VGS News & Events: 9 December 2018 through 15 December 2018

Follow-up questions after the November 28, 2018 Meeting

Coming Events:

Monday: December 10, 2018

Family Tree Maker Users SIG Meeting

1:00 PM in the Patriot Room at the Mulberry Grove Recreation Center

Topic: "Your Questions Answered & a Demo on the Family Book Creator plug-in for FTM"

Monday: December 10, 2018

Live Webinar:

7:00 PM Online
Topic: "Fraternal Organizations: The Original Social Network"
Presented by: Dannell "Danni" Altman-Newell
Register to attend HERE...

Tuesday: December 11, 2018

Preserving Family History SIG Meeting

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

Wednesday: December 12, 2018

Irish Genealogy SIG Meeting

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

Thursday: December 13, 2018

German Genealogy SIG Meeting

9:30 AM in the Reliance Room at the Late Miona Recreation Center
Topic: "Finding Our German Family" — Paul Clark

Friday: December 14, 2018

Genetic Genealogy SIG Meeting

10:00 AM in the Rhett Butler Room at the Savannah Center
Topic: "DNA Show and Tell"

Gen News and Announcements:

The Top 4 DNA Ancestry Reports Shown Side by Side: See How Results from the Same Person Compare:

Family History Daily
"Today, in an effort to help you better understand how different results compare from test to test for one individual, we are going to show you screenshots of ethnicity reports from each of the top four kits side by side."
Continue reading...

New Records on FamilySearch from November 2018:

FamilySearch
"FamilySearch expanded its free online archives in November 2018 with almost 90 million new indexed family history records and almost 300,000 digital images from around the world. New historical records were added from Benin, Chile, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, England, Germany, Honduras, Ireland, Lesotho, Liberia, Nicaragua, Peru, and the United States, which includes California, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Native American Enrollment Records, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. New digital images were added from BillionGraves."
Continue reading...

Were Your Ancestors in the Poor House? Here’s How to Find Out:

Family History Daily
"Back before the days of welfare, food stamps, and long-term disability insurance, people who were unable to support themselves financially sometimes had to live in these places. This article will explain what poor houses and poor farms were and how to find your ancestors who may have lived there."
Continue reading...

Wild-cards are a geneal*gist’s b*st fr*nd:

Family History Daily
"Wild-cards, – usually an asterisk (‘*’) representing any series of characters and a question-mark representing a single character – are one of the most important (and under-appreciated) tools in any online researcher’s toolkit."
Continue reading...

Why I Quote Wikipedia:

Genealogy's Star
"If you read any number of my blog posts, you may wonder why I use and quote Wikipedia. The answer to that question involves a number of levels of research and legal considerations which mostly revolve around copyright restrictions. The reasons I use Wikipedia also have extensive implications about why I use wiki-based genealogy programs."
Continue reading...

Garden State Court Records:

Judy G. Russell, The Legal genealogist
"Oh, it looks promising at first — a catalog search at FamilySearch.org using the keywords “Jersey county court” turns up 524 results.1 But if you then change the availability to online, it drops to 396. That still sounds like a lot of records, until you actually start looking at them."
Continue reading...

Technology:

Find Out AND Download Everything Apple Knows About You:

Lifewire
"Like many big tech companies, Apple keeps data on their users. If you've ever set up an Apple ID or downloaded something from iTunes or the App Store, Apple has some information on you. If you're ever curious about everything Apple knows about you, it's actually fairly simple to check it out. Here's how to see and download your Apple data."
Continue reading...

Education:

Don't Make These 8 Mistakes in Your Genealogy Research:

Ancestral Findings...
"Are you a beginning genealogist? Today, I’ll show you how to make your research shine by avoiding eight common beginning genealogy mistakes."
Listen now... 5.15 minutes

Webinars:

101 Ways to Design a Genealogy Chart:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"Tired of the regular fan, left to right or top to bottom chart? Want to show off your family relationships, places and time periods in an engaging way? If your clients and family members aren't clamoring for more, maybe you're just not showing it off effectively. The visual presentation of a family's history is one of the most powerful communication tools for genealogists."
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
Presenter: Janet Hovorka
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

Citation For Beginners:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"Learning to write genealogical citations is part art, part science and potentially terrifying. Learn what important components to note while researching, and how to put them together while writing to subdue the panic, and produce quality work."
Friday, December 14, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Shellee Morehead, PhD, CG
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

VGS Latest News & Tips: 1 Sep 2016

How to Mine Family Memories for Genealogy Clues?
Genealogy Insider
"Your memories also can provide critical research clues for genealogy research. When's the last time you mined your own memories for details you can use to research your family tree?"
Continue reading...

What’s New on FamilySearch—August 2016:
FamilySearch
"Each month, FamilySearch publishes a list of new changes and updates to the FamilySearch.org website. This list includes changes to Family Tree as well as other parts of FamilySearch.org. In some cases, these changes will also be published as individual articles where the need to do so exists."
Continue reading...

The next two articles are related to each other...
Disorderly Conduct:
The Legal Genealogist
"So… your ancestor was charged in early Michigan with being disorderly.
Just what exactly did he do?"
Continue reading...
Pulling The Strings:
The Legal Genealogist
"After the post about disorderly persons in early Michigan laws, reader Ann Curtis Collins was puzzled.
She wrote: “I would like to know the history of why these people were listed under this topic: ‘who exhibit or perform for profit any puppet-show’.”
Continue reading...

Family Maps and Migration Routes Traced with New Tech Tools:
Lisa Louise Cook
"Family maps and migration routes can sometimes uncover new record finds and answer brick wall questions. It’s fast and simple to use these free tech tools to map your family’s history!"
Continue reading...

How to Clear Your File Explorer “Recent Files” History in Windows 10:
How-to-Geek
"You’ve probably noticed that File Explorer keeps a list of files and folders you’ve recently opened, displaying them at the bottom of the File Explorer window. It’s handy, for sure, but there are times you’ll want to clear that file history. Here’s how to do it."
Continue reading...

How to Hold a Conference Call With Your iPhone:
How-to-Geek
"Your iPhone allows you to call up to five people at once, making it easy to set up a quick conference call. The other people don’t need anything special–just any old cellular or landline telephone."
Continue reading...

This Day In History: 1 September

1676: Nathaniel Bacon leads an uprising against English Governor William Berkeley at Jamestown, Virginia, resulting in the settlement being burned to the ground. Bacon’s Rebellion came in response to the governor’s repeated refusal to defend the colonists against the Indians.
1807: Aaron Burr is arrested in Mississippi for complicity in a plot to establish a Southern empire in Louisiana and Mexico.
1836: Protestant missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman leads a party to Oregon. His wife, Narcissa, is one of the first white women to travel the Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail emigrants who chose to follow Stephen Meek thought his shortcut would save weeks of hard travel. Instead, it brought them even greater misery.
1907 Birthday: Walter Reuther, labor leader who merged the American Federation of Labor with the Congress of International Organizations.

State Timelines:
Even though it is hard to tell what made people move or disappear, these are just a few possibilities.
Arkansas:
1837: Major migration from the Deep South began
1859: All free blacks ordered to leave the state
1871: Railroad completed from/to Little Rock

VGS Latest News & Tips: 14 September 2015

Today: Monday, September 14, 2015

Family Tree Maker Uses SIG Meeting

2:30 PM at the Chatham Recreation Center
Note: Due to renovations at Mulberry Grove this month's meeting time and location have been changed.
Tomorrow: U.S. Probates and Will Records LIVE Facebook Chat:
Ancestry.com
"Join us for a live Facebook chat with our professional genealogists to have your U.S. Probates and Will questions answered! We will host a one hour chat on Tuesday, September 15th at 12PM PT / 3PM ET to 1PM PT / 4PM ET."
Continue reading...

How to Use Google Photos to Store an Unlimited Amount of Photos:
How-to-Geek

"Google Photos offers unlimited storage for your photos and videos, a slick website, and automatic-upload apps for Android, iPhone, Windows, and Mac. It’s a great option for storing your photos."
Continue reading...

7 Reasons Why You Can’t Find Your Ancestors Online:
Crestleaf
Can’t Find Your Ancestor? Avoid These Online Research Mistakes...
Continue reading...

1906-1912: Ellis Island Portraits
Mashable.com
"While most entrants to Ellis Island answered a few questions and passed through to the mainland within a few hours, some were detained on the island for longer periods. Augustus Francis Sherman was the chief registry clerk at Ellis Island, and an avid amateur photographer. He had special access to the immigrants who were temporarily detained while waiting on escorts, money or travel tickets. Sherman persuaded many of these immigrants to pose for his camera, encouraging them to put on their finest clothes or national dress."
Continue reading...

Legal battle over manuscript kept under lock and key since 1836:
The Guardian
"François-René de Chateaubriand instructed his memoir draft be destroyed and gave it to lawyers for safe keeping, now the firm wants to sell it. It has been described as a courtroom battle from beyond the grave: a complex literary saga of locked safes, secret keys and the 160-year-old question over who owns the original manuscript of the memoirs of the great French Romantic writer François-René de Chateaubriand."
Continue reading...

This Day in History: September 14
1812: Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia reaches its climax as his Grande Armee enters Moscow–only to find the enemy capital deserted and burning, set afire by the few Russians who remained.
1814: Francis Scott Key writes the words to the "Star Spangled Banner" as he waits aboard a British launch in the Chesapeake Bay for the outcome of the British assault on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
1847: U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott capture Mexico City, virtually bringing the two-year Mexican War to a close.
1921 Birthday: Constance Baker Motley, first African-American woman to be appointed a federal judge.

VGS Latest News & Tips: 11 September 2015

Today: Friday, September 11, 1015

Genetic Genealogy SIG Meeting

10:00 AM in the Rhett Butler Room at the Savannah Center.

PSA: If You Download and Run Something Bad, No Antivirus Can Help You
How-to-Geek
"Antivirus should be a last-ditch line of defense, not something you rely on to save you. To stay safe online, you should act as if you had no antimalware software on your computer at all."
Continue reading...

Windows 10 is Great, Except for the Parts That Are Terrible:
How-to-Geek
"Windows 10 is a great upgrade. Microsoft paid a lot of attention to the feedback they ignored while developing Windows 8, and it shows. Unfortunately, some parts of Windows 10 are inexplicably bad and hostile to users."
Continue reading...

Public Records Access: One Genealogist Can Make A Difference!:
Avotaynu Online 
"This past Thursday, September 3, 2015, a legal petition was filed at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York. Brooke Schreier Ganz and ReclaimTheRecords.org [Petitioner] vs. New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DoRIS) [Respondent]. This is believed to be the first time a genealogist has tried to use FOIL to force public vital records back into the public domain. "
Continue reading...

Breaking Down the Science Behind AncestryDNA Ethnicity Results
Ancestry YouTube Video 6.36 minutes
"Join Ross Curtis, PhD from the AncestryDNA science team as he talks us through the science behind the ethnicity results. Learn how we determine the ethnicity estimate and why it can be different than a sibling."
Watch video...

This Day in History: September 11
1297: Scots under William Wallace defeat the English at Stirling Bridge.
1802: Piedmont, Italy, is annexed by France.
1847: Stephen Foster’s "Oh! Susanna" is first performed in a saloon in Pittsburgh.
1862 Birthday: O. Henry, (William Sydney Porter), short story writer who wrote "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Last Leaf."

VGS Latest News & Tips: 5 May 2015

Meeting Reminder - Tomorrow, May 6:
French Canadian Genealogy SIG Meeting:

9:00 AM in the Julio Iglesias Room at the La Hacienda Recreation Center.

Note: New Time

An open letter to genealogy societies:
LongLostRealtives.net
"No doubt some genealogy society people will be offended by what I've got to say, but this has been on my mind for a long time. I've discussed my concerns with society members from around the country as well with some society board members. I'm just ready to take the conversation to a more public forum."
Read more...

Introducing Ancestry Academy: 
DNA 101: An Insider's Scoop on AncestryDNA Testing
"What is DNA testing? What do I do with my results? In this free course from Ancestry Academy, Anna Swayne discusses the basics of the AncestryDNA test and how it can help you make amazing new discoveries."
Learn more...

Facts matter! 
The Legal Genealogist 
"Reporting DNA issues accurately. In genealogy, we get this point: facts matter. In genealogy, the point shouldn't have to be repeated: facts matter."
Read more...

The Revolutionary Roots of the Fluffernutter Sandwich:
NEHS
"The classic New England kids’ treat was the brainchild of Paul Revere’s great-great-great-granddaughter Emma Curtis of Melrose, Mass. She and her brother Amory (Paul Revere’s great-great-great-grandson) began making and marketing Snowflake Marshmallow Crème in 1913."
Read more...

How Private DNA Data Led Idaho Cops on a Wild Goose Chase and Linked an Innocent Man to a 20 year old Murder Case:
Before It's News
"The New Orleans Advocate recently published a shocking story that details the very real threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases and familial DNA searching."
Read more...

Save 25% on a gift membership this Mother’s Day:
Read more...

This Day in History:
1964: The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.
1905: The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the 1st time that fingerprint evidence is used to being a conviction.
1866: Memorial Day 1st celebrated in the United States at Waterloo, New York.