Saturday, November 18, 2006

CGSSD meeting today

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego is an active group with monthly meetings and software user groups. Their web site is at http://www.cgssd.org/. The major information page at the site is the San Diego genealogy events calendar at http://www.cgssd.org/events.php3. This calendar covers the next two months of speakers, meetings, classes and other events by all San Diego area genealogy societies, and is a wonderful aid for all local genealogists.

Today, I attended the FamilyTreeMaker user group meeting at 9 AM, led by Lance Dohe. Lance demonstrated downloading the FTM 16 (2007) version, which is a free download for those that already have FTM 15 (2006). Then he answered questions about merging duplicate individuals, importing GEDCOM files, splitting a data file, and even threw in details on organizing your files so that the databases aren't in the FTM folder on your computer with all the executable and other files.

An announcement was made that FTM is offering FTM 16 (2007) for $39.95, and it includes copies of GenSmarts and "Our History in Images" software - over 3,000 historical images, including over 1,500 historical maps. That's a pretty good deal, especially if you don't have FTM yet.

After a short break, the business meeting started, elections were held (the slate of officers won), and a member sharing time commenced. A fellow talked about his experiences with The Next Generation (TNG) software, which has just been updated; he likes the software and the results. Gary Hoffman gave the "news of the month" and talked about Roots TV, the free Immigration Records on Ancestry and several other topics. John Kracha provided a 5 minute review of his research trip to Croatia and visiting distant cousins there, which was interesting.

After the meeting, there was a very nice light lunch, with shrimp, deli sandwiches, fruit, cookies and desserts. I enjoyed talking to several of the members.

I was requested to give a talk on Genealogy Blogging for the January 20 meeting. If you have some thoughts on this, please let me know so I can appear to know what I'm talking about.

I came home to my wife and daughter napping, but my granddaughter was awake and demanded attention, so I had two hours of quality time with her. They are all out shopping right now and the house is quiet. I just put dinner in the oven - I can multi-task, you know!

No comments: