====================================================== THE LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-MAIL BULLETIN FOR MAY 2008 May 1, 2008 ====================================================== SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR MAY 2008 (See details on a later screen.) - Family Tree Maker Group: Thursday, May 1 - General Meeting: Tuesday, May 13 - The Master Genealogist: Saturday, May 17 - Study Group: Thursday, May 22 - L-AGS Board Meeting: Tuesday, May 27 ====================================================== A N N O U N C E M E N T S GENEALOGY BOOTH AT THE ALAMEDA COUNTY FAIR By Kay Speaks, L-AGS Fair Committee Chair L-AGS is once again sponsoring the genealogy booth at the Alameda County Fair. If you haven't volunteered to work at the genealogy booth in the past, you don't know what you are missing. There is so much gratification in helping someone find information about their family. Last year, an 84-year old gentleman said he didn't know anything about his family that had long since passed on. He remembered his grandfather's name and where he grew up. I was lucky and found male ancestors going back three generations using Ancestry. He had tears in his eyes and couldn't wait to tell his family. Two hours later, he was leaving the fair and came back to give me a hug before he left. He still had the biggest smile. There was such joy in his eyes. It certainly made my day! Everyone who works the fair booth has similar stories to share. That is one of the reasons the same members volunteer year after year. Just ask Barbara Huber and Frank Geasa. They volunteered almost every day of the fair last year when we came up short of volunteers. Please volunteer and help L-AGS, Barbara, Frank and our booth visitors. This is the biggest outreach event for our organization all year. Our Web site for registering as a volunteer will be up soon. In the meantime, to volunteer as a docent, a greeter, or as a behind-the-scenes worker, please contact me at mailto:study.chair@L-AGS.org. For more information, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/fair.doc -------------------- FIELD TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY By Kay Speaks Nine of us made a successful research trip to the SFPL on Saturday, April 12. One of the participants was so impressed that she stayed until library closing time and then went back again on Monday. We enjoyed a briefing by the head of the history section. We were privileged to visit the precious book vault and to view the library's oldest book, dated to the 1470s. We would like input from members about their desire for other guided research trips in the Bay Area. Please post your comments on mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org. -------------------- SACRAMENTO ON THE RHINE By Patrick Lofft On Friday evening, April 25, the following L-AGS members: the Bacas, Joe and Dana, the Guests, Norm and Barbara, and the Loffts, Charlotte and Patrick, enjoyed the hospitality of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society's 25th Anniversary Gala at the Sacramento Turn Verein. Pre-dinner entertainment featured Bay Area residents Susan and Steve Fox performing their Alphorn Duo on imported Swiss alphorns. The buffet featured Sauerbraten, Schnitzel, Nurnburger sausages, with Germanic salads and trimmings. After a truly satisfying dinner, we were treated to Alpine folk dancing by teenagers from Alpentanzer Schuhplatter-Sacramento. On Saturday, we participated in workshops with Roger Minert and Marion Wolfert. -------------------- FAMILY HISTORY DAY AT THE DUNSMUIR HOUSE AND GARDEN By Bill George Come and join us in a day of workshops on how to do your family tree, how to care for family photographs and heirlooms, and how to do oral histories. The Mansion will be open for tours. Sunday, June 1, 2008, 11:00 a.m. - 3 p.m. You are welcome to bring a picnic lunch. See: http://www.dunsmuir.org/ Click on Calendar for this event and on Directions to view a map. -------------------- MARGARET LLOYD MCCLELLAN We regret having to report that L-AGS Member Margaret Lloyd McClellan died in Livermore on April 16. She was a past member who rejoined L-AGS in 2007. A memorial service will be held today, May 3, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Livermore. -------------------- L-AGS PUBLIC INTEREST PROJECTS George Anderson L-AGS has become favorably known for its collection of online databases about the genealogy and history of the Tri-Valley area. We are continuing to create new databases. If you would like to take part in this worthwhile project, please let me know at: mailto:XXXX@comcast.net -------------------- BEGINNING GENEALOGY CLASS IN DUBLIN Dick Finn, longtime L-AGS member and leader of our Family Tree Maker Group, will teach a weekly beginners' genealogy class in Dublin starting May 14. Details are given at: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/Finn_Class.pdf -------------------- ARE YOU INTERESTED IN ANTIQUES AND HEIRLOOMS? The Museum on Main (MoM) in Pleasanton is seeking volunteers to help catalog their collection of historic objects, not documents. The work would involve entering information about the items in a special computer program called Past Perfect. If you are interested, you can learn more by contacting Marilyn Guida at: mailto:curator@museumonmain.org -------------------- NIGHT-DRIVING PROBLEMS Anne Homan, President Some of our members want to come to L-AGS meetings but cannot drive at night. If you would like a ride to our meetings, or if you are willing to offer someone a ride, please contact me at: mailto:president@L-AGS.org ================================================== M A Y 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 The May meeting is past. The next meeting will be at: Date and Time: Thursday, June 5, 7:30 p.m. Always the first Thursday of the month. Place: Old Almond Ave. School, now called Vineyard Adult Education Facility, at 1401 Almond Avenue, Livermore. Drive into the back parking lot. As you face Almond Ave., we are in the building to the right in the front complex, room 5. Look for the FTM sign. Map to the meeting site: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Liv-AlmondSchool.html As always, we will provide a problem-solving atmosphere in which attendees are free to ask questions and offer answers and tips about FTM. 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 mailto: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 Arleen Wood, First Vice President, Program mailto:program.chair@L-AGS.org For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/May08_Program.doc Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Time: 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 Guest Speaker: Dick Finn Topic: "Tri-Valley Civil War Veterans - What an Interesting Group They Were" Who would have ever guessed that over ninety Civil War veterans lived here in the Tri-Valley area at one time or another? All were Union vets except for two known Confederates. Come and hear about some of these very interesting men and one woman and how they helped change the history of the valley. Dick Finn Biography: Richard "Dick" Finn, retired as manager of Integrated Design Services and Engineering Information Management with over 36 years at Sandia National Laboratories/California. He was an adjunct faculty member of Chabot and Las Positas Colleges for over 15 years. He served on advisory committees for four community colleges as well as high school Regional Occupational Program committees, and the Tri-Valley Educational Consortium. He is a past president of the Alameda County 4H Council. He has judged at local, county, and the state fairs since 1977. Dick has been an active member of the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society for 11 years. He is a past president of L-AGS, served as chair and co-chair of the L-AGS Computer Interest Group for several years, and has been the leader of the Family Tree Maker group for a number of years. He is presently the leader of the Tri-Valley Heritage Families Project and has worked on many genealogy and history-related projects. Upcoming scheduled L-AGS programs: June 10- "WPA Depression Era Jobs Turn into Great Gifts for Genealogists" by Pamela Dallas July 8 - "Using Maps in Genealogy" by Marcia Murray Holstrom August 12 - "Scandinavian Research" by Mel Stephensen -------------------- TRI-VALLEY TMG USERS GROUP The Master Genealogist Software For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/TMG_May08.doc Date: Saturday, May 17, 2008 (third Saturday of the month) Time: 9:00 a.m. - Noon (each meeting is like a mini-workshop) Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110, Pleasanton, CA 94566 Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html Leader: Kay Speaks, mailto:tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org Instructors: Kay Speaks and Sue Johnston Topic: "Managing Your RootsWeb WorldConnect Files" Please print and bring to class information from Terry Reigel's Web site located at http://tmg.reigelridge.com/WorldConnect.htm RootsWeb has a section that allows you to post your family tree information for other researchers to access. The user who posts information retains complete control on how information is displayed, when it is changed and removed. We will explore how TMG software can manage your WorldConnect information online and make it easy to keep data updated. Visit Sue's Web site at (two-line URL): http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdtmgug/ and follow the "My WorldConnect Site" link. Sue uses TMG to determine what information to post to her Web site. TMG Version 7 Note: In May we will continue to use TMG Version 6.12, even though Version 7 is now available to download. We will transition to Version 7.01, gold edition software, at the July meeting. At that time we will begin with the basics using Terry Reigel's new book, "A Primer for the Master Genealogist." You can purchase the book from the Whollygenes site for $19.95 plus tax and shipping. Product code is BPRIMER. Sue Johnston had input into the writing of the book, so you know it will be a perfect fit for our next round of lessons. Terry has created an excellent book, a "must have" for the beginning user. The book was written for TMG Version 7. 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, thus you learn TMG's features by actually entering samples of the lesson into a class TMG database. Each monthly session is like a 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. A copy of the group's practice database will be provided to you. A laptop is not a requirement as the lesson will be digitally 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 Leader: Kay Speaks Contact mailto:study.chair@l-ags.org Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008 (the fourth Thursday of every month) Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, CA Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Chair: Kay Speaks Topic: Footnote.com where digital images of records preserved in the National Archives are now available online! Footnote calls itself "The World's Archives." It is an impressive subscription Web site that allows users to access and annotate millions of historical documents online. Their Web site has over 33 million original images and adds millions more monthly. Footnote has established a partnership with the National Archives providing access to millions of documents for viewing online. You can also upload images, annotate documents and maintain member pages. Historical documents are divided into 12 categories: Early American: Before 1775; Revolution: 1775-1815; A New Nation: 1815-1860; Civil War: 1860-1880; Emerging America and WWI: 1880-1920; Boom and Bust: 1920-1935; WWII 1935-1950; Post War: 1950 and After; Naturalizations: 1700-mid 1900s; news; and Town Records and Photos. Monthly membership is $7.95 and annual membership is $59.95. There is a basic free membership, which has limited access to a few historical documents. You can access their Web site at http://www.footnote.com/ We will explore this wonderful site in May. If you haven't visited Footnote.com, you don't want to miss this Study Group meeting! To quote their Web site, "Footnote is a place where original historical documents are combined with social networking in order to create a truly unique experience involving stories of our past." We will continue the practice of helping you to conquer your brick walls. If you would like help, don't forget to use our L-AGS Study Group forum for any genealogy topic discussion or computer interest question. L-AGS is blessed with people willing to share their knowledge! E-mail the Study Group forum at: mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org. You can also post your suggestions for future Study Group topics. ================================================== PROGRAMS FOR 2008 GENERAL MEETINGS Arleen Wood, First Vice President, Programs See a formatted version of this announcement at: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/program_calendar_08.doc See also details of the May program in the full announcement above. We have been fortunate to get a calendar of excellent speakers for 2008. The programs are held at our regular meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. Meetings are open to the public at 7:30 p.m. at the Congregation Beth Emek, 3400 Nevada Court, Pleasanton. Visitors are welcome, admission free. Date Topic Presenter ----------------------------------------------------- May 13 Tri-Valley Civil War Veterans - What an Interesting Group They Were Dick Finn June 10 WPA Depression Era Jobs Turn into Great Gifts for Genealogists Pamela Dallas July 8 Using Maps in Genealogy Marcia Murray Holstrom August 12 Scandinavian Research Mel Stephensen September 9 Familysearch.org (Tentative) Marge Bell October 14 The Five Civilized Tribes of South- eastern United States Taffy Couts November 11 An American Story - The History of Abram Bradbury Lowell and His Family David Lowell December 9 (To be announced) ==================================================