G E N E A L O G Y C L U B

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1 Willow Va ll e y G E N E A L O G Y C L U B March 2016 First MacKiev update available for Family Tree Maker On March 2, 2016, the Ancestry team announced that a free update is now available for both PC and Mac users of Family Tree Maker 2014 / Mac 3. Both updates are compatible with the latest operating systems (Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan), and will provide continued access to ancestry.com trees, including hints, searches, and the ability to save your tree on both desktop and Ancestry online, or to download a GED file. In addition, the update includes over one hundred new backgrounds and new embellishment artwork. The updated version is a free, seamless download for Family Tree Maker 2014 and Mac 3. At the same time, it was announced that users of earlier versions of Family Tree Maker will be able to upgrade to FTM 2014 or Mac3 at a discounted price. Upgrades from any edition will be available as a download for $29.95 (vs. $69.95 regular price). There will also be an option to receive an installation CD for an additional $10 by mail. To be eligible for this special offer, sign up for MacKiev s mailing list at New users are eligible to purchase the current software at the introductory discounted price of $49.95 by signing up for the MacKiev mailing list (see web address above). Software MacKiev started shipping updated versions of Family Tree Maker 2014 for Windows and Family Tree Maker Mac 3 on March 1, It is anticipated that a new version of the software will be developed by the end of this year, which will continue to allow FTM users to keep their family tree synchronized with ancestry.com. March Meeting: Dressing for the Photographer Tuesday, March 15, at 2:00pm Speaker: Carolyn Bausinger Learn to identify the time period of 19th century photographs based on clothing worn and other clues that are part of the photo itself. You may not be able to tell if the person in that old photograph is your great-grandmother or her sister, but you can identify the date of the picture to within a few years and thus narrow the possibilities. Those attending will learn to become photo detectives while analyzing 19th century mystery photos submitted by members.

2 Coming this spring April: Restoring Family Photographs Willow Valley Genealogy Club Board Members George Nettleton President Carol Fox Vice President Dave Hazlebeck Secretary Forrest Collier Treasurer Wayne Barner At Large Cheri Weakley At Large Carolyn Bausinger..... At Large Newsletter Editor Carolyn Bausinger Learn what types of damage can be corrected quickly and easily using simple programs available online, which you could learn to do at home with a little training, and which are major projects, best left to a professional. Discover some free or inexpensive online tools that will do many corrections for you, and learn about more capable (but still inexpensive) software for which training is available right here at Willow Valley. May: Exploring Tax Records You will discover that there is more information than you realize about your family in old tax records. Jim Landis will be here to share all you need to know to help you locate, search, and interpret those records. Free April Member Raffle All members attending the April meeting will receive a raffle ticket and be entered into a drawing for the chance to win one of 3 books on identifying and dating old photographs. Members must be present to be eligible for the raffle. Following his program, Jim has offered to discuss with any of our members family-related tax records or research that they have found but do not fully understand. Jim told us that he would be very happy to take a look at your information and tell you what he sees in each case. Start now to look through your own research to see if you have tax records you would like to discuss with Jim. The May meeting will be here before you know it! June: Digitized Newspapers: All the news that s fit to print Wayne Barner will be here to share with us everything you need to know to get started researching subscription newspaper databases. Learn the ins and outs of exploring the contents of old newspaper collections, where to find them online, and how to access them. 2

3 From the President s Laptop We just completed two sessions on brick walls, which hopefully, provided some food for thought for those of you who attended. Whether the handouts, presentation or discussion were most helpful isn t important if you received a clue for your own brick wall. It was nice to hear the buzz of sharing and collaborating which went on in the groups in the second session. This is perhaps the one area we don t try we think we can do it ourselves. If these sessions have been fruitful, maybe we can use the half hour tea time for sharing your genealogy questions and expertise to grow our own family trees or to get over some brick walls. Coming up this month, Carolyn Bausinger will be presenting dress as it relates to 19th century photographs. This is another tool for overcoming a brick wall. Maybe you have a photo you can t place in time. This presentation may help you to lock in the time to help pinpoint who the unknown person is. It may also help better pinpoint the time frame, if you know who she/he is. And it will hopefully help to organize those photos which are just jumbled and piled in boxes or on counters, helping to make the clutter useable. And we will continue with photos in April. It is a presentation on how to clean up and edit those photos which may have scratches, cracks, or are almost grayed-out. It should help for transforming some of these presently worthless photos into useful ones. It may also allow you to see the outfits to know when they were taken. We ve had some great programs this year and I m excited to see what the At-Large Committee has set in place for next year. Your ideas from the survey, which was sent out several months ago, have been collated and reviewed by the committee. A tentative calendar of programs for is being developed. If you check the list of tentative programs and see a topic you would like to develop, please speak to Cheri Weakley, Wayne Barner, or Carolyn Bausinger or send them an to let them know. We have a wealth of information and experience in our group and we should be able to share that with each other. Left: President George Nettleton led an informative session on ways to break through genealogical brick walls. Club members worked on four separate brick wall problems in discussion groups, gathering later to share and discuss their ideas for future research. 3

4 Willow Valley Genealogy Club Tentative Program Calendar September 20, 2016 Writing Your Family Stories Presenter: Alyce Jenkins February 21, 2017 Religious Records October 18, th C. Immigration to America November 15, 2016 Combining Photos & Life Stories Presenter: Carolyn Bausinger December 20, 2016 Genealogy Webcast Title: TBD January 17, 2017 Intro to Genealogy Records both In Person and Online March 21, 2017 Hands On Workshop: Online Research Techniques Presenter: Gerald Wilson April 18, th C. Immigration to America May 16, 2017 Estate Records and How to Interpret Them Presenter: Jim Landis June 20, 2017 Military Records and Fold3 Can you help us? The programs chosen for next year are based on your responses to our recent member interest survey. We appreciate your interest, and your willingness to assist the program committee in choosing programs that will be of interest to our members. At the present time, we are searching for speakers who would be willing to present one of the unclaimed topics in the list above. If you have an interest in one of these areas or if you know someone who has an interest in them or knowledge that could be shared. please contact a member of the program committee: Cheri Weakley, Wayne Barner, or Carolyn Bausinger. Their addresses can be found on page 2 of this newsletter. Thank you! 4

5 The One Hour Genealogist Looking for a family member s burial location? Wondering how to track down an ancestor s Civil War service records? Hoping you might locate former family property on an old map? Wishing you knew more about how the expert genealogists research a family? For the answers to these and many more questions, author Nancy Hendrickson has created the One Hour Genealogist series. Each of these brief but informative books is available to read on a Kindle (or a Kindle reading app, downloadable to any ipad, smartphone, or Android tablet) for only $2.99. Each contains a wealth of tips and ideas for everyone researching family history. How to find your Civil War Ancestor Discover your Union or Confederate Civil War ancestor. Detailed instructions on how to use a free online site to find your family member as well as the regiment in which he served and the men who shared his fight. In this One-Hour Genealogist guide you'll learn how to locare this information, as well as where his regiment traveled, the battles in which he fought, his rank going in and coming out of the army, and whether he fell on the field of battle, How to use Maps in Genealogy If you want an idea of the geography of your ancestor s world, a period map will help almost as much as a visit. Old maps show old place names names that may no longer exist. Although your ancestor may have lived in the same location for generations, the name of the place and the county in which it was located may have changed numerous times. Period maps will depict the landscape as it was, including the rivers your family forded and the forests they helped clear. Cemetery Research on the Internet Because we have an insatiable desire to learn more about our ancestors, one of a genealogist s favorite things to do (along with learning where and how they lived) is to tramp through old cemeteries. Cemeteries can contain a treasure house of clues for further research: the inscription on just one stone can contain a maiden name, a place of birth, the names of children or wives, and cause of death. Family Tree Case Study Use Nancy Hendrickson s five-step method to untangle your family tree mysteries. In this book, she uses a personal case study to illustrate how to approach online genealogy research like a detective. While many people search the Internet in a hit-and-miss fashion, Hendrickson uses the same skills as a "library researcher" to identify a goal and then uses internet resources to solve a problem. 5