FERNDALE GENIES MEETING MINUTES
DATE: Monday October 19, 2020
IN ATTENDANCE: Judy B; Linda B; Judith C; Elizabeth D; Frank & Margie; MaryKay J; Peggy; Rick; Bill R;
David R; Judy S; Sylvia W
CHECK INS
Judy B:
Judy is diligently working on hundreds of letters from her husband’s parents, many from WWII. A 2nd
great grandfather was a chaplain. Lots of rich information and details about that time period. Letters
often in carbon as carbon copies of letters were distributed to other family members and sadly the
originals are no longer extant but the faded, tissue paper copies are all that is left and are hard to read
and transcribe. Discussion ensued about preservation of personal artifacts such as hair, dentures, etc.,
and waiting until DNA testing is at a technological level to be reasonably priced and accessible to all so
that DNA can be extracted from these sources. Even envelopes should be saved as they have been licked
to seal and might reveal some DNA clues!
Linda B:
Linda mentioned that she had seen in her own family how certain features can be reproduced in later
generations. She recognized family features in a photo posted on Ancestry. Linda also had two exciting
things to report: she has been researching her great uncle Fred and has found a lot of information
online. She is planning to write a story attached to a shadowbox about him. Also, she got an email from
a DNA match of her husband. Their common ancestor turned out to be an English seafaring captain and
there are stories to tell of his history. The DNA cousin had lots of information but said it was stored in an
old computer which is not working anymore. She is hoping it can be fixed and the family information
accessed so the story of the sea captain and his family can be told!
Judith C:
Judith is helping her young granddaughter who has recently expressed an interest in genealogy, much to
Judith’s delight! They are building her granddaughter’s family tree together and Judith realizes that in
this tree, she is only one quarter of it and the other ancestors are all strangers to her, but she is happy to
find she is really enjoying building someone else’s tree! They are building the tree on Family Search,
which Judith likes as it is becoming more interactive now, provides more hints, attaches records to trees, and provides good source citations.
Judith printed a fan chart of the tree which is easy for her granddaughter to understand and prints up to seven generations. Family Search tree is one tree, but you can connect living people to people in
the tree. She is
writing sketches for each member of her son-in-law’s tree.
Elizabeth D:
Elizabeth has been reading a book on South Carolina. She is trying to find information on her Scots-Irish
ancestors in Newberry County. (Suggestion: US GenWeb, which is volunteer maintained, covers every
county in the US with all kinds of information on the county.)
Frank & Margie:
Margie got her DNA test recently through 23and Me. She asked how to locate a potential cousin from
the list of 1000+ cousins (suggestions included using the site’s shared cousin tool to identify a group of
cousins with the same common ancestor, and using other tools including DNA Painter to find out how
the cousin is likely related to you). Frank has a DNA match with someone who grew up just 18 miles
from him. Margie asked about emails that arrive in another language. (Suggestion: highlight the email
content and go to Google Translate, copy and paste and you should get a translation.)
MaryKay J:
MaryKay believes in the importance of writing her own memoirs. She is currently writing her own and
her husband’s. She mentioned that regarding keeping artifacts, she has a doll that belonged to her
grandmother. Her grandmother’s hair was cut and made into a wig that was put on the doll.
Peggy:
Peggy enjoyed reading a book on the Scots-Irish social history recommended by Judy B. It gave her
insights into her own background. She believes she is related to Blaine Bettinger, but likely through
marriage.
Rick:
Rick has an intriguing puzzle regarding female ancestors who were born in the 1870s and reported as
twins in some census records, but death certificates place them two years apart. Rick is trying to
determine if they were sisters or twins born at the same time. More research is needed, and other
records may help, including state census records, church records, marriage records, etc. Judith reminded
us that the 1890 census records were burned, so there are huge gaps in information, and that state
censuses can be unreliable. Not all states kept them, and others kept them only sporadically. The state
censuses tended to be halfway between the federal ones.
Bill R:
Bill is researching a close 2nd
-3
rd cousin. Neither of them knows how they are related. Bill is trying to find
out about his grandfather’s unknown paternity. The cousin has a 90-year old mother who refuses to talk
about family history. He is trying to find out by surreptitiously getting information but not letting her
know! Bill built up the grandmother’s tree for the cousin and is excited to be researching this family’s
past. (Suggestion: maybe DNA Painter tool WATO might help the cousins find a common ancestor.)
Another topic for a separate special interest group to work on.
David R:
David posted a tree on Ancestry a while ago, and recently revisited it. Someone was expressing an
interest in the tree as they had the exact same tree. It turns out they were related via marriage. David
asked for help finding out about his paternal grandmother who was adopted. He wants to find her birth
family. Judith suggested a separate special interest group of a few people who can help answer
questions such as this.
Judy S:
Judy has been researching what were known as “border reivers” who were both Scots and English clans
living at the border between Scotland and England and how she might be related to this population.
Sylvia W:
Sylvia watched a PBS program called “King Arthur’s Lost Kingdom” from the PBS series Secrets of the
Dead, [Series 17, Episode 3] which showed the migration patterns from Europe by the Britons, Angles
and Saxons during the middle ages and how they peacefully mixed in with native populations rather
than conquering and taking over as had previously been written about in history. This is useful for
helping us understand our own ancestor migration patterns from Europe to the British Isles.
Sylvia also showed a series of photos demonstrating how facial features from a single ancestor can come
down through more than one descendent and still be evident in a great-grandchild or even a 2nd great
grandchild, making us wonder whether our own features may have come down almost intact from a
distant ancestor.
FURTHER INFORMATION AND BUSINESS
Judith showed the group some neat tricks with Zoom, adding “virtual backgrounds” and “filters” such as
cartoon characters and “accessories like flowers, mustache, etc.
Blog this time didn’t post. Judith gets a two-hour window and must wait until the next one to post again.
Judith mentioned that in the last few months, we have been a pretty regular group of the same 12 or so
participants. She said this is helpful to her as she can learn what we are researching and interested in,
and tailor information to each of us.
NEXT MEETING: Monday November 16, 2020 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
