General Membership Meeting - March 14, 2013 - Susan Swindell

     Our next general meeting will be March 14, 2013.  Susan Swindell, our Diablo Descendants newsletter editor, will be presenting "Women Spies of the Civil War."  It is a perfect lecture for Women's History Month and it sounds so intriguing.

   The meeting is held at the LDS church building on 1360 Alberta Way in Concord, California.  Meeting begins at 7:00 pm. We hope to see you there.  


Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday - Ask Ancestry Anne

   One of the many blogs that I read daily is the blog from Ancestry.com called "Sticky Notes."  There are several categories of types of blog posting at this site.

• "Your Stories" are blog posts written by researchers who have found great finds and explain how their find fits into the life of an ancestor.  
• "Ask Ancestry Anne" is written by Anne Gillespie Mitchell, the Senior Project Manager at Ancestry.com.  She answers questions sent in by readers.
• "Interesting Finds" is miscellaneous items that can be found on Ancestry.com.
• "Juliana's Corner" is written by Juliana Smith, another Ancestry.com employee, who writes about research and finds, and presents webinars that can be found on the Ancestry Livestream channel.

   Today, I want to point out the blog article written by Anne in "Ask Ancestry Anne" called "Where is the Source Citation?"  She points out how you can find the details of the source you are looking at when you are viewing the image itself.  To the right of the image, you click on the gray arrow to the right of the image and the citation detail will pop up.

  Check out her blog post to see images of what I'm talking about!

Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday -- Saving Water Damaged Photos

   A great new article has been posted at the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner blog, entitled, "Saving Water Damaged Photos."  It was posted by Thomas MacEntee.  Flip-Pal scanners have been used to rescue lost, water-damaged photos from Hurricane Sandy on the east coast.  These photos are then posted online so the owners can be reunited with the lost photos.

   Flip-Pal has also created a free "Rescuing Water Damaged Photos" guide that you can download for your own use.  It has lots of great advice on caring for the water damaged photos and bringing them back for you to use. It is a 5 page pdf file that covers: Prioritizing and Organizing, Practice Safety, General Cleaning, Freezing, and Drying Washed Photos.  On the last page are resources with many website links.

Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Getting Photocopies from the Family History Library

   You can request records from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  If you know the exact book, film, microfiche, etc., you can email the request and the copy of the image will be sent to you via email.    You will have to know the answer to specific questions before they can find the record. They will not do research for you.

   So how can you use this? Let's say you find an index of a birth record on FamilySearch.org.  In the summation of the record, the film number is noted. Now you know the film number, the name of the person, the date of the event, the place of the event, and other information.  You will be able to answer the appropriate questions.  The look-up volunteer will search through the film/fiche and find the record for you. The image of the record is then sent to an email address.

   Isn't that great? Now you will not have to order a film from Salt Lake City or put it on a research to do list for the next time you visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City just to see the one image!

   Check out the complete details here.



Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

General Meeting - Feb 14, 2013 - Janice Sellers

Janice Sellers

   Our next general meeting will be February 14, 2013.  Professional genealogist, Janice Sellers, will be speaking about Vital Records. Come hear about what is new about researching Vital Records.

   The meeting is held at the LDS church building on 1360 Alberta Way in Concord, California.  Meeting begins at 7:00 pm. We hope to see you there.





Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 1

   Even though I have a full plate of responsibilities, I signed up for the 2013 Family History Writing Challenge.  It's not too late for you to sign up, too.  All you have to do to participate is to agree to write for 28 days, some on each day of the month of February.  Here's how to get started:

Family History Writing Challenge Day 1

   There is no minimum of words per day.  Just write.  Start by writing a quick summary about one ancestor. Then from there, you can work on an outline.  Add color and humorous stories.  Add photos and captions.  Soon, if you write a bit each day, you will have a nice little essay about your one ancestor.  If you finish before the end of the month, start on another ancestor.  You don't have to stop at the end of the month.  March has 31 days of writing you can do.

   I am writing about my husband's great-grandfather, Amos Gorrell Jr.  I want my focus to be about his courtship and marriage to his wife.  I have his journal to use as a source.  My goal is to write between 800 and 1000 words and if I get this done well, I'll enter the essay in a contest.  Wish me luck!

Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

General Meeting - Family History Center Workshop

Our general meeting for January had us meet at the Concord Family History Center for a chance to do research on the computers or in books.  Nearly two dozen researchers had a great time.  There was lots of buzzing among those at the computers and great finds were found!

Copyright © 2013 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday - U.S. Census Pathfinder

   Michael Hait, of Hait Family Research Services, and author of the blog, Planting the Seeds, has written a new blog post called "U.S. Census Pathfinder Is Now Available."  This is a wonderful resource for learning as much as you can on any census.  Here is a shot of the first page:

First page of US Census Pathfinder

This wonderful resource contains 23 pages full of hyperlinks to the direct websites.  This gives you a complete reference to everything you would like to know about the United States census: enumerator instructions, NARA census catalog, FHL microfilm list, blank census forms, among many other sources.

The best part of this resource is it is free!  It opens as a pdf in your browser and you can then save it to your computer so view at any time.  This can be a valuable resource for your genealogical research.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Annual Christmas Party - 2012

Nice buffet!

     Our joint annual Christmas Party with the Concord Family History Center was very successful last night.  The evening started off with meet & greet during which time appetizers were served.  Dinner was potluck and everyone brought delicious food.

    After dinner we had wonderful entertainment and games.  We sang five favorite Christmas Carols.  The game included guessing the name of the carol (that had been renamed) and then we sang that carol.  Jim Gillespie from FHC led the singing and he has a wonderful booming voice.

Singing

    Between songs, we had two readings: "The Elusive Ancestor" and "Grandma Climbed the Family Tree."  They were very humorous!  The closing song was "A Dozen Intervals of Light Between Sunlight and Dark Commemorating the Annual Festival of the Birth of Jesus" which was really "The 12 Days of Christmas" that was sang by tables. All were having a great time participating.

   Besides the great food and entertainment, members brought toys for the Toys For Tots program and food for the Contra Costa Solano County Food Bank.

   The Christmas Party committee did a fantastic job.  Thank you very much.  Next year the party will be hosted by the Concord Family History Center.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday - Up Front With NGS

The National Genealogical Society has a blog called "Up Front With NGS" that I receive via email.  Today's post is entitled "Food and Holidays -- Always a Great Combination -- How to Preserve That "Slice" of Life."  It is a great story about sisters who upon reminiscing about their mother's great cooking came up with an idea of creating a family cookbook of her recipes.  They used photos of their mother and family to accompany the wonderful dishes she always prepared.

It would be a great Christmas or Hanukkah gift to give to your family.  Just collect favorite family recipes and add photos and antidotes about the food.  Ways to "publish" could be:

• You could do this simply by scanning them into a word processing program and printing them from your computer.  Then place in sheet protector sheets and into a binder with a nice cover.  
• Have a copy center print out the pages and use a nice binding system.
• Upload to a photo service place (like Costco, Shutterfly, etc) and have the book printed with a soft or hard cover.

My mother did something like this for each of her children when they married.  This was all before computers and she typed the recipes onto pretty colored paper.  Then using a store-bought photo album, added photos of each of us as children along with the recipes.  It is such a nice treasure.  Here is an example of a recipe:

Check out the NGS blog for photos of the author's recipe book.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

General Meeting - Nov. 8, 2012 - Steve Morse

We have a wonderful treat this month.  Steve Morse will give a presentation on DNA, titled "From DNA to Genetic Genealogy: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask."  From his speaker's website, he says:

"This talk introduces genes, chromosomes, and

DNA, and goes on to show how DNA is

inherited. That knowledge of inheritance can be

used for finding relatives you didn't know you

had, learning about your very distant ancestors

and the route they traveled, and determining if

you are a Jewish high priest (Kohan). Examples

presented include Genghis Khan's legacy, the

Thomas Jefferson affair, and the Anastasia

mystery."

Come learn a little about DNA and how it might help you with your genealogy research!
LDS Church, 1360 Alberta Way, Concord, California.  Meeting begins at 7 pm.  All are welcome.  No charge.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday - The Basics of Citing Your Sources

  Most genealogists who have been researching their families at least a year or more have heard the mantra "Cite your sources!" more than once.  It is very important to record where you found each of the facts you have collected.  One, so you or someone else can find it again, and two, to help with your analysis of the record and the information you have gleamed from the record.

  Michelle Lewis of the blog Ancestoring, has written a wonderful post, "The Basics of Citing Your Sources".  She writes well and explains it very nicely.  Some of her points:

• Every fact not common knowledge must have a citation
• Only cite sources you have personally checked
• Your citation must have enough information so that anyone coming behind you could easily find the source
• Your citations must be consistent  

  I hope you will read Michelle's blog post for more details.  We can all improve our citations.


Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Copyright issues about newspaper obituaries

28 May 1920 - Portland Oregonian

Judy G. Russell, who is a certified genealogist, an attorney, and the author of the blog called “The Legal Genealogist,” has written two wonder blog posts about copyright.  She began answering a question from a reader raised about a society who had transcribed lots of newspaper obituaries and posted them on their website for all to use.

Her first post called “Copyright and the obit” talked about the copyright laws up to the end of 1963.  She gave some very good reasons why you can use an obituary that had been printed in a newspaper up to the end of 1963.

• Any publications before 1923 are free of copyright and can be used freely
• Between 1923 and 1963, if the publication had a copyright notice, the copyright lasted 28 years from publication date.  It was possible to extend the copyright, but she stated the newspaper would have to file for the extension for each date and pay a filing fee.  It is doubtful that newspapers did this for archive newspapers.
• She also spoke about fair use, and the use of an image or transcription of an obituary for educational uses would fall under fair use. 

Her second post, called "Copyright and the post-1963 obit," continued the discussion for works created 1964 and later.  For works between 1964 and 1977, the copyright expires 95 years after it was published.  For works published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 the copyright laws are more complicated depending on who authored the work.  The laws changed again after March 1, 1989, and the copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author.   See her post for more details. It gets really complicated.

So you are probably safe using newspaper articles and obituaries published before 1964 in your work or blog.  For works after that, ask permission.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday: Finding Woman's Maiden Name

Finding the maiden name of your women ancestors can be challenging at times.  You look in the usual places such as a death certificate, obituary, or marriage index.  Maybe even the tombstone will list the maiden name.  
But sometimes that maiden name is just hard to find!  Especially the further back you go in time.

William Dollaride wrote a wonderful article about finding the maiden name for your women ancestors on the GenealogyBlog.  In the article, he has a pretty thorough list of places you might find reference to her maiden name. He broke it down into categories:  Birth Records, Marriage Records, Divorce Records, Death Records, Census Records, Cemeteries, Major Databases, Vital Records & Indexes, Bible Records, Probate Records, Church Records, Medical Records, and a long list under Miscellaneous.  Some examples include:

• Finding a brother-in-law or mother-in-law on a census
• Delayed birth records or Corrected birth records
• Announcement of marriage in newspaper
• Church marriage records
• Deed records
• Pension records

Check out his article here to see the complete list.  It's a keeper to have on hand while you are researching or preparing your next research plan!

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday - "Climbing the Spiral Staircase: Learning Genealogy"

I read a wonderful blog post written by Harold Henderson, who is a professional genealogist from Indiana.  He is a wonderful writer who has the ability to take a complicated subject and break it down into easy to understand bites.  He did this superbly with his post on Archives.com website called, "Climbing the Spiral Staircase: Learning Genealogy."

As we gain experience we learn that what we thought was true before may not actually be true afterall.  He said,

"the learning process is like climbing a spiral staircase. It is not that we learn wrong things and have to unlearn them, but our previous knowledge is refined. As we make the next turn up the staircase, we can look down and see our former vantage point and its partial truth within a larger perspective."

I love this image of the spiral staircase and how we learn.  By climbing around, we are able to still see where we've been but also where we're going.

He goes on to describe 4 practical tips to help you search and analyze what you find:

1. Seek independent backup for every clue.
2. Don't be a selective skeptic.
3. Don't be an evidence snob.
4. Don't stop learning.

Check out his article to read his great examples for each of the previous tips!



Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Happy Blogiversary - Aug 9

Two years ago, our first blog post was made by our Publicity Chair, Teri.  When she became too busy in everyday life, I have taken over most of the blog posts.  I try to promote our upcoming programs, and write about the presentations, interesting things our members have done, and interesting research resources I find on the Internet.  Since our first post in 2010, our society has gained quite a few new members.

Happy Blogiversary to the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society!

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Peddler's Faire - August 2012

We had a booth again at the Peddler's Faire in Martinez, California.  Several members volunteered to man the table and we were visited by many people who told us tales of their families.

Former President & current President manning the CCCGS table at the Peddler's Faire in Aug 2012

It was a cool day and the crowds were not as large as in the past.  This time we had the use of a nice canopy to keep the sun shaded but though it didn't shade our booth, it did define our booth space.  We also had a nice new foam board sign which was a hit.  Many stopped by and commented on it.

We had 47 people sign up for a complimentary issues of the newsletter.  Let's hope that some will visit us at  our meetings this fall.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Workshop at the Concord Family History Center A Success

Our twice-yearly meeting held at the Concord Family History Center was a success last night.  About twenty-five members showed up to use the facilities' computers, books, and microfilm machines.  There were many happy smiles as members found interesting sources for their family histories.  It was also the first time members were able to try out GenealogyBank.com, our gift to the FHC.  Three staff members from the center were on hand to help members.  Thank you, Jackie for arranging that!

Our next meeting will be September 13, 2012 at the LDS Church on Alberta Way at 7pm.  There will be no meeting in August.


Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday: Using Ancestry.com's 'New Search"

    When searching in Ancestry.com, are you using the "New" search or "Old" search?  Are you a diehard fan of the old search and never want to change?  Do you think that the new search is a "dumbed down" search and the old search is more powerful?

    Michael Hait CG has written a great blog about how powerful the new search really is, called "Using Ancestry.com's "New Search""[1].  It's all about using the drop-down menus and using exact searches.  His blog has great instruction and wonderful images showing exactly what he is describing.

    I use the new search, mostly because my Ancestry opened up in that mode.  I rarely begin searching from the opening screen, however, but rather begin by picking the database from which I want to search, for example, the 1930 census, or the California Death Index.  But I learned quite a bit about searching now from this opening screen by focusing my search to particular databases, or types of databases, and by using the "advanced search" form instead of the default one.

   Check out Michael's blog and try some of his suggestions.  You might find you like the "new" search much better!

[1] Using Ancestry.com’s “New Search”, Michael Hait, CG(sm), posted June 19, 2012, Planting the Seeds blog, http://michaelhait.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/new-search/.

Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.

Follow Friday: The Legal Genealogist

     Judy G. Russell is a certified genealogist who is also a lawyer.  She writes a blog called The Legal Genealogist. She has written many blogs about laws and other legal aspects that help in genealogy research.

     But the blog I want you to read is called "Thanks for one government “boondoggle”." She writes about
the government program, Works Progress Administration (WPA), and all of the projects that were created which help genealogists today such as:

    *Historical Records Survey, which produced many inventories, lists, and surveys of government and church records.
    *Federal Writer's Project. There are copies of interviews conducted.
    *Photographs. There are many photographs available at the Library of Congress and National Archives.

 Take a look at Judy's blog post for more details and links to many state and federal sites.


Copyright © 2012 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.