San Diego Genealogical Society Presents Nancy Loe

We have been on hold for several months with our Genealogical Society’s monthly Meetings. Enough is enough…we need our Genealogy Speakers! For our April 25th meeting the San Diego Genealogical Society decided to try doing a presentation via a Zoom Meeting. 

We registered in advance to hear Nancy Loe present two topics.  The Society sent us a Zoom meeting notice with a link to click on as the meeting approached and we were ready to go. Our head of programs Cindy Ehrlich welcomed us to our Zoom Meeting and gave the mic to our President Diane McClure Lott. Diane welcomed us and updated us on the Society’s current happenings followed by Cindy introducing our speaker, Nancy Loe. Nancy is a Genealogist, a Professional Archivist and an author. Nancy’s website is entitled Sassy Jane Genealogy.

Nancy’s first presentation was entitled Organize Like an Archivist.

Nancy discussed using a consistent data entry and file naming system. She advised us that no matter what system you decide to use for your files (digital or paper) you must remember to be consistent in your naming of the files as well as in your source citations. This will make retrieving information from your files so much easier.

• I have a large percentage of my files saved digitally but I also keep paper files. When I am working on a particular ancestor I like using paper files. Sometimes I ‘see’ something on a paper copy that I didn’t ‘see’ on a digital copy of the same record. For my digital files I keep a list of my naming system so I can be consistent. After Nancy’s presentation I decided to go in to my Family Tree software and standardize the names of places in my data base so I would have consistency there.

Nancy shared the setup she uses for the naming of her digital Master Genealogy File with us. She has them arranged in 6 Subfolders labeled Administrative Files, Family Tree Software Files, Family Photographs, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources and Surnames. She strongly recommended keeping a copy of how you want to name your files for easy reference.

• When I began years ago collecting digital information, I set up and used a system I heard about after listening to a speaker at a conference. As I began collecting my digital files I kept the same system. Years later I now definitely feel I need to review this system and reorganize my digital files. Hopefully, I will have the time when I retire to do this and make the system fit my current needs a little better. Nancy’s words “You don’t own it if you can’t find it” are definitely ringing in my head. I will also need to go back and review the organization of my digital files.

Cloud Storage and Automated Backups was also a topic Nancy shared her suggestions about. Whatever you choose to use, be sure that you have backed up your digital data in several ways so you will always have a copy of it.

If you’d like to learn more about organizing your research you can purchase Nancy’s book Organizing Genealogy Research Using Archival Principals at www.sassyjanegenealogy.com/shop .


Nancy’s second presentation was entitled Picture This: Cataloging Digital Family Photographs.

Nancy discussed several technical terms we needed to know and understand in reference to photos. She gave us suggestions on scanning and downloading images such as scanning at a high resolution and saving the photo in a TIFF format in a Master file before copying it to use elsewhere. Nancy explained the importance of adding information in the Metadata of the photo, organizing your photos and how to name your files.
Nancy also talked about data security and reminded us the best thing to do is set up a system and have it regularly back up our files so you can “Set it to Forget it” and it’s done automatically.

To learn more about working with photos you can purchase Nancy’s ebook entitled Cataloging Digital Family Photos & Records at https://www.sassyjanegenealogy.com/shop/.

Nancy gave me so many things to review with my own files! Now to get started… What great reminders to get and keep us organized!  I applaud the San Diego Genealogical Society for trying something new and using this format for our meeting so we can stay in touch and so we can continue our research.  I also applaud Nancy Loe for being willing to try this.  Great job by all!  We are all learning new things during this very unique Covid-19 time in our lives.


If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby

San Diego Genealogical Society Presents Laurice Johnson

Laurice Johnson was the presenter at this month’s San Diego Genealogical Society Monthly Meeting. She is a long time researcher and an active member of the Temecula Valley Genealogical Society. Laurice was an informative presenter with many examples.

Laurice’s first presentation was entitled Facebook! And Websites! And Blogs! Oh My!

In this presentation we learned about how helpful Facebook can be with all the many genealogical groups available.  Be careful to protect your privacy by being safe and smart when using Facebook and don't forget to set 'Notifications' for the groups you want to follow on Facebook. We also learned about a website run by Katherine R. Wilson (www.socialmediagenealogy.org/genealogy-on-facebook-list) that contains lists of genealogical and historical pages available on Facebook. What an amazing site this is! Laurice also talked about Webinars on YouTube, University Archives, Message Boards on Roots Web and Ancestry, Books, USGenWeb and Blogs. Did you know there are over 23 million ‘genealogy blogs’? Katherine R. Wilson even has lists of country specific research blogs. SDGS members alone author at least 10 ongoing Blogs!

Laurice’s second presentation was entitled Family Search-The Other ‘beast’ of Genealogy Research!

In this presentation Laurice went into details about the immense, free, FamilySearch website and the millions of pages of records to be found there. Not all records there are currently searchable or indexed. Laurice walked us through using the WIKI for searching through the Online Genealogy Records. Records can be located by looking for records available for a particular location. This will let you know where to look for records and another way will allow you to search for the records that are available for a particular location.

• Previously, I had not been able to locate the Will of my maternal great-grandfather Jacob Hamman. When I searched the Wiki for records in Iowa and then looked for Probate records I first found:

(click on images to enlarge)

• This led me to Ancestry and an index of Probate records:

• Then by scanning through the microfilm records I was able to locate the record for Jacob Hamman:

• YEA! Success! Now, at last, I have the record and I will be able to transcribe the Will at a later date.

There are Research Tools available as well as How-To Videos about using the Wiki. FamilySearch also has “Community” groups where you can post a copy of a document in another language that someone at FamilySearch can translate for you. This will be a tremendous help for me when I finally locate some German records for ancestors.

The “Tree” at FamilySearch is a worldwide tree that anyone can add it. The “Tree” can be changed so be sure to add your sources if you decide to change something and keep your own records apart from the “Tree”.

Reminder-the light bulb at the bottom of the page on FamilySearch is your ‘help’ area.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby

San Diego Genealogical Society Presents Warren Bittner

Warren Bittner

On Saturday, January 18^th, the San Diego Genealogical Society held it’s Annual Meeting at Marina Village with Warren Bittner as the guest Speaker. F. Warren Bittner is well-known genealogical researcher and lecturer. I have had the privilege of listening to Warren speak on several occasions and find him to be very knowledgeable and entertaining. Each time I learn valuable new information for researching my ancestors.

The first session was entitled Meyer’s Gazetteer: Gateway to Germany.
Meyer’s Gazetteer has the most complete list of German towns anywhere from 1910 and that the FamilySearch Catalog is based on Meyer’s Gazetteer. Warren started out explaining the six levels of jurisdictions in Germany and then explained how to decipher the listings (names of areas, religions, courts, services, etc.) you would encounter when looking at a particular locality. There is a tremendous amount of information contained in the listing for a particular site. Warren also told us about an amazing new website called Search the Meyers Gazetteer that allows us to search Meyer’s Gazetteer and helps us in deciphering the information we find. So many States and Abbreviations to learn. Trying to read the original Meyers Fraktur font

can be very difficult, so, this website will be a tremendous help. While I have German ancestry I still have been unable to locate a region or town they have come from. As soon as I can find an area within Germany I will be heading straight to Meyer’s Gazette.

The second session was entitled German Maps and Territories.
In us beginning to understand Maps of Germany Warren first talked about how Germany’s boundaries have changed over time. Today there are 16 ‘states’ in Germany. He visually showed us these changes using an animated map that he found on YouTube. I found one such map on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P0QSxlnI which not only showed boundary changes over the years but also population growth. As Warren pointed out you need to know where your ancestor lived at the particular time period so you will know where to start looking for records. Villages could be under one area in one time period and not with that area at another time period. The following is an example of Europe in 1831 when my ancestor Theodore King is believed to have come to America.

(click on images to enlarge)

The third session was entitled German Marriage Laws and Customs.
Warren started out this session by explaining that “German peasants never enjoyed freedom of choice in marriage decisions.” He used pictures to help explain many of the marriage customs of the German people. Some customs depended on the region you lived in. It was also interesting to learn how many influences controlled who you could marry from the Noblemen, the Church, the Town/Village, not to mention the parents. Warren also talked about the types of marriage records you are likely to find and where you might go to search for those church and civil marriage records.

Warren’s fourth session was entitled The Fisherman Who Wanted to Mary the Executioner’s Daughter: Stories You Missed for German Marriage Resources.
In this final session Warren started off by telling us the story of the Fisherman who wanted to marry the Executioner’s daughter. This story helped us learn about the many groups that could influence who people could marry and the reasons they influenced these decisions. As Warren demonstrated and explained, using actual family research, he has been successful using a wide variety of sources beyond Civil and Church records for information. I was truly amazed at where and how he was able to find information about his ancestors.

I will definitely use the information that Warren presented when doing my own research on my German ancestors. When I hear about many of the customs and learn of the life that my peasant ancestors might have led in Germany I can understand why they may have decided to leave for the promise of a better life in America.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby