======================================================================= LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-BULLETIN FOR AUGUST 1999 August 1, 1999 ======================================================================= See the note at the end for tips on improving the readability of this message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A N N O U N C E M E N T S **************************************************************** * * * L-AGS member LeRoy Erickson died of a heart attack Tuesday, * * July 27, 1999. He was 78 years old. Roy had been a member of * * L-AGS for five years. A memorial service is scheduled for * * 2 p.m. Tuesday, August 3 at the Unitarian Church, 1893 Vasco * * Road, Livermore. * * * **************************************************************** The Pleasanton Library will reopen at 1 PM today. The second CD-ROM computer is in place and ready for use! Jay Gilson, Library Chairman, bought the computer with money donated by the Pleasanton Library League. He and Doug Mumma have worked on the temperamental older computer to attempt to flush out the bugs. The interior redecorating and the external landscaping of the library are not quite finished, but all is functional. A reopening ceremony is planned for August 29. Remember that all genealogy books checked out for the duration of the renovation are due today, August 1. Beginning August 20, the library will be open on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so Friday and Saturday hours will be the same. Hours on other days will remain the same as in previous years (see the article "Library News" below in this message.) - - - - - L-AGS has a new publication. It is "Index to the 1883 book, 'History of Alameda County,' by M. W. Wood." The index is not new: it was compiled in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, a depression-era makework program that supported historians and librarians, among others. The reason for reprinting by L-AGS is that the index was apparently never printed in quantity, in spite of the fact that Wood's "History..." itself is widely held by libraries in California and elsewhere. The WPA index is seemingly not held by any major library in the US, except for a carbon copy typescript found in the rare book section of the Alameda County Library in Fremont. More details about the new publication can be found at: http://www.l-ags.org/woods.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- C O M I N G E V E N T S Visitors are welcome at all of our meetings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L-AGS FAMILY TREE MAKER FOCUS GROUP Dick Finn, Group Leader Date: Thursday, August 5, 1999 at 7:30 PM Location: Mocho Street LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore URL for a map to the church: http://www.l-ags.org/mocho.html NOTE THE CHANGE IN LOCATION FOR THE SUMMER We will have a sharing and problem solving session. Bring in your questions, problems, solutions, and anecdotes about FTM. We are primarily a group of Family Tree Maker users (from beginners to experts) who discuss/share problems and successes and in general help each other in the use of FTM software. All persons interested or potentially interested in Family Tree Maker and related software are invited to attend. Guests are welcome at no charge. For information on our group please feel free to call Richard Finn at 925-XXX-XXXX or e-mail him at XXXX@pacbell.net. If you can't get Dick try George Anderson at 925-XXX-XXXX or XXXX@ccnet.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING Jon Bryan, Program Chairman Tuesday August 10, 1999 - 7:30 PM Location: Congregation Beth Emek, 1886 College Avenue, Livermore Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/college.html Program: "Genetics, Genomics and Genealogy: A Common Root" Presenter: Linda K. Ashworth Linda Ashworth is the Assistant Genome Center Director and Assistant to the Associate Director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Last January I heard Linda give the initial presentation for a special series on about ten Saturdays. The series included presentations given by various LLNL personnel for high school students to help give them vocational ideas for their futures. Linda kept this audience attentive and asking interesting questions for the full hour. Needless to say, I was quite impressed with Linda's presentation. I tried to invite Linda earlier, but her Livermore Symphony also practices on Tuesday nights except for the summer. Then the symphony takes a vacation. So we compromised and have scheduled Linda to give us a presentation in August. When I asked Linda to describe herself a bit for us, she wrote, "I'm a local kid, having gone all through school here in Livermore. Music wise, I've played in the symphony for 15 years, and also play for the Livermore Valley Opera and in the Vineyard Woodwind Quintet. In the past, I've also played for the Pleasanton Playhouse and the Pleasanton Community Band. I live with my husband of 22 years, Jerry Eveleth, and a cat named Leo. We just moved to a 4-yr. old home in Livermore, so are busy unpacking when I'm not at work." Linda attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA where she earned a BS degree in 1974 (Biology and Biochemistry). She has been a certified Clinical Specialist in Cytogenetics CLSp(CG) since 1981. She was a Recombinant DNA Techniques Certificant, Rochester Inst. Technology, in 1986. She has been an employee at LLNL since 1974. Linda is on the editorial board of the publication Applied Cytogenetics since 1983. She was Technical Editor of the publication Mutation Research Genomics from 1996 through 1999. I wrote Linda earlier that "I would like to hear you give a talk much like I heard you give in January. Please slant it toward genealogists doing family history research. I suspect many will eventually publish their research. I have genealogical questions such as what things might we want to add to our family histories (for example, a blood sample), provided we wanted to leave some additional information about our genetic makeup. It would also be interesting to learn what diseases seem to be aided most by knowledge of a person's family (genetic) history. It was mentioned on Tom Brokaw's NBC News that genetic history of a family could be helpful to doctors for preventing 'sudden cardiac death.'" Jon Bryan - - - - - Visitors are welcome at all L-AGS meetings. For information, contact Jon Bryan at 925 XXX-XXXX or XXXX@aol.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENEALOGY STUDY GROUP Vicki Renz, Leader Thursday, August 19, 1999 - 7:30 pm Location: Mocho Street LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore URL for a map to the church: http://www.l-ags.org/mocho.html The program will be announced in a separate e-mail message. The Study Group will continue to meet during the summer at the usual place in the Mocho Street LDS Church. - - - - - Members needing help with a genealogy problem may call one of the club officers, who will attempt to find someone who can help. For information contact Vicki Renz at 925 XXX-XXXX or XXXX@tdl.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPUTER INTEREST GROUP Dick Finn, Group Leader Thursday, August 26, 1999 - 7:30 pm Location: Mocho Street LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore URL for a map to the church: http://www.l-ags.org/mocho.html NOTE THE CHANGE IN LOCATION FOR THE SUMMER! Program: "Optical Character Recognition (OCR)" We will have a group discussion about OCR, the technique for converting scanned images of text into editable text. You can use the technique to capture text from a book, then later edit, excerpt, index and reformat it to include it in your own book or in notes in your genealogical database. You can also use OCR to compress a megabyte image file of text into a few tens of kilobytes of word-processible text. If you have done OCR processing, even with little success, please come prepared to discuss your experiences. When possible, bring samples of the original pages that were scanned, and the corresponding pages of the OCRed output. Non-members are welcome to attend at no cost. For information on CIG call Dick Finn at 925-XXX-XXXX or e-mail him at XXXX@pacbell.net. If you can't get Dick try George Anderson at 925-XXX-XXXX or XXXX@ccnet.com - - - - - Members needing help with a computer problem may call one of the mentors listed in the Members' Handbook. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIBRARY NEWS Jay Gilson, Library Chairman See the note at the top about the reopening of the Pleasanton Library. L-AGS has a members-only cost-sharing plan for the purchase of new books and compact disks. Details of the plan and our Wish List can be found at: http://www.l-ags.org/buy-wish.html The Pleasanton Library hours are: Monday and Tuesday Noon to 9 pm Wednesday and Thursday 10 am to 9 pm Friday closed Saturday 10 am to 5 pm Sunday 1 pm to 5 pm Beginning August 20, the library will be open on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A L-AGS docent is on duty at the library on Wednesdays from 10 am to 1 pm. Members who would like to serve as genealogy docents may contact Jay Gilson at 925 XXX-XXXX or at XXXX@best.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIVERMORE FAMILY HISTORY CENTER Bill Silver, Director The LDS Family History Center at 950 Mocho Street in Livermore is open at the following times: Monday 10 am to 3 pm Wednesday and Thursday 6 pm to 9 pm Saturday 1 pm to 4 pm The telephone number at the Livermore FHC is 925 443 2750. L-AGS members who would like to serve as docents at the FHC may contact Jeanne Tanghe at 925 XXX-XXXX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASANTON FAMILY HISTORY CENTER David and Lola Cummings, Directors NOTE: The Pleasanton FHC will be closed from Tuesday, August 10 through Saturday, August 21. The Pleasanton FHC is located at the Pleasanton Stake house on the corner of Valley and Paseo Santa Cruz. The building faces North and the entrance to the library is on the East side. The center is open at the following times: Tuesday 5 PM to 9 PM Wednesday 9 AM to 1 PM and 7 PM to 9 PM Friday 9 AM to 5 PM Saturday 10 AM to 2 PM Consideration is being given to closing the FHC on Friday afternoons. If you are considering a Friday visit, please call to confirm the hours. The telephone number at the Pleasanton FHC is 925 846 0149. The center now has four microfilm viewers, two microfiche viewers, three computers running the Family Search program, and ten basic reference books. Non-LDS patrons are welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes from the Webmaster We realize that not all L-AGS members have e-mail. If you have friends in L-AGS who do not have e-mail, please keep them informed about news in these e-mail bulletins. Also let them know that help is available in using our CDs at the Pleasanton Library. If they want to use the CDs, but don't know how, we can find someone in L-AGS to tutor them. - - - - - To discontinue receiving these mailings from L-AGS please call me at 925 XXX-XXXX or e-mail me at XXXX@ccnet.com. - - - - - If you ever have trouble accessing the L-AGS Web site, or find any faulty links on it, please let me know immediately. George Anderson ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ride-sharing Offered If you are interested in attending a meeting and would like a ride, or can occasionally offer a ride, please call or Karen Banta at 925 XXX-XXXX (e-mail: kXXXX@pacbell.mobile.com). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The L-AGS Website is located at: http://www.l-ags.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Readability To make sure this message is readable by the maximum number of different computer systems, it is transmitted in plain text, without embedded formatting. The message was composed in 10 point monospaced Courier font, in a 6.125 inch column width. Any necessary indenting and centering was done with spaces, not tabs. If the text appears ragged on your screen, change to 10 point Courier font, or copy the message to a word processor and change the font there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------