Wordless Wednesday - Folsom Prison 1879-1903

Editor's note: Today's post was provided by Denise Hibsch Richmond.

More on 3 Aug 2013

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What's Your Blogometer Reading?

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Denise Hibsch Richmond. 

Blogs have become a mainstay in my genealogy research toolbox.  How about you? Sure, I may be a love 'em and leave 'em follower at times but by and large I'm dedicated.  They're a wonderful educational tool authored by very talented writers who are frequently professionals in their blog subject.  What's not to love?  The article itself, links within the article, sometimes sources, comments from readers, and archived articles.

Here's the list of blogs I'm following.  One day I hope to find a personal blog about at least one of my ancestors (sigh).

4YourFamilyStory.com by Caroline Pointer  -  She recently wrote about the iPad apps she uses for genealogy.

Illinois State Genealogical Society  -  I have scant Illinois ancestry but their webinars are free on the day of broadcast.  Join and listen whenever you want.

Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog  by Harold Henderson -  He writes about Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan.  This blog is right up my midwestern pedigree - I have ancestors in three of the five states.  A noteworthy article included a free guide to using the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne.

Paula's Genealogical Eclectica by Paula Stuart-Warren - I watch for anything Minnesota here.

Search Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill - He trolls the news so you don't have to.  The tip about land records was recommended reading by Glenda Lloyd.

Sticky Notes by Ancestry.com - Find Ask Ancestry Anne here also.

The Legal Genealogist by Judy G. Russell - Immensely informative and witty about legal matters in our ancestor's day and in current times.  She writes about DNA on Sundays and recently wrote about maps.  Be sure to look up her article about Day 1 (you'll know what I mean when you click on the map link).

I also subscribe to the blogs for the California Genealogical Society and the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree.  These societies help me research my many California ancestors.  And the Jamboree Webinar series are free on the day of broadcast.  Join and listen whenever you want.

Now it's your turn.  What blogs are you reading?  Ok, besides this blog.  Click on Comments at the end of this post and let's talk!

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Society Saturday - August Calendar of Events

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Denise Hibsch Richmond.

Mark your calendar for all the happenings in August 2013 at Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society.  I hope you can take advantage of these terrific educational opportunities.

Board Meeting
Date: Thursday, August 1
Time: 10am to 12:00pm
Location: Sylvan Community Center, 7521 Community Drive, Citrus Heights, CA
Members welcome

Workshop
Date: Wednesday, August 21
Time: 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Location: Sylvan Community Center, 7521 Community Drive, Citrus Heights
Roundtable: Your successes or brickwalls
Mini-presentation: Documentation using the Legacy Family Tree software program by Glenda Lloyd and Marsha Wise.  This is the second of four monthly workshop presentations about the importance of documentation and how to enter it in a genealogy program.  Visitors welcome!

Special Interest Group (SIG): Reunion for the Mac
Date: Wednesday, August 28
Time: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Location: Family History Center, 2745 Eastern Avenue, Sacramento
Roundtable: Brainstorm solutions to users' problems, questions and explore ins/outs of the best Mac genealogy program. Contact Ron Setzer (PreservesEditor@rootcellar.org) to be added to the email list. Visitors welcome!

NOTE: Membership meetings will resume in September.

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Follow Friday - Keep Yourself Informed

Editor's note: Today's post was written by 

Keep yourself informed about what is being done to documents legally or NOT...............

The Legal Genealogist -keep yourself informed on what is happening in our legislative bodies in the state, in other states and on the Federal level.



Who Writes this Blog?  A Certified Genealogist^SM and Certified Genealogical Lecturer^SM with a law degree, The Legal Genealogist Judy G. Russell is a lecturer, educator and writer who enjoys helping others understand a wide variety of genealogical issues, including the interplay between genealogy and the law.


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Wordless Wednesday- Elephind

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward (graphics from NGS Blog)


There is a NEW Search Engine in Town...................... 








OR IN OTHER WORDS.............

There is a new search engine, Elephind.com, which was created to “search the world’s historical newspaper archives.” It encompasses free online newspaper collections. Currently, the coverage includes newspaper collections from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States.

You can help expand this collection by e-mailing Elephind.com with any other appropriate free online historic newspaper collections you know, contact .  Since it is a work in progress, do check back often and you can also subscribe to its mailing list 

 

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Sunday: Traveling to Indiana??

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward 

 A Shout Out to Our Root Cellar SGS members............ 

Anyone attending the FGS Conference?? 

Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) 2013 CONFERENCE

21-24 August, 2013

Fort Wayne, Indiana

 

Join the nation's genealogists as we "Journey Through Generations," steps away from the world-famous Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library.

 

What an opportunity to research in the second largest genealogical center in the country. Are you going? Have you registered yet? Have you made your hotel reservations yet? Next step the library catalogue.

 

I am signed up and ready to go. I am going a couple of days earlier so that I have plenty of uninterrupted time for research.  Now I  need to do my homework through the library catalogue before going.

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"Who Do You Think Your Are?" Season 4 premiers on TLC July 23

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

Contemporary celebrities star in the docu-reality television program "Who Do You Think You Are?"  Viewers to watch each celebrity's journey of self-discovery as they trace his or her family trees. Each week the show focuses on a different celebrity.

NBC created the series in 2010 based on a show of the same name showing in Britain. After the third season, NBC canceled it. Cable channel TLC (The Learning Channel) has picked up the show and its fourth season begins on July 23. Eight episodes will be broadcast. Celebrities expected to take part in the fourth season include Christina Applegate, Cindy Crawford, Zooey Deschanel, Chelsea Handler and Kelly Clarkson.

Genealogy apparently does have a glamorous side.

For a good history of the series, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Do_You_Think_You_Are%3F_(U.S._TV_series)

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Those Places Thursday – What is the Sacramento FamilySearch Library up to?

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

If you've recently visited the Sacramento FamilySearch Library (a branch of the Family History Library  in Salt Lake City), then you've noticed shelves of books with red and white striped signs attached.

Photo taken by Richard Hanson on June 6, 2013.

The signs designate the books that will soon undergo digital scanning. The digitized books will later be available for viewing on the FamilySearch.org website.

Photo taken by Richard Hanson on June 6, 2013.

Most of the scanned books will be removed the library. Eventually this process will result in the removal of several bookcases. The free floor space will be put to good use in the form of tables for library patrons.

Sacramento FamilySearch Library

2745 Eastern Avenue 

Sacramento, CA 95821

http://sacfamilysearchlibrary.org

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Tuesday's Tip -- Dropbox and Protected Invisible Files

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

As a genealogist, you realize the importance of access to your electronic data when and where you want it as well as having a copy backed up to a remote location safe from floods, fires, burglars and spilled drinks. There are a large number of Cloud-based online services (both paid and free) that can accomplish both. One of the more popular ones is Dropbox.

www.dropbox.com

I use Dropbox for two purposes – sharing data with others and as an off-site backup for data files. It is the later activity, backup, about which I made an interesting discovery while researching some perplexing Dropbox behavior. test

Most of my data to be backed up by Dropbox is on an external drive that is a backup-duplicate of my data drive. To make that external drive part of my Macintosh's Dropbox, I used a Unix  "ln" command to create in my Dropbox folder a symbolic link pointing to the external drive. For Windows, you can do the same with either the MKLINK or junction commands. How to do both of those actions is posted at many places on the Internet.

This linking approach worked but had an unintended consequence. Both the Macintosh and Windows systems maintain invisible folders on hard drives intended for system use only. When Dropbox attempts to sync and/or backup these folders, it is blocked from doing so by restrictive permission codes, Dropbox lists the problem folder names in its log saying "access denied."

Dropbox log displaying a problem file.

In such circumstances, Dropbox never gets to the green "all done" state. Instead it remains in the blue syncing state by continuing its futile attempt to access those files. But this is more annoying than problematic. It uses very little system resources while doing so.

It turns out that you can tell Dropbox to exclude folders from sync and backup. Open up the Dropbox preferences window and select the "Advanced" panel. Then press the "Change Settings" button. A file selection window will be displayed (as per below on my Macintosh). Uncheck the folders that you don't want to be backed up or sync'd. Then press the "Update" button to save your changes. 

Telling Dropbox not to touch a specific folder.

On a Macintosh the names of these invisible folders usually start with a dot (e.g., ".Trashes", ".Spotlight-V100", ".TemporaryItems"). But there are exceptions like "Desktop." Generally speaking, the contents of these hidden files pertain to the drive they are on and do not contain anything that you would want in a file backup (or sync).

Alas, it was not going to be that easy for me. Dropbox continued listing the problem file in its log and never reached the all-done (green checkmark) state. I tried deleting the files in Dropbox's local cache – didn't help. I tried unlinking and relinking my computer – made no difference. Then I unchecked the external hard drive (i.e., told Dropbox not to access it). That worked! After doing a considerable amount of "indexing" Dropbox ended up in its all-done, green checkmark state of bliss with an empty error log. I then check-marked the external drive's box and Dropbox spent a lot of amount of time indexing and downloading. But it eventually again attained the all done state. But there were consequences. My backup software (using the "smart" backup option) decided that all the files in the Dropbox-managed external drive had changed. So it recopied everything. That, in turn, triggered Dropbox to do a lot indexing and uploading. But it eventually all worked out and Dropbox is currently working fine.

Note: At the time I was performing the activities described in this article, I was using Dropbox version 2.2.3 running on a Macintosh (OS X 10.8.4).

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Military Monday – Veterans History Project

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.

Many of you are forever researching and, for a variety of reasons, are not yet ready to to publish something like a book. An unpublished and undistributed collection is always in peril. The owner may pass way. Collections by be destroyed by either a physical or digital disaster. Publishing is the solution. But there are relatively easy publishing solutions. One such easy solution is donating files (informational, image, audio/video) to an institution.

The Veterans History Project, sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, collects stories plus supporting files pertaining to military veterans and certain types of civilian workers for World War I through the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. Their website describes the submittal procedure. After the donation is processed, it will be physically housed at the Library of Congress facility in Washington, DC. About ten percent are currently searchable and posted on their website.

Six years ago I submitted a story and photos on my father's service in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. Unfortunately it was not yet part of that lucky 10% that is accessible on their website.

Veterans History Project

http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html

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FGS Announces Two Free Genealogy Webinars

Editor's note: The following is a press release from the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)  provided by Denise Hibsch Richmond. 

The Federation of Genealogical Societies announces two new webinars focusing on the use of military records in genealogical research.  These webinars are FREE and open to the public!

Discovering Local & State Militia Records
Presenter: J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA
Date: Tuesday, 16 July 2013, 8pm Eastern / 7pm Central
Register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/934226718

Take a closer look at the wide variety of records documenting our local militia companies. From annual muster to supplies and appointment of Officers, learn how these records may be used in your family research. Learn more about the military organization of citizens called for the purpose of local defense, who served this country from the Revolution through 1812 and on to the development of the National Guard.

J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA a full-time professional researcher & educator, formerly APG President and FGS officer. You will find him researching for clients including Who Do You Think You Are?, African American Lives or Biography’s uneXplained. With his love for teaching, you will see him at SLIG, IGHR, numerous webinars or at your local society.
 
Researching in the Post War Records of 1812
Presenter: Craig Scott, MA, CG
Date: Wednesday, 7 August 2013, 8pm Eastern / 7pm Central
Register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/663333166

This lecture will focus on the records created by the War Department after the War. It will include compiled military service records, pensions and pension payments.

Craig Roberts Scott, MA, CG is the President and CEO of Heritage Books, Inc., a genealogical publishing firm with over 4,900 titles in print. A professional genealogical and historical researcher for more than twenty-eight years, he specializes in the records of the National Archives, especially those that relate to the military. He is the Coordinator of the Advanced Military Track at IGHR and SLIG.

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society is a member of FGS.  Share the wealth - send your thoughts about the webinar(s) after tuning in by sending an email to rootcellarsgs@gmail.com.  You'll get the byline for a future blog post and you can include the surnames for which you seek or have found military records.  Now that's a pretty good deal. 

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Saturday Society - HIP HIP HOORAY!!

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward

HIP ! HIP ! HOORAY!!

FOR

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society Members!!!

Graphic by Rick Hanson

 

Root Cellar SGS &  members have participated in the Federation of Genealogical Societies

Pension Project War of 1812
 

AND We are all Winners!!
 

Root Cellar SGS Members donated out of their own pockets $725 WOW! fantastic & Thank You

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society has agreed to match all donations received up to $500.

SO DRUM ROLL PLEASE..................................

 

This month Root Cellar SGS is writing a check for $1275 to be sent to FGS towards

the Preserve the Pension Records - War of 1812

 

 

When FGS receives our check and informs Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com will match the $1275 and  write another check for $1275. This means that our initial fantastic collection of $725 from our own members has now grown to an amazing donation of

$2550 = 11,333 digitized pages

THANK YOU   

 

 

Continuing on with the story of the Pension Project War of 1812.....

 

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)  is having their next conference

August 21-24, 2013 in Fort Wayne, Indiana

 I will be there. Will I see you there? Let me know so we can hook up.

Fort Wayne has the second favorite place to hold a genealogical conference, Allen County Public Library houses the second largest Genealogy Center Library in the country.  

The first being in Salt Lake City- FamilySearch and the third in Texas (Houston or Dallas?).

 

NOTE: I am useing this as a little mini vacation so that I can really take advantage of the fabulous library before the conference actually begins. After the conference begins I seem to be very busy and don't have time to escape to the library. Denise Richmond and hubby Scott (I think) will also be attending. Who else will we run into? YOU?

 

Among all the classes and events will be a day of Society Sessions, plus a meet and greet for all society delegates and the "QUILT" from the Pension Project will be rafffled off. Root Cellar SGS has been entered since we donated to the project. If any of you donated individually as many of us did, those names will also be entered. So keep those warm fuzzy wishes and think good luck.

Denise and I would love to bring that quilt home for one of you. (I looked for a picture of the quilt but did not find one sorry)

 

Registration is open, but early bird prices have ended.

 

Learn from experts. Collaborate with other genealogists. Look for your ancestors in the more than one million books and microform sources in The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library

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Thankful Thursday - Happy Fourth of July - Enjoy your Independance!!

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner Benward
   graphics from layoutsparks.com and zwani.com

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Travel Tuesday "Family History Expo in Sacramento, California"

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner Benward

                           2013 Family History Expos                             

Northern California Family History Expo June 28 & 29, 2013

You have to know that the weather was in the 100 degree temps both days, thank goodness we were inside most of the time. However I don't think the air conditioning kept up with the weather outside, a little humid and sometimes stagnant air, but as the day went on the air was fresher and cooler, and then some were seen putting on a light sweater (can't win either way!!).

This was a 2 day conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel off Madison Ave, Sacramento. Lots of blue shirted Root Cellar SGS members were spotted.

 

Target in Sacramento donated bags for all the goodies and paperwork for this conference. Thanks.     I did order a paper syllabus and each participant received the syllabus on CD.

But wait, this was a GREAT deal.......  the syllabus of course contains all the handouts for this two day conference, but it also includes all the handouts from the Colorado Family History Expo (August 2-3, 2013) & the Midwest Family History Expo (September 6-7, 2013) & the Family History Library Research Retreat (April & October 2013). Both the paper syllabus and the CD contain all these handouts. Great deal? I would say OUTSTANDING! Thanks Holly. 

 

One of the Exhibitors: Genealogical & Historical Council of Sacramento Valley, there are flyers & other handouts from many of  the Society's that are members of the Council. Root Cellar SGS is one of those members. Root Cellar displayed the Golden Triangle Flyer, our Publication Flyer, 2014 Spring Seminar Flyer with Geoff Rasmussen/ Millennia Legacy Family Tree,             

and our own membership tri-fold brochure.

Also included on the table is Family History Day 2013 flyers [save the date October 12, 2013], Roseville Genealogial Society brochures, Sacramento Jewish Society brochures and lots of great flyers from the Sacramento Public Library. 

                                             Say HI to Beth Daugherty, Sacramento Public Library, who took care of the Council table on Friday and Gwen Meyers, President of Council and member of the Sun City Genealogy Group, who took care of the Council table on Saturday. Thank You.

 

 

These are only three of many types of family history charts that were available. I love the variety.  These are medium size wall charts.....  of course there are some charts that are as big as your living room wall and some that are very small - say as a personaliozed gift to that special young person.

The ChartMasters, Inc another exhibitor at the conference offered a free FILLED IN chart for every participant. But of course you needed to make contact with them ahead of the conference and send them your family information. Participants picked them up after registration of Friday.

What a great opportunity and I forgot.

What a difference in food and food service between this year and last year. Last year it was a disaster. Last year their restaurant was full and over half of them never received their food before the conference continued. Not a good thing at all...   This year they were prepared and ready and they did an OUTSTANDING job.  They were ready on Friday with a great $10 Italian buffet dinner which included cheescake for desert plus ice tea and ice water. AND on Saturday they offered a Mexican $10 buffet lunch including desserts, ice tea & water. Excellent food and value.

Friday started off with registration and then an Opening Key Note Speaker, James L Tanner. He spoke about "Top 10 Techniques: Fishing for Ancestors and other Persons of Interest" Tanner is actively involved in genealogical research, is the blogger for Genealogy's Star Blog. A featured blogger at RootsTech 2011 & 2012. He is on the support staff of the FamilySearch Research Wiki and is moderator for Arizona and Utah. He is the author of The Guide to FamilySearch Online (which is already outdated- he is working on the update).

There were two classes I took on Friday that were just painful so that is all that I need to say about that. 

I did take a class from Stephen P Morse PhD. You recognize that name - creator of the One Step Website, for which he has received numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. In his other life he is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electical engineering. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086, which sparked the PC revolution 30 years ago.  This session was: "One Step Webpages: A Hodgepodge of Lesser-Known Gems -- working with time intervals, tombstone dates, fallen soldiend in foreign alphabets, table lookups, number decoding and more.

Another session that was good and informative was "FamilySearch Catalog-Key to the Collections" with Sharon D Monson. Locating available books, microfilms, microfiche for a certain place or subject depends on the depth of the catalog search criteria. Thousands of books are now online and may have updated indexes. Filter your searches to save time and effort with the great tips on how to use the catalog. Thanks.

Saturday was another full day of classes......... disappointment right off the bat with a speaker left late Friday for a Family Emergency.  I hope all is well for Mr Underhill. I was looking forward to another session about "EVERNOTE" - another time.

"Moving on Downstream- Early US Migrations" with K Monson, MEd........  went over a number of early migration routes, why did they leave their homes in the old country & come to the Americas,

The Three Musketeers (Marilyn, Charlene and Sandi) attended the "Presentation is Everything" Well it really sounded good. This will take a little learning curve and time so we'll see if any of us follow up on it.

James Tanner gave a presentation on "Family Tree has replaced New FamilySearch. Are you ready?'
Mr Tanner gave a great history of the website and what the goals were and how they have changed. As you will see the home page of the FamilyTree has changed, more updated look. All information is still there.

Something I have not seen before was several session for Chinese Research with Sheau-yueh (Janey) Chao. I did not attend any of them but was glad to see new areas being explored. She is a Professor and an Librarian, Head of Cataloging in the Williamd & Anna Newman Library of Baruch College City University of New York.

AND our own James Rader taught several classes in DNA. He isa civil engineer, computer programmer & adult education instructor. AND James M Baker, PhD, CG was teaching several classes in German research. He has a PhD in socialogy and retired from the aerospace industry. He is a certified genealogist (CG) with specialities in German and Midwest US research.

AND of course there was the Closing Notes with the President of Family History Expos HollyT. Hansen, BA. .....  If I do say so myself this is MY year.........

I WON!!  YES! I WON!! 

 

What did I win? A $500value Gift Certificate from Arlene Eakle, Genealogical Institute Inc.
YES, some professional help with my research. Can you believe that? It is true and I am so excited............             Read about an opportunity for a Reseach Grant worth $400

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