VGS News & Events: 7 April through 13 April 2019

Coming Events:

Tuesday: April 9, 2019

Preserving Family History SIG Meeting

2:30 PM in the Destin Room at the Sea Breeze Recreation Center
Topic: "Writing and Obituary" - Speaker Nancy Schultz

Wednesday: April 10, 2019

Irish Genealogy SIG Meeting

10:00 AM in the Osceola Room at the Chula Vista Recreation Center

Wednesday: April 10, 2019

African American SIG Meeting

Noon in the Neptune Beach Room at the Sea Breeze Recreation Center

Wednesday: April 10, 2019

New to Genealogy SIG Meeting

2:30 PM in the Neptune Beach Room at the Sea Breeze Recreation Center

Thursday: April 11, 2019

German Genealogy SIG Meeting

9:30 AM in the Reliance Room at the Late Miona Recreation Center

Friday: April 12, 2019

Genetic Genealogy SIG Meeting Cancelled

Gen News and Announcements:

News - All in the Family 

Finding Your Roots
"The family stories of actor Ty Burrell, and radio host Joe Madison. Also a look at how a summer camp for children is using genetic genealogy to help young people better understand their burgeoning identities. Premieres Tuesday, April 9, 8/7c"

9 April Fools' Pranks From The Past That Will Make You Question Everything You Read:

FindMyPast
"The history of April Fools' Day is debated by historians. Many trace the custom back to medieval France where 25 March used to be New Year's Day until the calendar was reformed in 1564. Before then, New Year festivities culminated on 1 April. After 1 January was officially adopted as New Year's Day, those who forgot to change the date and continued to celebrate on 1 April were ridiculed and labelled April Fools."
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Unusual Sources for Finding Female Ancestors:

Amy Johnson Crow
"Name changes and a society that emphasizes men in the records can make finding female ancestors tough. Note that I said "tough," not "impossible." Let's consider some valuable sources that we might be overlooking."
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10 Tips to Help You Trace Emigrant Ancestors:

FindMyPast
"It can be difficult to know where to start looking through the records to find your ancestors that emigrated overseas, but there are many tips and techniques that you can use to get started."
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New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of 1 April 2019

FamilySearch
"FamilySearch added new, free, indexed historical records this week from the United States: Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Border Crossings from Canada to the United States, and from Billion Graves Index."
Search now...

Ancestry Improves the Potential Parent Box:

Kitty Cooper
"Have you seen those boxes with green silhouette images in your tree titled Potential Father and Potential Mother? This feature has recently been greatly improved."
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Technology:

Windows Task Manager: The Complete Guide

How-to-Geek
"The Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool packed with useful information, from your system’s overall resource usage to detailed statistics about each process. This guide explains every feature and technical term in the Task Manager."
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Education:

Mathew Brady | Photographing the Civil War

Ancestral Findings
"Mathew Brady (1822-1896) was a photographer whose work is quite well known and famous today. In addition to taking photographs of 19th-century politicians, who we would otherwise have no images of except paintings, he also documented the American Civil War in photographs. In fact, the Civil War is the first war to be documented and disseminated to the public via newspapers using photographic accompaniment. The vast majority of those photos were taken by Mathew Brady or one of his many, personally trained assistants."
Listen now... 7.47 minutes

Webinars:

Visualizing Ancestral Lines with DNA Auto Clusters:

Legacy Family Tree
"AutoClusters is an automatic tool that organizes your DNA Matches into clusters that likely descended from common ancestors. Discover how you can leverage this powerful visual display to learn more about how you and your DNA Matches are related."
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: MyHeritage Webinars
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

Plain Folk Researching Amish and Mennonite Families:

Legacy Family Tree
"Amish and Mennonite families are often romanticized in modern literature and television series. However, their backgrounds, though similar, have beliefs that keep them separate. The Amish and the Mennonites are often grouped together. And, while they have some similarities, including their roots in religion, there are distinct differences."
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
Presenter: Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, AG
Learn more or Register for this webinar...