Irish Research Class in San Diego

There will be a class on "How to Start Your Ancestral Research in Ireland" on Wednesday, June 13, 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM at the San Diego Family History Center (4195 Camino del Rio South in Mission Valley) in the FHC Classroom. Mary Russell, the BIGRA Irish Chair will guide attendees through the basic steps of beginning Irish research. Mary is the recognized "expert" on Irish research in San Diego County.

No sign up is necessary. There is no fee for the class. Handouts will be available for 10 cents per page. The new "Irish Resource List" will be available at cost.

I am really disappointed that I don't have any known Irish ancestry. While it is difficult research, I know I would love to go visit Ireland, find Irish cousins, and generally have a good time there (and at Irish pubs in the US too!). I guess some people just have to carry burdens like this...maybe I could adopt someone's Irish ancestors?

I'm thinking of going to the class if I don't have jury duty.

Reports from the SCGS Jamboree

The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank (CA) is in full swing - it started Friday afternoon and goes through Sunday afternoon.

I am not there, unfortunately. I thought we would have my daughter and grandsons visiting this weekend, but they are not. So I will go off to the FHC at 10 AM for more image capturing and then to the SDGS meeting at noon.

1) Steve Danko is at the Jamboree, and he is posting reports from the conference. His first report is at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/09/friday-at-jamboree-2007/. He summarizes the talks:

* "State and Territorial Censuses and Substitutes" by Bill Dollarhide.
* "Reverse Genealogy - Finding Your Lost Loved Ones" by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak.
* "Bring 'em Back to Life - Creating an Ancestor Profile" by Drew Smith.

I especially wanted to hear Megan's talk, since I am involved in something similar with the John Robinson Hall research.

Steve has posted his summaries from the second day at the SCGS Jamboree at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/10/saturday-at-jamboree-2007/. He attended:

* "Effective Society Management" panel discussion with Drew Smith, Jana Broglin, and Cath Trindle.
* "Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins" with Lou Szucs
* "2007 Update on the Use of DNA in Tracing Your Ancestry" with Bennett Greenspan of FamilyTree DNA
* "Hanging Y-Chromosome Data on Your Family Tree" with Diahan Southard of Relative Genetics
* "Genealogy Resources in the California History Room" (in Sacramento) with Catherine Hanson Tracy
* "The California Gold Rush" - with Chuck Knuthson.
* "Footnote Update" with Beau Sharbrough of Footnote.com.

Steve had a busy day!

I have never been to the California Room at the California State Library in Sacramento, but I've been to the Sutro Library (part of the CSL) in San Francisco several times, although not recently. The Sacramento library might be a good place to go sometime.

Steve has written five posts to cover the Sunday presentations he attended.

* The first post is at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/11/sunday-at-jamboree-2007-schelly-talalay-dardashti/ and describes Schelly's lecture on "Creating Hope."

* The second post is at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/12/sunday-at-jamboree-2007-drew-smith/ and describes Drew Smith's presentation on
"What's My Next Step? - The Organized Genealogist."

* The third post is at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/13/sunday-at-jamboree-2007-leland-meitzler/ and describes Leland Meitzler's presentation on "Finding the Women in Your Pedigree." There is a list of 23 sources, which Steve lists in his post. Go read it!

* The fourth post is at http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/15/sunday-at-jamboree-2007-suzanne-russo-adams/ and describes Suzanne Russo Adams presentation on "Getting the Most from Ancestry.com." This is a fine summary!
* The fifth post is iat http://stephendanko.com/blog/2007/06/16/sunday-at-jamboree-2007-publishing-your-family-history/ and describes the panel discussion on "Publishing Your Family History" with Tom Underhill, Loretto Dennis Szucs and Jim McNamara. There are many good questions and interesting answers here!

2) Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has blogged about her time at SCGS Jamboree at http://www.rootstelevision.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/419.

3) Susan A. Kitchens described her experiences at the Jamboree at http://familyoralhistory.us/news/view/thoughts_from_the_jamboree_of_last_weekend/.
Susan worked in the vendor area and has some interesting comments.

4) Leland Meitzler posted about his fun at the Jamboree at http://genealogyblog.com/seminars-genealogy-education/the-scgs-jamboree-a-huge-success-5996. He was gone so long from blogging that I was concerned that something had happened to him.

Drew Smith podcasted about his experiences at the Jamboree - you can listen to his GenealogyGuys podcast at http://www.genealogyguys.com/index.php?post_id=225386. I listened to most of this the other night and it was great.

Thank you to all of you - good material and interesting discussion. Any others? Let me know!

UPDATED 16 June 8:30 PM.

New Content on GenealogyBank

I got a press release from Tom Kemp of www.GenealogyBank.com. He sent this list of new content in May 2007: 43 newspaper titles from 25 States:

State ----- City -------- Title ---------- Dates ------------------ Collection

** AZ -- Flagstaff -- Arizona Daily Sun - 5/1/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** CA -- San Francisco -- San Francisco Bulletin -- 3/2/1860 to 4/30/1868 -- Historical Newspapers
** CT -- Watertown -- Town Times -- 8/31/2006 to current -- America's Obituaries
** DC -- Washington -- Washington Jewish Week -- 6/21/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** FL -- Boca Raton -- Boca Raton News -- 3/2/2006 to current -- America's Obituaries
** FL -- Clermont -- South Lake Press -- 7/13/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** FL -- Leesburg -- Daily Commercial -- 12/1/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** FL -- Miami -- Miami Herald Record -- 3/7/1919 to 6/4/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** FL -- Sebring -- News Sun -- 4/14/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** GA -- Columbus -- Columbus Daily Enquirer -- 7/9/1913 to 10/14/1913 -- Historical Newspapers
** GA -- Columbus -- Columbus Ledger-Enquirer -- 3/15/1916 to 12/08/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** GA -- Macon -- Macon Telegraph -- 1/1/1905 to 4/30/1905 -- Historical Newspapers
** ID -- Boise -- Idaho Statesman -- 5/1/1906 to 12/31/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** IL -- Belleville -- Belleville News Democrat -- 12/11/1918 to 8/17/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** IL -- Chicago -- Inter Ocean -- 1/4/1886 to 12/31/1890 -- Historical Newspapers
** KY -- Lexington -- Lexington Herald -- 5/1/1921 to 5/31/1921 --Historical Newspapers
** MD -- Baltimore -- Sun -- 12/5/1892 to 10/22/1900-- Historical Newspapers
** MD -- Easton -- Star Democrat-- 11/13/2005 to current -- America's Obituaries
** MI -- Big Rapids -- Pioneer -- 4/2/2007 to current -- America's Obituaries
** MI -- Manistee -- Manistee News Advocate -- 3/1/2007 to current -- America's Obituaries
** MN -- Duluth -- Duluth News-Tribune -- 5/1/1905 to 8/31/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** MO -- Belton -- Star Herald -- 12/14/2006 to current --America's Obituaries
** MO -- Hannibal -- Hannibal Courier Post -- 12/9/1997 to current -- America's Obituaries
** MO -- Kansas City -- Kansas City Star -- 10/25/1909 to 6/30/1921 -- Historical Newspapers
** MS -- Biloxi -- Daily Herald -- 7/1/1907 to 6/30/1916 -- Historical Newspapers
** NC -- Roxboro -- Courier Times -- 11/22/2006 to current -- America's Obituaries
** ND -- Grand Forks -- Grand Forks Herald -- 9/12/1920 to 11/20/1920 -- Historical Newspapers
** NE -- Omaha -- Omaha World Herald -- 5/1/1893 to 3/31/1900 -- Historical Newspapers
** OR -- Astoria -- Daily Astorian -- 5/28/2002 to current -- America's Obituaries
** OR -- Enterprise -- Wallowa County Chiefton -- 6/13/2002 to current -- America's Obituaries
** OR -- John Day -- Blue Mountain Eagle -- 8/1/2002 to current -- America's Obituaries
** OR -- Pendleton -- East Oregonian -- 7/11/2002 to current -- America's Obituaries
** PA -- Wilkes-Barre -- Wilkes-Barre Times -- 1/17/1913 to 8/31/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** RI -- Charlestown -- Charlestown Press -- 8/3/2006 to current -- America's Obituaries
** RI -- Hopkinton -- Wood River Press -- 8/3/2006 to current -- America's Obituaries
** SD -- Aberdeen -- Aberdeen American -- 3/27/1915 to 7/16/1915 -- Historical Newspapers
** SD -- Aberdeen -- Aberdeen Daily News -- 2/22/1917 to 7/21/1917 --Historical Newspapers
** TX -- Fort Worth -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram -- 4/1916 to 10/25/1916 -- Historical Newspapers
** WA -- Bellingham -- Bellingham Herald -- /1918 to 2/28/1922 - Historical Newspapers
** WA -- Long Beach -- Chinook Observer -- 8/15/2002 to current -- America's Obituaries
** WA -- Olympia -- Morning Olympian -- 3/11/1914 to 12/31/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** WA -- Olympia -- Olympia Record -- 12/9/1905 to 12/31/1922 -- Historical Newspapers
** WV -- Berkeley Springs -- Morgan Messenger -- 11/19/2003 to current -- America's Obituaries

Summary Totals - 190,110,154 records

• Historical Newspapers (1690-1977) Over 1,300 titles; 86 Million articles - updated monthly
• America's Obituaries (1977-Current) 24.3 Million Obituaries; 883 newspapers - updated daily
• Historical Books (1801-1900) More than 11,700 items - updated monthly
• Historical Documents (1789 - 1980) Over 116,000 items; Now digitizing October 1914 - updated monthly
• SSDI (1937 to Current) 79.6 Million death records. Only site to be updated weekly

Remember, you may search the site for FREE and see a brief record. You do need to subscribe to see the entire page or item.

================================

Randy's comments: Unfortunately, a blog format doesn't lend itself to a table like the above. I did my best to separate the items so that they are readable.

GenealogyBank continues to add content monthly, and may have just the historical book, newspaper or document that you need. I love the idea of searching the site for free and seeing a brief record. You can then judge if a subscription is right for you.

San Diego Gen Society meeting on Saturday

The monthly meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is on Saturday, June 9, at 12 noon. The meeting will be at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church 8350 Lake Murray Blvd (at Jackson Drive) in San Diego.

The speaker will be Anne J. Miller. Her topics will be "Overcoming Obstacles to Finding Your Ancestors" and "Less Commonly Used Resources."

The program description is:

"Our problem-solving styles and our assumptions, thoughts, and beliefs often make it difficult for us to find our ancestors. While these factors can have a negative impact on our research, recognizing them and learning how to overcome them will result in solving more of those brick wall situations and being more successful in our research.

"Solutions to brick wall situations are often found by using one or more of the less commonly used resources in genealogy. Learning what these resources are, where they are found, and what types of information might be found in them, along with real-life examples, will help us to find more of our ancestors.

"Anne J. Miller began her genealogical quest 19 years ago. She is particularly interested in combining historical resources with genealogical resources to provide a more comprehensive understanding of people and their lives. The focus of her historical research is primarily Southern California.

"She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists as well as national and local genealogical and historical societies. She teaches for the Temecula Valley Genealogical Society and volunteers at the Murrieta FHC. She is a licensed psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona."

SDGS programs have two program segments, separated by a snack time, program announcements, and an opportunity drawing. Peter Steelquist does a great job of leading SDGS and editing their newsletter.

I'm looking forward to hearing Anne's talk. I encourage all San Diego genealogy researchers to attend SDGS meetings and join the society.

Microfilm Scanning at the FHC

My post on "Heard at the FHC Today" elicited several comments inquiring about putting microfilm images on a thumb drive. I posted about this last year when I struggled to figure it out, but I will describe the process below because it has been improved.

At the San Diego FHC in Mission Valley, the microfilm reader/printers failed last summer from use and abuse. Rather than repair them again, or replace them, the FHC invested in two microfilm/microfiche reader/scanners hooked up to Windows computers. I haven't been to other FHCs or the FHL recently, but my guess is that many centers have a similar setup.

The process for capturing an image from a microfilm and putting it in your computer is (assuming the machines are turned on):

1) Load the microfilm or microfiche into the microfilm reader/scanner machine and advance the film to the image(s) you want to capture. You may have to select 16 mm or 35 mm on a dial on the takeup reel.

2) Adjust the image to fit the page margins. There is a rotational dial, a magnification dial and a focus dial on the machine below the lens. If you can't get the right sized image, you may have to exchange the lens (my FHC has two of them).

3) The computer has a program called Image Wizard + (see details at www.mscimaging.com) for the microfilm/fiche image capturing. Bring that program up. Click on the "Scan from Microfiche/film" tab. Note the "Scan" button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

4) With your image on the microfilm reader/scanner screen, press the "Scan" button on the computer. The microfilm reader/scanner will activate and your image will appear on a portion of the computer screen. A thumbnail image will also appear on the left margin of the computer screen.

5) The image may need to be adjusted. After the image loads, you can modify the "Brightness" and "Contrast" using slide scales. Play with this until you are satisfied with the image quality - the image on the screen will change as you play with the slide scales. When you have an acceptable image quality, then press the "Apply Changes" button next to the scales. The modified image will be saved. If you don't move the scales, you don't have to apply any changes. There is a "Settings" button in the lower left hand corner if you need to change the scanning parameters.

6) Advance to the next image on the microfilm or microfiche that you want to capture, and repeat the process. The captured images appear in the left-hand panel on the computer screen.

7) When you have captured all of the microfilm images into the computer program, click on the "Finished Scanning" button in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

8) Click on the "Save" button on the computer program screen. You will get a series of questions to answer about file format (I use .TIF files), file names (I just put in a short source title and let it number each image), the folder where you want to save the images (the computer at my FHC won't let me save them directly to the flash drive, so I save them to the computer hard drive to a folder in My Pictures).

9) Minimize (don't close it!) the scanning computer program. Open the computer hard drive folder with the images and check that all of the images you want are there. Leave that hard drive file folder open on the screen.

10) Install your flash drive into the USB port and click on the "My Computer" icon on the Windows screen. When the list of drives comes up, your flash drive letter should be shown. Click on it and select a folder where you want to put your captured images. Leave that flash drive file folder open on the screen.

11) Now copy the captured images from the hard drive folder to the flash drive folder. Click on the hard drive folder, go to the [Edit] menu and click on "Select All." All of the captured images should be highlighted. Go to the [Edit] menu and select "Copy" (or press Ctrl-C to do the same thing). Then click on the flash drive folder, and go to the [Edit] menu and select "Paste" (or press Ctrl-V to do the same thing). The files should copy to the flash drive one at a time. Click on one or more of them to make sure that they show what you want.

12) After the image files have been put on the flash drive, you can disconnect the flash drive from the USB port (use the icon to "Safely Remove Hardware'). Put the flash drive where it belongs so you don't leave it there.

13) Click on the hard drive folder on the screen, and delete all of the files you saved there. The captured image files should still be highlighted. If they aren't, highlight them again. Then click on the big X to send the files to the Recycle Bin. They should disappear from the hard drive folder. Close the hard drive folder.

14) Back on the computer, bring up the Scanning Program screen again (the one you minimized). It should still show all of the captured images on the left hand margin - they are still saved in the program. You need to delete them so that the next user can use the program. Click on the "Delete" button on the program screen. You will get a list of the thumbnail file images - click on each one and they should appear on the list of images to be deleted (I couldn't find a way to delete them all with some sort of shortcut).

15) Leave the Scanning computer program up on the computer screen, or close it.

16) Rewind the microfilm on the Scanning machine, and put it back in the box and put it where it belongs.

17) Take the flash drive home, and install it on your computer. Copy the captured image files to a file folder on your computer hard drive. Rename them as you wish. Print them as you wish. Email them to your friends. Save them to your backup computer system.

That's it! Only 17 steps - I wrote them out in some detail for clarity (BG). Frankly, it is a difficult process to do the first couple of times, but it gets easier as you do it more frequently. If you are confused, go to the FHC staff and ask for help.

You could also transfer these images to a CDROM using a similar process for Steps 10 through 12.

My FHC requests $1 for each hour of use on the microfilm scanner/computer system. I captured 53 images yesterday in about 40 minutes using the above process. It cost me $1. I will print them out on my home computer and printer.

There are some pitfalls. Some of the image files may be large. I have captured 12 mb files of some dark images with lots of handwriting. You need to know how large the image files are - you find out when they show up in the computer hard drive file folder. If they are too large for the size of your flash drive, then copy only enough to stay within the capabilities of the flash drive.

Be sure that you have emptied your flash drive before you try to copy the captured images to the flash drive (you can do that on the FHC computer, of course, if necessary).

It amazes me that, every time I go to the FHC, so few researchers are using the microfilms and microfiche resources - and even fewer are using the scanner/computer systems. This is now the only way to capture these images - although you could take a digital picture of them from the microfilm reader, or abstract or transcribe them from the microfilm reader.

If hard copy printers are unavailable at your FHC, then researchers will have to use this method to obtain document images until the LDS program to digitize and index the available microfilm and microfiche resources is completed.

UPDATE 6/9, 4:30 PM: I added the name of the scanning program and modified some of the descriptions in the 17 steps after working with it today.

More on Society Membership

Jasia has an informative post discussing the issue of Declining Genealogy Society Membership at her Creative Gene blog.

As longtime readers of Jasia's blog know, she had a long series on this topic last August. Her present post provides links to all of them. They make excellent reading, and are as pertinent now as they were then.

I posted earlier this week about George G. Morgan's recent article on this topic, and noted what CVGS has tried to do over the past several years. The July 2007 issue of Family Tree Magazine quoted Jasia, myself and others about this issue also. I posted about that experience here.

The challenge for all genealogy societies - from the big national societies down to the small local groups - is to attract and keep members, and to serve their interests through conferences, publications, programs, seminars, databases, classes, forums, web sites, blogs, etc. The society formula from 10 years ago is outdated - there is nothing more constant than change.

We had our CVGS board meeting on Wednesday, and at the end we asked ourselves "Are we on the right track?" Some members noted that we are doing so much more than we did just two years ago. Others said that the genealogy world is spinning much faster - new resources appear, old resources change, and it is a mental challenge to keep up with it. There is a sense of challenge, enthusiasm and accomplishment as we work together to serve our members and attract new ones.

Our society is small enough (80 members) that we get immediate feedback on new classes and programs. We have found that we can try out ideas without much financial risk. If something bombs, it doesn't cost us much and is easily forgotten. If something works well, we can build on it. Being small, we have developed camaraderie and friendship amongst the members - we know each other, and share research problems, knowledge, stories, and lunch regularly. We are developing our own in-society teachers, speakers and mentors - 5 of our monthly programs this year will be done by our members. Doing these things with friends and colleagues leads to confidence when success is achieved.

Heard at the FHC today

I went to the local Family History Center today and transferred more microfilm images of the Bresee family data to my flash drive for uploading to my computer hard drive.

I also "tested" the patron computers at the FHC to see if they had added the content from the "partners" yet. I found that they had not, with the exception of Heritage Quest Online, which worked just fine. They have created a "Links to Premium Services" on the Favorites list, with links to the web sites.

So I asked one of the volunteers what the status was of the access to the "partner" sites.

He said that the San Diego FHC would be able to access the premium sites. He thought they were a week away from having access to the contents on Footnote, World Vital Records, Godfrey Memorial Library, and Kindred Konnections. He counseled patience!

He also said that when the additional data on FamilySearch Inc. becomes available that it would be offered to only LDS members initially. The stated reason was to assess bandwidth required before non-members can use it. He said that there were many records (the word "billion" was mentioned) that were in the LDS system but not online yet anywhere. It sounds to me like they will use the LDS members as "beta-testers" of the new system.

All of the above is hearsay, of course, but it sounded probable to me. If anyone has better information, please let me know! I'll be going down next week again - I still have more Bresee images to capture and will check for access to the "partner" premium sites.

My Census Whacking Index

One of the problems with a blog format is that posts "age off" or disappear from the active blog page. They are still in the blog Archives, and can be found by using the Blog Search feature or the post labels. Unfortunately, I am using the "old Blogger" for this blog and have not been able to label every post, nor put the labels on my blog page (yet!).

I am going to start collecting my "theme" posts in summary posts so that I can find them easily, and put a unique label on those posts. Hopefully, you will enjoy these "blasts from the past" as well.

This is the first of my "theme" posts - it concerns the Census Whacks I've put together. Census Whacks are, in my terms, funny or strange names found in the census records. This was one of the things I started out with on this blog, thinking that the possibilities are endless.

Here are my Census Whacking posts to date:

What Were Their Parents Thinking?

Census Whacking #1

More Census Whacking - PG Rating

More Census Whacking - Strange or Funny Names

Census Whacking - Famous Names

More Census Whacking - Strange but True Names

"Different" Occupations in the 1880 Census

More Christmas "Characters"

Valentine Censuswhacking

Funny Names in the Census - St. Patrick's Day Edition

If Mary April Married Claude Fool...She Would be Mary April Fool!

Berry People in the Census

In addition, there are several posts with links to strange or funny names (real or fictional), including:

Who Is Edith Tintwhistle of Great Cockup?

More Curious, Strange and Humorous Names

What were their parents thinking?

Hallowe'en Names

More Odd Names in History

That took over an hour to put together...another waste of time? Oh well, it was FUN.

Have you noticed?

You may have noticed that I've struggled to post several things a day here for the last week. There was a good reason - go to http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2007/06/lolo-and-baba-and-gamma.html and read about my long weekend (actually Friday through Tuesday).

I got very little useful genealogy work done and had to scramble this morning to get meeting planning and program flyer copying done in time for the CVGS Board meeting today.

I'm still "exhilarhausted" from the time with Lolo. That's a neologism for grandparents meaning "exhilarated and exhausted." I guess it could be "exhaushilarated" too.

Have Genealogists Been Characters in Movies?

I got to wondering if any movie or TV characters have played genealogists or family historians in popular movies. It turns out that there have been a few:

1) James Bond (played by George Lazenby) in On Her Majesties Secret Service (1969) played a stuffy genealogist who was soon overwhelmed by the ladies in Blofeld's Swiss chalet.

2) Strega in Amore (Italian, DVD in 2005) - In this romantic horror movie, a family hires a genealogist to help them assemble the late patriarch's papers. While there, he falls in love with the daughter who is not nearly as angelic as she looks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

That's all I could find in a simple Google search. I saw the Bond flick many years ago and somehow missed his vocation amidst the Blofeld girls. The Italian movie may be in English as A Witch in Love.

There are many movies and TV shows that cover families in history - see http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=11109 for a short list submitted by researchers.

Any others you know about? Tell us - I'll add them to the list.