LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-BULLETIN FOR SEPTEMBER 2006 September 2, 2006 ======================================================= Summary of Events for September 2006: - Family Tree Maker Group: Thursday, September 7 - General Meeting: Tuesday: September 12 - The Master Genealogist Group: Saturday, September 16 - L-AGS Board Meeting: Tuesday, September 26 - Study Group: Thursday September 28 ======================================================= Future General Meetings September 12, "Immigration," Sue Johnston October 10, "Scotch and Irish Records," Cath Madden Trimble November 14, "Chinese Genealogy," Kay Speaks December 12, "Livermore A to Z," Ann Homan ======================================================= A N N O U N C E M E N T S Susan Silva has recently taken on the job of List Manager for L-AGS - the person who organizes and maintains the many e-mail lists that make communications in our society so efficient. This e-mail bulletin, for instance, is sent via e-mail lists to L-AGS members and guests - non-members who have an interest in L-AGS. Maintaining a current and accurate e-mail list for L-AGS members and L-AGS subgroups is vital and should be entrusted to one person. Sue has volunteered to be that person. Sue has written a description of the duties of List Manager. It is recommended reading for members so that they can make best use of the e-mail lists. It is posted at: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/L-AGS_Lists.doc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Volunteer opportunity By President Jane Southwick As you may know, Scott Gagnon took over Eileen Redman's job of printing and distributing the Roots Tracer. I am sad to say that Scott and Mary Ann will be moving to Texas in December. Scott has suggested that if someone would be willing to take over that job he would be very happy to have them observe what he does when he prints and distributes the November issue of the Tracer. This should make the transition much easier. He assures me that the job is not hard and only has to be done 4 times a year. If you would be willing to help us out by offering to fill this position, please call Jane at XXX-XXXX or e-mail her at XXXX@comcast.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have recently added another 1819 names to the online master index of names associated with the history of eastern Alameda County. The total number of entries in the index is now 75,699, extracted from 64 books, booklets and other sources. Since a separate entry appears for every source in which a given person's name appears, there are many duplicate names in the 75,699. The master list can be accessed at: http://www.L-AGS.org/master/master.intro.html The 1819 new entries were taken from 16 books and booklets. Only two of the 16 were already indexed, so indexes were created for the other 14. These indexes are listed at: http://www.L-AGS.org/ name_indexes/name_indexes_main.html There are a number of books that have not yet been indexed. That project is continuing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Genealogy Classes by President Jane Southwick There are several genealogy classes being offered in the area. Wayne Barnes is teaching a genealogy class the first Wednesday of the month, with the next session starting September 6th. It is held at the Dublin Senior Center, 7600 Amador Valley Blvd, 925-556-4511; 12:30-1:30 PM, and the cost is $0.75 per class. Livermore Area Recreation District is offering an online course in genealogy basics. The web site for this course is: http://www.ed2go.com/larpd The Spring 2007 semester of Las Positas Junior College will offer a beginning genealogy class with L-AGS member Sue Johnston as the instructor. There will be more information about this at a later time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Family History Month will be observed again in October. The Livermore Heritage Guild has offered L-AGS the use a showcase in the Carnegie building, and Kay Speaks has agreed to recreate her award-winning exhibit on Chinese genealogy to be displayed there. ======================================================= S E P T 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 Next meeting: September 7, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. Always the first Thursday of the month. Place: Room 3 (around the back), Almond Avenue School, 1401 Almond Avenue, Livermore Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html We will spend a little time discussing the new Version 16 (the upgrade to Version 2006) and also show the new Passage Express for Family Tree Maker. 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 mailto:ftm.group@L-AGS.org to post questions, answers and comments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING Barbara Huber, Program Chairperson mailto:program.chair@L-AGS.org Tuesday, September 12, 2006 - 7:30 p.m. Location: Congregation Beth Emek, 3400 Nevada Court, Pleasanton Map to the meeting site: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Pls-BethEmek.html Topic: Immigration and Naturalization Records Presenter: Susan Goss Johnston L-AGS Member Instructor in genealogy at Las Positas College Sue kindly supplied the following description of her talk: "Of all the records we genealogists use, none hold quite the allure of a ship's passenger list. Instinctively, we know that if we can find just that one little line bearing our ancestor's name, all our questions about this immigrant's life in the "Old Country" will soon be answered. Of course, the search is not that easy. Come learn the basics for dealing with immigration and naturalization records, and share in the excitement generated when the right record is found." Sue's autobiographical sketch reveals her wide-ranging talents: "In 1959, I ran away from home to join the New York Yankees. I'd traveled less than ten miles when my grandfather found me, thus ending my dream of becoming a baseball player. Since that time, I've dreamed of becoming a novelist, a concert violinist, an opera singer, an astrophysicist, and a world champion bridge player. Dreams are fun, but genealogy is even better! I'm a graduate of the National Institute on Genealogical Research, "Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis" at the Samford University's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, and the National Archives' course, "Going to the Source." Although I still miss my frequent trips to the National Archives, two years of the wonderful weather here in the Bay area may have ruined me for the East Coast." Visitors are welcome. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRI-VALLEY TMG USERS GROUP Leader: Kay Speaks, mailto:tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org Date: Saturday, September 16, 2006 (We meet every third Saturday of the month.) Time: 9:00 a.m. - Noon Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110, Pleasanton, CA 94566 Map: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html Leader: Kay Speaks, mailto:tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org Program: "Customizing Your TMG Workspace" Instructors: Kay Speaks & Sue Johnston The September meeting topic will be "Customizing Your Workspace," using Terry Reigel's website as our primer for the meeting. Be sure to download tutorial information and bring it with you to the meeting. Terry's TMG Tips: http://tmg.reigelridge.com/workspace.htm. Download a detailed description of the September program from: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/TMG_Sep06.doc - - - - - About our meetings: With the aid of a digital projector, Kay and Sue work as an instructional team. We discuss, demonstrate, and brainstorm best practices of the software. We use a hands-on method, so you learn TMG's features by actually entering samples of the lesson into a class TMG database. Each monthly session is like a mini three-hour TMG workshop. Guests are always welcome at our meetings. Accommodations for laptops are available. If you have a laptop, bring it with you to the meeting and a copy of the group's practice database will be provided to you. A feature of our teaching sessions is the ability to connect up to 15 laptops to the digital projector so attendees can share their ideas and projects. It also allows us to provide custom instruction to the individual user. A laptop is not a requirement as the lesson will be projected. If you can't stay for the entire 3 hours, come and leave early. TMG questions not specific to all attendees will be addressed in the later part of our meeting. Please bring samples of your problem if possible. We hope to see you at the next meeting! A free demo version of the software can be downloaded at http://www.whollygenes.com. For additional information, contact mailto:tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ STUDY GROUP MEETING Co-Leaders: Kay Speaks and Dick Finn Date: Thursday, September 28, 2006 REMEMBER, ALWAYS THE FOURTH THURSDAY OF THE MONTH. Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, CA Map to meeting site: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Program: Exploring the FamilySearch.org Website We will explore new features at the Family History Library website, www.FamilySearch.org. We will also review available databases and some of the FHL's favorite Internet links. If you have a favorite success story for either the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or using the www.FamilySearch.org website, please share with members. E-mail your stories to the Study Group, at: study.group.L-AGS.org. Download details about our September program from: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/Study_Sep06.doc - - - - - Comments, questions and answers about any subject in genealogy should be posted to our e-mail forum at: mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org As usual, we will reserve time for anyone to describe a brick wall, to see if attendees have suggestions for breaking through. =======================================================