FAMILYSEARCH AND FULL-TEXT SEARCH UPDATES

Our November 6th meeting at 7:00 pm in the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse will feature member, Tom Sharkey, speaking on FamilySearch and Full-Text Search Updates.  It will be worth your while!

IMMIGRATION RECORDS IN GENEALOGY

         On October 2nd, the Genealogy SIG had our monthly meeting.  Sue Mueller from APCUG presented on Immigration Records in Genealogy.  Her handout was emailed out to all members of the Genealogy SIG.  Members who did not receive a copy can email Susan Dobbs at sdobbs2000@gmail.com to receive a copy.

                    To view the Zoom presentation, click on this link:   https://youtu.be/y0fepFpFI24.  

FAMILYSEARCH AND THE NEW AI FULL-SEARCH TEXT

 At our May 1st Meeting, Mr. Lynn Baker from Seabrook Island presented on Family Search and their new AI Tool Full-Search Text.  We also had a very successful Swap Meet.  Our next regular meeting will be in September.

To watch this interesting presentation click on this link:  FamilySearch Full-Search Text

To access the handout, click on this link:  notes

MILITARY RECORDS AND FOLD3

 Our April 3rd meeting featured members Tom Sharkey and John Meeker presenting information on Military Records and Fold3.  John shared a handout and story of his good friend from high school who fought in the Vietnam War.  He demonstrated the types of records found on Fold3.

Tom provided numerous examples of personal family members records who had served in the military starting with the Revolutionary War.  

Click here to see Power Point

Our May 1st meeting will feature Mr. Lynn Baker from Seabrook Island speaking on Family Search and the New AI Tool.

ORGANIZING COUSIN MATCHES

 Our March 6th meeting at 7 pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse featured Jan Alpert.  She spoke on "Organizing Your Cousin Matches to Break Down Brick Walls".  

Click on this link to watch taping of class:  Click here for video

Our April 3rd meeting will feature two of our SIG members, Tom Sharkey and John Meeker speaking on Military Records and Fold3.

FINDING FEMALE ANCESTORS

 Our February Genealogy SIG meeting will be on Thursday, the 6th from 7 - 8 pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Sue Mueller, from the Erie Pennsylvania Library will present to us on "Finding Female Ancestors"

Help Sessions will be on Wednesdays, February 12th and 16th from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Computer Club.

RESEARCHING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

No video was taken of presentation on "Researching in the United Kingdom" by Susan Dobbs in December 2024.

Handouts for the class can be access below:

SCOTTISH RECORDS

·     Scotlands Peoples - Official government site –

o  https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

·     Outbound passenger lists from Scotland

o  Ancestry, Family Search and Ellis Island

·     National Records of Scotland - Information on landowners, tenants, rents, census, etc.

o  www.nrscotland.gov.uk

·     Ship logs for Scots banished to America from 1650 – 1775

o  https://immigrantships.net/Jacobite.index

·     Covenanters Index – 17^th Century religious and political movement

o  www.Thereformation.info/covenanters-index

·     SCAN Scottish Archives Network

o  www.scan.org.uk

·     Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast

NORTHERN IRELAND RECORDS

·      Genealogy records are kept on the local level

·      Ulster includes 9 counties:

o  Antrim, Armagh, Derry or Londonderry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone

·      Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)

o  www.proni.gov.uk

·      Northern Ireland GenWeb

o  www.ancestryireland.com/index.php

·      Genuki – manned by volunteers

o  www.genuki.org/uk/

·      Civil Registration for BMD – started in 1864

·      1922 – known as Irish Free State

·      Census Records – 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851

o  Most were destroyed by fire

o  1861, 71, 81, and 1891 destroyed on orders of government

Records in Wales that may solve common name problems

When doing research for a person or family, it is important to search the commonly used records to begin. Those records for Wales are:

·        Civil Registration – (started in 1837)

·        Census

·        Church Records

After thoroughly searching those records and laying a foundation for the family using the information found in them, you should then collect identifying information from other less-used records to verify and clarify the research you have done. Use the following records after you have used the commonly used records:

Land records are, perhaps, as important in tracing a Welsh pedigree as the use of parish records. These records identify the family on a piece of property, and even though the family name changes from generation to generation, possession of the property does not. It makes it easier to identify the family, even when the names changes, making estate and other land records extremely valuable genealogical sources.[2]

·        Burial Records or Monumental Inscriptions (MI’s)

·        Probate Records

·        Land and Property

·        Taxation

·        Compiled Pedigrees

·        Marriage bonds and allegations

·        Poor law records

·        Court Records: Petty Sessions, Quarter Sessions, Great Sessions

Be sure to analyze and evaluate carefully each record. You may have to view a record several times to gather all pertinent information for a person or family.

 

FamilySearch.org – Search – Research Wiki - Wales

ENGLISH RECORDS

·     Best records to search are:

o  Civil

o  Church & Parish (prior to 1837 especially) for Anglian and Non-Conformists

o  Military

o  Probate and Wills – go to County Records (maps are based on 1974)

o  Census records must be 100 years old to be released (1921 Census coming out this year)

o  Medieval Records back to 1100’s

·     Find My Past

o  Paid subscription currently about $35 a month or $90 for 3 months; free trial

·     My Heritage

·     Freeukgenealogy.org.uk

·     Freebmd.org.uk

·     Ancestry

·     Family Search

·     Best DNA test if Living DNA – covers 21 regions

TYING HISTORY TO YOUR RESEARCH

Our monthly Genealogy SIG meeting was on December 5th from 7 - 8 pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Larry W. Thomas, a professional genealogist,  presented on "Tying History to Your Research".  

 Susan Dobbs is teaching a class on "Using Ancestry.com" on Tuesday, December 10th from 1-3 pm.  You can sign up under classes on the CC Website or via the Sunday Education update in your email.  .

Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, we will only have one Help Session in December, on Wednesday, December 11th from 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

HOW TO TRACK MIGRATION PATTERNS

 On Thursday, November 7th, the Genealogy SIG met at 7 pm in the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Member Jim Closson, spoke on "How to Track Migration Patterns".  

 Susan Dobbs is teaching a class on "Using Ancestry.com" on Tuesday, December 10th from 1-3 pm.  You can sign up under classes on the CC Website or via the Sunday Education update in your email.  .

Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, we will only have one Help Session in November, on Wednesday, November 13th from 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

HOW COLLATERAL LINES COUNT

The Genealogy SIG held their first meeting of the fall on the 5th on our new meeting date.  

Laurine Curtis presented on "How Collateral Lines Count".  She had an excellent slide presentation with great examples.  Her handout is  available below.

We also discussed a couple of Family Search Activities.  

        Famous Relatives - click on Activities - Famous Relatives - and see several categories of famous people you are related to including athletes, entertainment starts, past presidents, and scientists/inventors.

         Relatives Around Me - since it must be done in a group in person, instructions were handed out and will be available for the next meeting.  Be sure to  create a FamilySearch account, enter your family including parents and grandparents.  That should link you up to larger tree.  Bring your phone to the next meeting.

Our next meeting is on THURSDAY, October 3rd at 7 pm in the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.

We will meet in person but our presenter, Mark Olsen from Utah will present on "What's New in Family Tree Maker".  Mark works for MacKiev so this should be good discussion with a chance to ask questions of an expert on FTM.

HELP SESSIONS

        Will remain on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday nights of the month from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Computer Club.

Handout from September's Program:

    Societies Whose Memberships Include Both Collateral and Direct Ancestral Lineage

National Society of Daughters of the Union

Purpose: The National Society Daughters of the Union 1861-1865 was founded October 9, 1912 in New York City, New York by Mrs. Frank Crowell. The Society is a hereditary society formed to honor the soldiers and patriots who were dedicated to preserving the Union during the Civil War.

Requirements: Membership is open to any woman eighteen years of age or over provided she is a direct lineal or collateral descendant of a man or woman who rendered military or civil service to the Union during the years 1861-1865.  Legal adoption shall not qualify for lineal or collateral descent. Documentary proof of the ancestor's service is necessary for admission into the Society. Proof should include at least one of the following:

-Served honorably in the Union Army or Navy. 

-A military or pension record from the National.

-Archives or honorable discharge certificate is required, when available

-Served in a pro-Union county or state militia or home guard

-Served as a civil employee of Union forces

-Rendered material aid, medical attention, or comfort to Union forces

-Served as a member of President Lincoln's cabinet

-Served as an employee of the Federal government

-Suffered the loss of personal property or personal liberty due to unfailing allegiance to the Union.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War

Purpose: The SUV is a fraternal organization dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of heroes who fought and worked to save the Union

Requirements: Male descendant, 14 years of age or older, who is directly descended from a member of the military who was regularly mustered and served honorably in, was honorably discharged from, or died in service between 12 April 1861 and 9 April 1865; collateral memberships are available

Presidential Families of America

Purpose: The organization is dedicated to identifying and preserving the family history records of all American presidents as well as nurturing fellowship among their descendants and relatives

Requirements: Men and women who can prove either direct descent from a president of the United States or a collateral relationship based on descent from a common ancestor who resided in what is now the U.S.

Hereditary Order of the Families of the Presidents and First Ladies of America

Purpose: Foster patriotism and to enlarge the knowledge of its membership through the collection and dissemination of information concerning the Presidents and First Ladies of America

Requirements: Men and women of the age of 18 years or older, able to prove a blood relationship to any of our Presidents or First Ladies of the United States or other qualifying entities such as the Continental Congress, and other Republics which existed in what became known as the U.S.

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Purpose: The SCV serves as a historical, patriotic, and non-political organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved

Requirements: Male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces; membership can be obtained through either direct or collateral family lines

 

Additional Notes:

1.        FAN:   Friends, Neighbors, Acquaintances……  For more information, check out Jennifer Patterson’s blog:  www.the occasionalgenealogist.com

 

2.        FAN or Cluster Research is helpful for:

•        telling people of the same name apart

•        coming up with ideas of other records to look for

•        determining if you've found records for one or more people of a certain name

•        determining if someone of different name is actually the person you're looking for

 

3.   Purchase available from Amazon or Genealogical.com  QuickSheet, The Historical Biographer's Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle) by Elizabeth Shown Mills (aprox $12)

 

SEPTEMBER MEETING

 

Our monthly programs have been moved from the first Wednesday to the first Thursday of the month at 7 pm.  Our next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday, September 5th at 7:00pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Our program will be presented member, Laurine Curtis on “How Collateral Lines Count”.  

The next Help sessions will be on Wednesday, September 11th and 25th from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Computer Club.    Walk-ins are welcome, but it is preferred that you click on the link sent out a few days prior in the email to register.

Subscription websites such as Ancestry.com Library Edition, Family Tree Maker, Fold3,  Newspapers.com, and Roots Ireland are available at the Computer Club.  Ask the Monitor for the Genealogy Notebook for access to these websites.  There are numerous other Genealogy websites and journals available in the Computer Center.

The Genealogy SIG welcomes all members of the Computer Club to join them in a quest to discover their family’s history through records and stories. During our monthly meetings, we will discuss Genealogy skills and resources.

Watch the Computer Club emails and website for titles and dates.

FINDING YOUR IRISH ROOTS

 Our May 1st meeting from 7 - 8 pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse will feature Jim Bowden presenting on "Finding Your Irish Roots".  There was not a video of this presentation nor a handout.

Our next meeting will be in September on the 5th.  

We will be changing our monthly meetings from the first Wednesdays of the month to the first Thursdays of the month at 7 pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Several members had mentioned there were church conflicts on Wednesday nights and we wanted to address that concern.  

Help Sessions will be held through the summer on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday nights, 6:30 - 8:30 pm as needed.

Keep an eye out for free lectures to be offered this summer.  As always, you are free to utilize several websites within the the Computer Club:  Ancestry Library Edition, Fold 3, Newspapers.com and Irish Roots.  

Have an enjoyable summer!

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN GENEALOGY

On April 3rd, the Genealogy SIG watched a pre-approved class taught by Thomas MacEntee and shared by Legacy Family Webinars on "Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy".  

We were not able to share the video link with you, nor the handout, but I took notes and created a handout based on what we heard.

•  Bard is now Gemini. https://gemini.google.com/app
•  There is a free version and an advanced version
• Can upload an article and have it either transcribed or summarized
• Chat GPT/3.5 is free version and run by a non-profit
• The 4.0 version is a paid and much improved
•  Perplexity.ai
• Has sources
• 
  
•  Most AI’s use LLM (learning language model)
•  Grammerly can be used to help you compose a written document
• My Heritage Photos – can estimate date, and make face/eyes move
• The 1950 Census transcription was done by AI. Volunteers are now going through and verifying it was done correctly
•  OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software is 80% accurate, AI is over
• 90% accurate and constantly improving
• You can ask AI questions like:  
• What was life like in _______________ in __________________year
•  What records can I use to locate an ancestor who arrived at _____________ in ___________ year

•  AI is constantly updating
• Future uses for AI in Genealogy are:
•  DNA Triangulation tools, i.e. Banyan dna
• Ability to convert documents from one language to another
• Source citations
•  Use historical newspapers more efficiently
• Identify ancestors in old photos
• Suggest records to explore to expand your searches

GENEALOGY AFTERLIFE - WHAT DO YOU LEAVE BEHIND

 On March 6th Lynn Baker presented on "Genealogy Afterlife - What do you leave behind.

For the video presentation click on here:  https://youtu.be/MvmF35XCHbg

For a copy of the handouts, click below:

Digital Afterlife Handout

https://docs.google.com/document/d/102An5Be6BsC4OSUSwX9Qs6JU1XY7Bq--BycY1q_iEeQ/edit?usp=sharing

Digital Assets Checklist

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YKdWZamHeBXLt09WOb1aCgbWgk1le299/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105843865531829270717&rtpof=true&sd=true

Digital Asset List

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y3r7OZ_E3NbR5uFWoDxwhelTpZhCDran/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105843865531829270717&rtpof=true&sd=true

Personal Digital Asset List

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oy14PdsGdS4wp_0jTnao-loBkRwxJ2uD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105843865531829270717&rtpof=true&sd=true

MILITARY RECORDS

On Wednesday, February 7th Sue Mueller from APCUG presented her topic "Military Records in Genealogy". 

This was a good presentation, especially considering Sue Mueller had cataracts surgery earlier in the day.

The slides are available here.

The video recording of the presentation can be watched HERE.

The handout to go with this presentation can be viewed HERE.

FEBRUARY UPDATE

Our monthly programs are on the first Wednesday of the month at 7 pm.  Our next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday, March 6th at 7:00pm at the Hidden Cypress Clubhouse.  Our speaker will be Mr. Lynn Baker, from Charleston. He will speak on "Genealogy Afterlife - What do you leave behind?" 

 The next Help sessions will be on February 14th and 28th from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Computer Club. Walk-ins are welcome, but it is preferred that you click on the link sent out a few days prior in the email to register. Subscription websites such as Ancestry.com Library Edition, Family Tree Maker, Fold3,  Newspapers.com, and Roots Ireland are available at the Computer Club.  Ask the Monitor for the Genealogy Notebook for access to these websites.

  There are numerous other Genealogy websites and journals available in the Computer Center. The Genealogy SIG welcomes all members of the Computer Club to join them in a quest to discover their family's history through records and stories. During our monthly meetings, we will discuss Genealogy skills and resources. Watch the Computer Club emails and website for titles and dates.

 If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this group please contact the host: Click Here (JBowden432@msn.com) If you would like to view the latest information provided in our Blog: Click H The Help session for November will be on November 8th and December 13th from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Computer Club.    Walk-ins are welcome, but it is preferred that you click on the link sent out a few days prior in the email to register. 

 Subscription websites such as Ancestry.com Library Edition, Family Tree Maker, Fold3,  Newspapers.com, and Roots Ireland are available at the Computer Club.  Ask the Monitor for the Genealogy Notebook for access to these websites.  There are numerous other Genealogy websites and journals available in the Computer Center. The Genealogy SIG welcomes all members of the Computer Club to join them in a quest to discover their family's history through records and stories. During our monthly meetings, we will discuss Genealogy skills and resources. Watch the Computer Club emails and website for titles and dates.

 The following classes will be taught in February/March: February 22, 1-3 "Using DNA on Ancestry.com" - taught by Susan Dobbs February 23 and 26th, 10-12, "Family Tree Maker, Parts 1 and 2" - taught by Jim Bowden March 11, 1-3 pm "Intro to Ancestry.com" - taught by Susan Dobbs We want to thank you for your patience and help in spreading the word about our classes. We hope that you will be able to attend and learn more. Due to limited capacity, we do have to limit registration. If our webinar reaches capacity, the webinar will be streamed to the FamilySearch Library Facebook page and can be viewed there. We thank you for your patience as we continue to update and enhance our webinars. All of our classes are held in the Eastern Time Zone. For help converting our times to your time zone, we recommend using a site: 

BIG Y-DNA

The January3 meeting for the Genealogy SIG featured Jan Alpert presenting on the Big Y in DNA.

The link to the video for this meeting can be reached below:

https://youtu.be/LLD3kpkjC7c  

For a copy of the handout, please click on the next link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cF5TtE_dNegbDKrOFjf7m8DIt0-pL3ES/view?usp=sharing