Saddleback Valley Trails

Monthly meetings are held on the third Saturday of each month from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at the Mission Viejo Family History Center Institute Building, 27978 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo, between Medical Center Drive and Hillcrest Drive. Membership is open to anyone wishing to join. Yearly membership fees are $20 per calendar year for individuals, $25 for joint membership. SOCCGS is not affiliated with the LDS Family History Center.

Go to: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~casoccgs/

<http://1930census.archives.gov/> This one allows a search for enumeration district numbers.

For Wisconsin research: <http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/index.asp> This site is courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and "contains nearly 16,000 local newspaper articles published statewide between 1860 and 1940."

<http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/genealogy/ogrs/index.html> Or contact Michael Edmons Deputy director Library/Archives Division, Wisconsin Historical Society, via e-mail, at [email protected].

15 June 2002 Our speaker for this meeting will be Curtis Porter who is currently President of the South Coast Chapter Sons of the American Revolution and who has been a teacher in the area the past 12 years. His presentation will provide a short History of the Continental Marines of the Revolutionary War. Also featured will be interesting facts about the Brown Bss Musket. A drummer will be present to demonstrate the various marches that the Continental Marines marched to, and there will be at least two Continental Marines in authentic uniforms. Mr. Porter has presented this topic for a number of local groups, and it should be a very colorful, as well as informative lecture. So, be sure to put it on your calendar.

1 June 2002 The German Research Association in San Diego will present featured speaker Edward R. Brandt, Ph.D., co-author of Germanic Genealogy: A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migration Patterns, at the Joyce Beers Community Center on Vermont St., North of the University. Starting time 9 a.m. Contact <[email protected].>

29 June 2002 The North San Diego County Genealogical Society will present a day long class on "Computer Essentials for Genealogists" by Dorothy Miller PhD, retired computer science teacher from California State Univ., Northridge. It will be held at the Carlsbad City Council Chambers, 1200 Carlsbad Dr., Carlsbad, CA from 9 am-3 pm, and the cost will be $9 which includes $4 for materials. For more info email Dorothy Miller at <[email protected]>.

18-20 July 2002 The British Isles Family History Society- U.S.A. presents the 15th Annual Seminar on England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, "Celebrate Your Ancestors", aboard the Queen Mary, berthed in Long Beach, CA. A detailed schedule of speakers and information will be at our library or inquire from Linda Egan Flynn (310)539-9409 or <[email protected]>.

7-10 August 2002 The 2002 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference will be hosted next summer by the CA State Genealogical Alliance at the Ontario Convention Center. Details will be posted on the FGS Website at http://www.fgs.org. You can also write FGS, PO Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940.

New member: Verl Nash

Guests: Dorothy Benson, Angela Satterlee, Dorothy Shaffier, and Chester Winebright

The next Safari trip is scheduled for Wednesday June 26 to the Riverside Public Library..

A new CD from Family Search (LDS): 1881 Canadian Census

From Maxine Mason

Heritage of Craig County and Cooweescoowee & Delaware Districts, Indian Territory (OK)

From Mary Jo McQueen

Plymouth Colony: It's History and It's People, 1620-1691 by Eugene Stratton

From Janet Franks

History of Stonington, Connecticut by Richard A. Wheeler

Genealogies of Hadley Families by Lucius M. Boltwood

Salem in the Eighteenth Century by James D. Phillips

Geographic Dictionary of Massachusetts by Henry Gannett

The Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 by Leo Bonifanti

A Colony for California by Tom Patterson

Roubidoux's Ranch by Robert Hornbeck

Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, State of New York

Heads of Families, New York 1790 Census

Rate Lists of Long Island: 1675, 1676, 1683

New York State Area Key by Florence Clint

Huntington, New York Historic Cemeteries

Huntington, New York Historic Markers

We wish to give belated thanks to Ron Tovsen for the following books donated some time ago.

The Mayflower Descendant: Index of Persons Vol. 1-34 A-G, Vol. 1-34 H-Z

The Virginia Dynasties by Clifford Dowdey

Mr. Tovsen also donated a number of CD's to add to our growing collection.

At the April meeting Herb Abrams presented a short update to the 1930 census. He reported that they have not seen the crowds that were expected at the National Archives. He also distributed a handout showing how to access Stephen P. Morse's 1930 census webpage located at:

http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/census/index.html

You need to set your monitor to 800 x 600 to properly view this page. Herb included the following instructions in his handout:

To change your monitor setting (assuming you are using Windows 98):

1. From the Start Menu click on Settings

2. Click on Control Panel

3. Click on Display

4. Click on Settings

5. In the "Screen area" box click on the slide switch and pull to right where it says 800 x 600

(holding down the left mouse button).

6. Follow instructions on the screen. Answer "yes" when it asks if you want to keep this setting. You can change back later by sliding the switch back to the left.

GOBBLEDEGOOK OF GEDs (Advice from Rootsweb)

Readers frequently write that they have downloaded a GEDCOM from RootsWeb's WorldConnect (or another site) but are unable to read it and want to know why.

A GEDCOM (an acronym for Genealogical Data COMmunications) is a plain text file, nothing more; but it is formatted in such a way that attempting to read it in a text editor or word-processing program can prove to be a daunting task for most of us.

The best way to handle a GEDCOM is not to open it like a regular text file, but instead carefully note what you named the file and where you saved it on your computer. Then launch (start) the genealogy program you normally use, created a new file, and import the GEDCOM into that newly created file. Voila! The data will appear exactly like it would for any file you created directly within your genealogy program.

Be sure to create a new file, giving it a unique name. You do not want to merge others' unverified GEDCOM data into your genealogy files.

See also "Using Technology to Dig Up Roots" in RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson3.htm.

Sourcing can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. If you're planning to share your genealogy informally, then the important thing is to provide enough information so that another person could find your source. Generally, you will want to include the following:

Author. . . . .Title . . . . .Publisher's name and location . . . . Publication date . . . . Location of the source and identifying information (for example, the library where you found a book and its call number or, for more recent books, its ISBN number) . . . . Specific information for the piece of data you found (page number, line number).

Depending on your source, there may not be information for some of these categories. A census record, for example, won't have an author. For public records like this, items like microfilm roll number and page number become more crucial, so be sure to write them down as you go along. You may also want to make copies of particularly useful records so that you can refer to them later.

Gail Gilbert, your editor, grew up in Upstate New York, and graduated from Smith College with a degree in Economics before going to work for G.E. at the Knolls Atomic Power Lab in Schenectady. She became a systems analyst/computer programmer, designing programs for analyzing the heat transfer of the reactors in nuclear submarines and the Nimitz aircraft carrier. In 1975 she came to CA to marry her husband "Pete" and went to work for Fluor Corp. in Corporate Information Systems prior to their son's birth in 1976. She notes that her move West completed full circle the trek of her Gartin (Garton) ancestors who started in the mid 1600s in VA, migrating through KY and MO to Idaho where her father was born. Her father was recruited by G.E. out of college and moved back East to Schenectady where he met her mother. She feels these cross-country moves are sure to create havoc for future genealogy researchers.

Gail's interest in genealogy started in the late 1960s when she was still in her 20s. It was a very unusual interest for someone her age and, doing research the old-fashioned way, she found most of her correspondents were elderly. Most of her Gartin family history had been fully researched in the 1930s, and she was able to verify it's accuracy through records, finding only one error in her direct family tree. She decided to try and expand on what she had been given, taking each female ancestor starting with her grandmother who was a Woodruff and working back. She had immediate success as two volumes had just been published (1971) on the Woodruffs who landed in Lynn, MA in 1639, founded Southampton, Long Island in 1641 and Elizabethtown, NJ in the next generation. She had similar success in finding books on her Graves and Sharp ancestors, and when she started on her Jessees, she found a current family newsletter which led her back to VA and an ancestor who served as a musician in the Rev. War. She plans to join DAR through this line because none of her Gartin ancestors were old enough to serve in any war. She finds it interesting that she descends in every generation from a youngest son.

Gail feels she was extremely lucky that most of the genealogy research on her family was already done by others. And now, her dream that genealogy would someday become computerized has come to pass, opening up avenues of research she never would have had time to explore before. Her most recent project has been to try and find the maiden names for some early wives in her line, and she has already had one success from searching the allied family names over the Internet. Like many of you, she has also made contact with hither to unknown distant cousins over the Internet which has helped to enrich the family history. In recent years, she completed editing her mother-in-law's research on the Gilberts, who followed a similar path as the Gartins across the country, ending up in CO. She hopes to have that book in libraries soon. Gail joined SOCCGS to get herself motivated to be more active in genealogy, and editing the newsletter has certainly helped to keep her current on activities and research tools which she tries to pass on to all of you. She hopes the newsletter has helped to motivate SOCCGS members to more active participation too.

Last month my article addressed the information that could be found in an obituary. This month I decided to elaborate a little on marriage records and information that could be found in a newspaper marriage announcement.

First, I'll talk about marriage information in general. Remember that in the very early years, 1700 and 1800s, marriages were usually recorded under the husband's names, and these names may not have been their actual names. Many men used nicknames and quite often they used only initials. One example could be the name Robert which may be found as Bob, Rob, Rbt., or any nickname he may have been well known by, such as Scotty (if a native of Scotland) or a nickname relating to his surname. So again, you are going to have to give a lot of thought as to what name the record may be listed under. Remember too, that if you are using an index to locate the marriage record, the spelling could be incorrect because the indexer could not distinguish some of the letters.

When sending for marriage records, be sure to ask for the application for the marriage license, if available, and any accompanying affidavits. Marriage license applications can give you information about the parents' names (including mother's maiden name) and ages, occupations, etc. of the couple applying. The accompanying affidavit may be a consent form, with one or both of the parents giving their permission for the underage participant(s) to marry.

Usually the marriage took place in the bride's church or home of the bride's parents; however, there are exceptions to this rule as with any phase of research. Because of this, the marriage license was usually applied for in the city and county where the bride resided, if it was different than the groom's.

In cases of rural communities, the bride and groom may have lived together and had professed their intentions to marry when the "traveling minister or priest" made his annual rounds. It is possible that they were married and had the first child baptized at the same time. These records will probably have been recorded in the first county courthouse he came to, so the records may not be in the village or county you think they would be located, but rather an adjacent county. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was legal for a couple to marry themselves in the courthouse where it could be witnessed.

If you find an announcement of the marriage in the local newspaper, it may be very brief or it may be complete such as what the bride and attendants wore and the names of the mothers of the couple. However, there is quite a bit of information to glean from a newspaper announcement : the marriage date, names of the parents of the couple, place of marriage and usually the minister or justice of the peace's name. In more lengthy announcements you may find listed relationships to the attendants if there are any, usually the schools they both attended or graduated from, occupation of the groom or couple, and in many cases where they planned to reside. In some cases the event may have taken place on an anniversary of the parents or grandparents of one of the participants and this may be noted.

If you have a computer and have access to the Internet, many states have posted their marriage indexes online and in some cases, you can see the actual digitalized copy of the marriage information and can download it directly to your computer. In every case, the information needed to get the record is available. My favorite two sites are:

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~genclass/libraryindex.html and http://www.usgenweb.org . Check the pages for the county or counties you need to see if the marriage records have been transcribed and are available on-line.

There is much more that could be written on this subject but space only allows so much.

A roster of all the current courses is maintained at our library. Be sure to check at the desk for details.

1. Continuous classes are offered at the Mission Viejo Family History Center at 27976 Marguerite Parkway. For a current schedule or to register call (949) 364-2742.

2. For information on classes held at the Orange FHC, 674 S. Yorba St., Orange, call Beth McCarty at (714) 998-3408.

3. Classes for beginners and intermediates in Computer-assisted Genealogy are offered each month by the Orange County CA Genealogy Society in the General Meeting Room of the Huntington Beach Central Library, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach, CA for a fee of $4 for non-members, payable at the door. See http://occgs.com for schedule.

4. The schedule for NARA workshops is available by calling (949) 360-2641.

5. The British Isles Family History Society (BIFHS) holds classes monthly at the LA FHC of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 10741 Santa Monica Blvd., W. LA. Classes and parking are free. For information contact Dorothy Losee at (310) 838-6085, [email protected].

6. Classes are offered monthly by the LA Family History Center, 10741 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles which offer a wide variety of topics. To see the schedule for the current month, go to their website at http://www.lafhc.org or call (310) 474-9990.

7. Brigham Young University's Department of Independent Studies offers two free online genealogy courses, Finding Your Ancestors and Providing Temple Ordinances for Your Ancestors. See http://ce.byu.edu/is/dept/famhist.htm for details.

8. Community College genealogy courses, such as the one being conducted currently by our society member Doug Mason at Orange Coast College, can be found listed at the website: http://www.ed2go.com/colleges.html. Many of these are also free online. For Doug's class, call him at (714) 432-5072, email <[email protected]>.