We had 20 eager genealogists at the May 13th Research Group meeting at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.
In the first hour, Randy discussed the following items:
* CVGS Member Barbara Zaragoza published Dorothy Alvord's memoir on living in San Ysidro on her website, Friends of San Ysidro. See Dorothy's memoir and photos at http://friendsofsanysidro.org/photogallery/dorothy-norgaard-alvord-collection/. Ralph Munoz mentioned that he also has a photo gallery on Barbara's website at http://friendsofsanysidro.org/photogallery/rafael-munoz-collection/.
* Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) is a free social media website where members can upload their own photos, or can "pin" images from websites. The images can be put into "boards" which are collections. Randy's Pinterest boards can be seen at https://www.pinterest.com/randyseaver/. This serves as a photo backup service and a way to save interesting images. He collects "genealogy stuff" in addition to photo boards for several family groups. Several other attendees had Pinterest accounts.
* Find A Grave (www.findagrave.com) is a free genealogy site with over 120 million memorials for deceased persons added by volunteers. The memorials include vital information, cemetery information, biographies, obituaries, and photographs of gravestones. The site can be searched, and registered users can create memorials and upload photographs and other information. We found that Glen Abbey Memorial Park was 90% photographed.
* DearMYRTLE (Pat Richley-Erickson) has a YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/DearMYRTLE ) that archives her Hangouts On Air with panelists on various topics. Pat has weekly free-to-watch Hangouts On Air called Mondays With Myrt, Beginning Genealogy, Genealogy Game night, Mastering Genealogical Proof Study Group, etc. Viewers can watch these videos at any time.
* MyHeritage has introduced Instant Discoveries for users with a MyHeritage Family Tree. The system searches other trees for the same person, and suggests a number of family members to the user. By accepting an Instant discovery, more persons are added to the user's family tree.
In the second hour, the attendees shared:
* Diane went to the Mission Valley FamilySearch Library with the CVGS group and found information on her Michael surname family. It took her uncle's line back 10 generations.
* Lorrie asked about the DNA Tribes website. The link is http://dnatribes.com/.
* Karen's mother had a baby sister named Sarah who died as an infant. The family had a locket with the baby's picture. Karen has been researching Sarah, and realized that she named her own daughter the same name without knowing her aunt's name. Psychic?
* Jane subscribed to Ancestry.com, and found her father's father's death certificate. It said his father was born in Naples, Italy. She also watched in amazement at the NBC Today show segment shown on 12 May about the family story hologram made of a Holocaust survivor answering questions about his life. The hologram looked very real - she thought it was "a way to talk to the dead" in the future. Watch the video segment at http://www.today.com/series/are-we-there-yet/holograms-add-new-dimension-holocaust-survivors-story-t20511
* Ann passed around the newly received New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer book that CVGS recently ordered. She brought two books that she obtained during her research trip to Germany in 2014. She found a Drollinger cousin on Facebook before the trip, and visited him, and ate in the family restaurant. He gave Ann the two books, one on the Drollinger family and one on the hometown. They are in German, of course, and Ann needs a way to translate phrases in the book. Sam noted that the Translate mobile app will translate text in one language to another from a screen image.
* Gary noted that Ancestry.com uses modern place names for their records and maps, not the historical place names. He wondered how to find historic place names. FamilySearch has the FamilySearch Place Research tool at https://familysearch.org/int-std-ui-research/. A user puts in the modern location and the historical place jurisdictions and years involved are returned.
* Karen Y. has collected military records for her father from World War II. She has been seeking her uncle's military records, and found that the uncle died on Iwo Jima. A relative had movies made by the uncle during the battle. Karen found a book at a Coronado boo9k store with a photo of the uncle. There was also a story in the book about the Mariana Turkey Shoot which her father was in.
* Hazel asked exactly what Evidence Explained is. Randy showed features from the book on his computer as a PDF file, and Elizabeth Shown Mills' website, www.evidenceexplained.com.
* Gary noted that the new CVGS website has a Forums feature where members can ask questions, answer them, or provide useful information to society members. See the Forums section on www.cvgenealogy.org.
The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be on Wednesday, 10 June 2015 at 12 noon in the Computer Lab of the Chula Vista Covic Center Branch Library.
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