Saddleback Valley Trails
South Orange County California Genealogical Society

 P.O. Box 4513, Mission Viejo, CA. 92690

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.

GENERAL MEETING July 17, 2004
“LEARNING TO LOVE THE PRE-1850 CENSUSES”
presented by
Connie Moretti

The pre-1850 censuses, with the rows of numbers, can be confusing to use, yet they contain a wealth of information. Using a special chart, family members can be identified and important dates can be more closely approximated. As a group, we will complete the chart together, and each attendee will have a blank copy to take home. You won’t want to miss this program!
A Torrance native and third-generation Californian, Connie Moretti claims to have done genealogy all her life due to a story-telling grandmother who enrolled her in the Covered Wagon Club at Knott's Berry Farm in the 1940's. Retired from 30 years as an educator, Connie is past editor of the South Bay Cities Genealogical Society Newsletter; teaches beginning internet and computer genealogy classes for South Bay Adult School, is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of 1812, and is California Division immediate past Historian and past President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

CALENDAR

SAFARI ON VACATION

There is no safari scheduled for the month of August. The next trip will be September 22. Please see the August newsletter for more information.

GARAGE SALE , September 11, 2004

A complete genealogy just can't be... there's always more.

Mark those October calendars now! SOCCGS is hosting its third annual seminar at the Saddleback Room, Mission Viejo Civic Center. Plans are underway to provide you with another fun and informative genealogy experience. A flyer, with registration and lecture information, is included in this newsletter. Following is a bit of information about our seminar speakers:

Mr. Meitzler began publishing local histories in 1982 and is a graduate of the 1982 National Institute on Genealogical Research. He founded Heritage Quest Magazine in 1985. Mr. Meitzler opened the Genealogical Resource Center in Salt Lake City in March of 1991. He has continued to work as an editor of Heritage Quest Magazine. The company was sold to ProQuest in 2001. In January of 2003, the Meitzlers bought back the magazine as well as much of Heritage Quest's retail operations, and now work under the business name of Heritage Creations. In March of 2003, Mr. Meitzler began the publication of Genealogy Bulletin (edited by William Dollarhide), which had not been published in paper form for three years. As a highly regarded speaker, he has given over 2000 lectures on genealogical subjects to national, state and local genealogical groups.

William Dollarhide is a member of the Heritage Quest staff. A genealogist since 1971, he started the Dollarhide Systems for Genealogical Records and founded the Genealogy Bulletin, a Heritage Quest publication since 1994. In addition to his Bulletin articles, he writes features for Heritage Quest Magazine.
Mr. Dollarhide is a compelling speaker and has been recognized for his genealogical merits by numerous organizations. He is the author of seven best-selling books: Managing a Genealogical Project, Genealogy Starter Kit, Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 co-authored with William Thorndale, Map Guide to American Migration Routes 1735-1815, British Origins of American Colonists 1629-1775, America's Best Genealogy Resource Centers co-authored with Ronald Bremer, The Census Book: A Genealogist's Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes.

We welcome three new members this month: Sandra Callaway, Thomas and Krista Perdue.
Sandra ([email protected]) is searching for LEWIS & BRIGHT in Missouri & Iowa; CALLAWAY in Germany, Iowa & California; RIPPY in North Carolina & Missouri; WIATT in Missouri, Ohio Kentucky & Illinois; NEEDHAM in New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois & Missouri and EDSON in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania & New York.
Thomas & Krista ([email protected]) are searching for PERDUE.

Thank you to Catherine Mikolajczak who gave an interesting presentation entitled “The Irish In The American Revolution.” Guests at the meeting were: Dixsia Ohs and Mary Louise (Shriner) Wilcox. Dixsia is a former SOCCGS member. We invite them both to join our group.

Southern California Genealogical Society announces its 5th Annual Family History Writing Contest. Go to http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/5thWC.htm for complete information. Entries must be received between November 1 and December 31, 2004.

WHAT YOU INHERIT FROM YOUR ANCESTORS

A few people inherit great wealth from their parents. However, we all inherit much more: we inherit our looks, our health, our intelligence, and our very beings.
Our immediate inheritance is from our parents: 50 percent of genes come from the mother, the same from the father. Of course, parents merely pass on to their children a proportion of what they themselves have inherited. So another way of looking at it is that every person can be "quartered" in terms of their four grandparents, with each grandparent contributing 25 percent. Going back further, we share around 940 genes with each of our great-great-great grandparents.
Want to know where you got your hair color or the protruding jaw? You might be able to blame your great-great-great grandfather!
The sharing of genes occurs horizontally across family trees as well as vertically. Identical twins share all their genes. On average, we share 50 percent of our genes with full siblings; 25 percent with half siblings. While there may be little to unite us with our first cousins, we generally have one-eighth of our genes in common.
Geneticists will caution, however, that these numbers are averages. In fact, any one person may inherit more than 50 percent of his genes from one parent with less coming from the other. Genetic inheritance is random in the sense that it is impossible to predict precisely which genes will make up the contributions from each parent. Because of this, it is theoretically possible, though extremely unlikely, for full siblings to have no overlapping genes and, therefore, to show virtually no genetic similarity. In some cases, says Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University and an expert on the applications of genetics to genealogy, it is as if a person has inherited almost all their looks from one parent.
There is a famous precedent for the inheritance of a facial feature: the Hapsburg jaw. The distinctive, protruding jaw — mandibular prognathism syndrome — afflicted 34 generations of European nobility, particularly the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The gene conferring this feature was dominant: if a child inherited the associated gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other, he or she would be guaranteed to develop the condition. It comes as no surprise to find that few portraits of these wealthy aristocrats survive. We can presume that most of these people did not care to have accurate portraits made of their unattractive faces.
Because the rules of genetic inheritance are oblivious to social standing, Sykes points out that the upper classes are no more likely to look like their ancestors than any other sector: "The difference is that most of us don’t have paintings of our forebears to look at."
Still, the noble people are more likely to be the beautiful people. Sexual selection — the search for appropriate partners with whom to procreate — means that wealthy, male aristocrats can attract the most comely companions. "I would say that aristocrats tend to be better-looking," Sykes admits. "That’s because of the allure of status and wealth. You only have to go to Harrods to see beautiful women accompanying men whose only attraction is their wallet."
(Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Vol. 9 No. 10 – March 8, 2004)

BIBLE FOUND

A very old bible was recently brought to the docent desk in hopes that the family could be located. Herb has been doing some searching on the Internet but, so far, the bible has gone unclaimed. The first entry reads:

Marriage
George Smith & Elizabeth W. Wilson
May 13, 1837 by John Law, Esq. of Philadelphia


OLD NEWSPAPERS
From the Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio), 26 May 1852, page 2, Chicago, May 22.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
~ Samuel Johnson

GETTING THE FAMILY HISTORY MACHINE BACK ON TRACK
~ Juliana Smith

Time to File - There are several ways to file. Some people prefer folders in file cabinets, but I like the fact that binders can get a good grip on the pages. I think long and hard before opening that clip to remove a page from a binder because I know I risk it getting eaten by a pile. Typically these records that have been through the process stay in the binder and if they are removed, it is to make a quick copy and then they are replaced right away.
I started using a binder for each surname, but as they began to fill up, I have split some off into family groups. Now some binders may have more than one related family, and some may contain only one.
Within each binder, or family within the binder, I have a printout from my database with the family group sheet and timeline at the fore. Behind that, records are set up in roughly the following order:

• Records of the family as a whole.
  
• Divided sections for each individual in the immediate family.
  
• Father (Records from birth to death)
  
• Mother (Records from birth to death)
  
• Child that I directly descend from (Printout from database and notes. Their original records are kept in their own binder.)
  
• Siblings. (Records from birth to death)
  
• Related surnames. (Witnesses, in-laws, and other associates of the family who have a solid connection.)
  
• Maybes. (If there are too many, particularly in cases of common surnames, the “maybes” sometimes need their own binder.)
  

Colonial Communication--Newspapers, Broadsides, and the Post
~ Patricia Law Hatcher, CG, FASG

In the early colonial period, communication was very different than it was following the Revolution. The majority of America was ruled by England and the residents considered themselves Englishmen, not Americans. Most communication was personal--and usually verbal, via the grapevine. Letters were often transported by friends who were traveling.
Printing presses, which we take for granted as mechanical devices, were considered by the crown to be dangerous. The early colonists probably considered them irrelevant to their primary purpose of survival in a new world. When the first printing press was allowed in 1638, it was overseen by Harvard College and produced broadsides, religious works, and useful books such as almanacs and law books.
Broadsides--printing on one side of a single sheet of paper--were used to convey "news" such as proclamations and ballads that related interesting events. The content was closely watched by the authorities.
The first regular newspaper in the colonies did not exist until nearly a century after the first permanent American settlement. (Ancestry Daily News March 22, 2004

LINKPENDIUM: Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich were the founders of the extremely popular RootsWeb genealogical community site. At the time of its merger with Ancestry.com in June 2000, RootsWeb had about 600,000 registered users, was serving about 100,000,000 Web page views monthly, and was delivering about 160,000,000 pieces of email monthly to the subscribers of its 18,000 mailing lists. The company had more than 40 employees and operated its own 7,000 square foot network operations center in Bakersfield, CA.

You can find Ronald Reagan's ancestry at: http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/ronald-reagan/

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
~ John Quincy Adams

GENEALOGICAL EVENT CALENDAR