SIR’s Genealogy Group Meeting
October 6, 2009
115th Meeting
1. Roll Call.
2. The Next regular Meeting for this Group is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. So, everyone please mark their calendar.
3. Is there any other Old Business or New Business that we should take care of before moving on?.
4. The meeting of San Mateo County Genealogical Society that was held on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, was a great meeting. The speaker was Cath Madden Trindle, and the title of her talk was “Born Irish”. In this talk, Cath focused first on one’s Irish born ancestors and suggested post immigration sources that might provide the information. Following that was a discussion of using Civil Registration and Church records as a source of vital information. Ideas on using other available records, including census and the two main census substitutes, to locate nineteenth century Irish ancestors rounded out the session. Online resources were highlighted throughout the presentation.
5. There will be no General Meeting held this month for the San Mateo County Genealogical Society, because it would be too close to the Fall Seminar that will be held on October 24, 2009 by the Society.
6. The next meeting of the San Mateo County Genealogical Society will be on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 10:30 A.M. in the Main Conference Room of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The speaker will be Ron Arons, and the title of his talk will be “Mapping Madness”. In this talk, Ron will be discussing websites that provide historical maps and several online mapping tools. Ron demonstrates how both Microsoft Maps and Google Maps operate. The presentation also covers Microsoft’s Map Cruncher Tool, which mashes two similar maps together. Ron will also briefly cover IBM’s Many Eyes, Muckety.com, and Whitepages.com. Come early at 10:00 A.M. to visit and enjoy delicious refreshments before the meeting. This should be an extremely interesting meeting. This will be the last meeting of the Society for this year, and the next meeting of the Society will be on January 16, 2010.
7. To bring you up to date on the San Mateo County Genealogical Society contractual agreement with La Cañada College to have their library housed in the library at La Cañada, the Grant Agreement for this move is now signed by both parties. There seams to be no more problems with the move now, and things are beginning to progress. Maybe Bob Shoemaker knows more about this.
8. This is the final announcement to inform you that the San Mateo County Genealogical Society’s Fall Seminar will occur on October 24, 2009 at the 1st Presbyterian Church, 25th & Hacienda Avenues, in San Mateo. That is this month, so mark your calendar so you will be sure to remember it. The speaker will be Karen Clifford, who is an accredited Genealogist Professional in Midwestern and Southern States Genealogy, and President/CEO of Genealogy research Associates, Inc. She has been a college curriculum developer and instructor in Genealogy and Computer courses at Monterey Peninsula College. Karen has authored 7 college textbooks on genealogy and published numerous family histories. She is the former President of the Utah Genealogical Association. The seminar will feature four lectures which will be given between 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. There will be a 1-hour break for lunch at 12.00 noon. Registration for members is $25.00 and $28.00 for nonmembers. Lunch is $8.00. I have some copies of the Registration Forms for your use in signing up, in case you didn’t get at the last meeting.
9. I had reported last couple of months that the Family History Center in Menlo Park now has a website which can be reached on one’s computer by entering the internet address www.mpfhc.org. I thought it would be worth while to everyone if I noted it once again, just in case someone hadn’t heard about it. The site is not very detailed yet, because it is only a few months old. But it appears that it could be a great source of genealogical information in the future. The important information gives the days and the hours in which the Center is open, which has changed throughout the years. They have links to Lecture Series that they will be presenting giving detailed information of what will be covered. A very important link is to a description of how one should get started in his or her Family History, which is a very useful document. If you are planning to visit the Family History Center, it would be advisable to check the internet connection first to see that they will be opened on the day that you are planning to go.
10. There is an important upcoming Open House which will be cosponsored by the San Mateo County Geological Society and the Menlo Park Family History Center on Saturday, February 27, 2010. The Open House Lectures are free to the public, and they have drawn more than 250 attendees in the past years. So, they are very popular. There will be two Keynote Speakers and thirty-five half-hour lectures on a wide variety of genealogy topics. Suzanne Russo Adams of Ancestry.com has agreed to come to the Bay Area from Provo, Utah, and give a talk as one of the speakers. She was recently a featured speaker at the Southern California Genealogy Society Annual Jamboree. Her talk title was “What’s New at Ancestry.com”. I will report more information on this Open House when it becomes available. It sounds like a very interesting event and surely a must see opportunity for anyone.
11. Gordon Lavering handed me a very interesting article on DNA, which I have not discussed for a while. This article has put some doubt on how DNA is transferred to the children of one’s parents.
12. For all those who are interested, this is the latest information on the hours of the Sutro Library at 480 Winston Drive in San Francisco. They are open Monday through Friday from 10:00 A.M. to 5 P.M. Until June 2010, the library will be closed on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Fridays of each month. So if you are planning to visit the Library, adjust your schedule accordingly. It has been asked by several of our members, what services are available at the Sutro Library. The following is a list of most of the important services:
a. Research assistance and instruction in the use of the library’s resources.
b. Limited photocopies of up to 20 pages. Sent via fax and mail with no charge.
c. Reference service by phone or email
d. Interlibrary loan services (printed materials, copying, fiche, and film)
e. Group visits and orientation sessions (Advanced reservations is required).
f. Internet access to California State Library’s online resources, Ancestory.com, and Heritage Quest online.
g. Presentations at conferences and community groups on Sutro Library resources.
h. They accept donations of family and local histories from all states and countries, travel literature, exploration, etc. (Tax deductible as allowed by law).
13. I have received an important E-Mail message about the possible fraud in the upcoming 2010 Census which I feel everyone should be aware of. I shall read it to you.
14. Speaking about what one should include in one’s biography when putting together his or her genealogy, this is an interesting article that was printed a newspaper article some time ago. It is titled “Off the Clock”, and was written by Rebecca Dudley Editor/Publisher of the News-Tribune.
15. Comparing to your education, what do you think was the education of a typical 8th grader in 1895? See if you would pass the following-No Open Book!:
16. In closing, I thought it would be interesting if I read the following article entitled “The Cowboy and his Herd”.
17. One more interesting story that I couldn’t resist, entitled ”Women Drivers”.
18. This December will be the election of new Officers for this group for the year 2010. So start thinking about who you want running things for that year.
19. Is there any questions or more information that one wishes to bring before us?
20. I have placed all of my meeting discussions onto the SIR’s Website in case you would like to refer to some of them. They are found in the Genealogy Group on the Website. Scroll down until you see the title “Monthly Genealogy Meetings”. Under this title you will see the dates of our past meetings. Click on any one of these dates and you will see the discussions that we talked about at each of these meetings. I have changed the format at this point a little, and have placed all the Monthly Genealogy Meetings for 2008 into a single folder titled “2008 Genealogy Meetings”. The monthly meetings for 2009 will be shown individually until the end of the year, and they also will be placed in a 2009 folder. This will save a great deal of space and make it much easier to look up the meetings.