Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Saturday Workshop on 3 March 2018

Susi Pentico will lead the discussion of "Where to Look for Help? at the March 3rd Saturday Workshop.  

It will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Community Room at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road, in Bonita, California).  

Thursday, February 22, 2018

CVGS February Program Meeting: Susi Pentico on "Lost Ancestors"

Wednesday, 28 February 2018, 12 Noon

Program:  Susi C. Pentico on “Lost Ancestors”

at Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) Auditorium

Susi Pentico will be presenting "LOST ANCESTORS.”  We want to break the ice with society members and to learn more about our fellow researchers.  Who are they researching? Who else has my surname? What area are they researching?  Could we team up at times and gain more knowledge?   The last two Saturday workshops have been leading up to this major event.  It is fun to see the faces go from "You do?" to  "Wow!" 

Come prepared to share information with fellow members and see if we can shake a few more leaves out of the trees.  We will be rotating research areas for this event so plan on bringing at least three surnames, places, and times.   You need to bring a Five Generation Chart, an iPad, computer, or pencil and paper, in order to record your potential successes or followups to be further searched and analyzed.


Susi Jones Pentico was born in Wyoming, raised on a cattle and dairy ranch in Wyoming and California.  She started family research at age 12 with her Mom as a guide (she was Mom's helper writing letters).  Susi has been married almost 59 years, is the mother of five, grandmother of ten, and great-grandmother of two. Susi was a founding member of CVGS, and loves to share her knowledge and help others.  

A short business meeting will precede the "Lost Ancestors" presentation. The membership will be presented with the Society's Annual Report and Proposed 2018 Budget for approval. 

Saturday, February 17, 2018

CVGS Research Group Review - 14 February 2018

There were 13 attendees at the February 14th Research Group meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society.  Nancy treated us with Valentine hearts.

In the first hour, Randy discussed the genealogy news for the last month, including:

*  the RootsTech 2018 video streaming from 28 February to 3 March at www.rootstech.org.

*  how to access the RootsTech 2018 syllabus articles at http://app.core-apps.com/rootstech2018/events/view_by_day?tracks&type (one article at a time)

*  the CVGS FamilySearch Library visit and his finds

*  his Lanfear DNA match connection on MyHeritage - the relationship is correct and the location is correct.

*  the George W. Seaver research saga - outlined at http://www.geneamusings.com/2018/02/the-rest-of-george-w-seaver-story-part_15.html

In the second hour, the attendees discussed:

*  Bobbie described a love story about her ancestor Albert LeMagdaliene, who moved from Quebec to Lake County, Illinois.  He married twice, for 25 years and 30 years respectively, and they are buried together.

*  Arlene found a book, Gathering of Zion, on the shelf at the Chula Vista library with a reference to her 2nd-great-grandmother.

*  Karen S. has been working with a DNA match who is adopted.  They think they have found family, and asked about how to contact them.  The group suggested several online resources, including the DNA Detectives Facebook group.

*  John has been successful finding his wife's families in Mexico church and civil registration records.  The group noted that some states now have indexes for Civil registration records.

*  Sam has been working on descriptions of his eight great-grandparents.  

*  Karen Y has been collecting Maryland Eastern Shore information for the 2/28 CVGS program meeting.  She has been trolling for names, dates, and places in online resources for six of her ancestral surnames.

*  Virginia's 5th cousin sent some family material.  She sent messages to 7 AncestryDNA matches, but only 2 have responded.  One sent a photo of Virginia's great-grandfather, and the other has family in Virginia's Indiana home town.

*  Susi discussed her Jones family line, and the contacts she has made.  It seems they have finally decided that Susi is a serious researcher who has lots of information to share on her tree families.

*  Diane has an ancestor named Valentine in Germany born in 1859, connected to her Longhurst family.  She has been corresponding with a cousin who often gets things wrong.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be Wednesday, 14 March 2018 at 12 noon in the Auditorium of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista CA 91910).  


Wednesday, February 14, 2018

February 2018 Issue of CVGS Newsletter Published

The February 2018 issue (Volume 28, Issue 2) of the CVGS Newsletter was published on Monday, 12 February.

The Table of Contents for this issue is:

*  page 1 - February 28th General Meeting
*  page 2 - President's Message
*  page 2 - Membership Address Changes
*  page 2 - Register for Meetings on CVGS Website

*  page 2 - Member Services
*  page 3 - Next Saturday Workshop

*  page 3 - Next Research Group Meeting*  page 3 - Next Computer Group Meeting

*  page 3 - Next Lemon Grove Meeting
*  page 3 - Help Wanted

*  page 3 - Scholarship Donations Welcome
*  page 4 - Hispanic Research Classes in San Diego

*  page 4 - Upcoming Family Tree Webinars
*  page 5 - January 31st Program Review
*  page 6:  February 3rd Saturday Workshop Review

*  page 7 - January 10th Research Group Review

*  page 8 - Field Trip to FamilySearch Library
*  page 8-  Recent Blog Articles of Interest
*  page 9:  CVGS Member Wanda Brock Passed Away*  page 10 - Genealogy Days in Chula Vista

*  page 11 - CVGS Society Information
*  page 11 - San Diego Area Genealogy Events

The CVGS Newsletter is available on the CVGS website (www.cvgenealogy.org) - CVGS members can see the current issue, but non-members cannot see the last two issues of the newsletter.



Monday, February 5, 2018

Program Review - Marti Lewis on "Exploring Your DNA Results"

There were 34 in attendance for the CVGS program meeting on 31 January at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.  

The speaker was Marti Lewis who discussed "Exploring Your DNA Test Results."

Marti said there were many ways to use DNA to trace your Family History.  The main question most people have is "what do we do with it?"  

Each person receives 23 pair of chromosomes from their biological parents - 22 pair are autosomal chromosomes, and 1 pair of sex chromosomes: Males receive a Y-chromosome from their father and an X chromosome from their mother;  Females receive an X-chromosome from each parent.

There are three types of DNA testing that deal with your 23 pairs of chromosomes:

*  Y chromosome:  A sex chromosome transmitted from fathers to sons.  This follows the paternal line (e.g., 1 of your 32 3rd great-grandparents).

*  Mitochondrial DNA:  Matter outside the cell nucleus, transmitted from females to children.  This follows a maternal line (but males don't pass it on) (e.g., 1 of your 32 3rd great-grandparents).

*  Autosomal DNA:  The DNA on 22 chromosomes that are passed from all of your ancestors through your parents (e.g., all 32 of your 32 3rd great-grandparents).

With Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests, you can determine the haplogroup of the paternal and maternal lines - where did they originate, where did they migrate to in ancient times.  The Y-DNA haplogroups differ from the mtDNA haplogroups.  For instance, Marti's mtDNA  haplogroup is L3e, which came from Mozambique.

AncestryDNA, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritageDNA offer autosomal testing, but only FamilyTreeDNA provides Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests.  23andMe does provide haplogroup definition as part of their service.

What can you learn from your Autosomal DNA test?

*  Ancestry Composition - your ethnicity, according to how your DNA matches the test company's reference groups.  Marti's ethnicity estimate shows that she is 65% Sub-Saharan African, 32.2% European and 1.8% East Asian/Native American.

*  Compare your DNA to your matches - the percentage of DNA you share helps determine the possible relationships to your matches.  Each DNA match on your list will tell you how much you share with that person.  Typically, you share 50% with a parent, 25% with a grandparent, 12.5% with a great-grandparent, etc.  A first cousin will share about 12.5% with you, a 2nd cousin about 3%, a 3rd cousin about 0.8%.

*  Find common ancestors with your DNA matches.  She explained the concept of cousins and removed cousins - a 3rd cousin shares 2nd great-grandparents, and a 3rd cousin once removed would share common ancestors 4 generations back for one person, and 5 generations back on the other line, in other words one generation different from a common ancestor.

Marti described one of her autosomal DNA matches - William Paxson Gordon (a white man), with whom she shares 26 cM in 2 segments, meaning he is probably a 3rd cousin 1x removed, with common second great-grandparents.  One of Marti's second great-grandmothers is Cynthia Jane Paxson (1825-1886) whose father had one of William Gordon's Paxson ancestors.  

She said that it helps to have an online Family Tree that your family and cousins can find and use - Marti's is on the Tribal Pages website.   The site is free, although there is an annual fee for image storage.

Marti has found that DNA testing and analysis has helped unravel some of her family history mysteries.  In some cases, DNA test analysis can strengthen your research paper trail, and help you avoid false connections.

This was a good introduction to DNA testing and analysis for CVGS members.