FERNDALE GENIES MEETING MINUTES

 

DATE: February 15, 2021

IN ATTENDANCE: Judith C; Sylvia W; Bill R; Peggy V; Rick; Frank; Margie; Sherry J; Barbara B; Linda B; David; Elizabeth D; Sue P; Judy S.

CHECK INS

Linda B is working on her maternal great-grandfather’s ID. She has learned some important German keywords used in records in the early days. Ancestry provides a lot of translated records. Through the local Family Search Center, she found a published book, Decipher German Records, which has proved very useful. It can be ordered through Amazon as If I Can, You Can Decipher German Records by Edna Bentz.  It comes in a soft cover with spiral binding.  Also on Amazon, you can find the book, The Magic of German Church Records by Schober. Linda is also studying German naming conventions. She learned that a lot of original source newspapers have translation capabilities. She found another interesting history book, Letters of a German American Farmer, which is a rich source of the lives of immigrant farmers.

Judith C has been working with Newspapers.com. She finds the “save/print” feature to be difficult but found a great article on an ancestor from the 1920s who was arrested for his socialist activities. Judith has also been attending interest groups from genealogy special interest groups put on by clubs such as the Seattle Genealogy Society and the Eastside Genealogy Society. She feels these special interest groups are especially good for helping her target topics to focus on. If you are considering joining a society, check with Judith to find a good fit for yourself.  Judith is also continuing to write her personal history.

Elizabeth D is writing about her “troublesome” great grandmother and is now working on her own grandmother whose life is revealing surprises that she enjoys sharing with her family. Elizabeth finds value in looking over what you’ve already done to check what you might have missed earlier. She is also working on the German line of her tree.

Margie: Margie looked up her own marriage to Frank on My Heritage, but it did not appear. Suggestions were offered to use the collection description to see what dates and locations are included, and to put in less information in the search. More information may not all match the record.  Also, females need to remember to put in the maiden name rather than the married name.

Sherry J is researching her German family origins and wants to attend the Genie’s German group.

Sue Perry has found more information on when her grandmother came to the United States and how many came with her. Now she is researching when/if her grandmother was naturalized.

Peggy has signed up for Roots Tech and is looking forward to it. She is researching her grandmother who lived in what is now Ridgefield, WA but used to be “Union Ridge” named for Union army soldiers who settled there after the Civil War. She has been looking at photos from other trees online. She warned that Newspapers.com’s “all access” really means only basic papers and you need to pay more for a larger collection.

Rick called Ancestry after his subscription ran out and told them he wasn’t inclined to continue as there were no deals or special prices for the expensive subscription. He was immediately offered the basic subscription at half price! He shared a tip: that if you hover over the article in Newspaper.com the content pops up in a box which you can then email to yourself as an easy way to save or share it. Rick also told an interesting story about his grandfather who was a radio operator in WWII when the battle ship the USS North Carolina came into trouble in shallow waters and no one knew how to warn the ship. He used automobile headlights and morse code to warn the pilots. This story was related in a newspaper article he has in his possession, which has notations on it by his grandfather. Rick contacted the ship’s Museum for more information, and they are researching the incident.

Bill R shared a story about newspapers and warned, “Be careful what you read.” An article he found stated that an ancestor who was a coal miner in Pennsylvania died in a disastrous accident in the coal mine. It turned out the reporter had used the list of those assigned to work that shift instead of those who actually died there. His ancestor had been assigned to work but did not go in to work that day.  He was alive.

David R spoke about 23andMe going public and suggested people talk to their financial advisors if considering investing in the company. He discovered that Ancestry’s Thru Lines has not been especially helpful to him in breaking through his brick walls, though useful in finding more matches with common ancestry. He asked about the tool of “auto clustering” on various sites. This can be done by Genetic Affairs. Ancestry served Genetic Affairs with a cease-and-desist order so they are unable to analyze Ancestry matches for us. Genetic Affairs can do clustering for 23andMe, FTDNA and GedMatch. My Heritage partnered with Genetic Affairs to build a simplified version for their site. You can “paint” Genetic Affairs clusters onto DNAPainter.

Judy S has contacted a DNA match and they are communicating. She has found a link to an ancestor after watching a biography on Henry Gates Jr. She is checking in with all the various sites she is on.

Sylvia W has been working on revisiting the family trees she has online to see how many new records might be out there on individual ancestors that can be added to their profile page. Sylvia has also signed up to attend Roots Tech and is looking forward to a weekend of learning.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND BUSINESS

Judith reports that the Genies DNA work group has not scheduled a future meeting at this time. Members have a lot to work on. If anyone wishes to continue, they need to contact her and a meeting can be set up.

This is a good year for conferences. No need to travel or spend a lot of money, you can enjoy the conference in the comfort of your own home while we are still in the pandemic. Some conferences are:

RootsTech: The event begins Feb 24 at 8 pm Pacific. You can join 4 hours before that for the Expo Hall.  Registration and information at rootstech.org.  At that home page right under the picture are links to the Main Stage Schedule and an 18-page PDF of the classes and presenters.  There is no schedule for the Sessions.  They will be available at any time for the next year.  Search the classes using Control/Command F.  There are 5 matches for German and 60 for DNA.  If I find a speaker I like, I search by speaker.  I’ve heard that many of the talks are 20 minutes similar to Ted Talks. 

The Genealogical Forum of Portland is celebrating its 75^th Anniversary with a Virtual Open House.  From Mar 27 through Apr 3, they will have 18 free classes.  More later.

The International German Genealogy Conference will be two dates with live speakers, July 17 and 24 plus 50 pre-recorded lectures.  It is a paid conference with early bird pricing by March 31.

Judith also reported that Judy Bayliss has regretfully bowed out of our Genies due to a conflict in her schedule. We hope she can continue to join us in special interest groups when possible.

Our minutes only scratch the surface.  For more information, we can put you in touch with our members. 

 

NEXT MEETING:

Genies German Group next meeting: March 2, 2021 at 1:00 p.m.

Next Genies meeting: March 15, 2021 at 1:00 p.m.