VGS News & Events: May 3 through May 9, 2020

Practice Social-Distancing

Coming Events:  Due to Covid-19, no Rec Center meetings in May. Some SIG's are having virtual meetings. Be on the lookout for emails announcing the meetings and how to connect to them or go to "Coming Events" for  more details.  These are the meetings scheduled for May as of this posting.

Monday, May 4

Jewish Genealogy SIG Meeting

10:00 am

Zoom Meeting

Herb Siegel, Coordinator

Phil Goldsmith, Programs

Zoom Meeting - Contact the coordinator for login information

Monday, May 4, 11, 18 & 25

Italian Genealogy SIG Meeting

1:00 pm

Mary Frances Gerace, Coordinator

They are currently holding ZOOM meetings each Monday the 1:00 p.m.

Contact the coordinator for login information

Tuesday, May 5

Adoption & Mystery Kin SIG Meeting

9:30 am

Zoom Meeting

Anne Berg & Marcella Zorn, Co-coordinators

Zoom Meeting - Contact the coordinator for login information

Monday, May 11

“I Remember Mama—But Not Her Maiden Name”  (Evening Live Webinar)

7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Online Webinar

Our guest speaker will be: Mary Kircher Roddy, CG

Description: Women can be hard to identify.  If they married, they probably changed their names.  See more than 20 great strategies for finding the maiden name of "troublesome" women in your family's past - and a few more strategies for discovering married names for those sisters, daughters and aunts who have "disappeared."   Please register for the webinar HERE...

Tuesday, May 12

Preserving Family History SIG Meeting  (Preserving Family History)

2:00 pm

Online Webinar

Tom Sodeman and Nancy Schultz , Coordinators

Topic: "Blending Social History With Family History" 

Presenter: Nancy Flanagan Schultz

Description: It's a challenge to make your family history research interesting to read. It's nearly impossible to learn details about what your family was actually experiencing. Learn how to enrich your family narrative by researching 'social history' gathered from a variety of background sources to enhance your story. Please register for the webinar HERE...

Thursday, May 14

German Genealogy SIG Meeting

9:30 am

Online Webinar

Dianne Fedderson & Steven Buhrow, coordinators

Presentation: "What Makes German Genealogy so Challenging & Your Tools to Overcome the Hurdles"

Presenter: Bernhard Guenther: Please register for the webinar HERE...

Tuesday, May 19
Family Tree Maker SIG Meeting

Online Webinar

John DeAngelo, Co-Coordinator

Presentation: "Setting Up Family Tree Maker for the New User"

Description: Have you recently purchased Family Tree Maker and don't know where to begin? Or, have you been using Ancestry.com for your research and want to download your tree into Family Tree Maker? Learn these and other ways to access your data using Family Tree Maker.  We will also cover the correct methods to add your names, dates and places into your software. Please register for the webinar HERE...

Wednesday, May 20

Mid-Atlantic States SIG Meeting

10:00 am

Online Webinar

Karen Pickelsimer, Coordinator.

Presentation: "Digging Deeper into FamilySearch"
Presenter: Annette Burke Lyttle
Please register for the webinar HERE... 

Wednesday, May 27

VGS General Monthly Meeting  (Monthly Meeting)

10:00 am

Via Online Webinar

Presenter: Drew Smith

Topic: “Your Ancestor’s Fan Club: Using Cluster Research to Get Past Brick Walls”
Description: Our ancestors were each surrounded by family, associates, and neighbors. By researching them, we discover additional records pointing to our own ancestors.  Please register for the webinar HERE...

Gen News and Announcements:

Online Database With 26 Million Documents On Nazi Victims, Survivors Now Online:

JNS
"The world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution reached a “milestone” on Tuesday by publishing 26 million documents to its online database, including new information on forced laborers and deported Jews."
Continue reading...

Connecting the Dots: What Constitutes Genealogical Proof?

Legacy Tree Genealogists
"How do we know when we have compiled enough evidence to constitute proof? Is a birth certificate or an autosomal DNA test result sufficient to declare this person is the child of that person? Must we collect every record regarding an individual – the deeds, the tax lists, the newspaper clippings, the census reports – before we can declare a familial connection?"
Continue reading... 

A Modern Myth: My Genealogy is Complete and Accurate

Genealogy's Star
"For the past 38 years, I have been examining hundreds of thousands of names in pedigrees compiled by thousands of people acting as genealogists and researchers. I have yet to ever find even one completely accurate and consistently source supported family tree. Period."
Continue reading... 

Experience That Make It Easier to Find Records—FamilySearch Update:

FamilySearch
"Searching records on FamilySearch.org has never been easier! The latest updates to FamilySearch’s search experience improve the ability to refine searches, find record collections, and standardize record dates attached to persons on the Family Tree."
Continue reading... 

2020 Family History Conference Now Virtual:

FamilySearch
"Due to the continued spread of COVID-19 across the nation, and out of concern for the health and safety of our attendees and staff, the National Genealogical Society (NGS) 2020 Family History Conference will now be online only."
Continue reading... 

The Powerful Genealogy Hints Tool You’ve Probably Never Used:

Family History Daily
"If you have done family history research for any length of time, you are most likely familiar with Ancestry’s amazing hints tool – which allows users to harness the research they have already done to make new discoveries more easily. But Ancestry is not the only site that offers this service to its members. There are a number of genealogy services that offer a similar tool and MyHeritage is one of our favorites."
Continue reading... 

Technology:

How to Copy or Move Files and Folders on Windows 10:

How-to Geek
"Windows offers many ways to copy and move files. We’ll show you all the tricks for File Explorer, and how to use them in Command Prompt and PowerShell. You can even add “Copy to” and “Move to” to File Explorer’s context menus."
Continue reading... 

Education:

8 Things New Genealogists Waste Money On:

Ancestral Findings
"New genealogists often make the mistake of spending money on things they really don't need. You can do perfectly good, professional-quality research without spending a fortune. If you are just starting out in genealogy, make sure you're spending your genealogy money on things that can really make a difference for your research and not these 8 things that are a total waste of your research funds..."
Listen now...  4:53 minutes

Webinars:

Smarter Search Strategies for Genealogy:

Legacy Family Tree
"We’ll progress to understanding specific search parameters for specific sites. Next, we’ll discuss whether it is worth the time to track searches as well as how to keep track of all the best ways of searching for a specific site. Finally, we’ll explore different wildcard characters and search methodology to get the most out of a website."
Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern
Presenter: Thomas MacEntee
Learn more or Register for this event...

Crème de la crème: Targeted Autosomal DNA Testing to Isolate Pertinent Genetic Cousins

Legacy Family Tree
"Genetic Genealogy may be helpful for overcoming your genealogy brick wall, but how do you even start to determine which of those thousands of genetic cousins are pertinent to your particular research question? Targeted testing and collaboration to increase coverage, and filter testing can help in isolating the most important matches for your case. Once you have multiple tests available for analysis, your odds of success increase."
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Presenter: Paul Woodbury
Learn more or Register for this event...

VGS Reminders: 24 - 28 July, 2017

Reminders:

Wednesday: July 26, 2017

Brick Wall SIG Meeting

8:30 AM in the Atlanta Room in the Savannah Center

Wednesday: July 26, 2017

General Monthly Meeting

10:00 AM in the Atlanta Room in the Savannah Center

Topic: Podcast: "10 Tools for Your Genealogy Research That You Never Thought You'd Need"Topic: "Latest Update on Leesburg Library and FamilySearch Microfilm"
Presentation: “Reconstructing a Life: Chasing Uncle William through the Wilds of Cyberspace.” by VP Annette Burke Lyttle

Gen News:

Analyze Genealogy Records Like a Pro: For the Beginner...

The Genealogy Reporter
"To analyze a genealogy record is part of the Genealogical Proof Standard. By learning and applying this skill to both the record and its information, you will glean clues that may have otherwise been overlooked. Here are a few things to remember when you analyze a genealogy record. [Note: This post is meant to be for the beginner and is touching on one aspect of the GPS in a most basic manner.]"
Continue reading...

Using the Social Security Death Index:

ancestrocloud
"The US Social Security Death Index (or SSDI) is an old favorite among family history researchers, and if you haven’t heard about this record collection I’m going to explain what it is and how it is useful in your family history research."
Continue reading...

Free Family Statistics Tool from MyHeritage:

MyHeritage
"There’s an easy, free way to analyze your family tree for patterns! Discover your ancestors’ average life expectancy, most common first names, how long they stayed married, and more. Share the results at your next family reunion, or use them to understand your family health history just a little bit better. Here’s how."
Continue reading...

Blog Survey:

Thank you to the 73 members who responded to the recent blog survey. Your responses and comments will be reviewed and a decision on the blog's future will be forth coming hopefully before September 1. I will tell you that 82% replied that a weekly blog would work for them. If that is the route that we will take, content for the week would greatly be reduced. Currently, not including meeting and webinar reminders, there are 36 different articles published each week. If we change to a weekly blog, that number will be reduced to about 10 articles per week most likely published on Saturday and repeated on Sunday.

Tech:

How to Change Your Display Name on Twitter:

How-to-Geek
"Unlike Facebook, Twitter has never insisted people user their real names. In fact, there’s a long tradition of people changing their names to a joke or pun because it’s Christmas or Halloween, or just for no reason at all."
Continue reading...

How to Stop Facebook Videos from Automatically Blaring Audio:

How-to-Geek
"In yet another bid to get your attention while browsing Facebook on your mobile device, Facebook now has videos set to automatically play the audio in your news feed. Here’s how to turn that annoying new “feature” off."
Continue reading...

Education:

Genealogy Basics: Death Record Research Advice for Beginners...

Ancestral Findings
"Using death records is a basic part of genealogy research. In fact, for many genealogists, it is the first type of record set they learn to use. This is because death records are readily available to the general public in most cases, and because they usually contain a wealth of important family history information. If you haven't yet learned how to use death records in your genealogy research and don’t know what they can offer you, here’s what you need to know to get started with them."
Listen now... 4.37 minutes

Upcoming Webinars:

Family History Adhesive: The Science of Why History Binds Families and the Simple Tech of How to Do It:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"E-mail newsletters, Facebook groups, Google Hangouts, Twitter hashtags, and family Instagram accounts are great places to start a family storytelling challenge, award prizes for who knows the most about Grandma and post pictures for a caption contest. You'll leave with a plan for making your family history fun and strengthening your current family relationships."
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Janet Hovorka
Learn more or Register for this webinar...

VGS Latest News and Tips: 14 July 2017

Reminder:
Today: July 14, 2017

Genetic Genealogy SIG Meeting
10:00 AM in the Rhett Butler Room at the Savannah Center

Topic: "Using Third Party Online Tools"

Gen News:

Using DNA in Your Genealogy: Tips from Blaine Bettinger:

Amy Johnson Crow
"DNA is a powerful tool to use in our genealogy research. It can also feel incredibly overwhelming. I sat down with Blaine Bettinger, the Genetic Genealogist, for his tips on how to get started, what to keep in mind, and how to work through all of those matches that we have."
Continue reading...

5 Steps to Proving an Ancestor Is Related to You:

Rootstech
"In her RootsTech 2017 Presentation, Crista Cowan, corporate genealogist at Ancestry, talked about the Genealogical Proof Standard and quoted a statement from the Board for Certification of Genealogists: “Proof is a fundamental concept in genealogy. In order to merit confidence, each conclusion about an ancestor must have sufficient credibility to be accepted as proved.”
But what does this mean for you?
Continue reading...

Interview Questions:

Ancestry
"Here is a list of questions that can serve as prompts for your personal history, or as the basis for an interview of a family member."
Download now...

Tech:

Wi-Fi vs. Ethernet: How Much Better Is a Wired Connection?

How-to-Geek
"Wi-Fi is obviously more convenient than wired Ethernet cables, but Ethernet still offers significant advantages. Join us as we take a look at the pros and cons of wired and wireless connections."
Continue reading...

How to Disable the New Transparency Effects in Windows 10:

How-to-Geek
"With Microsoft’s new Fluent Design, announced alongside the Fall Creators Update, Windows 10 is gaining more and more transparency—or, technically, translucency. If you don’t like this effect, you can flip a switch to disable transparency in all parts of Windows 10, from the taskbar and Start menu to apps like Calculator and People."
Continue reading...

Education:

How to Use Google Chrome to Identify Old Photos and Images for Genealogy and Family History:

Genealogy Gems
"Here's how to use Google Chrome to identify some of your photos and imagesfor family history and genealogy research. Google Chrome attempts to match the image you upload to other images on the web. This is great for distinct or well-known images, such as a location or perhaps an important person in your family tree."
Listen now... 4.23 minutes

Webinar Reminder:

Tips for Snapping Pics: How to Take Perfect Family Photographs

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
"Make your next family portrait the one you will be proud to hang on the wall or mail for the holidays. Learn from professional photographer, Jared Hodges, how to compose and shoot the perfect shot. You will learn about proper lighting, the right poses, what to wear, and more."
Friday, July 14, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Jared Hodges
Learn more or Register for this webinar...