CGSSD Meeting on Saturday - "Ancestry.com 101"

Via email from CGSSD's Linda Hervig:

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 9:00 am to noon.

9:00 - User groups for Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic; and Special Interest Group “DNA Genealogy”

10:00 - A break and refreshments

10:15 - Announcements followed by Program "Ancestry.com 101" by Randy Seaver

Randy will enlighten his audience of the nooks and crannies of this thing called “Ancestry.” While most members use this subscription service, Randy will demonstrate features rarely seen before.

Randy is a native San Diegan, a graduate of San Diego State University, a retired aerospace engineer, a genealogist and a family guy. He has been active in the CGSSD for several years and is a past-president of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. His ancestry is about 50% colonial New England (including Mayflower passengers, Massachusetts Bay Governors, and several of royal descent), with liberal portions of English, German and Dutch lines. Randy runs several blogs about his families and the southern California area. He is a contributing member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pine Road turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any A, B, or S space. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website http://www.cgssd.org/; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.

Hmmm, I really set some high expectations with the talk description, didn't I? Never fear, I even have pictures! Of the nooks and crannies, I mean. Heh heh. And lots of screen shots looking into every link I could find on the web site. Then I deleted about half of them because the talk can be only 75 minutes long!

One of the problems with a talk like this is that new things happen all the time. What was new and interesting last month is now old news and something else is the latest and greatest. So I've been putting the program together last week and this week in hopes that nothing really major is announced at NGS this week (although I can add it quickly to the presentation if it does - isn't PowerPoint great?).

Another problem is that many people are just as experienced, or even more experienced, than I am on Ancestry.com. I expect to hear questions like "What about the flaw in this particular database?" and "How can you tout a for-profit web site?" and "Why should I subscribe?"

Did my commentary here raise or lower expectations? Heh heh. If you're in the San Diego area, come and listen! And if you're a Genea-Musings reader, please let me know after the program.