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.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are no longer able to offer Internet Access in the Genealogy Section of the Library. We have been promised total access when we move into the new addition, hopefully in March, 2002. In the meantime, we have a large supply of new CDs and the 1880 Census to help with your research.

Please start gathering "goodies" for the GARAGE SALE! It will be held Saturday September 22 at the McQueen home in Mission Viejo. There will be more information at the August meeting and also in the next newsletter.

I hope some of you will consider participating in the "Member Program" for the September meeting. You will find more about this in a separate article elsewhere in the newsletter. One of my favorite parts of each meeting is hearing about the people and places being researched by others. I'll bet many of you can come up with something of interest to talk about. Remember, some members have been doing ancestor research for a very long time and others, such as myself, for four years or less.

It is my hope that we can make ours a more member-oriented organization. We should be able to help each other in our pursuit of ancestor research. With this in mind I would like us to consider the possibility of a SOCCGS Surname List. Your comments and/or suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy the remaining days of Summer.

Mary Jo

On Saturday, September 22nd, we will be holding a "garage sale" to raise money for the society's operations. As some of you may not know, the cost of printing our newsletter has doubled recently, and we hope to defray that increase with proceeds from this project. Our president has graciously offered her home for the location of the sale. We need help from all of you too. Please start saving things to donate. You can call Janet Franks at 496-8428 to arrange for collection. And also please think about volunteering some of your time to do pricing and selling. It is planned to have a "work party" on September 20 & 21. Let's make this a fun project and a time to get to know one another!

18 August 2001 We are pleased to have as our speakers Bunny and Leon Smith, new members of our society, who will present a program on "The Oregon Trail." The Smiths were born in Missouri. Their families followed Route 66 to California in 1951. They both grew up in Torrance and graduated from the same high school class. Bunny was employed by Pacific Bell and retired as a communication technician in 1996. Leon was employed by the Los Angeles Police Department and retired as a detective supervisor in 1997. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. Bunny and Leon are members of the DAR and SAR respectively. Leon was accepted into the SAR this past May. They both have an avid interest in genealogy, American history, and travel. When the chance arrived to follow the Oregon Trail from start to finish with their rv (recreational vehicle) club, they immediately signed up. They will share their experiences on the trail with an oral and slide presentation.

23-25 August 2001 The British Isles Family History Society-USA will present its 14th Annual British & Irish Genealogical Seminar, "Journey to the Past" on the Queen Mary in Long Beach with famous speakers from England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales. The cost for those who register before June 1 is $150 for members and $175 for non-members. For additional information visit their web site at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~bifhsusa or call Dorothy Losee at (310) 838-6085 or email her at <[email protected]>.

8 September 2001 The San Diego Genealogical Society will present a seminar from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Hanalei Hotel, 2270 Hotel Circle North, Mission Valley, San Diego, CA. The featured speaker will be Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, CG who will present "Flesh on the Bones", putting your ancestors into historical perspective; "The Silent Woman", bringing a name to life; and "Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard", tips for cemetery research. Cost, including lunch, is $38 per person. Mail checks payable to SDGS to Gloria Osborn, 1997 Alameda Terrace, San Diego, CA 92103-1646 or for additional information email her at <[email protected]>.

29 September 2001 The Genealogy Seminar 2001, "Tracing Your Family Tree in the 21st Century," will be sponsored by the Genealogical Society of North Orange County California (GSNOCC), Saturday from 8:30 - 3 p.m. at the Yorba Linda Community Center, Imperial Hwy & Casa Loma, Yorba Linda, CA. The featured speaker will be Barbara Renick, Professional Genealogist, known as the "Internet Queen of Genealogy." The cost is $35 if pre-registered by Sept. 10th or $40 at the door, free syllabus included. For more information contact Eileen Hunt (714) 528-3326.

20 October 2001 The North San Diego County Genealogical Society (NSDCGS) has scheduled their Annual Fall Seminar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Dove Library in Carlsbad. The cost of this event will be $20 and lunch will be available from TOGO's for $6. Arlene Eakle

will present the program which will include workshops on: Tracing Ancestors who lived in Cities; How to find Birth, Marriage and Death dates prior to 1900; Pre-1820 Census Records; and Special Chronological Indices and Lists Tracing the Ladies on your Pedigree.

27 October 2001 The National Genealogical Society (NGS) Regional Conference, hosted by the California Genealogical Society, will be held at the Crown Plaza, San Francisco, Mid Peninsula, Foster City, CA. The featured speakers will be Cyndi Howells of Cyndi's List and Curt Witcher, MLS, FUGA, of the Allen County Library. Information available at: http://www.ngsgenealogy.org. or email <[email protected]> or call (800) 473-0060.

27 October 2001 The Glendale California Immigrant Genealogical Society will hold it's Fall Seminar at the 1st Methodist Church. Details to follow later.

10 November 2001 Our own Judy Deeter will be making a presentation " Stories From Beyond the Stucco Walls," based on the background of Mission Viejo architecture. Watch for further details on this in a later newsletter.

The Safari on Wednesday, August 22, will be to the Southern California Genealogical Library and the Sons of the Revolution Library in Glendale and Burbank. We will need to meet in the LDS Church parking lot at 9 a.m. Please call Janet on (949) 496-8428 for further information. Remember that everyone is invited. We will drive as many cars as are needed.

For our September meeting we are planning to have a panel of speakers made up of our own society members. This will be a special meeting in that it will give us all an opportunity to get to know one another better. We encourage members to volunteer to give a short talk of about 7-10 minutes about a genealogical subject or experience they would like to share with the rest of us. Since the number of speakers will be limited by our available time, please contact our vice president and program planner, Karyn Schumaker, right away to reserve a slot. Karyn hopes to have a schedule of speakers completed to give us at the August 18th meeting. You can contact her by calling her home at (949) 248-0662, by emailing her at <[email protected]> or by writing her at 38192 Paseo La Branza, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92780-6423.

Are you looking for professional help with your genealogical research? The speaker at last month's meeting, Norma Keating, not only lectures on numerous topics, but she offers a full line of genealogy services. Norma has been a researcher since 1973 and is a graduate of the NGS American Genealogy Course, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the SCCAPG Institute on Professional Genealogy. She is a member of a number of professional societies and as a DAR, Registrar, she is especially qualified to assist you in establishing your lineage for applying for DAR membership. You can contact Norma by email at <[email protected]> or by calling her at (714) 970-6573. For more information about her consulting services, visit her Internet homepage at: http://www.yfcgensearch.com.

1. Orange Coast College, Fall Semester, History 105, "Family History and Genealogy," begins Tuesday, August 27, meeting weekly through December 11 in the Social Sciences Bldg. Room 109 from 6:30-9:40. This is a basic course, carrying 3 units of lower division college credit, and emphasizing post-1850 American research methods and sources, and local repositories. The instructor, is Doug Mason, one of our society members, and you can contact Doug at (714) 432-5038 for more information. Call OCC at (714) 432-5072 to register.

2. Continuous classes are offered at the Mission Viejo Family History Center at 27976 Marguerite Parkway. See: http://genweb.net/Family_History_Center/classes.htm for a current schedule. To register call (949) 364-2742.

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

4. 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.

5. The Summer/Fall schedule for NARA workshops follows. To register call (949) 360-2641.

6. 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].

7. Classes are offered monthly by the LA Family History Center, 10741 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles which offer a wide variety of topics, ranging from Beginning Genealogy to more specialized research of ethnic groups such as Cherokee Genealogy, African American Genealogy and even deciphering the old-style Script of German and records. To see the schedule for the current month, go to their website at http://www.lafhc.org or call (310) 474-9990.

8. 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.

In last month's newsletter, we summarized the content of each census from 1790 to 1930. There have been several recent renderings of some of these census records worth noting.

1. The actual images of the 1900 census has been made available by Genealogy.com at their Internet Family Archives which you can find at http://www.Genealogy.com/ifa/. The 1900 census set out to list everyone in America and provides an important link since the 1890 census was almost entirely destroyed by fire before it could be preserved. It is also unique in that it gives information on an immigrant's arrival in the United States.

2. Heritage Quest has released a new Surname Series designed for you to focus a search of the 1870 census on a specific surname. Ten eastern states are indexed by place of birth so that, regardless of where your ancestor was living in 1870, you can probably find him by his state of birth, and that is pretty important when you consider that approximately 40% of the heads-of-households born in each of those 10 states were living somewhere else by 1870. You can order a custom-made CD-ROM for your individual surname, including all Soundex variations, for $19.95. To order, call 1-800-760-2455 or go online to http://www.HeritageQuest.com. (Reference: Heritage Quest Newsletter, April 2001 & Questing Heirs newsletter, July 2001)

3. As you know, the 1930 census will become available to us for the first time in March 2002, and NARA is already offering workshops on how to use it. (See above class schedule.)

4. In May, LDS released the entire 1880 census, fully indexed, and you can search the whole U.S. by just typing in a name. I understand this was a project started 17 years ago and it includes over 50 million names. The 56 CD ROM set can be purchased at a cost of $49, from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or over the Internet at http://www.familysearch.org.

Now, we hear the following good news from Pat Weeks:

I am talking about the 1880 all name, all state census that is now available at our Mission Viejo Library Genealogy section. If you remember, the Soundex for the 1880 census listed only families with children age ten and under. This set of 54 CDs will let you look for anyone, because it has an index of every person who was listed in the 1880 census. In addition, the information contained gives the age, place of birth reported, parents place of birth if reported and occupation. The source is sited also, giving the reel number page, township or town, county and state. The user can also just browse the neighborhood and see who else may have lived there. It is not perfect, nothing is. For instance, I found my Rush name misinterpreted as Rash, but that was easily noted, because the search is by similar sounding names. This set was the project of the Latter Day Saints, and they certainly came up with a winner this time.

From the June 18th issue of Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, we learned that the National Newspaper Association, in conjunction with Cold North Wind Corp., EMC Corp. and MicroCreditCard, will be creating an online search engine, America's Chronicles (SM), which will access the digital archives of America's community newspapers. This should, as Diane Everson, pres. of NNA put it, "breath life into hundreds of years of history that are currently buried in the archives of America's newspapers and libraries." This project is to be launched at NNA's Convention & Trade Show Sept. 12-15. For details see: http://www.americaschronicles.com.

Along with the recently purchased 1880 census CDs, we have ordered two additional Cds, the Genealogical Dictionary of New England and Colonial Families of the United States. These should arrive soon. Docents are still needed. It would be nice to have volunteer participation from more of our members. Perhaps, if you are unable to sign up for a particular time, you might consider being a substitute?

Janet Franks has been busy sifting through the old genealogical periodicals and has incorporated any worthwhile articles into the manuscript files, so to take a look.

Finally, remember that the library is now closed on fridays until further notice.

Please refer to our previous newsletter for the new extended hours on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Mayflower Descendants, Index of Persons Vol. 1-34, A-G and Vol. 1-34, H-Z, donated by Ron Tovsen.

CDs acquired:

Master Name Index to Automated Archives, Inc.

Automated Archives Family Pedigrees #1

Automated Archives Family Pedigrees #2

Marriage Index: IL, IN 1790-1850

Marriage Records, IL, IN, KY, OH, TN

Social Security Death Benefit Records 1937-June 1992 #111 & #112

Death Records 1850; 1880

1840 US Census Index Mid Atlantic

1850 US Census Index

1830, 1839 Census index Series: New England, New York, Pennsylvania

1850 US Census Index - New England

Family Tree Super Bundles:

II: Vol. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ;

III: Vol. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ; 6: Vo. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 ;

7: Vol. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.

On April 21, 2001, Associated Press writer, Emma Ross, wrote an article titled, "A picture of Europe's past - Gene study seeks Europe's founders." To summarize: studies, reported by Eric Lander, director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research, have concluded that present-day Europeans came from a very small group of Africans, perhaps no more than a few hundred, who left their homeland as recently as 25,000 years ago. Apparently, "the Nigerian chromosomes had been well shuffled around which indicates a wide gene pool and a long breeding history, while the European chromosomes had long stretches of unshuffled genetic material, indicating a much smaller number of chromosome types entering the mix." Eddy Rubin, head of the human genome center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab at UC Berkeley agrees with these findings and further suggests that this small group of Europeans stayed small for a while, creating somewhat of an "evolutionary bottleneck." It is believed that, by using such chromosome studies, we will be able to reveal the history of populations, their movements, and their relationship to one another.

Already, we are seeing implications for genealogical studies in establishing the lineage of our male ancestors. For example, The Graves Family Association (one of my surnames) has started a DNA analysis study with the purpose of determining which of the many Graves lines have common ancestry. For a nominal fee, a male with the surname Graves can submit a sample to the coordinator, Ken Graves, who will assign an identifying number before sending the sample on to Family Tree DNA, Inc. of Houston, TX for testing. Interested? Visit websites: http://www.gravesfa.org and http://www.familytreedna.com for more details

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"What Ever Were They Thinking"

by Lona Dawns (Reprinted with permission from the author)