Midwest Computer Genealogists newsletter for
November 2002
The Midwest Computer Genealogy group usually meets the 3rd Saturday of
each month and for November our meeting place will again be at
the Foxwood Springs in Raymore. Foxwood Springs is about a mile
east of highway 71 on highway 58. Foxwood has a web site:
On November 16 Marjorie Slavens will be giving a presentation on how
to find genealogy information on the Internet.
No meeting is planned for December.
Ken Sokel will be giving a program in January on how to collect family
history using a cam corder and how to conduct interviews with family
members.
The Family Origins users group will be meeting Dec. 7, 2002,
from 09:00 to 11:00 am, at the Blue Valley Library, 151st and
Antioch. The new Blue Valley Library address is 9000 W. 151st St. The
meeting room with a capacity of 75 is right inside the door. Bring
friends! If you have questions you may email them to Jim Stout
at < mailto:jimstout@earthlink.com>jimstout@earthlink.com.
He likes to know what we need help on. For more information contact
Rowena Shaffer
A TMG group (The Master Genealogist) Meeting is held the 4th
Thursday of each month starting at 10:00 AM. The meeting is in Hanson
Hall of the Old Mission United Methodist Church located at 5519 State
Park Road. This address is located at the southeast corner of the
intersection of Mission Road and Shawnee Mission Parkway. [Fairway,
KS] For questions contact Judy Revare at 913-491-1768 or
email to judy@revare.com.
Combination Secretary and President's Comments for the month.
I am a bit late getting this out and in the past I could say I was
waiting on the President to get an article in but now I have to do
that also. We have had a busy past two weeks as we had people in
to work on the foundation of the house. The basement walls were
moving out and down in the earth so a crew came in and put pilings
down to bed rock and jacked the house up a bit and then it is to hold
it from moving more in the future. Then it was to get a plumber
in to do some work on a few things. So I kept putting this
off each day but now it is time to get it out.
In October we had our first meeting at Foxwood and we had about our
usual number average of a bit over 20 present for the meeting which
was a CD presentation by Jim Stout on how to use land records in the
search for your ancestors and how they moved about in the early days
of our country and its settlement.
November 16 we will again be meeting at the Foxwood in the
Bromwell Lounge which is located just across the hall from the door of
the main building. The surroundings of the meeting area are
pleasant and there is a coffee shop across the hall from the meeting
room for refreshment break if desired.
Back in May I got an offer from TMG I couldn't turn down as to the
cost of the program and I thought they would be shipping TMG version 5
soon after they got my money. Well they listed a web site that
you could download the program from so I tried it and it was a fully
operating program but lacking many of the features it was advertised
to have. Every once in a while you can download a new update and
the other day I downloaded a 7 meg update that want faster than any
update so far. Well TMG is close to full function now and
will do many of the things it was described as capable of doing.
They still have to get it to move the data outputs to a word processor
and such but guess they will get it done. It now will do many
more of the chart features and reports they listed as it was to do in
the beginning.
About a couple months or so ago I got a notice from the computer that
there was updates available from Microsoft that I could download, so I
told it to go ahead and do it. Well a few days later I went to
use Word and wonder of wonder it didn't work anymore. It would
not load it without locking the computer up solid. I tried to
take Word out and put back, no help, Took out Office and put
back no help. Tried to use the restore feature of ME and then
Norton and some other things said No we won't let you do that.
Ended up going out and getting Star Office 6 and putting in for a word
processor. It does most of the things that Word will be but in
its own way. Still learning how to set up some of it
features. One thing I found out is its search and replace
function is not as good as Word when it comes to special
characters. Then to get the Style features of it set up to stop
using some of the wild fonts it thinks are great to put in the
document as you write it. Another thing it does not to do is to let
you paste something into a star office document from some other
programs as you have to go to paste special to get it to work.
It will open and save to word doc. format but it complains a bit when
you save in word.doc format but it will do it.
Don't know about the rest of you but I am getting emails that are said
to be a petition for this and that and they ask you to sign it and
send it along to more people. When it gets so long you are to
send it to an address listed in the message. Boy oh boy can they
get long and in a way they seem to be a chain letter type thing that
can sure clog up the network if everyone keeps sending them to all
they know.
Well be cleaning up the mailing list this month for the ones I mail
out copies to make it agree with the treasurer's records. Bring
down the monthly costs a bit. Will leave the email list for now
as it as no cost involved in it.
Don
History lesson for you:
Thoughts on genealogy from Judy Revare:
Dollarhide's Rules For Genealogy
1. Treat the brothers and sisters of your ancestors as equals....even
if some of them were in jail.
2. Death certificates are rarely filled in by the person who died.
3. When visiting a funeral home, wear old clothes, no make-up, and
look like you have about a week to live...the funeral director will
give you anything you ask if he thinks you may be a customer soon.
4. The cemetery where your ancestor was buried does not have perpetual
care, has no office, is accessible only by a muddy road, has snakes,
tall grass, and lots of bugs...and many of the old gravestones are in
broken pieces , stacked in a corner under a pile of dirt.
5. A Social Security form SS-5 is better than a birth certificate
because few people had anything to do with the information on their
own birth certificate.
6. The application for a death certificate you want insists that you
provide the maiden name of the deceased's mother...which is exactly
what you don't know and is the reason you are trying to get the death
certificate in the first place.
7. If you call Social Security and ask where to write for a birth
certificate, tell them it is for yourself...they won't help you if you
say you want one for your
great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather who died in 1642.
8. When you contact the state vital statistics office in your home
state and ask if they are "on-line" and they respond,
"on what?," you may have a problem.
9. A census record showing all twelve children in a family proves only
that your ancestors did not believe in birth control.
10. Work from the known to the unknown. In other words, just because
your name is Washington doesn't mean you are related to George.
11. With any luck, some of the people in your family could read and
write....and may have left something written about themselves.
12. It ain't history until it's written down. (See #19)
13. A genealogist needs to be a detective. Just gimme da facts, ma'am.
14. Always interview brothers and sisters together in the same room.
Since they can't agree on anything about the family tree, it makes for
great fun to see who throws the first punch.
15. The genealogy book you just found out about went out of print last
week.
16. A good genealogical event is learning that your parents were
really married.
17. Finding the place a person lived may lead to finding that person's
arrest record.
18. It's really quite simple. First you start with yourself, then your
parents, then your grandparents... then you QUIT . . .and start
teaching classes in genealogy.
19. If it's not written down, it ain't history yet. (See #12)
20. In spite of MTV, computer games, and skate boards, there is always
a chance that your grandchildren will learn how to read someday.
21. "To understand the living, you have to commune with the dead,
but don't commune with the dead so long that you forget that you are
living!" (From Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John
Berendt)
by William Dollarhide
Need help with newsletter:
I could still use help on articles so you do not have to listen to my
carrying on. How about it anyone want to write up a review or
thoughts on a product or book? What do you wish for programs as
to topics and how often should we meet and where? It is your
group so get back to the program committee or your editor and we will
see what we can do. Give the program committee members some
ideas as to what you would like to see or hear.
Information on other groups for Seniors:
SeniorNet (This is a repeat from last month for information)
For those of you looking for some help with computers you want to
check out SeniorNet. SeniorNet is a national nonprofit
organization that helps older adults connect with computers and the
Internet. SeniorNet offers computer classes for seniors at 240
learning centers throughout the nation, including Hawaii, plus three
sites in Japan.
Local SeniorNet meetings take place every second Friday at Johnson
county Community College. Meetings are held in GEB 233. It
is suggested you arrive by 2:30PM to check in and be in your seats at
3:00 PM when announcements are scheduled to start. Due to a
change in membership costs, the SeniorNet site at JCCC has a special
rate. To be able to take advantage of this discounted
membership, call Harold M. Duvall at 913-362-4143 or attend one of the
monthly meetings to obtain more information.
December 13th Jennifer Dalton, Marketing Manager for Kansas
City.com will present information about the Internet, Kansas
City.com and changes in the on-line industry.
Contact members of the MCG group are as follows:
President---------- Donald Bjuland
816-461-4948 dbjuland@worldnet.att.net
Vice President---- Judy Revare
913-491-1768 judy@revare.com
Secretary------------Open---need help on note taking
Program chair----- Have group but no chairman named as of yet.
Members are as follows:
(George Wiszneauckas) geowis@aol.com
(Rowena J. Shaffer) snowtop@juno.com
(Ruth MaGill) armagill@worldnet.att.net
Kathleen McPhilliamy jrmcp@earthlink.net
Treasurer----------- William Hawkins---913-631-6294 bihawk@earthlink.net
Group dues are still $12 a year and the year runs from June 30th to
July 1st of the following year. New member dues are prorated at
a dollar a month for balance of club year remaining.
Dues are due and you may send your dues payment to
William Hawkins
5436 Flint
Shawnee, KS 66203
Don Bjuland (editor) dbjuland@worldnet.att.net
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