Big thank you to Linda B for taking the minutes.
Ferndale Genies Meeting, March 15, 2021
Present were Judith
C., Rick B., Susan C., Susan M., David R., Bill R., Peggy V., Linda B., Frank, Margie, Suzie P., Linda L.
Next Meetings both at 1:00: Ferndale Genies, 19 April 2021
German Group, 6
April 2021
Sue M. Uses
Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. A woman
posted on Facebook that she had medals inscribed with David Anthony
Harding. He is in her tree, as he is her
great grandfather from England. This
news eventually got to Sue, she was able to get in touch with the person who
discovered the medals, who sent them to her.
Sue’s son took a 23 & Me DNA test for health reasons,
got matches and has been communicating with her about them. He made some unexpected discoveries.
Sue is looking for someone to translate a letter from
Macedonia. Suggestions for finding a
translator include Community Groups on the Family Search website, or Facebook
group for genealogists researching that region.
Frank Found a
cousin via matches from a 23 & Me DNA test, who has done extensive research
on both sides of his family. The cousin
has been able to identify the town their ancestors lived in, school records 100
years old, newspaper articles, and so on.
One set of immigrants came in via Baltimore and another through Elllis Island. A photo of Frank’s grandfather, found in
naturalization papers, was sent to his aunt, who was pleased to have it. She had never seen a photo of her father in
his youth.
Margie Judith
sent to Margie a link to a webinar that may be of interest to anyone
researching Polish ancestors: “Beginning Intro to Polish Genealogy.”
Bill R. Has continued to work on digitizing photos
and slides. Now has had video files
converted as well. He used a company
called Scan Café, based in Indianapolis.
Contact him via Judith for tips on working with the company. Bill has been watching free webinars by Lisa
Louise Cooke. In particular, he enjoyed
an interview with staff from the Pennsylvania State Library, in
Harrisburg. Ms. Cooke’s podcasts are
called Genealogy Gems (lisalouisecooke.com).
There are levels of participation:
Elevens with Lisa is free every Thursday morning. There is also a premium membership
level. Lisa Louise Cooke has a technical
bent to her work. If one were to follow
just one genealogy podcaster, she might be the one, in Judith’s opinion. (Judith
is a subscriber.)
Rick B. Has
continued to research the story behind a newspaper article he has, on which his
grandfather had written a note that the radio operator described in the news
story was him. The story involved a
ship, the SS North Carolina, coming into port with the help of morse code
signals by said radio operator. Rick was
able to track down the original article in the Washington Star, learned a bit
more about his grandfather, and eventually got in touch with the curator of the
ship’s museum, who sent him a lot of information about the ship’s sea
trials. Part of this set of information
was a letter from a dozen reporters expressing thanks for the opportunity to be
aboard the ship during these trials.
Rick and his wife plan to visit the ship when it is open this
summer. It is in dry dock nearby. An interesting side note, Rick delivered the
newspaper, the Washington Star, in the 1960s.
Sue C. New
member. Lives in Ohio, near where her
ancestors settled. They were “savers,”
so Sue has a lot of interesting documentation that was passed down through
generations. She is stuck on identifying
her McLane ancestors. She has a
collection of letters describing some of the family history, but the accounts
cannot be proven.
Sue wondered how to date a photo based on clothing of the
subjects. Suggested strategies:
Look up Maureen Taylor, photo
detective, at MaureenTaylor.com.
Google fashion eras, or similar
topics
Post the photos on a genealogy
website, such as Genealogy Squad and request assistance.
Contact a county historical
society or museum where the subjects lived.
Linda L. Would love to
speak with Susan C. about mutual interest in the Pennsylvania region they are
both researching.
Suzie P. Working on
digitizing slides from her parents’ collection and almost finished. Will then organize the photos. Her father had an inventory, but it cannot be
used “as is” because she sorted and downsized the collection. She was able to send some photos to other
family members, including her 90-year-old uncle. In answer to a question, she explained that
she labels her photos with name of the person and an estimated date in the file
name. Judith mentioned that using
metadata is another way to label and track photos. Rick shared how he prints the data on a
background sheet and mounts the photo on it.
David R. He has been going through estate records of
an uncle and found a box of tin types.
He also found a box of photo negatives in folders. How to view or print to view? Suzie is using a digitizer that may be used
for that purpose, though she has not tried that.
David has been looking at Ancestry
matches related to brick walls in his research.
Also mentioned that since Linda B. introduced the Meyers Gazetteer
website in German Group (www.meyersgaz.org), he was
able to locate his grandfather’s village, including houses. The Ecclesiastical menu on the website also
enables one to identify nearby parish churches, Protestant or Catholic, and
distance from the village one is researching.
Peggy Has contacted a
cousin in Milwaukee for info on an ancestor, Cornie Copley (sp?) Is also now looking for her great
grandmother’s siblings. Has purchased a
book relevant to her research: From
the Emerald Isle to Cream City, which tells the story of Irish immigrants
who settled in Milwaukee. It includes a
story about a ship filled with Irish immigrants that sank in Lake Michigan in
1860. Her ancestor was among those who
perished. Peggy may travel to Ireland
with her cousin.
Linda B. Linda shared Sylvia’s news, as she
could not attend: My update is that I am
doubling down on getting all my known information about my suspected paternal
side together so I can write a report to include the evidence I have already,
my hypotheses regarding the evidence, the brick walls, and next steps. I plan to take that information to the Family
Search Center and see if someone can help me with any missing records and
suggestions for next steps.
Linda attended RootsTech and three
seminars related to her German & Prussian research. Also taking Katherine Schober’s course,
“Reading the Old German Handwriting.”
All of these have been helpful in researching her grandmother and her
family, who came from Prussia. One
interesting ancestor she found was her grand uncle, who served in WW I. Much information was available, including the
ship that transported him to France.
Judith C. Information about upcoming conferences will
be sent in a separate blogpost.
