May 11th Research Group Review

The May 11th meeting of the CVGS Research Group had 17 enthusiastic attendees.

In the first hour, Randy discussed genealogy news and his own research, including:

*  RootsMagic software has added WebHints to Findmypast collections, in addition to FamilySearch and MyHeritage WebHints.

*  AncestryDNA updated their match algorithms - most people gained new matches and lost old matches.

*  Genealogy Roadshow starts on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on PBS starting 17 May.

*  While Ancestry.com has indexes for their Wills and Probate Records collections for all 50 states, the indexes are incomplete.  You should browse through County digitized volumes to find all potential probate records.

*  MyHeritage has over 447,000 published books in their "Compilation of Published Sources" collection - any researcher can search this collection for FREE.  See  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/05/tuesdays-tip-myheritage-book-collection.html for more details.

*  He found an 1893 will for Elizabeth Auble (1814-1899), his second great-grandaunt, in Philadelphia PA via an Ancestry Hint which named her siblings and other relatives.  Three of the named siblings were new to his research and he has been researching their descendants.  The point made was that the heirs-at-law of spinster aunts, bachelor uncles, and folks with deceased spouses and no children will be their siblings and their descendants, which mat lead to more knowledge of the family.

In the second hour, the group discussed their research questions, challenges and successes, including:

*  Karen S. asked about Y-DNA projects for surnames on FamilyTreeDNA and YSearch.  She found that several with her surname providedl ines of descent.

*  Sylvia asked about the process to add a photograph to her Ancestry Member Tree.  Randy demonstrated this using one of his photos aon his Ancestry tree.

*  Karen Y. asked the process to add a photograph to a Find A Grave memorial.  The group said she had to be a registered user, and to contact the memorial "owner."

*  Linda noted that some FamilySearch collections the year range does not include some record dates.  She also received a family chart from a cousin.

*  Diane learned that Sarah Lindquist's (1840-1921) mother, Flora McDonald, was born in 1814 in Glasgow, Scotland.  She received information from Sarah's descendant.

*  Shirley found conflicting information about Ann Almy, who died in 1709, married Job Greene (born 1620) in Rhode Island.  The group suggested the MyHeritage book collection may provide more information.  

*  Pam has a family that had three children but the parents died and they were never together in the census records.  The group recommended looking for guardianship records in probate records.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at 12 noon in the Conference Room of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista).  All CVGS meetings are FREE and open to any person.