We had 16 attendees at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group meeting on Wednesday, 10 July 2013 at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.
In the first hour, Randy highlighted several genealogy news items and interesting videos, including:
* The next CVGS workshop is on Saturday, 3 August, titled "RootsMagic Revisited." This workshop will look at many features of the RootsMagic software, including the Version 6 updates.
* KPBS, the San Diego PBS station, has posted a video on YouTube, titled "The Central Library Moves Hidden Treasures Out Into the Public Eye," about the move to the new downtown San Diego library. The views of the old records in the basement are tantalizing!
* The "Who Do You Think You Are?" television series returns on Tuesday, 23 July (9 p.m., 8 p.m. Central) on the TLC Network (Cox Channel 36 in San Diego area). There will be eight weekly episodes.
* The Ancestry.com YouTube Channel has many instructional videos on using Ancestry.com searches, Member Trees, Family Tree Maker software, and more.
* Tessa Keough's excellent "Your Genealogy Pie" video on YouTube highlights how a genealogist can participate in a number of activities to be well-rounded.
* Ancestry.com announced they will scrap the "Old Search" feature and integrate some of those features into "New Search." Randy showed how the results for a given search are identical, and described some of the "New Search" advanced features. Some attendees disagreed.
In the second hour, the attendees asked questions, and shared their research successes, including:
* Karen S. has lots of Revolutionary War soldiers, and wants to obtain their records (CMSR, Pension Files, etc.). She asked if www.Fold3.com was useful for this. The answer was YES, since Fold3 has the largest, and easiest to search and use, collection of Revolutionary War records, especially the complete Pension Files.
* Ralph pursued obtaining his father's U.S. Navy discharge papers, commendations and medals from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. After about six months, he received them. He brought two shadow boxes that display the information - they are beautiful. He had the shadow boxes made by a man in Tijuana who has a small business doing picture framing. Ralph mentioned the "Medals of America" site (http://www.medalsofamerica.com/). A second set of medals and pins can be obtained by a family member if the original medals have been lost.
* Shirley reported a success using the MyHeritage Record Match system. She searched for her parents names, and found their marriage date and location in a newspaper obituary using the MyHeritage data subscription. This was new information for her - she had been searching for it for a long time.
* Virginia talked to the American Civil War Ancestors organization (http://www.acwancestor.org/) at the SCGS Jamboree. She found out that they would find Civil War records at the National Archives for a fee. She paid them $25 for Compiled Military Service Records for her ancestor, with the records provided in image format on a CDROM.
* Gary mentioned the Memories in Print website (http://www.memories-in-print.com/), which is designed to create a coffee-table style book about a person's life memories.
* Susi recommended the website, Elephind (www.Elephind.com), which is an online aggregator of historical newspapers on freely available websites. We did several searches for brick wall ancestors for the attendees.
* Joanna asked about a list of immigration ports of entry. The group suggested using the FamilySearch Research Wiki (start at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Emigration_and_Immigration) and then look for information for specific states) to find more information.
The next meeting of the CVGS Research Group will be Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 12 noon in the Conference Room of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista).
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