VGS Latest News & Tips: 13 May 2016

Friday: May 13, 2016

The Genetic Genealogy SIG Meeting, normally scheduled for today, will be held this coming Tuesday, May 17.
10:00 a.m. in the Rhett Butler Room at the Savannah Regional Recreation Center

My take on the 2016 NGS Conference:
by Past President Pat Rand

J. Mark Lowe & Past President Pat Rand at the 2016 NGS Conference

My experience at NGS was a little different than the other attendees, as I have been to half a dozen in the last few years. As Treasurer of FGS, I was required to attend their conferences, although it didn’t take much arm-twisting. This was the first conference in a long time where I had no official duties, and could attend lectures. I took full advantage of that, and only missed a couple of sessions – 5 lectures a day for 4 days is grueling. The highlight for me was running into people I had met in earlier years, as well as the speakers we’ve had at recent seminars. I visited with the people from Ancestry (and vented my dissatisfaction with some of the changes), spent quite a bit of time in the Family Search booth discussing an upcoming project with a couple of their managers, and visited with vendors of software and books. The hotel lobby was always full of interesting people, and we ended up eating (and drinking) with many other attendees.

NGS was excited to find out that VGS had given 10 scholarships of $400 each to encourage members to attend, and they gave us a couple of mentions and some photo ops. We took full advantage of that publicity and talked it up to anyone who would listen. We also shamelessly took selfies with every speaker we could find for our blog and newsletter. The Villages Genealogical Society is a force to be reckoned with, and now everyone knows us!

Maps Can Reveal More Than Meets the Eye:
Ancestry
"As family historians, maps are among the most visually interesting records we can use in our day-to-day research. Maps can help us discover a pattern in movements across county or state boundaries, and help us better understand the geography of a particular area."
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Destination America: Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Arrival in U.S. Ports:
Ancestry
"Our immigrant ancestors’ journey to America is an important part of the family story. Your ancestor probably entered through any of the more than 70 federal immigrant stations located along the country’s shores, the most famous of which was New York. In our latest free research guide, we’ve gathered interesting details you might not know about 6 major U.S. immigration ports – New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Galveston, New Orleans, and San Francisco."
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How to Color Code Your Genealogy for Places:
The Cousin Detective
"Color coding isn't just for family surnames anymore! Nope, it can actually be even more useful than that. It an actually help with focusing your research.  You can color code by places!"
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How to Get a Taskbar Notification When Caps Lock or Num Lock Are Enabled:
How-to-Geek
"All of us, at one point, have accidentally pressed the Caps Lock key or Num Lock key by accident. Then, you type a password and wonder why it doesn’t work. Wouldn’t it be nice to know at a glance the status of your Caps Lock and Num Lock keys?"
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This Day In History: 13 May
1861: Britain declares its neutrality in the American Civil War.
1888: Slavery is abolished in Brazil.
1981: Pope John Paul II survives an assassination attempt.
1914 Birthday: Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949.