Friday, June 12, 2009

CVGS Research Group Summary - 10 June 2009

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group meeting on 10 June 2009 had nine in attendance. We tried to get a wireless signal on the laptops from the library but failed miserably. We shared information instead:

* Shirley B. printed out a working pedigree chart (7 wide, 3 tall 8.5 x 11 sheets) and pieced it together. She identified several research opportunities from the chart - Sweet, Robbins, Shelmandine, Graves and several other surnames - all from upstate New York in the 1800s.

* Dick said "if you don't do anything long enough, something will show up in your mailbox." He received a letter from a cousin providing articles about his grandfather in Wisconsin. Another letter from a man in Wisconsin contained images from a 1908 Sears Catalog for a 9 room Kit House for $1995, which Dick's grandfather ordered and built.

* Ruth is "up to here in genealogy, and loving it," working 8 to 12 hours a day finding ancestors and adding to her family tree. She learned in the past month that this is a life project, and is hooked. She bought a 40 x 25 family tree chart from ancestry to give to her father for a birthday present. Ruth also found out that her mother's gravestone in Napa has wrong dates on it and wants to fix it.

* Dorothy is back to genealogy after a 10-year hiatus. She searched for death dates and places for her Norgaard grandparents in San Diego, got the dates from the www.vitalsearch-ca.com site, but couldn't get the death certificate at the Chula Vista office of the County Recorder - she will have to go to the San Diego office. Dorothy also visited the Danish house in Balboa Park last Sunday and had a great time.

* Joan is "waiting for an epiphany - her brick walls are still standing firm." She volunteered to help a friend obtain a 1934 death record in New York - the group said she should contact the New York State Archives.

* Randy mentioned that his OASIS class is finished, that he is reviewing RootsMagic 4 on his blog, and that RootsMagic 4 seems to have the easiest-to-make source citations.

* Susi is working on filling in blanks and sources in her database, and is enjoying her Facebook Friends. We found that five of the attendees were on Facebook.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be the second Wednesday of July, the 8th, in the Chula Vista Civic Center Library Conference Room at 12 noon.

1 comment:

Donna Mac said...

As an upstate New Yorker from the Albany area, I wanted to add a suggestion for Joan's search for a death certificate.The NYS Archives has a death index on microform where you can get death certificate number. However, copies are ordered through the Health Dept. at a cost of $22.Here's the link:

http://www.health.state.ny.us/vital_records/genealogy.htm