNUAL PICNIC

from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

at Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road) 
in the Community Room

Theme: “Who Is Your Neighbor?”

Our annual picnic will be Monday, August 20, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library. The theme this year is "Who Is Your Neighbor?" We will have the tables sets up by areas of the country. You will sit at the table where your ancestors migrated to. During the day Gary will have you move around to different tables if your ancestors settled in different locations.  
  
Bring your lunch, something to drink, and a filled out 5-generation chart. With the chart you will be able to compare names, dates and locations with your other genie neighbors.  Let's see how many family connections we can come up with. We're sure there will be several.  You also might want to study up on your state histories – we hear that Gary is going to have a contest with prizes to the winners. Can't tell any more. Might spoil the surprise.

A map:



Thursday, August 9, 2012

CVGS Research Group Summary - August 2012

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group met on Wednesday, 8 August in the Library Conference Room, with 15 in attendance.

Randy highlighted the news about the 1940 U.S. Census being completely indexed and searchable on Ancestry.com for free; that FamilySearch Indexing is completed, but 13 states are not yet searchable; that FindMyPast.com launched with a bargain price, including all of the 1940 US Census records; that SDGS has a bus trip, including hotel reservations, for the NGS Conference in May 2013 in Las Vegas; and that SDGS has an all-day seminar on Saturday, 8 September featuring Lisa Alzo.

In the first hour, Randy presented "Exploring FamilySearch.org - the Very Best FREE Genealogy Website."  The Research Wiki, Research Video Courses, Community Forums, Family History Library Catalog, Historical Record Collections and Book Collections were highlighted and explored.   Search and navigation tips were provided for the Historical Record Collections.  FamilySearch Family Tree, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File were not explored.

In the second hour, the group asked and answered questions, explained and responded to attendee's research problems, and disclosed research successes.

*  Rose (a guest) had received many Mexican church records, from the IGI and microfilms, from the Family History Library over the years that took her family back many generations in Zacatecas.  One line even connected to Spanish royalty back to 8th century in Spain.  Rose cannot find this information now on the FamilySearch website.  The group explained that the records that Rose found in the International Genealogical Index, which noted the batch number, are now in the Historical Record Collections on www.FamilySearch.org.  The databases include Mexico, Baptisms, 1560-1950 and Mexico, Marriages, 1570-1950.  It appears that the Zacatecas Catholic Church Records (page images) are not yet available in the FamilySearch collection.

*  Kitty asked about slave schedules - what were they and what did they include?  The group noted that they were taken in 1850 and 1860, but the names of individual slaves were not included.  Only the slaveowner's name and the age and gender of the slaves were listed.  Randy showed an example from 1850 on the screen.

*  Helen's grandmother Mallory was descended from the Mallory family of early Virginia.  She found a link back to English royalty in the book.

*  Bobbie is getting ready for her research trip to Lake County, Illinois.  She will meet a LeMagdalen cousin from Michigan and a Lake County lady there who has lots of LeMagdalen information.  She and Dennis bought a GiiNii feed scanner and a wand scanner so that they can copy photographs and papers on the trip.

*  Arlene read Bryan Sykes book about DNA USA, and highly recommends it.  Her Pomeroy family was one of the highlighted families in the book.

*  Ralph's wife's grandfather served in the Mexican Army in the 1898 to 1920 time period, including time in San Diego interned at Fort Rosecrans with 500 other soldiers.  He was actually of German and Russian heritage and did not return to Mexico.  The family story is that he worked as a spy for the USA during World War II.  Ralph has quite a few family papers, but wondered if there were other resources to explore.  The group suggested the San Diego Union and Evening Tribune newspapers that are searchable on www.GenealogyBank.com during this time period.  There may also be records on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com, or in Mexican Archives.

The next Research Group meeting will be on Wednesday, 12 September in the Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) Conference Room.


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

August 2012 CVGS Newsletter Published

The August 2012 issue of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Newsletter was published earlier this week.  You can read it online, in a PDF format, at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/Newsletters/12_08aug.pdf.

The Table of Contents lists:


page 1.  Monday, August 20th Annual Picnic 
page 2.  President’s Message
page 3.  Fall Seminar on 22 September 2012
page 3. September Workshop on 1 September
page 3. Lemon Grove Research Group News
page 3.  Education Committee News

page 4.  Research Group News
page 5.  July 25th Program Review
page 5.  Computer Group News
page 6.  Travel Stories: Maryland, by Dorothy Alford 
page 6.  July 2012 Genealogy News

page 7.  RootsMagic 5 Workshop Review 
page 7.  NGS 2013 Conference in Las Vegas 
page 7.  SDGS Seminar with Lisa Alzo
page 8.  1940 U.S. Census Update 
page 8.  FamilySearch Has Vital Record Collections
page 8.  FindMyPast.com Launched in US

page 9. CVGS Society Information
page 9. San Diego Genealogy Events
page 10. Genealogy Days in Chula Vista



Monday, August 6, 2012

RootsMagic 5 Workshop Review

Randy Seaver demonstrated the features of the RootsMagic 5 genealogy software program to 17 CVGS members and friends on Saturday, 4 August at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library. In the first hour, he methodically covered the different menu features of the program – the Help, Internet, Tools, File, Edit, Lists, Add, View, Search and Report links. He also described the five different Index options and the six different View Options (Pedigree, Family, Descendants, People, Web Search and Timeline. This review provided insights into the completeness and complexity of this program.

In the second hour, Randy started a new family tree database, and then added Persons and Facts (names, dates, places, sources, notes, media, etc.) as he built several families using data from his own family. In the process, he also described how to add, delete, and merge persons, and to add, unlink and rearrange spouses and children in a family. Finally, he showed the wide variety of charts and reports that are available to RootsMagic 5 users to display and communicate their research for family, friends, colleagues and other researchers.

RootsMagic 5 is a commercial product at www.rootsmagic.com. There are many free webinars available to help persons learn how to use it at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/. The retail price of RootsMagic 5 is $29.95 on their website (download or CDROM). Susi Pentico has ordered more copies of it for CVGS members for a reduced price – if you are interested, please contact her at the meetings or at susicp@cox.net.

Due to the high interest in this software product, a followup workshop will be scheduled in the October/November time frame. If you are interested in attending a followup workshop, please contact Randy at rjseaver@cox.net

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

RootsMagic 5 Workshop on Saturday, 4 August 2012

There will be a "RootsMagic 5 Workshop" led by Randy Seaver, sponsored by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, on Saturday, 4 August from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road) in the Community Room.   

If you have RootsMagic 5 genealogy software, then please bring your laptop or netbook (if you have one) to the workshop and work along with Randy, ask questions, and learn more about using the program.  If you don't have RootsMagic 5, but are interested in the subject of genealogy software, please attend to see what a typical program can do to help you with your genealogy organization and research. 

Please note that anyone can download the FREE version of RootsMagic 5 at www.rootsmagic.com (however, the free version does not perform some of the useful features of the program, but can be upgraded for a fee).   Susi Pentico had several extra copies of the program and the help book for sale for $20 (this is a good deal, since the program sells retail for $30 and the book sells retail for $20).
My plan for the workshop is to:

1)  Provide an overview of RootsMagic 5 menus and the Help function using my own database.

2)  Start a new family tree from the beginning.

3)  Import a GEDCOM file created from another program or online tree.

4)  Demonstrate the items on the list below. 


**  Using the Help function 
** Using File Options
**  Using Program Options

**  Starting a New File
**  Importing a GEDCOM file
**  Exporting a GEDCOM file

**  Adding persons to the family tree
**  Adding Facts to a Person
**  Adding Media to a Person
**  Adding Source Citations to Persons or Facts
**  Adding Notes to a Person

**  Merging Persons Manually
**  Deleting a Person or Family
**  Unlinking a Person from Parents or Spouse
**  Rearranging Children or Spouses

**  Creating a Pedigree Chart
** Creating a Family Group Sheet
**  Creating a Narrative Report
**  Creating Charts
** Creating List Reports

5) Answer questions from the group. 

I'm sure that the above list will be much more than we can handle during the workshop.  We may have to schedule another workshop to get into the ones we missed and some of the more advanced features in RootsMagic 5.