YVGS FAMILY FINDERS
YUCAIPA VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
www.yvgs.org
P.O. BOX 32, YUCAIPA, CA 92399-0032
Sponsored by the Yucaipa Branch Library
2015—VOLUME 33 NO. 1
Welcome 2015
Message from the President
2015 will be an exciting time for the Yucaipa Valley Genealogical Society. A great foundation for the future for YVGS was set in 2014. We had several great guest speakers and a line-up already is in place for this year. Established YVGS traditions: Book Sale, Show and Tell, and Christmas Potluck are on the schedule to look forward to. New last year was our working together with the Historical Society and I look forward to working with them in 2015. The board would like to hear suggestions about a field trip this year to build on the trip we took to the archives in 2014. Workshops are being planned to expand and grow our genealogy, both for each of us individually and as we expand our study of Yucaipa pioneers. All in all it is shaping up to be an exciting year and I hope we can add some new members to share the experience.
Yours,
Floyd K. Ferguson, President
2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ELECTED OFFICERS
President Floyd Ferguson
Vice President -Programs Terry Brown
Workshops Floyd Ferguson
Secretary Sue Wolfe
Treasurer Billie Wilkes
APPOINTED CHAIRS
Parliamentarian vacant
Corresponding Secretary Sue Wolfe
Librarian Vacant
Editor (temporary) Marg. Polich Hospitality Sue Wolfe
Hospitality Barbara Firestone
Welcome Terry Brown
Membership Marg. Polich
Publicity Terry Brown
Sunshine (temp) Terry Brown
Historian Sherry Todd
Website Project (temp.) Marg. Polich
Asst. " " Barbara Firestone
Asst. " " " Melinda
Richardson
The Yucaipa Valley Genealogical Society, Inc. meets at 1:00 P.M. on the SECOND Saturday of each month at the Yucaipa Branch Library, 12040 5th Street, Yucaipa.
YVGS annual membership fees are $20.00 for individuals or $25.00.00 for families. This amount includes the monthly newsletter and free query privileges. $10.00 will have our newsletter mailed to another society or individual out of the area.
The Editor and Society assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Misstatements of fact will be corrected upon receipt of proof of error.
Here is your opportunity to have professional help!!!
Nancy Carlberg will be coming in March!!! Send your Dead End to Nancy for her help? Nancy needs time to review your problem. Send it to her early!
Send to:
Nancy Carlberg
1782 Beacon Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92804
Phone: 1-714-772-2849
Email:
Yucaipa Valley Genealogy Society
General Meeting Minutes
December 13, 2014
The meeting was called to order by President Rick Clark at 12:00 P.M.
Since this was our annual Christmas Party, the only business was to elect our new officers.
The newly elected officers are:
President – Floyd Ferguson
Vice President – Terry Brown
Secretary – Sue Wolfe
Treasurer – Billie Wilkes
We had a new member join – Mona Coplin
A wonderful time was had by all who attended the Christmas Party.
Respectfully submitted by
Sue Wolfe,
Secretary
Still think you are having a Bad Day????
A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had been happily listening to his Walkman, or MP3.
Please Don’t forget!
We’re still selling
Stater Bros.
gift cards at each meeting.
The Society receives a percentage back from Stater’s…and everyone needs groceries!
The money we make from the cards is paying our bills for the society: speakers, printing,
coffee, etc.
Consider buying a card or two to use when you do your grocery shopping.
Give Stater Bros cards as gifts… to anyone who does you a favor.
Give one to your local charity to help those in need!
Coming Events
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Yucaipa Valley Genealogical Society
at Yucaipa Branch Library, 12040 5th Street in Yucaipa.
12:00 Workshop
– Setting Goals –
When you think you have it all done or hit all the brick walls, where you can go from there.
1:00 Meeting: Program Topic:
" Discover the Different DNA Testing Types"
Speaker: Phyllis Blevens
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Yucaipa Valley Genealogical Society Meeting
at Yucaipa Branch Library,
12040 5th Street in Yucaipa.
12:00 Workshop:
To be announced.
1:00 Meeting: Program Topic:
"Faces of America", video, part 3.
contributed by Charlene Fink
Thank you members of the YVGS for bringing the refreshments. What a variety!. They were so good.
Barbara Firestone, Hospitality
This is an oldie, so some of the sites have changed, but the ideas and suggestions are still relevant.
5 Projects to Complete in 2012 2015
Article Details
Type: Article
Source: GenWeekly
Published: 01/Apr/2012 and again Jan. 2015
Prepared by: Gena Philibert-Ortega
(a past-President of YVGS)
Spring 2015 is upon us and so too is the bewilderment of how fast 2012 is flying the years fly by. How are you doing with your family history goals for 2012? Still wondering what they should be? Here are some genealogy projects you can complete this year.
1. Document the Ancestors You Knew
Too often genealogists focus on generations long dead. While it can be exhilarating to find infor-mation about your Civil War soldier or your 17th century forefather, it's equally important to docu-ment the ancestors that are of a much recent origin. Sometimes in our excitement to trace our family back we forget about documenting our parents and grandparents and their families.
Take some time this year to go through your geneal-ogy database and take note of what documents you are missing on those more recent family members. Do you have your parent's marriage certificate, what about your maternal grandmother's birth certificate? Dad's military records? Think about the historical eras that your parents and grandparents lived in and consider what social history you could add to your documentation that helps tell the story of their lives.
In genealogy, start with yourself and then work your way backwards. Yes, it's not as exciting to "trace" your parents, but by documenting your more recent family you are also leaving information behind for the future generations of genealogists who will take up your work.
2. Document Your Heirlooms
The family genealogist tends to acquire stuff, whether it's paper documents or heirlooms that are entrusted to the one person who will care for them. But what happens to those heirlooms if you are no longer around? Will your family know the significance of the item, where it's from or its value to the family? Now's the time to do an inventory of your family heirlooms and create a book or digital file of information about the heirlooms of which you and other family members have possession. These finished books can be distributed to family members as a way of sharing your family history, as well as being used for insurance purposes.
You can create your own form for family heirlooms, documenting who owns the item now, name of the original owner, a description of the item (measurements, condition), and any stories behind the item and the significance to your family.
There are also forms available from Family Tree Magazine's Oral History and Heirlooms page
3. Take a Genealogical Audit
As a new researcher, we tend to early on catch the excitement of finding our ancestors on subscription websites, obtaining vital records and talking to family members. But sometimes we haven't been as thorough as we should be. This can be a reason to take a genealogical audit. An audit is defined as "an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project of product." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit).
A genealogical audit could look different depending on the years you have been researching and what your research project looks like. Some ideas for conducting your own genealogy audit include:
• Going through your genealogy database and checking that all of your facts are sourced.
• Looking through your paper files and making sure each document has a source citation.
• Analyzing each person to make sure you have found the facts and documents you need.
• Conducting new searches on Ancestry.com to see if there is new resource for each person.
• Scan documents and save to your genealogy software program.
• Backup all your genealogy files and images.
Whatever you decide to do, take some time to review the genealogy you have now, that it is sourced, that it is protected and that you have conducted a reasonably exhaustive search.
4. Identify your Photos
It's the bane of most genealogists' existence. They finally get a stack of family photos only to discover that none of them are labeled. And of course no one in the family knows who those ancient relatives are.
Now, take a look at your present-day family photos. Are they labeled? If yes that's great. But if not, now is the time to start labeling them. Make it easier for your descendants to know who family members are and who are simply friends or neighbors.
There are some do's and don'ts of labeling photographs. In making them easier for your descendants to identify you don't want to cause damage. Make sure never to label photographs with a ball point pen. Use a photo pencil that is made for writing on the back of photographers. Also, never use anything on a photograph that will cause damage or that cannot be undone including adhesives, metals, laminates or markers.
You may also want to scan your photos and either uploads them to a photo sharing website like Flickr or Photo Bucket or even a backup website like DropBox. You should also consider copying them to a DVD or flash drive to send to family members. The more people in possession of photos, the more likely they are of being handed down through the generations.
5. Write Your Life Story
I think many of us wish that our ancestors left behind diaries or journals that would help us better understand their lives. While some are fortunate to gain such an inheritance, most of us are not. I imagine our ancestors didn't leave these items behind for various reasons aside from illiteracy. Those who could have written a journal may have wondered why anyone would care about reading about their lives.
Sound familiar? Are you writing in a diary or journal? A diary or journal can be whatever you want it to be. Not interested in writing on a daily basis? That's okay, what about a monthly round- up of what happened or a yearly remembrance.
However you do it, journals can be a great way to keep genealogical details of your own life, the lives of those around you and the lives of those you are researching.
For those who do not like taking pen to paper, you may choose to keep a journal or start a personal history on your computer. This can be done by using your word processing program or by purchasing and using a special program meant for journal and personal history writing. Roots Magic sells the software, Personal Historian that can be used to write histories of your ancestors as well as your personal history and can even be used as a diary. It works with your genealogical database to import names and dates, which can be helpful if you decide to use the program to write personal histories about your ancestors. It also helps you organize your ideas, which can later lead to writing a longer narrative. You don't have to invest in Personal Historian to see if it would work for you. Roots Magic provides a free download at their website so you can try the software before you buy it.
Drabble
Contributed by Jamie Daniel
NOTE: There are quite a few of our members that are interested in Fold 3.
Fold 3 has come out with an article about the formation of the Seabees during WWII. Did you have anyone that was in the Seabees?
___ ___ ___
2015 Legacy Family Tree Webinar Series announced
(These are FREE!!! If you can't watch at 11:00 a.m., you will get an email, allowing you to watch for a couple of days, at your convenience. If you want to pay a year subscription fee of $49.95, you can watch all 200+ webinars, at your convenience. Allow about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours each. ...your editor.)
Millennia Corporation and FamilyTreeWebinars .com are pleased to announce that registration is now open for its 2015 Legacy Family Tree Webinar Series. Choose from 58 classes from genealogy's leading educators (approximately 87 hours of free genealogy education) on topics ranging from genealogy technology to in-depth research methodologies and evidence analysis. See the complete schedule below.
We've added several new features to our 2015 webinar series:
· Evening webinars! For those who work during the day to support their genealogy habits, we have scheduled at least one evening webinar per month.
· Popular speaker and writer, Marian Pierre-Louis, will guest-host our evening webinars.
· Beginner's series. Accredited Genealogist, Peggy Lauitzen, will present a three-class series designed especially for beginners.
· Researching with Karen! series. Submit your research problem to Karen for a chance to have personalized recommendations explained during the live webinar.
· Subscribers-only bonus webinars. Another new membership benefit for Annual and monthly webinar subscribers - private bonus webinars presented by Thomas MacEntee and Judy Russell.
· See which webinars you have registered for (another perk for webinar subscribers). Just login and the green checkmarks appear!
Sign up for one or for all of them today (so you don't forget later) and you will receive a reminder email both one day and one hour prior to the live event.
Click here to register for individual webinars.
Click here to register for multiple webinars at once.
Webinar Brochure
Print the webinar brochure to share with your friends, genealogy society, or Family History Center.
FamilyTreeWebinars.com memberships
All live webinars are free (excluding the members-only bonus webinars), and their recordings are free to watch for the next 7 days. If you missed a previous webinar you can now have access to the entire archives (almost 200 classes) and instructors' handouts (more than 800 pages) through a monthly ($9.95/month) or annual webinar membership ($49.95/year). Click here for more information or to subscribe.