THE LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY E-MAIL BULLETIN FOR May 2009 ======================================================== SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR May 2009 Family Tree Maker Group - Thursday, May 7, 2009, 7:30 p.m. - Gedcom Continuation General Meeting - Tuesday - May 12, 2009, 7:30 p.m. - City Directories, Dr. Stephen Harris Please note that we will have to share the General Meeting place with the Beth Emek class in May. The class will finish this May and will resume again in the Fall. The door will be propped open by the back walkway if people would like to park and enter by the back door just to make it easier. Master Genealogist Group - Saturday May 23, 9:00 a.m. - Chapter 9, TMG Manual (Note Rescheduled Date) L-AGS Board Meeting - Tuesday, May 26, 2009 7:30pm Study Group - Thursday, May 28, 2009, 7:30 p.m. - Online Scavenger Hunt (Note Rescheduled Location) - - - - - - ======================================================== A N N O U N C E M E N T S THIS MONTH'S ROOTS TRACER will be available at the May 12, 2009 meeting and mailed soon after to those not in attendance. ROOTS TRACER article submission deadline is July 15th. The publish date is August 12th, and the newsletter will be available for pickup at the August 12th General Meeting. OAKLAND FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLASSES - There are many low cost classes for Intermediate Genealogy students in May, 2009 at the FHC and CGS in Oakland. See the entire list, and more at http://oaklandfhc.org/classes.php. GOOGLE YOUR GENEALOGY - Free all-day seminar 9am-4pm on Sat. May 9, 2009 by Dan Lynch, author of "Google Your Family Tree". Held at the Santa Clara FHC, 875 Quince Ave., Santa Clara, Calif. Free, Open to the public, free parking, no reservations needed. http://svcgg.org ELLIS ISLAND FILM - March 19, 2009 - 7:30 PM, Evening Program at the Senior Center, 1500 Jefferson Street, Napa. "Ellis Island: What the Immigrants Experienced There" Film from the History Channel followed by discussion or anecdotes by members who have researched immigrant ancestors. Share your findings too!. The public is welcome to attend. http://www.napanet.net/~nvgbs/index.shtml TRI VALLEY HISTORY COUNCIL will meet May 12 at 3pm at the Pleasanton Library. FTM will no longer be able to meet at the Vineyard Adult School after June. L-AGS BOARD MEETING is on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 7:30. Any member is invited to attend. For further information contact the President at president@L-AGS.org. - - - - - - ======================================================== T I P S GOOGLE GENEALOGY SEARCH HINT - By way of Kay Speaks' Study Group: In the Google search box type (for example) "Define: Mitochondrial DNA"... Google goes out to the internet and returns definitions from around the web when you use the key word "Define:" Google even suggests the correct spelling of words if you mis-type them. HOAX IDENTIFICATION - Dick Finn had a nice article in the February, 2009 Tracer about Hoax avoidance. You can use Google itself, to search for any key words you are suspicious of and if it's a hoax, Google will reveal MANY web sites that say so. ALAMEDA COUNTY FAIR DATES - Repeat Announcement: Kay Speaks reports that the Genealogy Booth at the Fair has been cancelled for 2009. - - - - - - ============================================================= L - A G S 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 Co-Leaders: Dick Finn and Duncan Tanner Date and time: Thursday, May 7, 7:30 p.m. Program: New Gedcom File methods as well as work on any questions members may have. 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 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 GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Stephen Harris TOPIC: City Directories DATE: May 12th, 2009 - 7:30PM LOCATION: Congregation Beth Emek, 3400 Nevada Court, Pleasanton Enter meeting through the back door entry nearest the back parking lot." Map to the meeting site: http://www.L-AGS.org/maps/Pls-BethEmek.html Dr. Stephen Harris is a professional genealogist located in nearby Oakland, CA. His research library includes 6000 city directories and early telephone books, covering many of the urban areas of the United States, for the years between the mid 1850’s to the 1960’s. In addition to using the collection for client research, he has made it available to members of the California Genealogical Society. Dr. Harris will join us at our May 12th meeting and will review the many kinds of information that city directories contain, why they were created, and the multitude of ways they can be used in family history research. While best known for determining where people lived, directories have many other applications, from finding church records to locating families in the Census when they are not found in the Census index. Dr Harris comes from Brooklyn New York, and earned his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for The Contra Costa County Health Department for 33 years. Following a devastating firestorm in the Oakland hills that destroyed his family records, he set out to replace what had been lost. This contributed to his development as a dedicated genealogist, first for his own family, and then helping others research their family history. http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/Seasonal/Sections/oakhr.html ------------------------------------------------------------- Tri-Valley TMG Users Group The Master Genealogist Software Date: Saturday, May 23, 2009 (Rescheduled Date) Time: 9 AM - Noon 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, tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org Instructors: Kay Speaks & Sue Johnston Topic: Chapter 9—Genealogy Reports Note Rescheduled Meeting Date: Saturday May 23. This month we will discuss reports primarily used for sharing your data with others. These reports include traditional forms: o Family Group Sheets, Pedigree Charts and others. o Narrative reports in various styles, including Journal style and Ahnentafels, all in true narrative style with full sentence text. o Box style tree charts in several configurations, with the ability to edit the finished charts to achieve customized results. 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 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: tvtmg.chair@l-ags.org. ------------------------------------------------------------- Study Group Meeting Date: Thursday, May 28, 2009 Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Event team drawing will begin at 7:15 PM Location: ClubSport Pleasanton, 7090 Johnston Drive, Pleasanton, CA Map to the meeting site: http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-FHC.html Study Group Chair: Kay Speaks, study.chair@L-AGS.org Note special location for this event. Directions to ClubSport Pleasanton can be found below. Special Event: On-line Genealogy Scavenger Hunt – Come and enjoy the fun! The May L-AGS Study Group meeting will be an on-line scavenger hunt that is sure to be a fun learning experience. We will break into teams with participants assigned to teams by a random drawing the night of the meeting. Each team will have access to one laptop and one digital projector so all team mates can easily see and participate in the scavenger hunt. Kay will designate the laptop operator for each team. Clues with designated websites to be used to find the treasures will be provided to each team. Websites to be used: Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, FamilySearch.org, L-AGS.org, newspaperarchive.com, OaklandFHC.org, SFGenealogy.com, and vitalsearch-ca.com. Teams assignments will begin at 7:15 PM, for a prompt start at 7:30 PM. Come and join the fun! If you live out of the area and would like participate in the scavenger hunt, please let me know. I will e-mail you the form after the meeting. Return the form with your answers and I will let you know if you got the correct answers. 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. Directions to ClubSport Pleasanton: ClubSport Pleasanton is a fitness resort for members only located off the frontage road, Johnson Drive, near the junction of I-580 and I-680, next to the Hilton at the Club. You will need to tell the front desk staff that you are attending a Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society (keyword “genealogy”) meeting located in the conference room. You will be asked to sign a waiver to gain entry to the club. This is a standard request for all visitors. If you need elevator access to the second floor, it is best to use the Hilton Hotel entrance and ask the hotel reception desk for directions to the elevators. The elevators will have signage that says “The Club” to direct you to the correct floor, and then follow the signs. If entering through ClubSport’s front entry, turn right at the rock wall, walk past the fitness equipment on your left, then climb the stairs to the second floor. (There is a small elevator under the stairwell.) At the top of the stairs, turn left at the lounge and continue until you see the indoor tennis courts. The conference room is on the corner to your left. If you have any difficulties ask the staff to page Kay Speaks in the conference room. ClubSport has donation the use of their conference room and a digital projector for this event. ============================================================= PROGRAMS FOR FUTURE GENERAL MEETINGS Derrell Bridgman, First Vice President, Programs Current Plans for June/July Programs June - Lisa B. Lee - (The Gene Queen - http://www.thegenequeen.com/) Canadian Genealogy July - Ron Arons (http://www.ronarons.com) - Immigrant Records and/or Internet sites. Possible future programs Cath Trindle - Scottish Genealogy and organizing digital and hardcopy materials 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. ============================================================= Summary of March 24, 2009 approved L-AGS Board meeting minutes George Anderson has resigned his position as Bulletin Editor. Bill George has agreed to take on the electronic bulletin task with Vickie Renz to update the web sites. Dick Finn reported that the Museum on Main has a new project now showing the Civil War Stories of local families. Dick has also made a presentation to the San Ramon Society on Civil War Pioneers of the Tri-Valley. Patrick Lofft reported that Footnote at the Pleasanton Library is now working after talking with the Footnote Technicians and the Library. The L-AGS Alameda Fair Booth has been cancelled for the current year. =============================================================