The 8 November CVGS Research Group met in the library auditorium with 18 members in attendance.
There was a delay at the beginning of the meeting because the wireless adapter in Randy's laptop wasn't working, so we tried to use John's laptop, but it wouldn't show the Internet on the projector for an unknown reason. We switched to Gary's laptop and it worked fine. First world problems!
In the rest of the first hour, Randy discussed:
* AJ Jacobs has a new book out about genealogy called It's All Relative. It's funny, and documents his own ancestral search and organizing the Global Family Reunion in 2015.
* A new MyHeritage database for New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 has indexed more fields than the indexes at other record providers, including the father of the immigrant, the person they will visit, etc.
* AnestryDNA has changed their presentation a bit, incorporating a timeline into the ethnicity and community display so the user can see who lived where when.
* RootsMagic TreeShare works well with an Ancestry Member Tree, but a search of Member Trees only finds persons with "Ancestry Sources" (those attached, or added, in Ancestry to a person), not persons with only "Other Sources" (those added through TreeShare or a GEDCOM file. This is a significant drawback.
* Find A Grave has a more modern look and feel on their site, including a decent source citation. Not everybody likes the new site.
* Randy obtained an 1848 birth record (Civil Registry) from the General Record Office in England for Thomas Richman, his great-grandfather, using an online ordering system that costs £6 (about $7.50) each. He received the birth record within five days online.
In the second hour, the attendees discussed the following:
* Bobbie tried to order two 23andMe autosomal DNA test kits for $99 (a recent special) but was confused by the website. She was assured that it would work out. Several others discussed their ordering experiences also.
* Sam watched a recent Finding Your Roots episode with Mary Steenburgen with letters from a Revolutionary War soldier that married Sam's cousin, Elizabeth Janes.
* Ana showed her sister the 1907 marriage church records of their grandparents in Chihuahua. The grandfather had to marry the eldest daughter rather than a younger daughter. It all worked out.
* Helen has been going through 25 years worth of collected papers and entering them in her family tree program.
* Karen Y. took her mother to Maryland 25 years ago to visit family in Eastern Shore, Maryland. They went to the Dorchester County Historical Society (DCHS) and gathered many paper records. Now she is going through boxes of papers, and has found lots of Geoghagen and Travers documents, including membership in 1832 in the Taylor's Iland Temperance Society. On the website for SDHS, she found an obituary for Samuel Travers, who received a watch from Queen Victoria for rescuing her.
* Diane went to the recent CVGS Saturday Workshop, and discussed Canada and England research with others. She noted that it's important to write down what you know, share it with others, and get help from colleagues to figure out how to break down brick wall problems.
* Randy noted that there are many research skills for 21st century research, but one of the most important is to learn how to use the unindexed FamilySearch digital microfilm available online in organized databases or through the FamilySearch Library Catalog. Many of the digital microfilm records can only be accessed at a local FamilySearch Library (like the one in Mission Valley) or at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Microfilm is no longer being distributed outside of Salt Lake City.
There will be no Research Group meeting on December 13th because that is the date of the CVGS Holiday Luncheon at the Chula Vista South Branch Library.
The next Research Group meeting will be Wednesday, 10 January at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula vista civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista CA 91910).
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