THE LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-MAIL BULLETIN FOR JANUARY 2009 January 3, 2009 ======================================================== SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR JANUARY 2009 (See details on a later screen.) - Family Tree Maker Group: Next meeting: Thursday, February 5 - General Meeting and Annual Election, Tuesday, January 13 - The Master Genealogist: NOTE NEW DATE AND TIME: Saturday, January 24, 1:30-4:30 - Study Group: Thursday, January 22 - L-AGS Board Meeting: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 ======================================================== A N N O U N C E M E N T S The L-AGS directors for 2009 will be installed at the transition board meeting on Tuesday, January 6. They are: President--Barbara Huber First vice president (program chair)--Derrell Bridgman Second vice president (membership chair)--Kevin Gurney Continuing as corresponding secretary--Barbara Hempill Recording secretary--Anne Les Continuing as business manager--Larry Hale - - - - - MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME Kevin Gurney, Vice President for Membership If you have not yet renewed your membership in L-AGS, you are in arrears as of January 1. Don't worry - you can still renew until March 1, at which time you will become an ex-member if you haven't renewed. We sincerely hope you will want to continue as a member. If not, we would appreciate a frank statement of your reasons, and suggestions for improvements in the society that would have changed your mind about not renewing. L-AGS MEMBERSHIP FORM Levels of Membership: Individual $18 Family $25 Individual Benefactor* $40 Family Benefactor* $40 Patron* $100 *Benefactors and Patrons are recognized in the Roots Tracer (our quarterly publication) Please print out and fill in this form and bring to a meeting, or mail to: L-AGS Membership P.O. Box 901 Livermore CA 94551 E-mail: mailto:membership.chair@L-AGS.org Name:________________________________________________________ Address:_____________________________________________________ Telephone:______________ E-mail:_________________________________ Please send Roots Tracer to my e-Mail address: Yes_____ Level of Membership:______________ Renewal:______ New:_____ Check enclosed in the amount of:__________ ============================================================= J A N U A R 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 There was no FTM meeting in January, because the regular meeting date fell on New Years Day. The next FTM meeting will be Thursday, February 5, 7:30 p.m. The Subject for the next meeting is Family Tree Maker 2009 The meeting is 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. We will continue to discuss the question, "Should I or should I not upgrade to FTM 2009?" We are especially interested in comments from those who have upgraded. 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. 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 Derrell Bridgman, First Vice President, Programs mailto:program.chair@L-AGS.org Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 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 Visitors are welcome, no charge Guest Speaker: Isabel Whann Nolte Longtime member of L-AGS, former member of the L-AGS Board of Directors. Topic: "The Early Pioneers in the Livermore Valley, California, Were One Big Family" Our fellow member of L-AGS, Isabel Nolte, has recently written a popular local history book titled, "The Early Pioneers in the Livermore Valley, California, Were One Big Family." See Isabel's entry on our Web page at http://www.L-AGS.org/mempubs.html. The book is dedicated to the memory of the Irish families who immigrated to the Livermore Valley in the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's. Nearly all of them became farmers or ranchers, raising livestock growing grain and hay. Most of them came from County Donegal, County Galway and County Roscommon, Ireland. They played an important part in the development of the Livermore Valley. They had large families and many of their descendants are still here. This book is a genealogical record of only those families who intermarried. Biography: Isabel was born in New York City when her father, Charles Whann, was 61 years old. He died at age 65 from pneumonia. He was a bond broker on Wall Street in New York City. She never knew her grandparents on either side as they died before she was born. When Isabel retired from Hexcel, she was determined to start researching her ancestors. She became a member of L-AGS and corresponded with people all over the country who were also researching the Whann name. She now has eight books on the Whann family. In the course of researching her daughter's family, she concentrated on the Fallon family who were pioneers along with so many others who emigrated from Donegal County, Ireland. When she discovered that so many of the Livermore Valley pioneers intermarried, she decided to set aside her ancestors to concentrate on the pioneer families in the Livermore Valley. Most of the data came from obituaries that revealed so much about their lives. She gives a lot of credit to her editor, Dick Finn, for editing and finalizing her book. ------------------------------------------------------------- TRI-VALLEY TMG USERS GROUP The Master Genealogist Software Leader: Kay Speaks, mailto:tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/TMG_Jan09.doc Note new meeting date AND TIME for January's meeting! Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009 (4th Saturday) Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110, Pleasanton, CA Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html Instructors: Kay Speaks and Sue Johnston Topic: Working With Sources The topic is Working with Sources, Chapter 6. Per Terry Reigel, "This chapter is intended to help a new user better understand the basics of TMG's capabilities for managing sources and to offer some guidance for getting started in entering and citing Sources." This meeting date and time has been changed to accommodate Sue Johnston's schedule. For those interested, some regular attendees will meet at Rage Burgers (corner of Bernal and Valley Avenues, Pleasanton) at 12:15 PM for a no-host lunch prior to our meeting at 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110, Pleasanton. TMG classes use Terry Reigel's book, A Primer for the Master Genealogist, written for Version 7. Read about the book at http://reigelridge.com/press/primer.htm If possible, please RSVP if you plan to attend: mailto:tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org. 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 using a hands-on method. We learn TMG's features by actually entering samples of the lesson into a TMG class 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. 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, January 22, 2009 (fourth Thursday of the month) Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, CA Map: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Topic: To be announced Don't forget to use our L-AGS Study Group forum for any genealogy topic discussion or computer interest questions. L-AGS is blessed with people willing to share their knowledge and expertise! E-mail the forum at: mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org You can also post suggestions for future Study Group topics. ============================================================= PROGRAMS FOR FUTURE GENERAL MEETINGS Derrell Bridgman, First Vice President, Programs See details of the January program in the full announcement above. We have been fortunate to get a calendar of excellent speakers for early 2009. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------- January 13 "The Early Pioneers in the Livermore Valley, California, Were One Big Family," by L-AGS Member Isabel Nolte. This book is a genealogical record of many Livermore Valley Irish families who intermarried. February 10 "Best of the Genealogy Gems Podcast," Lisa Louise Cooke, Author, radio show producer. She will talk about the sharpest and most creative ideas from her popular podcast show. March 10 "San Francisco Genealogy," by Ron Filion, co- founder of SFgenealogy.com. Researching San Francisco genealogy using the SFgenealogy.com website =============================================================