The February meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) Research Group on 12 February was a lively affair with 22 in attendance, including two new members.
After introductions, there were announcements about the Escondido Family History Fair on 1 March 2014 - it's free but you need to register - and the CVGS Spring Seminar on 29 March 2014 with Jean Wilcox Hibben as the featured speaker.
In the first hour, Randy highlighted his experiences at RootsTech 2014, noting that the syllabus is still online for download at https://rootstech.org/about/syllabus-materials/ and there are 17 online videos from the keynotes and selected classes at https://rootstech.org/about/videos/.
He attempted to show Judy Russell's keynote talk in the meeting, but the video was stalled by the relatively poor cell reception in the conference room. Instead, Randy showed his Flipboard magazine for "Randy at RootsTech 2014" at https://flipboard.com/section/randy-at-rootstech-2014-bFpVfG.
In the second hour, several attendees shared their recent experiences and research questions:
* Gary found several photos from his mother's estate that did not have persons identified on them, so he is trying to match faces from those photos to photos that do have names on them. For one photo, he put other photos of who he thought might be the same person on the same sheet of paper; the group thought that they were not the same person. For a second photo, he had five other photos of the known person, and the group thought they were the same person. The group noted that there are several websites that do face matching from photographs.
* Helen had a photo in her collection and didn't know who it was. She was checking Ancestry Member Trees for her 3rd great-grandfather, John Henry Winkle, and saw the same photo attached to another person's tree with the name.
* Felicia has a family story that her ancestor, Mary Gillham who married a Campbell, had been kidnapped by the Kickapoo tribe in the early 1800s, was found and ransomed in Illinois, and an Act of Congress granted land to her in 1815. She wondered if there are any records for the land grant. The group said that Acts of Congress should be available to review and to check the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Land may have been granted through the Bureau of Land Management - check the http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ website.
* Gerry's mother had German ancestry, and she wondered how to find more information about it. The group recommended finding as many records as possible (marriage, death, immigration, naturalization, obituary, cemetery, childrens births, etc.) that might identify where she was born and her parents, or siblings, names; then search for records for the parents and siblings also. Then check with the San Diego Genealogical Society German interest group, the San Diego FamilySearch Library in Mission Valley, and the www.GermanRoots.com website for research helps. Her mother's grandfather's name was Christian Floel, and we found that he had a Civil War Pension File that could be ordered from the National Archives for a fee.
The next meeting of the CVGS Research Group will be on 12 March 2014 at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Library (365 F Street).
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