Wordless Wednesday - Then and Now

California Genealogical Society President Jane Lindsey is "big sister" to five younger brothers. It's where she got her training to be CGS "Mother Hen."

Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.

Tuesday Tales From the Road - Indiana

CGS member Mary Mettler is still on the road. This is her second installment:

The trip is going great! I'm in Fremont, Indiana tonight and will get my first rain and maybe big hail, according to the forecast. My car won't like "big hail" or even "little hail" for that matter. I'll be staying with my sisters in Akron and seeing my niece and grandniece and having lunch with some high school friends over the 4th of July weekend.

Cynthia, I forgot the name of your little hometown in Iowa, so I waved at all the towns! I didn't see a lot of flood damage - just low parts of fields and runoff channels down the hills of corn.

Yesterday, I drove 20 miles along the Mississippi from Rock Island, Illinois to Cordova, Illinois where my 2nd great grandparents are buried. It was a gorgeous cemetery with trees and was very well maintained. Quite a number of the graves had flowers on them. To my complete surprise, there was a potted plant beside my ancestors. I asked the maintenance man about it, and he said he found the pot very close to them and put it right beside them only 15 minutes before I arrived - pretty spooky!

This morning I ran across the Mississippi from Rock Island, IL to Davenport, Iowa and back. Can't say as I have ever run in two states in the same run! I crossed next to an island with an arsenal, where Confederate soldiers had been held during the Civil War and Germans and Italians in WWII. Yesterday, I'd been searching in the 1860's newspapers, and every day they listed the names of the Confederate soldiers who died there the day before. Quite often it was pneumonia, since blankets were a rare commodity. Then, there was a horrific small pox epidemic. We hear about Andersonville and the poor treatment of our Northern soldiers, but the winners write the history books. Thus, there is nothing about Rock Island and the poor confederates!

Please don't forget me! I'm homesick already!

From Your Roving Reporter,
Mary

Read the entire series:
Part One: Salt Lake City
Part Two: Indiana
Part Three: Pennsylvania
Part Four: More From Pennsylvania
Part Five: Washington D.C.
Part Six: Suffield, Connecticut
Part Seven: Vermont
Part Eight: Dorset, Vermont
Part Nine: West Point and Back to Pennsylvania
Part Ten: Some Final Thoughts From Home

Workshop: Hints on Publishing Your Family History

Saturday, August 9, 2008
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

There are still a few spaces left in this Saturday's workshop - "Hints on Publishing Your Family History" at the CGS Library.

At some point, it is time to put a stop to the research (at least temporarily) and create something tangible that can be passed down to the next generation.

Shirley Pugh Thomson, Matt Berry and Jane Knowles Lindsey are ready to share their experience and help you explore the options available, including newer non-traditional, online methods, such as blogs. The CGS Library collection has scores of examples of traditionally published histories for you to peruse. Our panelists will choose a few so workshop attendees can see some prime examples.

Shirley Thompson, retired owner of Indices Publishing, will present two talks, "Skills Needed to Publish Your History" and "Mistakes to Avoid." Matt Berry will discuss his experience self-publishing using Lulu.com.

The workshop day will include a lunch break so bring a brown bag. There is a nearby deli if you prefer buy a sandwich and bring it back to the library.

The workshop is free for CGS members but is limited to fifteen people. There will be a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This fee can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop.) There is a sign-up sheet at the CGS Library desk. Please call CGS at 510-663-1358 to reserve a space.

Photograph courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.

Update on San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing

If you are interested in participating in the San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing Project and you haven't signed up yet, you better get started because things are moving faster than anyone anticipated!

Rose Pierson of FamilySearch Indexing sent some updated statistics.

The project now has 3,975 batches (39,750 images). Each batch is indexed twice - "A" and "B" - an arbitrator will look again at a batch if the two indexers don't agree.

As of yesterday,

3,362 "A" batches complete - 84.58%
3,157 "B" batches complete - 79.42%
2042 Arbitrations complete - 51.37%

Rose thinks that at this rate, this portion of the project should be fully indexed sometime in August.

Next to be processed are the images from twenty-nine rolls of microfilmed mortuary registers. Included in these rolls are the records dating from the mid-1800s. These are a bit more complicated to set up for the indexing project since some of them are accounting records.

The bottom line is, if you want to participate, don't delay.

Arbitrators Needed: A Request from FamilySearch Indexing

We need your help! The number of batches being arbitrated is out of balance compared with the number of batches being indexed. Please spend as much time as possible doing arbitration, especially for the Washington State Deaths and Louisiana 1850-1954 Death Certificates projects. If the gap between the number of batches indexed and the number of batches arbitrated grows too large, indexing batches will not be assigned (even though they are available) until the arbitration numbers come back into balance. If you notice that a project is on the Download From… list, but the system states that there are no batches available to index, please download and submit arbitration batches as soon as possible for the same project. Arbitration is a vital step in ensuring a constant flow of data through the indexing pipeline. We sincerely appreciate your efforts.

American Military Research Seminar - August 9, 2008

The Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society, in association with the Livermore Family History Center, is hosting Help! My great-great-great grandfather is missing! - a free American Military Research Seminar and Workshop, Saturday, August 9, 2008, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, California.

The schedule for the day includes three presentations during the morning session, a noon break for lunch and Genealogy Jeopardy and an afternoon workshop of online interactive case studies.

L-AGS member and genealogy instructor, Susan Goss Johnston, will present a two-part lecture entitled "American Military Research Online: What’s There and What’s Not!" Johnston will create a timeline of American military history and show all the record types that were created. She will cover what is available online and what isn’t, using both non-subscription and subscription sites.



Trevor Hammond, Marketing Manager at Footnote.com will conclude the morning session with "An Introduction to Footnote.com"


To reinforce the information learned in the morning lectures, the afternoon session will be an interactive workshop " Going Beyond the Obvious: Problem-solving with Online Military Records."



Four online military research case studies will be presented. Attendees with wireless laptops will be able to follow along using the Internet. Footnote.com has given us access for all researchers who bring their laptops. The session will be displayed for those without laptops. The Livermore Family History Center, working through Salt Lake, is making wireless internet available for attendees.
Susan Goss Johnston is a graduate of Yale University with a degree in physics. She began working in medical research while studying voice at the Peabody Conservatory, then became interested in genealogy research. Johnston is also a graduate of the National Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research course, “Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis,” and the National Archives’ course, “Going to the Source.” She developed a workshop on source citations for her own advanced genealogy course while in Baltimore, a workshop subsequently presented to several Maryland genealogy societies. She teaches beginning through advanced genealogy classes at Las Positas College in Livermore, and is a co-teacher of the Tri-Valley TMG Users Group.

Trevor Hammond has been a marketing manager for Footnote.com for two years. Prior to joining Footnote.com, he worked four years for Ancestry.com in customer intelligence and customer support. A native of Utah, he has a B.A. from Utah Valley University in Business.

Attendees will be eligible for a $10.00 discount from the Footnote.com membership for first time subscribers. Although the seminar is free, everyone is encouraged to pre-register.Please register early, space is limited. (Registration at the door will be accepted on a space available basis starting at 8:30 a.m.)
The registration deadline is August 7, 2008. Download the seminar flier or go to the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society Web site for further information and for online registration.