VGS News & Events: April 5 through April 11, 2020

Coming Events:

No Meetings in April due to Covid-19.

Monday: April 6, 2020
Monday Evening Live Webinar:
7:00 PM Online

“5 Search Strategies Every Genealogist Should Know” 

Guest Speaker: Amy Johnson Crow, CG
Registration Required: Here

Gen News and Announcements:

These Genealogy Sites are Providing Free Resources During the Pandemic:

Family History Daily
"A number of genealogy companies are stepping up to provide free access to family history research resources during the pandemic."
Continue reading...

What Life Was Like During the Spanish Flu of 1918?

Amy Johnson Crow
"A number of genealogy companies are stepping up to provide free access to family history research resources during the pandemic."
Podcast... 29 minutes
Continue reading...

Triangulation in Action at DNAPainter:

DNAeXplained
"Recently, I published the article, Hitting a Genealogy Home Run Using Your Double-Sided Two-Faced Chromosomes While Avoiding Imposters. The “Home Run” article explains why you want to use a chromosome browser, what you’re seeing and what it means to you."
Continue reading...

New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of 23 March 2020

FamilySearch
"This week FamilySearch added over 2 million new indexed records from Find A Grave Index, and new church and civil registrations from Bolivia, Sweden, England, Chile, Peru, South Africa, American Samoa, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States (CA, HI, LA, ME, NC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, DC, FL, IL, MD, MI, RI, SC). Some passenger, crew, passport and pension lists were also added for California, Hawaii, Maryland, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Rhode Island and 6000 school records for Texas."
Continue reading...

New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of 30 March 2020

FamilySearch
"Find your British ancestors at FamilySearch in 1.7M new, free, historical records added this week for England, and more from Brazil, Germany, Peru, South Africa, American Samoa, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.  Millions of U.S. newspaper obituaries, military registers, naturalization records, passenger lists, and vital records were also added for Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Colombia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas."
Continue reading...

Technology:

How to Hide Private Photos and Videos on Your iPhone or iPad:

How-To Geek
"When you snap a photo on your iPhone or iPad, it ends up in your photo library alongside your other photos. If you often whip out your phone to show off pics of your cute cat, there might be photos or videos you don’t want others to see while you browse."
Continue reading...

Education:

Finding and Fact-Checking Old Obituaries in Online Newspaper Archives:

Ancestral Findings
"If you are looking for old obituaries in online newspaper databases, you are doing excellent genealogical research. This is a wonderful technique for finding important information on those elusive ancestors. Here are some tips on finding the obituaries if they don’t immediately appear, as well as tips on fact-checking them for accuracy before adding the information in them to your family tree."
Listen now...  7.51 minutes

Webinars:

Decoding Social Security: Providing Benefits to our Ancestors

Legacy Family Tree
"The passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 during the height the new deal era and the great depression would provide stability to our nation. By decoding the meaning of the series of numbers, ordering the applications of the social security cards, and understanding how delayed births played an important part in this act can help genealogists to find new information about their ancestors."
Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern
Presenter: Michael L. Strauss, AG
Learn more or Register for this event...

The General Land Office Website—A Genealogical Gem

Legacy Family Tree
"The GLO website provides access to over 8 million records, some dating back to the late 1700s. Thousands of records are still being added to this website to include patents, tract books, and maps. These records contain rich genealogical information."
Friday, April 10, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Presenter: Rick Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA
Learn more or Register for this event...