We had 18 attendees at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group meeting on Wednesday, 13 March in the library Auditorium.
In the first hour today, Randy used the Internet connection to display and discuss his 23andMe DNA results for the group to see and try to understand. Several other attendees had received their results also, and were able to contribute their knowledge. We touted the $99 sale price for the 23andMe test (autosomal, mitochondrial, Y-chromosome, plus health genetics) and the 30 March 2013 CVGS seminar featuring CeCe Moore.
Randy then discussed genealogy video education - highlighting the coming RootsTech 2013 live streaming sessions, the RootsTech 2012 sessions, the Legacy Family Tree webinars, the Ancestry.com webinars and DearMYRTLE's webinars on YouTube, and the FamilySearch Research Courses. There is a wealth of online genealogy education available for free if the genealogist will just search for them and learn from them.
In the second hour, the group asked questions, asked for research suggestions for their problems, or shared their research successes. The highlights:
* Bobbie asked where she could find a birth record for an Elizabeth Titus, probably born in Buffalo, New York in 1855, who moved to Illinois with her family? The only useful evidence found was an Illinois death record, which stated she was born in New York City rather than Buffalo. Bobbie had already found the death record and an obituary, and could not find church records for her in Buffalo.
* Sharon asked where she could find divorce records. The group suggested civil court records in the county where the divorce was filed.
* Ken asked How much information do you put into your family trees online? Do you share sources? Several persons said that they put everything in, and some hold back. Some provide sources, some don't.
* Shirley woke up today thinking about the son of a great-aunt (who died in about 1889) and wondered what happened to Leo Clark Bruns, born in Otsego County, New York in 1889. We could find him only in the 1900 U.S. Census, despite searching many name variations with other known factors to narrow the search. He wasn't in the World War I or II draft registrations or the Social Security Death Index.
* Dawn asked for help finding information about Harold F. Thomas, born in Illinois in 1920, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 -- what happened to him, and who were his parents? We found in online searches that he received a Bronze Star in World War II in Burma, and died in Georgia and was buried at Andersonville National Cemetery. All of this was new information for Dawn. We suggested she obtain an Illinois birth certificate, a Georgia death certificate and/or a Social Security Application for him to determine his parents, since census research was not conclusive.
* Virginia asked how she could correct a memorial entry on Find A Grave. The group noted that she would have to register on Find A Grave, and then contact the creator or owner of the memorial page to submit the correction.
* Bobbie thinks she has found the 0.2% Native American source of her DNA in her 23andMe test - the Mi'Kmaq Indian, Anne Marie, of the Algonquin Nation in Acadia (Nova Scotia) from the mid-1600s. This is Bobbie's mitochondrial line. She also described her relationship to Joseph "Beausoleil" Broussard who fought against the English in Acadia in the mid-1700s was through his mother, surname of Richard, and her sister is in Bobbie's line. She is related to him as a first cousin, nine times removed. Lastly, Bobbie reported that she received help from Tom Wagner from Illinois and Gerhard Batz from Hausen, Bavaria who found three more generation of Moerleins for her, along with Bakers and Batz. I also found out that Gerhard Batz and I have the same g-g-g grandfather, Jacob Batz, with different g-g-g grandmothers!
* Gary noted that Wanda was able to add 7 generations back to 1266 with information from a tree on WikiTree that goes from her Noel ancestor through the Earl of Kent.
The next meeting of the CVGS Research Group will be on Wednesday, 10 April 2013, in the Conference Room of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista).
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