Thursday, January 31, 2013

CVGS Workshop - Saturday, 2 February, 12 noon

The next Chula Vista Genealogical Society Workshop is Saturday, 2 February 2013, from 12 noon to 3 p.m. at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library in the Community Room, in Bonita (4375 Bonita Road, turn north on Billy Casper Way, library is on the left).  

Susi Pentico will lead discussions on Overview of your Research, Keeping up to Date.

She advises attendees to bring their laptops in order to see how up to date they are on their genealogy database, and what they should look at for the next step.  If you don't have a laptop, please bring your 5 Generation Chart with your information filled out to the best of your knowledge.

Printing out a 5 Generation Chart just may surprise you as to what you have completed and what you have missing yet in your files.  


Other topics are:

*  Tips and hints to assist your research.

*  How to  Keep your Research logs current

*  Are you missing places, dates, weddings, deaths, or burial records?

*  Have you looked at Grantor/Grantee Indexes for clues?

*  Have you read Probate or Will or Guardianship records?

*  Have you looked at Land Tax, Road Tax, School Tax. Voters Tax records?

*  Do you follow the Migration trail for people of the community you find the kin in?

Susi says:


"As I learned in Michigan, most of that state was settled (according to the Head Archivist) by New York residents, so that is the reason so much New York research data is in their library.   I did not know that, since I do not have Michigan ancestors, but I do have New York Ancestors.  The New York books were fabulous to go through, and were different than what is held in repositories on the west coast.  Some were the same, but most were not.

"So  you do not need to have kin from a state, but if that state was settled by people from an area your kin was from, they probably have information for you to review."


Sunday, January 27, 2013

CVGS Program on Wednesday, 30 January: Butch Hibben on "Creating Your Life's Story"


The January program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society is on Wednesday, 30 January, at 12 noon in the Auditorium of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista).  

The program speaker is L. A. (Butch) Hibben presenting “Creating Your Life's Story.”

How can you preserve your family (and personal) memories and photos for future generations, making them accessible to only those you choose? Learn about this, along with specifics on interviewing and hints to get information from relatives, from a Certified Legacy Advisor.

L. A. (Butch) Hibben, Certified Legacy Advisor, has been involved in the field of family history from his youth. Knowing about his ancestry has been as much a part of his life as knowing basic life skills. Butch has remembered the stories and the roles his family played in the history of the states of Utah and Arizona.


Butch, like his ancestor pioneers, was a trailblazer in the field of computers, having become involved in the field in the late 1950s while serving in the U.S. Navy. After his discharge, he continued in the field as a computer technician for many years until his retirement in 2008. It is no wonder that he was inspired to assist others in preserving their heritage when he was introduced to the Living Legacy Project in 2011.

He has his own legacy to pass along, having sired five children, four of which have gone on to make him grandfather to twenty-four and great-grandfather to twelve. He serves as Assistant Director in the Corona Family History Center and is married to its Director and Corona Genealogical Society President, Jean Wilcox Hibben. They make their home in the Lake Mathews area of Western Riverside County, California. Butch, a former square dance caller, is an audio technician and plays saw and spoons. He can be reached through the website www.circlemending.org/LLP.html.

There will be a short business meeting, including presentation of the Society's annual report and 2013 budget, before the speaker, and refreshments before and after the meeting at the back of the Auditorium.

Monday, January 14, 2013

CVGS Research Group Summary - 9 January 2013 Meeting

The January 9th meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society had 15 in attendance, including a visitor from Oakland and two guests who became society members.

In the first hour, we talked about genealogy-oriented gifts received for Christmas.  

*  Helen and Connie teamed up to contact Connie's step-brother's birth mother's family using the 1940 U.S. census and other online resources.  They found a probable living relative online, sent an email to the family member, and receiving a Christmas Eve response.  The birth mother was contacted and the son and mother will meet shortly.  They thought that this was an awesome Christmas gift to Connie's brother, and to his mother.  His mother's sister knew the whole story!

*  John received a Flip-Pal portable scanner for Christmas.  He demonstrated scanning a page, saving the image to a disk, copying it to a flash drive, and displaying it, and saving it, on a computer in seconds.

*  Kaley received a subscription to Ancestry.com for Christmas and is finding lots of information about her families.

*  Randy received a new laptop (still in the box), a 23AndMe DNA test kit, and a DVD from Linda's cousin with over 500 family photographs.

Randy then discussed using the Pennsylvania Church Records on Ancestry.com to find the original birth, baptism and marriage records of his Spengler family, and using information on the USGenWeb.org site for Cedar County, Nebraska for his wife's Brocke family, and finding the land where they settled using Google Maps and Google Earth.  He made PDFs of his blog posts using www.printfriendly.com (you can use this for any web page you want to save).

In the second hour, we went around the table and people shared about their research problems and successes:

*  Gary had been to Bernice's home trying to make a Family Tree Maker 16 custom report for Bernice's newly found French-Canadian cousin in north San Diego County.  He managed to create the report in English, copy it into Google Translate, and save the French version, and send it via email to the cousin.  Success!!

*  Karen was intrigued by the "Lost State of Deseret" in the 1849-1852 time period (essentially most of the territory between the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains, and between Mexico and Canada).  She also explored the information on Wikipedia about the "State of Franklin" before Tennessee became a state.  She noted that state and county boundaries changed over time, and researchers need to be aware of these changes and the jurisdictions that existed when records were created.

*  Sam watched the TV program "Queen," written by Alex Haley, and noted that she settled in Savannah, Tennessee after the Civil War, where Sam's family resided.  They probably knew each other.

*  Susi is still working on her Susan Mattison problem - she is in contact with the Mattison Association but has had no success yet.  She found several of her surnames on the Greene County, Pennsylvania mailing list, and is contacting the posters.

*  Helen can't find her grandmother and her children in Modesto, California in the 1940 U.S. census, even though they should be there.  We checked online and could not find them, but we did find some of them in the 1930 U.S. Census in Missouri.

*  Gary stated that he had been unable to find himself in the 1940 U.S. Census, but a quick search found him in Michigan living with his adoptive parents.  

*  Lavinia was our visitor from Oakland who was in San Diego County visiting relatives.  She came to our meeting to see how it worked in hopes of starting a similar group at the California Genealogical Society in Oakland.  

The next meeting of the CVGS Research Group will be on Wednesday, 13 February at 12 noon in the Computer Lab (note the change of venue) at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista).

Friday, January 11, 2013

CVGS Newsletter for January 2013 is Available

The January 2013 issue of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Newsletter was published last  week.  You can read it online, in a PDF format - use the Newsletter link at www.CVGenealogy.org 

The Table of Contents lists: 


page 1 - January 30th General Meeting
page 2 - President’s Message
page 2 - Membership Report
page 3 - CVGS Spring Seminar Information
page 3 - Lemon Grove Research Group News
 
page 3 - February 2nd Workshop Announcement
page 3 - FTM2012 Workshop Handouts Available
page 3 - Computer Group News
page 4 - Research Group News
page 4 - Library Assistance Available

page 5 - December 11th Holiday Luncheon Review
page 5 - Rest in Peace, Lois Waterman (1927-2012)
page 6 - 2012 in Review, by Dick Eastman
page 7 - A Genealogy New Year, by Connie Moretti
page 8 - Book Donations to CVGS and CVPL

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

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Family Tree Maker 2012 Workshop on Saturday, 5 January

There will be a "Family Tree Maker 2012 Workshop" led by Randy Seaver, sponsored by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, on Saturday, 5 January from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road) in the Community Room.   

If you have Family Tree Maker 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 Family Tree Maker, 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. 

The plan for the workshop is to:

1)  Provide an overview of Family Tree Maker 2012 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 Tools > Options
** Workspaces (Plan, People, Places, Media, Sources, Publish, Web Search)

**  Importing a GEDCOM file
**  Exporting a GEDCOM file
** Syncing with an Ancestry Member Tree

**  Starting a New 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
**  Attaching or Unlinking a Person from Parents or Spouse
**  Rearranging Children or Spouses

**  Creating Charts
** Creating Person and Relationship Reports
**  Creating Genealogy Reports
** Creating Place, Source and Media Reports
** Creating Books

5) Answer questions from the group. 


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - January 2013

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for January 2013 include:

** Saturday, 5 January, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon, Bonita-Sunnyside (County) Library (4375 Bonita Road) -- Outreach Workshop meets in Community Room. Randy Seaver will present  "Family Tree Maker 2012 Workshop."  

** Wednesday 9 January, 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 January, 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 January, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS General Membership Meeting in the Auditorium.  Butch Hibben will present "Creating Your Life Story."

**  Wednesdays, 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 January, 10 a.m. to 12 noon., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- Research Assistance in the Family Research area.  John Finch will help you with your research problems.  Bring your laptop if you want to do online research.


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 north 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.