Saturday, July 15, 2017

CVGS Research Group Summary - 12 July 2017

There were 14 attendees at the CVGS Research Group meeting on Wednesday, 12 July, including two guests.

In the first hour, Randy discussed:

*  Family History Library microfilm distribution to local centers and libraries will be discontinued on 1 September 2017.  Over 50% of the microfilms have been digitized to date, and the remainder should be digitized by 2020.  The digitzed microfilm records are on the FamilySearch.org websaite.

*  RootsMagic unveiled their TreeShare (sync with an Ancestry Member Trees) and Ancestry WebHints (the user can add content directly from Ancestry Hints) on 28 June.  Users must have an Ancestry subscription to use the WebHints.   The current RootsMagic version is 7.5.1.0 which includes these new features.

*  Family Tree Maker 2017 rollout to all customers is imminent - the target date is 15 July 2017.  FTM 2017 will have TreeSync (a full sync with an Ancestry Member Tree) and several more new features.  Sync to an Ancestry Member Tree will work only with FTM 2017.

*  Randy has transcribed five Suffolk County, Mass. deeds that describe the property inherited by the children of Shubael Seaver (1640-1730) in Roxbury.   Using the land descriptions, he thinks he has found the site of the homestead on present-day maps.

In the second hour, the attendees discussed these questinos, problems and successes:

*  Linda R (a guest) has her husband's step-father's family files because no one else in the family wanted them.  The step-father did a lot of genealogy work decades ago and there are file cabinets full of paper.  How can she deal with this problem (note that it's not her family, or her husband's family)?  The group suggested sorting it into three sectinos - keep family records and artifacts, donate research materials to a local genealogical society, and throw out correspondence and photocopies of book and periodical articles.  Another suggestion was to put the genealogy in a family tree program and interface it with an Ancestry Member Tree and the FamilySearch Family Tree.

*  Helen found some Cleveland, Ohio genealogical society books.  Also, her brother tested on 23andMe and had a cousin contact who thought it was a 75% match, but it was only a 0.75% match.

*  Gary wondered if the Knowlton information about the 1600s sea captain has been expanded or updated.  Randy has this family, and didn't think so.

*  Virginia received her MyHeritage DNA ethnicity results and is 100% European, 56% northern Europe and 28% Southern Europe.

*  Bobbie received her FamilyTreeDNA autosomal matches, and has an 82 cM match who lives in England.  She has found another known cousin from the matches.

*  Karen S. was researching a couple who were born in the 1950s and divorced in 1978.  They hsave unusal surnames.  Where can she find records?  The group suggested online and repository searches for birth records, marriage records, divorce records, newspaper articles, city directories, etc.  She could research the unusual surnames in the 1940 census and in city directories and try to find obituaries for those persons that might name the children.

*  Susi had a cousin contact who helped fill in her great-grandfather's line with family information.

*  Shirley is still working on a Brown line from a published book, adding information to a database that mgiht help connect to her Brown line.  She's finding name spelling werrors andm istakes in marriage dates.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be Wednesday, 9 August 2017 at 12 noon, in the Conference Room at the Chula vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista, Calif.).

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