Midwest Computer Genealogy newsletter for April 2002
Volume 9 Number 4

Upcoming program

President’s Comments for the month.

Well we made it through another one of our twice a year rituals of either setting the clocks up or setting the clocks back. You know, the “Spring Forward” and Fall Back” thing. We just happen to have 10 running clocks in our house, but that is not all, there are two automobile clocks, 3 watches, and 3 computers. Each one of these time pieces have their own unique way of being set up or set back.

Actually we have 3 clocks that are fairly simple to set up or back. They are not digital and they do not strike on the hour or worse yet, on the quarter hour. The rest of them are either digital or they strike either on the hour, the half hour, or on the quarter hour.

Our big Grandfather clock does the quarter hour striking thing, and the instructions that came with the clock says to never set it forward or it will damage the mechanism. However, I have figured out that you can set it forward if you do it in increments of 14 minutes at a time and then wait for it to strike its quarter hour thing, and then move forward another 14 minutes. I also found out that it is probably faster and easier just to move it back 11 hours.

Our wind up mantle clock strikes on the half hour and can be set forward with out difficulty if you stop for it to strike at each half hour, but to set it back just won’t work with out getting the striking all out of whack. In this case you have to set it forward 11 hours or simpler yet, just stop the clock for one hour.

Each one of the digital clocks has its own set of rules on how to set it forward. Most digital clocks will not move backwards, but we have one that has forward and reverse, fast and slow. Then if you have a digital alarm clock to change, you have to deal not with a12 hour situation but a 24 hour situation, and you had better get that right if you want to get up on time.

Even worse, no two clocks work the same way. Twice a year I forget which one works which way, and have to get out the book for each one and read the instructions. I always think that I won’t forget how to do this six months from now, but I do. Any way it keeps me up on reading instructions that never make much sense, not that I don’t get enough of that by trying to read manuals for computer hardware and software.

The one that upsets me the most is the VCR digital clock. I have programmed it to automatically move forward and backward on the right day each spring and fall. I have owned this idiot for 5 or 6 years and not once has it ever corrected it self automatically. I even hired my grand children to program it for me and it still does not work. I always have to do it manually.

Now the easy ones are the computer clocks. They make a big to do about telling you that it is automatically resetting your clock. Just because the computer does it automatically does not mean that the time will be correct. It does not seek the correct time then adjust its clock accordingly, it is not that sophisticated, it just bumps the time up or back one hour. If the time was wrong to begin with, then it will be wrong after it has done its thing. So I feel obligated to log on to the international atomic clock to get the correct time and set all of our clocks at the exact right time.

So twice a year all of our clocks are in synchrony. Our clocks, however, are very independent minded and usually within a few weeks each one is marching to its own drummer and there is no more synchrony. They usually stay that way until the next time change comes along. The nice thing about this kind of time keeping is that you can use which ever clock suites your needs the best.

Secretary’s report for the March 2002 meeting

The President, Wayne Boydston, M.D. convened the monthly membership meeting of the MCG, at 9 a.m. in the meeting room of Bannister Mall in South Kansas City, MO.  Also present were the newly appointed Treasurer, William Hawkins, the Program Chairs, Jack and Judy Revare, the MCG Editor, Don Bjuland; and long-time MCG member and leader and instructor, Jim Stout.

The President reported that the status of our future access to this meeting facility is still pending further advice by the Bannister Mall officials.  The President also advised the membership of the recent death of long-time MCG member and friend, Henry Llewellyn.  A memorial service is now in the planning stages, with the service likely to be held in Hank’s home community, of Odessa, MO.

Judy Revare asked for volunteers to prepare and serve refreshments at our monthly meetings.  Judy announced program plans for the April and May meetings of MCG.  Tom Leathers, long-time Johnson County Editor and Publisher will present the April program.  The May program will be presented by Jack Revare, who has just completed publishing his family history.

It was announced that the Family Origins SIG meets monthly on 9: a.m. on the first Saturday of the month at the Blue Valley Branch of the Johnson County Public Library System.  This location is just off U.S. Highway 69 (Metcalf Ave.) on 151st St. in the town of Stanley, KS. For more information, contact Rowena Shaffer at: snowtop@juno.com.

It was also announced that the SIG for The Master Genealogist meets monthly on the fourth Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. in Hanson Hall of the Old Mission United Methodist Church at 5519 State Park Road, nearby the intersection of Shawnee Mission Parkway at Mission Road.  For more information, contact Judy Revare at: judy@revare.com or call: 913-491-1768.

Don Bjuland presented a very informative program, demonstrating with the aid of computer generated projection technology, the key features of several software programs used by genealogists to record family history and related data, and to generate and to produce numerous and varied genealogical charts, forms, reports, etc.  Software programs demonstrated included: Family Tree Maker; Family Origins; Legacy; PAF (Personal Ancestral File) and TMG (The Master Genealogist).  Don also briefly demonstrated the transfer of genealogical data using GEDCOM and related Freeware. Don advised of a currently available web site that compares various software programs concerning the features they contain and the operations that may be performed using particular genealogy software. (http://www.mumford.ad.ca/reportcard/charpage.htm)

This meeting was adjourned at 11:00a.m. Reported by Ivan Waite, Co-Secretary

• http://www.geocities.com/izsayitall/wisconsin_death_notices.htm This is a collection of write-ups from newspaper posted by an individual of Wisconsin people.  Also can check out these for Wisconsin information.
• http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Vista/9027/Wisconsin_death_notices.htm
• http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Vista/9027/wisconsin_generations.htm
• http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Vista/9027/wisconsin_marriage_notices.htm

A New York site that looks like it is for some years. http://istg.rootsweb.com/arrivals/nyc.html for New York 1820----1929.  I didn’t check this one out.

Sweden help http://www.ssa.stockholm.se/forskarsalen/Aspdb/Mantalsreg/mantal55.asp "Mantalsböcker 1855" (I haven’t checked this out either so not sure of the address if it is one word or not.)

Town locator it is claimed to be http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgi This site has everything you need to find a town in the USA. You can even use variables in spelling when searching. It also tells you which county the town is in.

Another site is zipinfo.com, it is supposed to be a complete  Place Name Database for the entire USA, with city names, town names, township names, place ZIP codes, county names and ZIPS codes, state.

Also this is supposed to work.  If you go to google.com, type in: usa+townships, most of the state websites will appear, usually many pages of listings.  If you know the state you are looking in, go up to File, click on it, then click on Edit, then on Find on this page.  Type in the name of the state for which you are looking, and the cursor will find it if it's on that page.  If not, go to the next page, etc.

Also can try the USGS Geographic Names Information System http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_query.gnis_web_query_form Select the state and then a drop down list of counties becomes available when you click on county. Then select Feature Type:  civil, Send Query This should give you a list that includes both cities and townships.

If anyone gets any good out of these sites let me know how and what they did for you or should I dropped including them in this newsletter.