Saddleback Valley Trails

Vol 6 No 11 Editor: Gail Gilbert November 1999

South Orange County California Genealogical Society

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

20 November 1999 Our own Tom Hruska will report on his recent trip overseas, researching his Czechoslovakian ancestors back to 1615. His talk is titled "CZECHing your ANCESTORS" and will include tips and pitfalls of doing genealogical research in a foreign country.

18 December 1999 Instead of our regular meeting, we will have our Installation of Officers for the year 2000, followed by our Annual Holiday Party. Everyone is asked to bring his or her favorite "holiday treat", and beverages will be provided.

15 January 1999 Toni Perrone will once again be our Guest Speaker. In March 1999, Toni spoke on "General German Research." This time Toni will speak on "General Italian Research."

30 October 1999 The British Isles Genealogical Research Association of San Diego will present a seminar at the Handlery Hotel, 950 Hotel Circle North, featuring Nora Hickey who will speak on finding and documenting your ancestry in Ireland. Cost: $35 for members, $40 for non-members, lunch included. Contact: Kathleen McInally (619) 479-1516 or [email protected].

6 November 1999 The Hemet-San Jacinto Genealogical Society will present "A Family History Seminar" featuring Henry Z. "Hank" Jones, Jr. FASG, at the First Presbyterian Church, 515 E. Kimball Ave., Hemet, CA, from 9:30-3:30, registration at 8:30. Topics will include 1)When the Sources are Wrong. 2) Tracing Origins of Early 18th C. Palatine Emigrants. 3) Family Tradition: How to Separate Fact from Fiction in Genealogical Research. 4) How Psychic Roots Became an 'Unsolved Mystery'! Pre-registration before Oct 15th will be $20, $25 at the door. Luncheon $5.50 by reservation only. Send checks payable to H-SJGS to PO Box 2516, Hemet, CA 92546.

8 November 1999 The Temecula Valley Genealogical Society will present an "online workshop" with John Movius, FEEFHS Webmaster, who will cover "Using New Tools to Solve German, Swiss, and East European Genealogy Problems." Detailed information is available from Toni Perrone, [email protected].

9 November 1999 The Orange County CA Genealogical Society will present Everett B. Ireland, CGRS who will talk on "Those Mesmerizing Court House Records." 11:00 am at the Huntington Beach Central Library. Contact: http://www.occgs.com/events.htm.

13 November 1999 The SHHAR Quarterly Meeting will have a Special Sesquicentennial speaker, Bruce Buonaruro, who will present historical re-enactments of significant CA figures at 10 a.m., "Understanding the Catholic Orders of the Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits." Classes will be offered also from 8-9:30 a.m. Location: Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba. Information: (714) 894-8161 or [email protected]. (This event has also been posted with a conflicting date of Nov. 20th, so if you are interested in attending, you need to call to check on this.)

14 November 1999 The Jewish Genealogical Society of Orange County will hold a "drop-in workshop" from 1:30 to 3:30 at Club #1 in Leisure World in the art gallery. The workshops will cover about a dozen topics for beginner to advanced researchers, including how to use the genealogical software program, JEWISHGEN.ORG. Bring your own family book. Help will be available in translating Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, German and Hungarian. For more information, contact Neal Ruby, Program Chairman, at (949) 661-3168.

20 November 1999 There will be a Family History Fair in Corona, CA from 8 am to 5 pm. The fair is FREE and will include five sessions of six classes each for a total of 30 classes. Some of the speakers are nationally known. More information is available at <www.family tracer. com> or from Robin Davis, Fair Chrm., at home (909) 734-0556 or at work (818) 972-8959.

28-29 January 2000 The San Diego Genealogical Society & Convention & Visitors Bureau will present GENTECH 2000, "Bridging the Centuries: Bringing Genealogy and Technology Together", at the San Diego Concourse Convention Center. For more information: (888) 5222-7313, [email protected], or website http://www.gentech.org/2000home.htm/.

26 February 2000 The Whittier Area Genealogical Society will have Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck speaking on "Research in the Heartland TX, OK, KS, NE, MO. Information: (562) 695-5431.

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Last month's Safari to the SCGS library in Burbank and the SAR library in Glendale had to be called off the last minute, and it won't be possible to go there this month because the SAR library will be closed for the month. Watch for a future trip to these two libraries as they are worth the long drive. The destination for this month's trip was undecided as of the general meeting, but may well be the Orange Family History Center. Call our Safari Leader, Rich Faber, at (949) 364-0745 to check in advance or simply appear at the FHC at 9:30 am on the 4th Wed. of the month to join the Safari.

We are pleased to have a few new volunteers to serve as docents at our genealogy desk in the library, but we can always use more to cover for vacations or the unexpected. So if you can help, please contact our librarian, Betty Mc Kenzie at 830-9164 so she can put you on the list.

CORRECTION

In last month's newsletter, we did not mean to mislead you. The article explaining land warrants was submitted by Pat Weeks, not written by her, and we did credit the source at the end of the write-up. We would love to have more members submit articles of interest to publish in our newsletter. These could be general information on doing genealogical research, unusual discoveries you have made in your own researching or pieces from other periodicals which you think other members would be interested in hearing about. Of course, we are always interested in publishing your pedigree charts, surname lists and queries as a way of promoting an exchange of information. Let me hear from you.

Membership chairman, Iris Graham, wants us to know, that any new member joining now, for the year 2000, will get the next two months free! Just send the membership application at the back of this newsletter with your $20 ($25 joint) to Iris at P. O. Box 4513, Mission Viejo, CA 92690-4513, or bring it to the next meeting on Nov. 20th.

Jean Nepsund, Research Chairman of the Immigrant Genealogical Society in Burbank, has announced the formation of a Pomeranian Interest Group as a result of sizeable interest shown in Pomeranian research at the recent FEEFHS Convention. Interested members are invited to attend a meeting on Sunday, November 7, 1999 at 1:30 pm at the Immigrant Genealogical Society Library, 1310 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA. Present at this meeting will be John Movius, Webmaster for the FEEFHS Website, who will tell of his trip through Vorpommern and Hinterpommern, visiting such areas as Griefswald, Grimmen, Zarrentin, Kirch Baggendorf, the Ueckermunde border crossing, Stettin, Stargard, Burow, Wollin, Massow and Golenow. Also at this meeting, there will be a discussion on organizing an official group with officers who can carry on continuing programs for Pomeranian researchers in the general Los Angeles area.

NARA INFORMATION (nara.gov)

The National Archives and Records Administration has announced at their site that the 1930 census is scheduled for release after April 1, 2002 when the 72 year restriction on public access runs out. It will be available at the National Archives in Wash. D. C. and at Regional Facilities in 13 major cities. However, the indexes are incomplete, as the WPA indexing project, begun during the 1930's depression years, was interrupted by WWII. Indexes, using the soundex system, are complete for AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN & VA. Also done, 7 counties of KY (Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Kenton, Muhlenberg, Perry, and Pike) and 7 counties of WV (Fayette, Harrison, Kanawha, Logan, McDowell, Mercer & Raleigh).

Gene Cramer has brought this to our attention: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG talks about a new magazine, HISTORY MAGAZINE, at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gormleym/This publication will be produced by the same people who pruduce FAMILY CHRONICLE, of Moorshead Magazines Ltd. in Toronto, and will "focus on the social history that we genealogists find so fascinating." Sample articles of the first Oct/Nov issue can be viewed on their Web site, http:/www.history-magazine.com/ where you can also subscribe. Or call toll free, 1 (888) 326-2476. An annual subscription for six issues is $24 in U.S. ($28 in Canada).

Also from Gene Cramer: The volunteer project hosted by RootsWeb, called RANDOM ACTS OF GENEALOGICAL KINDNESS (RAOGK), has a new site at http://raogk.rootsweb.com/ This project has grown to more than 1,500 volunteers who offer to do "legwork" for people living outside their locality, obtaining copies of documents, taking tombstone pictures, and other "acts of kindness."

The Orange Family History Center has informed us that The Nixon Library is looking for male descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence to participate in a 4th of July, year 2000, reinactment of that historic occasion. If you qualify, are willing to dress in costume and would like to join this program, please contact Beth McCarty (714) 997-7710 or call the main desk at the Orange FHC.

Some of the more common nicknames used for traditional ones include the following:

Does anyone know what Dicey is short for?

NARA has two new series of microfilm in the Genealogy Research Room:

Also housed in the Gen. Research Room are the 1870 Census Index Books:

Barbara Renick again provided us with a most enjoyable and informative lecture. Her outline of material was particulary helpful. For those who were not there, she began by dividing genealogical research into two parts: B.C. (Before Computers) and A.D. (After Discs). She then discussed the 4 phases of doing research (l. Survey, 2. Research, 3. Evaluation, 4. Publication) and how our approach has changed with the new computer technology. Using the old classic methods, a researcher used letters, phone calls, visits, family group sheets, libraries of family and county histories, and joined all the societies in the localities of interest and traveled there to collect data. Now, "after disc", we have a myriad of research tools literally at our fingertips, connecting us with all kinds of databases over the Internet. Instead of time consuming correspondence, we join discussion groups, mail lists and surname forums, and use e-mail for rapid communication. As an amateur genealogist for the past 30 years, with a room full of hard copy research, I could really appreciate Barbara's talk, and my own recent personal experience researching over the Internet has made me a believer. After 20 years of trying to track down my mother-in-law's Price family, I was able in 3 days and 7 e-mails to obtain several leads and one reference containing her probable family line. How exciting! Thank you, Barbara. Visit Barbara's web site for more, www.zroots.com.

At our November meeting, we will be voting on the following slate of officers, so be there.

[email protected]