Some of the most important volunteer work done at the California Genealogical Society is carried out behind-the-scenes by the members of the Computer Committee: Al Clark, Kathy Watson and Gary Willcuts.
In June of this year the committee conducted a survey of member volunteers to identify problems. Responses were logged and priorities set. The committee created a project work list and assigned one member to oversee each issue.
The committee's first priority is to create consistency among all the computers. The intent is to set up all of the computer desktops in the same way so that a volunteer can sit down at any computer and find things in the same place. Icons have been set up in a specific order.
Subscription and free databases are now easily accessed by clicking the "Links" button on the bottom right side of the toolbar.
"Links" opens the list of all available databases:
Ancestry
Boston Pilot Missing Friends
CGS Catalog
Customize Links
Family Search
Footnote at the California Genealogical Society
LDS DigFamHists
Lib of Congress Cats
Mid-Atlantic States Archives
NEHGS
New England Records
NewspaperARCHIVE.com
Proquest Historical Newspapers
Rootsweb
VitalSearch-CA
VitalSearch-worldwide
WorldVital Records
Other issues that are being addressed by the committee include performance, training, e-mail, back-up, new software, and setting up all computers for data entry and data access.
Recent Posts
14 October 2008
CGS Computer Committee
13 October 2008
Limited Time Offer: Two Free Issues of Everton's Online Edition
Leland K. Meitzler of Everton Publishers sent this announcement:
Everton is offering access to the two Online Edition issues now available at the site: July-August 2008 and September-October 2008 - absolutely FREE until October 17, 2008.
Simply go to: http://www.everton.com/ and download the issues.
Until October 27, 2008 the $12 annual subscription fee to the Online Edition of the Genealogical Helper will be reduced to $10.00, and the $29.00 annual subscription fee for the hard copy edition of the magazine (includes access to the Online Edition) will be reduced to $25.00.
The Genealogical Helper is widely recognized as having no equal in terms of amount of total content, educational and research information, and lists of organizations, events, and repositories.
The complete magazine is online, and all Web sites listed in either the content or advertisements are hot-linked.
This is a great opportunity for CGS members to take a free look at the publication. The offer expires this Friday.
10 October 2008
Fifth Cousins, Once Removed
As a follow up to Citing "Occult Powers" in a New Netherland Genealogy, Shirley Pugh Thomson wrote to let me know that she and John Moore have pinpointed their relationship. They are fifth cousins, once removed. That particular cousin relationship reminded Shirley of an even better story which she consented to share with you all:
Discovering that fellow CGS board member John Moore and I are distant cousins was a pleasant surprise. Such discoveries do turn up now and again in a roomful of genealogists, but a similar surprise came like a bolt from the blue for me in the late 1980s. My husband of more than 30 years (then) and I also learned that we are 5th cousins once removed!
Thomas and Shirley: their engagement and wedding in 1957 and at their anniversary celebration dinner fifty years later.
Neither Tom nor I had been aware of any connection between our families. Since we both grew up in a small farming community where many lines of both our families had settled early, a number of them arriving before Indiana statehood in December 1816, it may have seemed likely. But those people were neighbors, friends and sometimes fellow church members, not family. My surprise came about because I had not guessed that these—to me—separate and distinct families had been intimately intertwined years before they reached the end of their journey in the rolling hills at the edge of the Wabash.
I discovered that my husband's ancestor, James DRAKE and my ancestor, Benjamin HARRIS had married sisters!Sarah and Mary PADDOCK were two of the eleven known children of Ebenezer Paddock and Keziah Case. I found the Paddocks, the Harrises and the Drakes all living and paying taxes in southwestern Ohio before their move to Indiana.
The girls evidently started life in Virginia and spent their youth moving from one rough and untamed claim in the woods to another, migrating westward with their family to Nelson County, Kentucky, then Butler County, Ohio, and finally westward across southern Indiana to Sullivan County on the Wabash River, the new state’s western edge.
So I found a connection, a shared line, but—of course—the Paddock girls’ venerable father left us with shared mysteries. While Ebenezer is a DAR patriot, finding records about him has not been easy. Numerous other descendants have been searching for them and for records of his father and mother for a long time.
I would also like to know about that shared migration pattern. How was it that those three families—and a handful of others—seem to have migrated in coordinated moves? Does it only appear that way at this distance? Were the families connected as father/sons or father/sons-in-law or something else? Was it just word of mouth about the great new place?
For now, my cousin-husband and I continue looking for answers.
Shirley Pugh Thomson
09 October 2008
Announcing the 9th Annual SLC Trip - March 29, 2009
The ninth annual California Genealogical Society Salt Lake City Research Tour is in the planning stages. As in previous years, the trip will run from Sunday to Sunday, commencing on March 29, 2009 through April 5, 2009. CGS President, Jane Lindsey and CGS Research Director, Nancy Peterson return again as volunteer leaders of this very popular trip to the Family History Library.
The Tour Package includes:
* Hotel room (7 nights, double occupancy)
* Shuttle service to and from the airport
* Three group dinners (Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday)
* Orientation meeting and several lectures
* Optional assistance at CGS prior to the trip
* Computer assistance
* Hotel shuttle to library, if needed
* Continental breakfast included
Accommodations will be at the Shilo Inn, located three blocks from the Family History Library. The Shilo provides free high-speed internet access in every room.
The cost is $680 (airfare not included.) A deposit of $200 holds one space. Download the tour flier and registration form for full details.
Photographs courtesy of Jane Lindsey and Cathy H. Paris.
08 October 2008
Wordless Wednesday
Boston, Massachusetts
Linda Darby, Sandy Fryer and Steve Tirrell
September 2008
Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.
