THE LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-MAIL BULLETIN FOR FEBRUARY 2009 February 2, 2009 ======================================================== SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY 2009 (See details on a later screen.) - Family Tree Maker Group: Next meeting: Thursday, February 5 - General Meeting, Tuesday, February 10 - The Master Genealogist: Saturday, February 21, 9:00 - noon - Study Group: Thursday, February 26 - L-AGS Board Meeting: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 ======================================================== A N N O U N C E M E N T S ALAMEDA COUNTY FAIR DATES Kay Speaks, Genealogy Booth Coordinator This year's Alameda County Fair dates are Wednesday, July 1 to Sunday, July 19, closed Mondays. As the genealogy fair booth coordinator, I'm in the process of verifying L-AGS acceptance as an exhibit participant. However, I thought I'd let you know the fair dates should you wish to participate as a volunteer and need to plan your vacation around these dates. If you belong to other genealogical or historical societies, DAR Chapters, or Family History Center docent groups, please pass the word we need volunteers for the genealogy booth. There will be 225 volunteer time slots to fill, each slot is a three-hour session. As we did last year, we plan to provide special volunteer only training workshops and drop-in sessions. If you are interested in volunteering, please let me know and I'll keep you informed about our fair booth events. Mark your calendars and become a fair volunteer! It is a wonderful experience and a great community service too. - - - - - - SAN FRANCISCO MORTUARY RECORDS ONLINE Ron Filion and Pamela Storm (Ron Filion is the featured speaker at the L-AGS general meeting on March 10.) SFgenealogy.com has completed the first phase of indexing the Halsted Mortuary Records database. The indexing was performed by over sixty volunteers during the past year. The database includes digitized images of over 45,000 mortuary records, along with a searchable index, for the years 1923 to 1960. The index has advanced surname search options such as Soundex and Metaphone, and wildcard searching. The database may be searched and accessed for free at: http://www.sfgenealogy.net/php/halstedsearch/halstedindex.php - - - - - - SEMINARS Jane Southwick A Scots-Irish Seminar is being presented by the California Genealogical Society at the Oakland Airport Holiday Inn on March 7, 2009. Please go to http://www.calgensoc.org/ for more information. The Sacramento Genealogical Society is holding their Spring Seminar on March 28, 2009 featuring Geoff Rasmussen. Please go to http://www.rootscellar.org for more information. - - - - - - MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME Kevin Gurney, Vice President for Membership If you have not yet renewed your membership in L-AGS, you are in arrears. 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:__________ ============================================================= F E B R 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 Co-Leaders: Dick Finn and Duncan Tanner Date and time: Thursday, February 5, 7:30 p.m. The meeting is the first Thursday of each month during the school year. 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 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 For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/General_Meeting_Feb09.doc Date: Tuesday, February 10, 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: Lisa Louise Cooke Author, radio show producer. Topic: "Best of the Genealogy Gems Podcast" If you have a computer, then you can tap into genealogy research strategies, top national genealogy experts, and much more on "The Genealogy Gems Podcast." Lisa Louise Cooke will take you on a tour of the Genealogy Gems Web site where you can listen to this online "radio show," watch genealogy- themed videos, and catch up on all the latest family history news. Best of all, it's FREE. Biography: Lisa Louise Cooke is a member and board member of the San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society. She lives in San Ramon, and is the producer of two international Internet "radio shows": "The Genealogy Gems Podcast" and "Family History: Genealogy Made Easy" (both available in iTunes and at http://www.GenealogyGems.TV), and is the author of the book "Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies." She also hosts the new monthly "Family Tree Magazine Podcast," writes articles and produces videos for the magazine, and is the host of "Family History Expos TV." Lisa is an experienced genealogical speaker, recently presenting at the 2008 Federation of Genealogical Societies conference. A biography of Ms. Cooke can be found at: http://personallifemedia.com/hosts/1419-lisa-louise-cooke ------------------------------------------------------------- TRI-VALLEY TMG USERS GROUP The Master Genealogist Software For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/TMG_Feb09.doc Date: Saturday, February 21, 2008 Time: 9:00 a.m. - Noon Location: 7077 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 110, Pleasanton, CA Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Pls-KollCenter.html Leader: Kay Speaks, tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org Instructors: Kay Speaks and Sue Johnston Reminder: The future March TV-TMG Meeting has been rescheduled to the fourth Saturday, March 28, 9 AM-Noon. Topic: Setting Up Reports Chapter 7 - A Primer for The Master Genealogist by Terry Reigel TMG has a wide variety of reports, which are divided into two groups-research tasks or recording and communicating the findings of our research. All reports have a setup process which defines who or what the subjects of the reports are to be and the type of output required. The actual generation of the report is also controlled from the definition screen. This is part of our monthly subject-setting up reports. If possible, please RSVP if you plan to attend, mailto:tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org. TV-TMG classes use Terry Reigel's new A Primer for The Master Genealogist book written for Version 7. Read about the book at http://reigelridge.com/press/primer.htm. 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 TV-TMG class practice 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. Terry Reigel's book can be purchased from this website. For additional information contact: mailto:tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org. ------------------------------------------------------------- STUDY GROUP MEETING For a formatted version of this announcement, see: http://www.L-AGS.org/temp/SG_Feb09.doc Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009 Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Location: LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, CA Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Study Group Chair: Kay Speaks Topic: A Look Inside Heritage Quest Heritage Quest (HQ) is accessible through libraries (requires library card login) and at local Family History Centers. HQ has online databases containing images of original U.S. census records, Revolutionary War pension applications, more than 20,000 local and family history books, Freedman's Bank records, and much more. We will be looking at a sampling of these databases. Kay will also introduce you to a free website you may not have heard about yet that may help you jump start your research. Have a genealogy brick wall? Let the Study Group help you brainstorm your research options. 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! E-mail the forum at mailto:study.group@L-AGS.org You can also post any suggestions for future Study Group topics or computer related questions. ============================================================= PROGRAMS FOR FUTURE GENERAL MEETINGS Derrell Bridgman, First Vice President, Programs See details of the February program in the full announcement above. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------- 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 =============================================================