[Genealogy-SIG] Genealogy News - 20060723

[jotaito]

Genealogy News - 20060723

OK!  I have been called to task for mentioning things that I have not totally shared with the Genealogy SIG membership.  Some of it was a "tease" trying to get people to our June meeting.  I hereby recant and provide same here (best as I can remember).

I attended the May 13, 2006 Montgomery County Genealogical Society Meeting (MCGS) in the Dayton Metro Library.  I had never attended one of their meeting before and they had two agenda items of interest (1) Resources of the Ohio Genealogical Society and (2) "Sourcing -- Who Needs It Anyway?".  

I was impressed with the room full of people.  There were 51 attendees of a membership of 276.  The first speaker, who was coming over from Columbus, could not make it.  This was for the "Premeeting" presentation.  Mr. Dave Vickers, a local genealogist and computer expert who often provides computer seminars for the Family History Jamboree at the LDS Church on Whipp Road (at least I have seem him there in several seminars), provided a spur-of-the-moment Q&A session for the audience.  There were a number of questions from the audience; unfortunately I only recorded information of interest to me.  
-VISTA (the new operating system replacing Windows will be coming out soon; his son is a beta tester, it seems to be very good, needs 12 Gigs to load.
- Recommends people get used to using archival CDs as technology changes; keep them updated with the latest information so you continue to have access to your data; many people used the 5 1/4 inch floppy discs and not they do not include them on new computers; the 3 1/8 inch floppies could go the same route; even the current CD's and DVD's could be replaced in the foreseeable future with newer technology.  The point is: you must have the capability to read your data. 
-Recommends Firefox for your computer; it's a browser; you can get a copy for FREE at www.mozilla.com.
- Recommends you consider some sort of protection such as a firewall and some anti-virus programs and adware controls
- Recommends Thunderbird, mozilla's full featured mail system.
- Recommends Picasa, a free download from Google.

The regular meeting started and moved to the presentation by Karen Krugman, a genealogist who visits this area often for family reasons from Michigan.  She supplied the presentation on "Sourcing -- Who Needs It Anyway?".  Boiled down to the bottom line, you need to document your work sufficiently that someone else could pick it up and locate all the source material you have used to document "evidence" in your work.  If they cannot find your sources, then you have not properly documented your work.  One of the references she cited is Evidence by Elisabeth Schone Mills (that is all she provided, no publisher, copyright date, address, etc).  She gave a lot of examples from different types of evidence:  birth & death certificates, obituaries, census records, etc.  People use different methods of documenting but the key is always whether or not some other person can easily locate the source material from the references as you have recorded them.  She also had high praise for Roots Magic.  

There was a spontaneous oral presentation on a Preble County Cemetery project by Mr. Curtis M. Hodson.  He has just finished completely documenting a whole cemetery in Preble County which has been published in book form and is now available for purchase; the price was about $20 (I think but only $10 or $15 to MCGS members the day of the meeting).

I perused through their CD library of materials which can be borrowed by members.  It appeared that they might have about 100 CDs in the library.  Some of this information is probably also available at some of the local libraries.  There is also a local catalog (a couple of sheets of information) of the MCGS CDs. 

There was also a table full of small publications on various items from the local area.  These may or may not be of much interest to most of us unless all your research is focused on relatives from the local area.  Most of us will probably leap right out of the local area going up-line. 

Membership is cheap enough ($10); it is probably worth membership just for the monthly meetings and local presentations and fellow genealogists you will get to meet.  

TEASERS FOR THE JUNE MEETING     

The Dayton Daily News, June 22, 2006, p. A-17 carried an announcement that the complete U.S. Census records are now available on-line from 1790 through 1930.  See earlier posting on this event in our SIG postings.

The Dayton Daily News, June 22, 2006, p. N-7 carried an article on a new technology being employed by a WSU professor to reveal unmarked burial sites.  It is a ground-penetrating radar mounted on a tricycle-like carriage (see the article for a picture; I do not have a scanner).  Professor Ernest Hauser has been using this device at SunWatch Indian Village in Dayton to help locate burial sites. 
I just thought it was timely and interesting with genealogical overtones for researching in cemeteries.  
  

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jotaito