====================================================== Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society E-Bulletin for January 2005 January 3, 2005 ====================================================== Summary of Meetings for January 2005: · Family Tree Maker Group - (01/06/2005): More on new 2005 Version of FTM · Regular Meeting - (01/11/2005): George Anderson - Family History Month · The Master Genealogist Group - (01/15/2005): Kay Speaks - Customizing TMG (Hoffman - Chapter 4) · Study Group - (01/20/2005): Duncan Tanner - HtmlPedigree Software Demonstration · Computer Interest Group == Merged With Study Group ____________________________________________________________ L-AGS membership dues for 2005: Our L-AGS calendar-year runs January to December and renewal dues of $18 (individual membership) and $25 (family membership) are being accepted now. Please give your check to Jane Southwick at one of our meetings or mail it to L-AGS at PO Box 901 Livermore, CA 94551. Thank you very much! ____________________________________________________________ FAMILY TREE MAKER FOCUS GROUP Meeting Date and Time: Thursday, January 6, 2005 - 7:30 PM Leader: Dick Finn Topic: More on new 2005 Version of FTM Place: Ed Rundstrom Learning Center (formerly the Sonoma Avenue School), 543 Sonoma Ave., Livermore For a map to the school, surf to: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Liv-SonomaSchool.html We will continue talking about and demonstrating the pros and cons of the new 2005 Version of Family Tree Maker. If you have a copy of the new Official FTM Guide for Version 2005, please bring it. Also, please bring your questions, comments, laptop (if you have one) with FTM loaded (any of the later versions) and a friend. Most of our group are FTM users (from beginners - even those who have not yet installed FTM - to experts) who discuss problems and solutions, share successes, answer questions, and in general help each other with the Family Tree Maker genealogical software. All persons interested or potentially interested in Family Tree Maker are invited to attend. For information on our group please call Dick Finn at 925-XXX-XXXX or e-mail him at XXXX@wecare.net (note change). Visitors are welcome and there is no charge to attend ____________________________________________________________ L-AGS January General Meeting Place: Temple Beth Emek Synagogue at 3400 Nevada Court (off Bernal Avenue - just north of the arroyo) in Pleasanton Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Subject: "Family History Month" Speaker: George Anderson We have usually honored Family History Month every October by putting L-AGS displays in local libraries. Last October we learned that not one of the three local libraries had a display case available. Luckily, the Museum on Main Street in Pleasanton came to our rescue by inviting us to use one of their showcases, an exceptionally large one. Not only that, but after the exhibit was installed they invited us to leave it on display through March of this year. The objective of the annual display is to inspire procrastinators to get going on their family history before their best sources have passed away. The words, "I wish I had started earlier," are all too familiar to us. If the inspiration works and some "newbies" join L-AGS, so much the better. We added a novel feature to the current display, and that is the subject of George's talk. It is a PowerPoint show leading the viewer through an actual case history of genealogical research on the Web. The show runs in a loop continuously, day and night, to save the museum staff the chore of starting and stopping it every day. We were thankful for being able to use a notebook computer donated to L-AGS by Vicki Renz before she moved away. It has worked perfectly for three months so far. Part of the motivation for the PowerPoint show is that it is eye-catching and perhaps attuned to modern museum-goers, who are used to having information fed to them from computer and TV monitors. The same story told in print would be "ho hum." In addition, beginners - and even veterans - should be truly impressed to see how much information there is on the Web, and how easy it is to harvest. L-AGS members who helped create the display were Frank Geasa, Dick Finn, Barbara Hempill, Kay Speaks, Jane Southwick, Terry Berry (also executive director of the museum), and George Anderson. Joanie Fields, display director for the museum, added class to the exhibit with her artistic touches. Please join us as we thank our past L-AGS officers and install our new ones. ____________________________________________________________ Livermore-Amador Genealogy Society Tri-Valley TMG Users Group Kay Speaks, Leader Meeting Date: January 15, 2005 (Third Saturday of the Month) Meeting Time: 9:00 AM - Noon Meeting Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110 Conference Room, Pleasanton, CA 94566 Directions: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html E-mail questions to: tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org We'll continue with Chapter 4 of Leo Hoffman's Getting the Most Out of the Master Genealogist - customizing TMG to your specific needs. We'll also preview the new Version 6.0 software. The rest of the meeting will be spent entering sample source type data. A digital projector will be available for ease of viewing our session. ____________________________________________________________ L-AGS Study Group Kay Speaks, Co-Leader Topic: HtmlPedigree Software Demonstration Presenter: Duncan Tanner (L-AGS Member) Meeting Date and Time: Thursday, January 20, 2005, 7:30 PM Meeting Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho, Livermore, 7:30 p.m., Room 8. For directions to the meeting site, please visit the L-AGS website: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html. Beginning in January, The Computer Interest Group will be combined into the Study Group meeting night. The Study Group will continue have topics about genealogy research and methodology, manual research topics, as well as research tips on or from the Internet. Some sessions will have computer related topics. HtmlPedigree was reviewed by Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter on October 23, 2004, http://eogn.typepad.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2004/10/htmlpedigree.html. This article reads, "HtmlPedigree is a new Windows program that produces Web pages from genealogical data in a GEDCOM file. The Web pages combine hyperlinked textual information with an interactive pedigree chart." Mr. Eastman continues, "I found HtmlPedigree to be a simple program to use." The homepage link for HtmlPedigree is http://www.htmlpedigree.com. There is a free trial version or you can purchase a registered copy for $25 (U.S. dollars). The free trial version is provided for evaluation only. All functions of the full version are included, except dates of death and burial are replaced with "[Registered version only]." Samples of output can be found within this website. Their home page lists the following as system requirements: Microsoft Windows operating systems, 95/98/2000/NT4.0/Me/XP. Installation requires 3 MB of disc space. Memory is determined by the size of your GEDCOM file. For files larger than approximately 1 MB, 56 MB or more of RAM is recommended. Downloading the trial version is recommended to see if your computer system meets these requirements. The free trial version takes about 6 minutes for a 56K connection. The file size of the download is approximately 1.3 MB. ____________________________________________________________