======================================================= LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-BULLETIN FOR DECEMBER 2005 December 2, 2005 ======================================================= Summary of Meetings for December 2005: - Family Tree Maker Group: - Already past. Next meeting, January 5, 2006 - General Meeting: Tuesday, December 13 - Study Group: Thursday, December 15 - The Master Genealogist Group: No meeting in December ======================================================= A N N O U N C E M E N T S ELECTION OF NEW DIRECTORS The annual election for directors of L-AGS will be held at the December 13th general meeting. The nominating committee, composed of Lois Barber, chair, Bud Barlow and Gail Bryan, has proposed the following slate: Jane Southwick, incumbent, President Barbara Huber, incumbent, Vice President for Programs Marilyn Cutting and Jean Lerche, incumbents, Co-Vice-Presidents for Membership Beth Twogood, Corresponding Secretary Mary Ann Loss, Recording Secretary Frank Geasa, incumbent, Business Manager Nominations may be made from the floor at the December meeting, provided the nominee has agreed in writing to be nominated. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MEMBERSHIP DUES The year is drawing to a close so that means that membership fees are due - Individual $18.00. Family $25.00. You may become a Patron of L-AGS for $40 and a Benefactor for $100. Please send your check made out to "L-AGS" to: L-AGS P.O. Box 901 Livermore, CA 94551-0901 or give to membership chairpersons Jean Lerche or Marilyn Cutting. Thanking you in advance for being prompt in paying your dues. Marilyn Cutting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LIVERMORE FAMILY HISTORY CENTER Bill and Marelene Silver are stepping down as directors of the Livermore Family History Center, and will be replaced by Jim Davis. Bill and Marelene have done an outstanding job for the past 6 years and have been very cooperative with L-AGS. Jane Southwick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SAD NEWS We extend condolences to Kay Speaks, whose father died recently. He lived in Visalia, California, but was visiting family in Louisiana when he died. Services will be held in Visalia. Eileen Redman ======================================================= D E C E M B E R M E E T I N G S Visitors are welcome free of charge at all of our meetings. ======================================================= FAMILY TREE MAKER FOCUS GROUP Leader: Dick Finn at XXXX@wecare.net The December meeting is past. The next meeting is: Date and Time: Thursday, January 5, 2005 - 7:30 PM Always the first Thursday of the month. Place: Room 2, Almond Avenue School, 1401 Almond Avenue, Livermore Map to the school: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-AlmondSchool.html We will continue discussing special features of the new FTM Version 2006. If you have features that you would like to hear about in an in-depth presentation, please let me know. Bring your own questions (any and all skill levels) and let us help each other find answers. - - - - - The L-AGS Family Tree Maker (FTM) Focus Group meets (during the school year) the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 PM at the Almond Avenue School, Room 2, in Livermore. Most of our group are FTM users (from beginners 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. Contact Dick for information about topics to be discussed. Visitors are welcome and there is no charge to attend. Bring your questions, comments, and if you have a laptop with FTM loaded (any version) and/or the FTM Handbook, you might bring them. Please avail yourself of the L-AGS FTM e-mail forum at to post questions, answers and comments. ======================================================= MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING Barbara Huber, Program Chairperson mailto:program.chair@L-AGS.org Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 7:30 PM Always the second Tuesday of the month Location: Congregation Beth Emek, 3400 Nevada Ct., Pleasanton Map to the meeting site: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Pls-BethEmek.html Presenter: Bob Dougherty Member of the San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society Topic: "Genealogy in the Digital Age" Bob has kindly supplied this information, written in the third person: "Genealogy is history with a personal twist. In the individual, it varies from mild curiosity to an all- consuming quest, with hobby somewhere in the middle. Some of the search for information from the past can be as challenging as the current vogue of CSI mystery programs. It can involve many forms of assets to accumulate, process, communicate, store and preserve information. The digital, or information, age has had the same sort of impact on this subject as it has in so many other aspects of our society. Bob Dougherty will utilize some of his recent personal experiences to illustrate the ways he is exploiting his interest in the personal computer in its application to his genealogy hobby. Bonus is a little bit of Montana trivia. "Bob was raised in Montana. He met his wife, Margaret, while attending the University of Idaho. After receiving a commission in the Navy, he spent three years on a destroyer in the Pacific and Margaret began a career of teaching first grade. Subsequent years saw Margaret continuing teaching and Bob working at Sandia, both in Livermore and Albuquerque. Margaret got the genealogy bug in the mid-80's and joined SRVGS. As a family, they experienced trips to Salt Lake, hours in front of "readers", learning PAF, and all the other things that genealogists did and do. "Subsequent to Margaret's passing in 2001, Bob has continued the effort, and is taking advantage of many of the changes that technology has enabled." Visitors are welcome ======================================================= STUDY GROUP MEETING Date: Thursday, December 15, 2005 Always the third Thursday of the month. Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, CA Map of meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Study Group Co-Leaders: Kay Speaks, Dick Finn, and George Anderson Topic: The Ancestral History of Ole Nilsen - Pedigrees, Possibilities, & Legends Presenter: Curt Nilsen Engineering Department Manager at Sandia Labs Curt's father immigrated from Western Norway as a child in the late 1940s. Curt recently became interested in his ancestry, particularly in his descent from a famous Norwegian historical figure, Admiral Kristoffer Trondsen Rustung, born in 1490. Going back even further in time, he has found abundant (although perhaps only "possible and legendary") genealogies covering medieval and ancient ages. He has been able to display all of this on a beautiful 3 foot by 4 foot poster. The poster can be viewed on his home page at: http://home.comcast.net/~viking-roots/ It is best to view his chart in Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/ readstep2_allversions.html The principal subject of Curt's talk will be how-to directions for creating a remarkable poster like his without the need for special genealogy software. He will also discuss his genealogy research, as time permits. - - - - - Our e-mail forum is at: mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org Please make good use of it. ======================================================= TRI-VALLEY TMG USERS GROUP Kay Speaks, Leader No TVTMG meeting in December. Next meeting: Meeting Date: Saturday, January 21, 2006 (third Sat- urday of the month) Meeting Time: 9:00 AM to Noon - (Each meeting is like a mini-workshop) Meeting Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110 Conference Room, Pleasanton. For a map to the meeting location see: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html E-mail questions to: tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org or address the users group at tvtmg@l-ags.org. =======================================================