======================================================================= LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-BULLETIN FOR OCTOBER 1999 October 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 New CD-ROMs at the Pleasanton Library Twenty-two new CDs have arrived, or are about to arrive, at the Genealogy CD Center in the Pleasanton Library. This brings the total at the center to 284. See Jay Gilson's article later in this bulletin. - - - - - Big party planned at the library! On Monday, October 18, at 9 AM we are hoping for a mass turnout of L-AGS members for a party (a work party, that is) at the Pleasanton Library. All of the books in the library, including the L-AGS books, have to be reprocessed as part of the transition of the library ownership from the county to the city. See Jay Gilson's article later in this bulletin. - - - - - New surname lists now on the Web Through the efforts of Karen Banta, Dick Finn and Larry Renslow, our completely revised surname pages are now on the Web. The two main purposes of the revision were to allow our many new members to get their names up, and to make it much easier to update the pages when needed. There are now 5489 name-location-date entries on our site, contributed by 122 members. To search the surname pages, go to http://www.l-ags.org and click on the link, "Search L-AGS Web Pages." To browse the surname pages, go to http://www.l-ags.org/surnames99 and click on the code number of the member of interest. These codes were explained in a recent e-mail to members. New and modified postings from members are still being accepted. Send them to the address at the end of this message. ======================================================================= 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, October 7, 1999 at 7:30 PM Place: Livermore Adult Education (old Sonoma School), 543 Sonoma Ave., Livermore For a map to the school, dial up: http://www.l-ags.org/sonoma.html NOTE THAT WE ARE BACK AT OUR REGULAR MEETING PLACE IN SONOMA SCHOOL We will discuss the new version 7.0 of FTM. Those who have received a copy of version 7.0 are asked to run through some of the new features and give a critique to the group. We hope to have a laptop running on the projecting monitor to demonstrate the new version, and to help with problem solving on older versions. 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 October 12, 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: "Finding Our Extended Family (Without the Internet!)" Presenters: David Henry Sisson and Joan Sisson Livermore Genealogists When I spoke with David Henry Sisson, I found several aspects of our conversation interesting. Since the Valley Times article of July 17th of this year on the Sissons mentioned computers, I asked what was their e-address. David surprised me when he told me they don't have an e-address because they would be inundated with too much e-mail. Maybe some of us will someday have so many ancestors discovered and be so lucky to have a similar problem! Instead they have a relative, David Arne Sisson in NY State, who serves as their buffer. David Arne maintains a website http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dasisson/ and uses snail-mail to send the Livermore Sissons the important information. David and Joan have been publishing a Sisson newsletter for 13 years. Recently they finished putting this information in their 788-page book titled "Descendants of Richard and Mary Sisson: 10 Generations from 1608." They are charging $40 plus $6.50 postage and handling for the book. It contains almost 5,000 descendants, almost 3,900 allied persons in almost 2,000 families, and references to over 600 sources. At age 63, David is now retired from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he worked in Nuclear Chemistry. I looked for the name Sisson in the Livermore Library and found that Joan had published several books. Dave said that Joan had written two children's books, two books for teenagers and now has co-authored this Sisson genealogy book for adults. I have asked David and Joan to focus on the techniques that they used to solve some of their genealogical "brick-wall" puzzles. David said they had been working on this project for about 30 years. One of their brick walls took 15 years for them to solve. Initially, they thought they would be aided by having the rare surname Sisson. This turned out not to be the case. Through the L-AGS website, we find where Sisson stands on a name frequency basis. It is rarer than many surnames but still is far from the rarest in the 1990 U. S. census database http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/genealogy/www/freqnames.html with about 6.3 million names: Smith - 1 Jones - 4 Curry - 313 Bryan - 487 Sisson - 2,867 Homan - 4,024 Last name - 89,799 The Sissons will also discuss both their book publishing and newsletter. I expect this will be a very interesting presentation where we can learn some good habits including tenacity as practiced by two genealogical research masters. 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, October 21, 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 Our topic for this month will be announced later. Our discussions are not limited to the given topic, so if you have a problem or a solution, come to the meeting and tell us about it. - - - - - 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@home.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPUTER INTEREST GROUP Dick Finn, Group Leader Thursday, October 28, 1999 - 7:30 pm Place: Livermore Adult Education (old Sonoma School), 543 Sonoma Ave., Livermore For a map to the school, dial up: http://www.l-ags.org/sonoma.html We hope to have a guest speaker to discuss genealogy programs other than Family Tree Maker. Several of these programs are produced by other subsidiaries of The Learning Company, the parent company of FTM's creator, Broderbund. 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 Big party at the library! Monday, October 18th at 9 AM is the time set for a big work party at the Pleasanton Library. We need to put new "Pleasanton Library" strips on all of the genealogy books, and while we are at it, repair some of the other tattered tape-ons. Too many cooks don't spoil this broth, so bring your spouses, children, grandchildren, and any other kinfolk who can help. The library does not open to the public until noon, so enter at the side door. If you have L-AGS friends who do not have e-mail, please pass the word to them. - - - - - New CD-ROMs Here are the new CDs recently put in the carousels at the Pleasanton Library (* denotes on order, not arrived as of October 1): CD 144 Genealogical Records: Loyalists in the American Revolution CD 159 New England Families #2, 1600s-1800s *CD 169 Genealogy Dictionary of New England, 1600s-1800s CD 184 Colonial Families of Maryland, 1600s-1900s CD 195 Maryland Marriages and Genealogies, 1634-1820 *CD 209 Pennsylvania Wills, 1682- 1834 CD 235 Marriage Index: Tennessee, 1851-1900 CD 240 Marriage Index: New Jersey, 1680-1900 *CD 241 Marriage Index: West Virginia, 1863-1900 CD 242 Marriage Index: Mississippi and Florida, 1800-1900 CD 244 Marriage Index: Arkansas, 1850-1900 CD 248 Marriage Index: Alabama, 1800-1900 CD 250 Marriage Index: Illinois, 1851-1900 CD 251 Marriage Index: Michigan and Wisconsin, 1830-1900 CD 353 Passenger Lists: Italians to America CD 404 Marriage Index: Maine, 1743-1891 CD 590 Passenger and Immigration Lists: Supplement to CD 354 *WF 28-32 World Family Tree (5 CDs) All of the 284 CDs at the library are listed on the L-AGS Web site. - - - - - The Pleasanton Library hours are: Monday and Tuesday Noon to 9 pm Wednesday and Thursday 10 am to 9 pm Friday and Saturday 10 am to 5 pm Sunday 1 pm to 5 pm Note that the library is now 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. - - - - - The new PAF 4.0.2. (Windows only) is available for free download at the following URL: http://www.familysearch.org/OtherResources/Other_Resources.asp PAF 4.0.2 has twenty new features, enhancements, and corrections of the many bugs which were found in the first PAF 4.0. - - - - - 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 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 7 PM to 9 PM Wednesday 9 AM to 1 PM, 7 PM to 9 PM Thursday 9 AM to 1 PM, 7 PM to 9 PM Friday 9 AM to 1 PM Saturday 9 AM to 1 PM 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. ======================================================================= The Boilerplate 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. - - - - - To discontinue receiving these mailings from L-AGS please call me at 925 XXX-XXXX or e-mail me at XXXX@ccnet.com. - - - - - The L-AGS Website is located at: http://www.l-ags.org - - - - - If you ever have trouble accessing the L-AGS Web site, or find any faulty links on it, please let me know immediately. - - - - - 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------