August Research Group Summary

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) Research Group meeting on 13 August had 17 attendees.  

In the first hour, Randy discussed the Who Do You Think You Are? episodes to date, and rmeinded attendees that it would be on the next three Wednesday nights on TLC.  He also noted his Genealogy Links web page at http://www.geneamusings.com/p/randys-genealogy-links.html as a place to find online resources.  After showing how to find the UEL land petitions for Loyalist ancestors on the Library and Archives Canada website, he demonstrated using the www.Earthpoint.us site to create a file to use in Google Earth to "fly to" a land plot in the Federal Land system.  

In the second hour, the attendees discussed their own research problems, asked questions, and showed their recent discoveries:

*  Susi asked about the value of Mocavo.com as a commercial research site.  The site is free to search over 300,000 databases, but is difficult to use without a subscription.  

*  Carole's second great-grandfather immigrated before 1857, but she cannot find an immigration record.  She asked how could she find out more about him, his immigration, and his life?  The group suggested a naturalization record, an obituary, a vanity book entry, census records, genealogical and historical society files, land records and probate records.  

*  Helen's great-grandmother's family was in only a few records, and it's confusing.  A Mary had a Margaret Redmond in 1825 in Alabama who had a Mary Burleson in 1863 in Arkansas.  There is a Thomas Burleson (age 37) living next door to Margaret (age 55) and Mary Burleson (age 17) in the 1880 census in Dade county, Missouri.  The group suggested looking for a Civil War Pension File, checking probate and land records in the Arkansas and Missouri counties, and checking Find A Grave.  

*  Ralph has an ancestor who was a Mason and wanted to know if there were records from a Masonic repository.  The group suggested finding a local chapter, or the national organization, and asking if they have records for the person.  

*  Linda is trying to find a court record in Durango state in Mexico for a name change.  The FamilySearch Research Wiki was suggested, as well as contacting Moises Garza in Texas for advice.

*  Sylvia showed off her genealogy tote bag with family pictures, and passed around more family records, including an 1857 land certificate for 640 acres in Texas, plus a San Bernardino, Calif. homestead record.

*  Virginia's cousin in Indiana provided copies of handwritten wills of her great-grandfather Joseph Artman and his wife.  Joseph's will didn't name his children, but Elizabeth's will named them all.  There is also a guardianship record of Virginia's mother choosing her own guardian.

*  Carole had a published book about the 1834 Giessen group of immigrants from Germany to St. Charles, Missouri.  The book was in both German and English, and was full of pictures of pictures and homes.

*  Bethel found wills on FamilySearch from Madison county, North Carolina  from the 1774-1781 period that gives ancestors as witnesses and provides a location of family land on Cape Fear River.

*  Sam sent to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis for military records for his father, who had a Navy career during and after World War II.  He ordered the records online at www.archives.gov/veterans/. 

*  Gary found an online veterans group that has the "Daily logs" for his step-father's World War II Army Air Corps service, which has the list of missions for each serviceman.  A story on the site doesn't match his step-father's recollection of the mission date and crew members.

The September meeting of the CVGS Research Group will be on Wednesday, 10 September at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street).  

All meetings of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society at the Chula Vista and Bonita-Sunnyside Libaries are free for all interested persons. to attend.