POINTers In Person
Chapter 15
Northern New Jersey

P.O. Box 636
Totowa, New Jersey

 
Albert Marotta (#1018)
The Northern New Jersey chapter of POINTers In Person met on February 5, 2005 at the Elmwood Park Municipal Building.  Twenty-five people attended.

Maria Carparelli (#2100) opened the meeting.  Proposed changes to the chapter’s bylaws were presented.  All active members will be sent a copy of the bylaws proposed amendments by mail for their review.  A vote to approve these changes will be taken at the May meeting.  A Hospitality Committee was formed and will be co-chaired by Carolyn McNamara (#4772) and Josephine Filemeno.  They will schedule committee members to bring refreshments.

A Trip Committee, consisting of Susan Laurito-Berman (#4405), Kathleen Mazzouciolo and Al Marotta (#1018) will locate possibilities for field trips involving genealogical research and Italian culture.  The chapter thought it might be nice to have an annual informal get-together at a restaurant.  Loretta Tito (#4717) and Michele Marotta volunteered to look into the matter.

Maryanne Graham (#3654) presented the treasurer’s report.  The chapter has 87 members;
26 of them have kept their dues current.  The decline in membership is due to the fact that these have not been active members for five years.

Maria Carparelli gave an informative presentation, “Genealogy Online”.  She began by detailing the hardware and software that would be necessary.  Among the genealogy programs she mentioned were Personal Ancestral File (download it free at www.familysearch.org) , Reunion (for MacIntosh users), Family Tree Maker, Brother’s Keeper, Roots Magic and The Master Genealogist.  After teaching members basic Internet searching methods and telling about search engine tools, Maria gave members a list of useful genealogy sites.  The list included the highly useful Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet (www.cyndisList.com)  and many others.  GenServe (www.genserv.com) has a format for exporting so users can share files, although using different software.  There are obituary search pages, such as www.legacy.com.

Also many researchers enjoy using online chat services, such as AOL Golden Gate Genealogy Forum.  Online Mailing Lists, Newsletters and News Groups include POINTers in e-mail (P.I.E.): (www.jsoft.com/archive/pie/) and Roots-L (rootsweb.org).  Some are Read Only Mail Lists: Ancestry Daily News (www.ancestry.com) , Eastman’s Genealogy Newsletter (www.eogn.com) and Everton’s Family History Newsline (www.everton.com).

 Specific Online Resources include those from the Library of Congress www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy),
 (http://memory.loc.gov), (www.loc.gov/rr/).  Although the Bureau of Immigration & Naturalization doesn’t seem to have their databases online, researchers can use Online Searchable NY Naturalization Records & Indexes (http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/newyork.html).  Researchers can find Federal Census records online by subscription to Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest.  The National Archives (www.archives.gov/index.html) has many online databases and catalogs of interest.  The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints has the largest genealogical database online (www.familysearch.org) .  Researchers can download free much of their software.    The best way to navigate through the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation site for ship passenger lists (1892-1924) is by using Stephen Morse’s site http://stevemorse.org.

 Another site of interest is that of The National Genealogical Society (www.ngsgenealogy.org) .  MyFamily.com is another useful site.  RootsWeb.com has an excellent site which includes numerous free databases and also contains The WorldConnect Project http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/) , The USGenWeb Archives Search (www.usgenweb.org) and the WorldGenWeb (www.worldgenweb.org).  Annita Zalenski (#39) highly recommends this site.
 

     Future meetings will be held on:
     May 7, 2005
     August 6, 2005
     November 5, 2005
     February 4, 2006

 For details, see our website:     https://sites.rootsweb.com/~njpoint/
 
 

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