Soccgs Home Page
Vol 2 No. 8 Editor: Pat Weeks August 1995
South Orange County California Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 4513, Mission Viejo CA, 92690
SOCCGS EVENTS
The SOCCGS monthly meetings are scheduled for the third Saturday of each month and are held from 10 a.m. to Noon at:
Norman P. Murray Community Center
24932 Oso Viejo Drive
Mission Viejo, CA.
26 July 1995 Safari to Sons of the Revolution Library, Glendale. See Safari instructions and schedule page 49.
26 August 1995ÖÖÖ Please note! This is NOT our regular meeting date. Date has been changed because the Center has plans for the regular date of the 3rd Saturday this month!
Our speaker will be Walter Wood, who has published many article. At our meeting he will discuss writing your family autobiography by computer.
16 September 1995, Our speaker this month is Karen Langer whom many of you know from her former job at the front desk of the National Archives until the beginning of this year. Karen will discuss documentation, why it is so vital and how it can be accomplished as painlessly as possible.
21 October 1995 No speaker this month. Instead we will form "interest groups" and hopefully help each other in our research endeavors. After the meeting, President John Smith will lead a workshop at the local Family History Center in Mission Viejo for all to attend if interested.
18 November 1995 Judy Deeter will present an overview of the Orange County Vital Records in Santa Ana.
OTHER EVENTS
9 September 1995 The Gen. Soc. of Hispanic America meeting will celebrate the 50th anniversary of "V-J Day" beginning at 9:00a.m. In the afternoon Patrick Perez will present "How to Videotape Your Family History". Meeting held at the Santa Fe Springs Library.
17 September & 15 October 1995. Hispanic Heritage Day celebration at old San Juan Capistrano Mission honoring 218 years of Hispanic culture with food, music and dance.
21 October 1995 The Immigrant Gen. Society of Burbank presents Trudy Schenk, accredited genealogist and German resource person at Salt Lake City FHC, co-author of Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., $22 for non members which includes lunch. P.O. Box 7369, Burbank CA 91510 for further information.
28 October 1995 The Questing Heirs Gen. Society, P.O. Box 15102 Long Beach CA, 90815-0102, will host the Heritage Quest Road Show, beginning 8:30 a.m. Contact Barbara Brown, (310)438-6254 for more information.
(D-126 RootstampsÔ)
MEMBERSHIP
No new memberships were received this month. Are you members telling your friends what a wonderful time we have been having at our meetings? Especially the July meeting, which was attended by 33 members and 11 guests.
The following members have renewed their membership for another year: Roy C. and Mary Jo Agran; Alice Catalyne; Bob Weatherly; Florence Wittenberg.
SAFARI REPORT
Eleven members joined the Safari trip to Carlsbad Library in June. These were Janet Franks, Pat McCoy, Slyvia Sliger and guest, Ruby White, Barbara Smith, Ellen Lalonde, Roseann Orewyler, Alice White, Dianne Miller
and Pat Weeks.
The July Safari trip, on July 26th will be to the Sons of the Revolution Library, 600 E. Central, Glendale.
We will meet as usual at the Norman Murray Community Center and depart promptly at 9:30 a.m. Since this is some distance away and the Library's hours are from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. it will make for a long day. Upon arrival in Glendale, we will eat lunch before going to the library. We suggest that you bring a brown bag snack, and nibble on that around 4:00. Upon closing time at 8:00, we will eat dinner in the Glendale area before tackling the drive home.
FUTURE SAFARIS
August 23rd Safari will be to the Huntington Beach City Library, 711 Talbert Ave., at Golden West St. It is advisable to bring your brown bag lunch.
September 27th Safari to the National Archives on La Paz in Laguna Niguel. The Ziggarut has a cafeteria on the 2nd floor, so you can either bring your lunch or "dine out".
ORANGE COUNTY ARCHIVES
At our recent July meeting, Judy Deeter brought us disturbing news concerning the Orange County Archives. Due to the County bankruptcy, the County Board of Supervisors have decided to transfer these archives to the County Clerk/Recorder's Office. Most materials in the archives are aoriginal, decades old, which can never be replaced if they are neglected, damaged or lost.
The Orange County Historical Commission believes the archives program would be served best if it became a part of the Environmental Management Agency which manages harbors, parks and all historical sites and also has the historical records management expertise. In addition, these records need curatorial care which the staff at the Old Courthouse could provide. Best news: no additional cost to the County with this arrangement.
We strongly urge you to write your Supervisor and express your concern that these archives be placed in the care of the best qualified to preserve such documents.
ÖÖReminder: to learn your area Supervisor and his address consult the County Government section under the Government pages in the front of your telephone book.
DUTCH ANCESTORS
A computerized list of Netherland's residents who emigrated to the US in the last century is on file at the Herick Library, Holland, MI 49412. Include a SASE. (Second Boat, Winter 95, via GSNOCC Newsletter, July 1995).
WWI DRAFT REGISTRATION CARDS
The WWI draft cards for California and parts of Arizona and Nevada have been acquired by our local National Archives i n Laguna Niguel and will soon be available for use.
OUT OF PRINT BOOKS
At the last meeting, the following sources were mentioned if you wish to find out of print books:
Heritage Books, 1540 E. Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, MA, 20716. With a SASE they will do a book search for you.
John F. Risley, 2627 N. Champlain Ave., Tempe, AZ, 85281, or (602) 947-3354.
Provides free book search.
Mr. Good Books, 24881 Alicia Parkway, Laguna Hills, by Pic & Save. Genealogy is under US History collection.
1960 Census - GONE
A slice of America's history has become as unreadable as Egyptian hieroglyphics before the discovery of the Rosetta stone. It is part of the price for this country's eager embrace of more and more powerful computers. Much information from the last 30 years is stranded on computer tape from primitive or discarded systems, unintelligible, or soon to be so.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans researching family history will find fascinating records of their relatives beyond reach.
A number of records lost or out of reach are:
200 reels of 17 year old Public Health Service computer tapes which were destroyed in 1990 because no one could find out what the names and numbers on them meant.
The most extensive record of Americans who served in WWII, on 1,600 reels of microfilm of computer punch cards. No manpower, money or machine is available to return the data to a computer so ordinary citizens could trace the war history of their relatives.
Census data from the 1960's on thousands of reels of old tapes. Some may have been decomposed, others may fall apart if run through the balky equipment which survives from that era. Since 1960 the Census Bureau has changed computers and tape drives five times. There are 4,000 tapes that were not copied that include parts of the 1960, 1970 and 1980 census. (LLCGS Newsletter, Jan 1991, by Jean O'Gara Meyers, via WAGS Newsletter June 1995)
ÖÖÖ
Don't forget to note the August meeting has been changed to the fourth Saturday, Aug 26th