Feb 4 through Mar 25 - Beginning Genealogy classes. 8 week course, mornings or evenings taught by Jolene Abrahams.

Feb 5 - L-AGS Family Tree Maker Focus Group meets at Sonoma School, 543 Sonoma Avenue, Livermore, 7:30 pm.

Feb 7 - CSGA Board meeting in Riverside, CA.

Feb 10 - LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (L-AGS) Regular meeting 7:30 pm. Congregation Beth Emek, corner of College Avenue & South "M" Street, Livermore.

Feb 19 - L-AGS STUDY GROUP meets at LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore,  7:30 pm.

Feb 20-22 - SOCIETY OF HISPANIC HISTORICAL & ANCESTRAL RESEARCH (SHHAR) 14th Annual Buscando Nuestras Raices Conference to be held at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles. The conference will host the quarterly meetings of both the California Conference of Historical Societies & California State Genealogical   Society.

Feb 26 - L-AGS COMPUTER GROUP meets at Sonoma School, 543 Sonoma Avenue,  Livermore, 7:30 pm.

Feb 28 - San Mateo County Genealogical Society Seminar with George Schwitzer.

Mar 5 - L-AGS Family Tree Maker Focus Group meets at Sonoma School, 543 Sonoma Avenue, Livermore, 7:30 pm.

Mar 10 - LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (L-AGS) Regular meeting 7:30 pm. Congregation Beth Emek, corner of College Avenue & South "M" Street, Livermore.

Mar 19 - L-AGS STUDY GROUP meets at LDS Church, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, 7:30 pm.

Mar 26 - L-AGS COMPUTER GROUP meets at Sonoma School, 543 Sonoma Avenue, Livermore, 7:30 pm.

Mar 27-28 - Calfornia Genealogical Society - 13th Annual Family History Fair, "A Century of Prospecting for Ancestors" to be held at the Concourse Exhibition Center & Fashion Center, 8th Street, between Townsend & Brannan Street, San Francisco.

Apr 14 - LIVERMORE-AMADOR GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (L-AGS) Regular meeting 7:30 pm. Congregation Beth Emek, corner of College Avenue & South "M" Street, Livermore.

We would like to thank our judges, Garth Ludwig and Doug Mumma, who volunteered to judge the entries.

This digital image is already in use, gracing the cover of this edition of The Livermore Roots Tracer. A full color version of the new logo has been incorporated into the L-AGS Home Page on the Internet. Be sure to check it out.

First, I need to express thanks to Florence Lawson for the donation of the 486 IBM computer to the Livermore LDS Family History Center on Mocho Street. Ted Rowland has done the work of buying and installing a CD drive. This expands the available resources of the library by making usable CDs that were too slow on the 386 machine.

The following Family Tree Maker CDs are also available:

• The 1860 AIS census index (about eight states are not included)

• Disk 2 for marriages in IL, IN, KY, OH, TN

• Disk 228 for marriages in IL and IN

• Their version of the Social Security Death Index

• Their Index CDs

• World Family Tree Disks 1-5.

Stuck Photos Here’s a hint to remove a stuck snapshot from a magnetic photo album. Aim a blast of hot air from a hairdryer under the photo. Usually, you can at least lift a corner.

Beware Look out for forged obituaries. Recently there was an advertisement offering "original looking obituaries." The advertisement said that for $5 you would receive the obituary ("... send all information wanted in the obituary"). An article on this situation is in the NGS Newsletter Sept 1996.

Witnesses Have you ever gotten stuck in your genealogy research? Before you conclude you have no clues to follow, go back to all your source documents. Record ALL people mentioned. For example: The ministers, bondsman, and witnesses on marriages and wills; chain carriers, land surveyors and neighbors on land transactions; and godparents on baptisms. You never know when and where these people will appear again in your research. Some genealogy programs have a box labeled "Witnesses." Don't let the fact that they are called 'witnesses' "box in" your thinking! Witnesses can be any role that a person plays in the event being recorded.

What is the status of your birth record? Genealogists are so busy getting birth certificates for their ancestors that they forget about their own. It is a good idea to have a copy in a convenient location. If you can't, it could take weeks to order another one. Always store the original in a safe deposit box or a fire-proof safe. It is just as important to have a copy of your Social Security Card and also storing the original with your birth certificate. In California, in order to get a duplicate drivers license you have to have your Social Security Card, not just knowing the number. When you go to the Social Security Office to get a new card, they won't re-issue you one without a pictured identification even if you know your DMV number and your Social Security number. The Social Security Administration will accept a birth certificate as your identification. This situation can actually happen if a purse or wallet is stolen.

Web Ware Internet Fraud! Many hustlers don't sell anything, but they want enough information about you to take your money. By POSING as Internet access providers or merchants doing business on the Net, some send e-mail messages seeking your credit card, bank account or Social Security numbers and make requests such as, "We need your Social Security number for registration."

COMPUTER INTEREST GROUP MEETING SCHEDULE

DICK EASTMAN'S WEEKLY GENEALOGY MAGAZINE

We get inquiries from all over the world from people who read the surname postings on the L-AGS Web page. Some members (I included) have matched up with previously unknown relatives through our Web site. But did you know that there are more than 70 potential matches right within our own club? Maybe the person sitting next to you in a L-AGS meeting is a long-sought cousin. Maybe he or she has the solution to your most vexing genealogical puzzle.

Copyright Protection While very few beginning genealogy students are concerned about copyright protection, the following information will help them later. However, there are some beginning genealogists who like to write history as they gather the usual information such as names, dates and places. They enjoy putting the "meat on the bones" (history to pedigree charts) as soon as possible. So this information is good now.

Anything published before 1906 is public domain. Anything published after 1978 is copyrighted for the life of the author plus fifty years. If you quote less than 400 words total from one book, you can use it without permission (it is always a good idea to get it anyway), but you must give credit to the source. You need permission for tables, charts, and figures.

While you are writing your history you can protect it by writing "Copyright 1997 John A. Doe" at the bottom of each page. (The date should be the year when you began writing, and your name would, of course, replace "John A. Doe".) This is called "common law copyright" and will protect your work until it is printed. When it is printed, the copyright notation needs to appear on the title page only.

After you have finished writing your book and want to print it and distribute it to family and friends, you should protect it further by filing official copyright papers with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

If you intend to offer your book for sale, you should also register the work with the Copyright Office. The following numbers are helpful in answering your questions:

• Copyright Form Hotline (202-287-9100). Use this number for ordering forms and for individual help in filling out the forms. They can answer most of your questions.

• Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559 (202-479-8700). Use this number when you have questions concerning the copyright registration of your book.

Copyright laws and fees change from time to time. It would be wise to consult the Copyright Office for the latest information.

Copyright Book For those of you who want something more, I strongly suggest the book entitled "The Copyright Reference Guide: for Genealogists", by Daniel J. Hay. The cost is between $6 and $8.

Order from Advanced Resources, Inc., 144 Parrish Square, #144, Centerville, Utah 84014.

For additional reading of Copyright Information by Daniel J. Hay, read various issues of Everton's Genealogical Helper.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ADDICTED GENEALOGIST

• when you brake for libraries
• if you get locked in a library overnight and you never even notice
• when you hyperventilate at the sight of an old cemetery
• if you'd rather browse in a cemetery than a shopping mall
• when you think every home should have a microfilm reader
• if you'd rather read census schedules than a good book
• when you know every town clerk in your state by name
• if town clerks lock the doors when they see you coming
• when you're more interested in what happened in 1697 than 1997
• if you store your clothes under the bed and your closet is carefully stacked with notebooks and journals
• if you can pinpoint Harrietsham, Hawkhurst, and Kent on a map of England, but can't locate Topeka, Kansas
• when all your correspondence begins, "Dear Cousin,"
• if you've traced every one of your ancestral lines back to Adam and Eve, have it all fully documented and still don't want to quit

QUOTING - COPYING - COPYRIGHT - INFRINGEMENT - PLAGIARISM

There are sometimes fine lines distinguishing the above terms, and in genealogy it is easy to cross a line unintentionally. Most of us are only interested in compiling information on our own ancestors. We may not feel the need to indicate the source of all of our information. While this is perhaps quoting, perhaps copying, but definitely not plagiarism, it is also not beneficial to our own further research. We will, in the future, wonder where that information came from if another piece of information conflicts with it. The line gets crossed, however, when we want to share our compiled information with another researcher. At that time, if we have not carefully documented our sources of information, we might easily cross the line into plagiarism.

This might seem a harsh stand to take, but with the ease of electronic transmittal of data today, the works of many people are continually being transmitted to others, often without permission or even recognition. Surely, no one means to steal the work of another, but it is happening. Imagine you spent six months compiling all of the vital statistics for a certain surname in an area. You put that together into a book and donate it to local libraries within the area, as well as sharing it with other researchers. A year later you see a reference to a new book on that surname. Excitedly you go to check it out. Think how you would feel if over one half of the information within the book is your material and there is not even a reference to the fact that you did the work within the book. Perhaps the author of this book did not even know where the information came from; it might have gone through two or three researchers before entering the author's computer. This is happening more and more often. Often the information is compiled from multiple sources for our own use; we share it with other researchers and it ultimately finds its way online. From there someone grabs it and puts it into a copyrighted source.

Obviously, we all can see the problem with this scenario, so let's make a concerted effort to correctly document any information that we collect and especially that which we share with others. If necessary, put in a note indicating that it is not to be uploaded on to the Internet without the express permission of all of the contributing sources. For more information on copyright infringement, Microsoft's ENCARTA recommends that you read William Patry's Latman's "The Copyright Law," Bureau of National Affairs, 6th Ed. 1986 ; Ray L. Patterson and Stanley W. Linberg's "Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users' Rights," Georgia 1989; or William S. Strong's "The Copyright Book: A Practical Guide," MIT, 3rd Ed. 1990. On the Internet, visit CyberLaw (tm), published solely as an educational service, a trademark of Jonathan Rosenoer (c) 1995 Jonathan Rosenoer; All Rights Reserved.

HALBERT'S UP TO NEW/OLD TRICKS - From "Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter" and is copyright 1997 by Richard W. Eastman and Ancestry, Inc. It is re-published here with the permission of the author.

You know, Halbert's business practices have really been good for me. If the postal authorities ever succeed in shutting Halbert's down, I won't have anything left to write about! Halbert's apparently has a new business partner: Texaco. Another CompuServe member in New Hampshire forwarded an ad he received this week from Texaco. It says: A remarkable new book is about to be published and you, (insert addressee's name here), are in it! Do those words sound familiar? They should. I am skipping a few paragraphs here. But the advertisement continues... The Texaco name represents the best products and service on the road today. And now, for select Texaco Credit Card customers, we offer an amazing new source of information about another important name - the (insert surname) name! I question the "amazing new source..." The price from Texaco is exactly the same price that Halbert's advertises directly: $34.50 plus $4.88 shipping and handling. I am curious what Halbert's liability is in this advertisement. Since it is on Texaco stationary and mailed to Texaco customers, who is responsible for compliance with the various court orders? Texaco? Texaco was never mentioned in the previous court orders, so probably they can do as they please. At least, for a while. But the ad is signed by a person claiming to be an employee of Halbert's. Does that mean that Halbert's is responsible for the ad and its claims? I will leave that to the lawyers to argue. In the meantime, I have one bit of advice: Skip it. That's a lot of money for a list extracted from telephone directories

THE DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS

Lyman C. Draper was a nineteenth-century history buff who collected original writings and oral histories over a sixty year period of time. The focus of his interest was a large geographical area covering the western areas of the Carolinas and Virginia, portions of Georgia and Alabama, the entire Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley. He targeted persons who could give him information about early American History from the frontier conflicts of the 1740s and 1750s through the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

His ardor drew the attention of a well-to-do relative who…subsidized Draper’s travel for nine years in the 1840s and early 1850s. …Draper made nine trips through the southeastern and middle states, filling several thousand notebook pages with interview notes and copies of newspaper items and other archival records. …In 1852 …Draper became the first secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. His historical research continued throughout his years in Madison, into his retirement in 1886, and until his death in 1891.

Draper’s collection, which is composed of nearly 500 volumes, is housed at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison, but is available in microform in many larger libraries, including …(the) Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.¹

(Draper’s)… documents were acquired during the early and mid-1800s when many Revolution veterans were still alive or their sons and daughters were still alive to be interviewed and to "donate" family papers. Draper "borrowed" original military records, including rosters, also church records, journals and records of circuit riders and ministers, family bibles, personal papers including many original pension papers from the veterans or their descendants who trusted him because he was going to write books.

Your first step to finding what you are looking for in this huge collection is to use a book called A Guide to the Draper Manuscripts, compiled by Josephine Harper and published many years ago by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.² A copy of this book may be found in the Genealogy section at the Pleasanton Library. The Library also has two other guides, published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin: The Kentucky Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts, Vol.II and Tennessee and Kings Mountain Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts, Vol.III.

THE SHANE MANUSCRIPTS

The Rev. John D. Shane (1812-1864) operated much like Draper, except Shane’s focus was on gathering everything he could find on frontier Presbyterianism. Shane planned to write the definitive history of the early Presbyterian churches, their ministers, and the families who spread Presbyterianism westward into Kentucky and Ohio -- many, if not most of these people, were the Scotch-Irish.

When Shane died, Draper bought half his collection, the materials with general Kentucky history information and most of Shane’s interviews. This material is found in Draper’s Kentucky Papers. …

The other half of the Shane Manuscript Collection went to the Presbyterian Historical Association, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, where it is today. This half of the Shane Manuscript Collection has been microfilmed and is available through LDS Family History Centers or rented from AGLL.

But, again, you need a guidebook to know which film to order to do your research. A finding aid to this material did not exist until 1990 when William K. Hall published his book, The Shane Manuscript Collection - A Genealogical Guide to the Kentucky and Ohio Papers. There is a copy of this book in the San Mateo County Genealogical Society Library.

Some of you who are researching surnames that are difficult to spell may find a search technique that I have discovered useful.

I keep an index card clipped to each of my surname files on which I write any spelling variations I find for that surname. I also write the corresponding Soundex code next to the variation. For example, my 'Szudrowicz' index card has 16 ways of spelling that surname that I have found. That’s 15 variants and the correct way. Here’s what I mean:

Notice that these 16 spelling variations produce 8 different Soundex codes!

Whenever I search an index, whether alphabetical or Soundex, I refer to my index card for that surname and I search for all variants as well. Sometimes I will go back to an index I searched a while ago and look for any new variants I have listed. I’ve then found entries I previously missed.

I believe that this technique has helped me to find documents I would have overlooked if I had just searched for the surname the way it is supposed to be spelled.

I hope others find this useful.

Others noted his success: Samuel and J. West Martin, who had bought the Rancho Santa Rita in 1854 in an administrator's sale (it was said that there were enough cattle included in the sale that, when sold, they provided the purchase money for the land), planted wheat in 1857. Joseph F. Black put in 400 acres also that year. In 1858, not to be outdone, Alexander Esdon, Black's neighbor, planted a thousand acres. Hiram Bailey planted 160 acres of grain on his place at the end of North Livermore Avenue. Richard Threlfell leased property in what was known as the "big field" (where the Valley East subdivision and LLNL are presently located). He started out with 400 acres, and the next year planted 1700 acres of wheat. The character of the valley as a grain-producing district was changing rapidly.

Cattle and sheep raising was coupled with disappointment as well as success. Years of plenty were mixed with years of failure. The year 1855 was dry and much livestock was lost for lack of grass. During the winter of 1861/62, prolonged heavy rains caused the whole west end of Livermore Valley to be covered with water from Arroyo Road to the laguna in Pleasanton. Many head of stock drowned. Snow in the Livermore hills lasted until April. Two years of drought followed. Then, in 1864, it  was extremely dry. Many cattle, horses and sheep, not only in Livermore Valley but all over California, died for lack of pasturage. It has been estimated that the state's livestock population dropped by 50% that year. Sheep were moved to less desirable lands, because they could graze in relatively barren environment. By 1865, agriculture had almost completely pushed out animal husbandry as the chief industry in Livermore Valley.

Agricultural expansion didn't slow down. More and more land was put to the plow in 1866 and 1867. Richard Threlfell now had 4,000 acres under cultivation in the "big field." Alexander Esdon planted 600 acres of wheat on the Bernal Grant and, in addition to the land he was farming on the Dougherty property, he was harvesting a total of 2,800 acres. Wheat and barley were big business.

The following audio tapes are missing from our collection. We need them back so others can use them. Please check your tapes to see if you have them.

• Tape #L2 - Beginning Genealogy

• Tape #P4 - Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestors: Clues From Seldom Used Sources

• Tape #P6 - Where Haven’t You Looked? Little Known and Neglected Records

Did you notice that the Roots Tracer Volume numbers changed in mid-1997? This was done in error and I didn’t notice it until it was pointed out to me recently. Vol. XVI has only No.1 & 2; Vol. XVII has only No. 3 & 4. 1998 will be Vol. XVIII and will have No. 1,2,3,4.

Month after month, this newsletter is put together with gleanings from publications of our sister societies, items from many sources which have caught the interest of your editors, and occasional contributions from a small, but loyal, group of L-AGS members. Good as this publication is (we are proud of what we produce), it could be very much better if each of you would contribute just one item a year!

Think about what is sitting in your files and what you could share. Then make a copy or write a summary and give it to Mildred Kirkwood or Jolene Abrahams at any meeting or mail it to L-AGS, P.O. Box 901, Livermore, CA 94551-0901. Be sure to include your name, along with the name, date, and volume of any published material.

Just once a year, from each of you. Please.

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