======================================================================= LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-BULLETIN FOR JANUARY 2000 January 1, 2000 ======================================================================= A N N O U N C E M E N T S Remember that all the information in this bulletin can also be found via the link "Coming Events" on our Web site at . ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officers for 2000 Our leaders for the coming year are: President Jon Bryan Program Chair Open Membership Chair Joyce Siason Corresponding Secretary Jane Southwick Recording Secretary Kaye Strickland Business Manager Hal Norris ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dues due Joyce Siason, Membership Chair Dues ($18 individual, $25 family) are due today and delinquent February 28th. Please mail in or pay at the January 11 meeting. We will be calling to remind the members who have not renewed by February 1. Our mailing address is: L-AGS P.O. Box 901 Livermore, CA 94550-0901 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- New library donations The Library Committee is pleased to acknowledge the receipt of two donations to our holdings. Lorraine Green has donated a complete run of "The Virginia Genealogist" from 1957 to present, with the first 22 years bound into annual soft- cover books. The donation is in memory of her late husband, Billy D. Green. Dave and Joan Sisson, speakers at our November meeting, have donated the following books: 1. "Ancestry of Elihu B. Gifford and Catherine Sandow Barrows", by Raymond L. Olson 2. "Ancestry and Descendants of Nathaniel Sackett Arkills and Jane Ann Eckert", by Lucile R. Olson 3. "The Hulse/Hulse Families in America", V1-3, by Lynn C. Harper ------------------------------------------------------------------------- New search engine on RootsWeb Get a sneak preview of a new search engine that Randy Winch of RootsWeb is working on: http://tn-1.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/metasearch Randy says it is a "pre-alpha" release version, but it worked fine for me, searching 10 of the RootsWeb databases with one query. Randy Winch is the ace Perl programmer who has given personal help to Doug Mumma and who is responsible for the slick site-wide search engine that we use on the L-AGS Web site. ======================================================================= 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, January 6, 2000 at 7:30 PM Place: Livermore Adult Education Facility (formerly the Sonoma Avenue School), 543 Sonoma Ave., Livermore For a map to the school, dial up: http://www.l-ags.org/sonoma.html For our first meeting of the millennium, century, and year we will continue our discussion of Family Tree Maker software, the enhancements list that has been sent to Family Tree Maker, and we should now be able to show FTM on the school monitor so that we can better discuss the use of 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, January 11, 2000 - 7:30 PM Location: Congregation Beth Emek, 1886 College Avenue, Livermore Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/college.html On Tuesday January 11th our L-AGS speaker will be Bob Berlo of Livermore speaking about "POPULATION AND NAME HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA CITIES AND TOWNS: 1770 to 1999." Being able to perform genealogical research often requires the availability of good maps for the time periods being examined. In his studies of CA cities and towns for more than 200 years, Bob said that he has found "more dead ones (ghost towns) than live ones!" I requested that Bob also check out our L-AGS website and suggest both map references and links for additional map websites. Bob will describe the interesting results of his 45 years of collecting historical population statistics on California's cities and towns and his mapping of this population history from 1770 to 1999. As part of this project he has done extensive research on the fascinating history of the names of California places. He will display and discuss his population data and the maps drawn from it and give numerous examples of the sometimes strange and convoluted history of place names. He will also discuss and display the major reference works he has found useful in this research. Starting with his family's trip in 1952 to his father's home town of Gardner, Mass., he has collected more than 10,000 maps, most of them road or street maps. He also became interested in the growth and decline of the cities and towns of the West, particularly California. Now retired, he has put together a book on the population history of California places and has used this information to prepare a 1,076-page work that maps the history of the state's towns from 1770 to 1999. He has also prepared a history of the U.S.-numbered highways of the West. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Bob is descended from pipe-organ builders and a long line of Bavarian glaziers. Although his degree is in chemistry, most of his career was in technical publishing, first as a technical editor and then as a manager in the Technical Information Department at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Bob retired from LLNL in 1996. Bob is member of the California Map Society, at whose meetings he has given papers on his work on historical demography and cartography. He has also published or taught in the fields of chemistry, natural family planning, Bible study, sabermetrics (statistical analysis of baseball), technical writing, management, and personal computing. His interests also include railroading and transit, classical music, wine, gardening, hiking, and Catholic theology. Our special "Thank you" goes to David Oakley, a new L-AGS member, for suggesting that we invite Bob Berlo to give us a presentation. Jon Bryan - - - - - Visitors are welcome at all L-AGS meetings. For information, contact Jon Bryan at 925 XXX-XXXX orXXXX@aol.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENEALOGY STUDY GROUP Vicki Renz, Leader Thursday, January 20, 2000 - 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 Date: Thursday, January 27, 2000 - 7:30 PM Location: Livermore Adult Education (formerly the Sonoma Avenue School), 543 Sonoma Ave., Livermore URL for a map to the School: http://www.l-ags.org/sonoma.html Program: "Genealogy on CD" Presenter: Marston Watson Co-founder of "Genealogy on CD" Marston and his wife Kathy are co-founders of Genealogy on CD. Marston is Vice President General of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, past Board Member of The California Genealogical Society, writes newspaper and magazine articles, and has been honored as a Distinguished Toastmaster. Marston will present the advantages and cost-effective benefits of preserving and publishing your genealogy, family history, precious photographs and old documents using the latest computer technology. Learn how Genealogy on CD can condense volumes of your entire family records in a single CD-ROM. 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 The hours for the Pleasanton Library 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 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@home.com (Jay Gilson) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Bill Silver 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------