VGS News & Events: 18 February 2018 through 24 February 2018

Coming Events:

Wednesday: February 21, 2018

Mid-Atlantic States SIG Meeting

9:30 AM in the Defender Room at the Lake Miona Recreation Center

Thursday: February 22, 2018

Midwest SIG Meeting:

2:00 PM in the Belvedere Library
Presentation by Annette Burke Lyttle: “History of Midwestern Settlement”
Small discussion group.
Note the date and location change for this meeting.

Wednesday: February 28, 2018
Our All-Day Annual Seminar
Guest Speaker is John Colletta, Ph.D.
Registration closes February 23rd.
This week is your last chance to register!
Download a Registration Packet HERE...

Gen News and Announcements:

Beyond 2022: Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury

Trinity College Dublin and its archival partners:
"On the centenary of the 1922 blaze, Beyond 2022 will unveil Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury​—a digital reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland building and its collections."
Learn more...

5 Genealogy Goals for the Family Archivist:

Ancestry
"Genealogists wear many hats — researcher, writer, preservationist, archivist. We always want more time to track down our elusive ancestors, but if you inherited family photos, documents, or keepsakes, there’s no time like the present to safely preserve your treasures for the next generation."
Continue reading...

Do you have way too many genetic “4th cousins or closer” among your DNA matches?

Lisa Louise Cooke
"Math can provide us with a degree of certainty in genetic genealogy. Each of us has two biological parents. We have four biological grandparents, and eight great-grandparents.
However, the farther back we go the less we can rely on math."
Continue reading...

Finding Elusive Records on FamilySearch:

FamilySearch
"If a basic search on FamilySearch.org is the only approach you use to find your ancestors, you might be missing out on a lot of potential discoveries. The records you can find by performing basic searches represent only a small portion of what’s available on FamilySearch."
Continue reading...

13 Reasons You Can’t Find the Genealogy Information You’re Looking For:

Family History Daily
"Searching for and locating records about our ancestors is seldom a simple process. Of course, we all have those easy to find individuals that seem to appear in every single record at just the right time — but many of us spend most of our time searching for those elusive members of our tree that appear to have avoided being recorded on purpose."
Continue reading...

Ancestry Has Thousands of “Invisible” Records You Can’t Find With a Search:

Family History Daily
"Many people are unaware of the fact that not all of Ancestry’s records show up in search. A surprising number of collections have not been indexed and are therefore virtually invisible to the everyday user of the site. These browse-only collections, as they are known, need to be purposely sought out if you want to take advantage of the records they contain."
Continue reading...

12 Ways To Convince A Relative To Take A DNA Test:

Genealogy a la carte
"A few days ago, my cousin called her mother to ask if she would take a DNA test for me. My aunt said, “No,” and gave no reason.
Since my cousin planned to see her mother on the weekend, she suggested I provide her with reasons why her mother should be tested. She wrote to me, “Can you give me more ammunition to present the case for doing the test?”
Continue reading...

New Database – Rhode Island: Historical Cemeteries, 1647-2000

American Ancestors
"We are very happy to announce a new database today; the Rhode Island: Historical Cemeteries, 1647-2000. John Sterling has partnered with us and provided transcriptions and images produced by the volunteers of Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project for cemeteries across Rhode Island."
Continue reading...

Technology:

What to Do When Your Hard Drive Fails:

How-to-Geek
"Like every piece of hardware, hard drives can fail. Mechanical hard drives in particular have moving parts that can (and eventually will) stop working. Even solid-state drives, which have no moving parts, can fail. Every drive has a limited lifespan before it kicks the bucket."
Continue reading...

How to Prevent Videos from Autoplaying in Chrome:

How-to-Geek
"Look, autoplaying videos are awful. No one likes them, and I honestly don’t understand why this continues to be a thing that happens on the web. Thankfully, if you’re a Chrome user, you can easily stop this from happening."
Continue reading...

Education:

Why You Should Absolutely Take the Time to Document Your Family History Research:

Ancestral Findings
"Have you started documenting your genealogy yet? If not, you should. Today, I’ll give you the top reasons why documentation is so important in genealogical research."
Listen now...  7.40 minutes

Webinars:

Using Swedish Taxation Records to Solve Tough Genealogical Problems:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"Swedish taxation records, a head tax of individuals between the ages of 15 and 63, are some of the oldest extant records of the rural farmer. Genealogists quickly become familiar with the chronological birth/marriage/death parish records (Ministerial), the clerical surveys (Husförhör) and probate records (Bouppteckning). These documents form the bedrock of investigation into our Swedish past."
Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
Presenter: Jill Morelli, CG
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

Tribal Quest: A Special Project To Document The Family Histories Of Tribal People:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"Tribal Quest is a fascinating pro bono project  for documenting the family trees and stories of remote tribal communities that face a risk of cultural extinction. This webinar will feature the highlights from our Tribal Quest expeditions to Namibia, Papua New Guinea, and Siberia."
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Golan Levi
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

Legacy 9 Unlocked (part 2): Adding an Online Document

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"In this series, Legacy’s Geoff Rasmussen will guide you through the step-by-steps of properly adding genealogy documents, citations, and digital media to your Legacy Family Tree 9 software. Each class is based on a different chapter in his popular book, Legacy 9 Unlocked: Techniques, Tips and Step-By-Steps for Using Legacy Family Tree to Record Your Genealogy. Watch them in order if you want to  follow the mystery or jump around to capture the instructions."
Friday, February 23, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Geoff Rasmussen
Learn more or Register for this webinar...