Review of our February meeting

I missed the February meeting, but fellow member, Selma has done a great review of the class. She has it posted in the "files" section on our Facebook Page too. Here is the link to our Facebook page.


Our Genealogy Group meeting notes from 7 February 2016
Genealogy Do-Over month 2 Establishing Basic Practices and Guidelines Setting Research Goals

We started the meeting by introducing new members and visitors. Welcome!

Last month we watched about 17 minutes of the Legacy Family Tree Webinar My Genealogy DO Over - A Year of Learning from Research Mistakes by Thomas MacEntee . This month, we watched about 5 minutes. These webinars are about one hour long, we have just watched a very limited portion.

Legacy Family Tree, Geoff Rasmussen has given OGG permission to use this one webinar. Dee has our "members only" page up. She demonstrated how to log in. Three of Thomas MacEntee and Lisa Alzo's "Boot Camp" webinars have been purchased and are now on the website. These webinars include research logs and how to use them, citations and how to make your own "cheat sheet." Thank you members and Dee, it is your dues that has paid for this service.

Everyone wrote out a goal and received a prize for sharing with the group. The goals are specific, measurable, and doable. Several connected already such as researching Irish immigrants or ship workers or seamen. HOMEWORK:  Make a goal "Find my . . ." Document and verify lineage from yourself to the person you want to find.

Plan on bringing some of your papers to the workshop to work one-on-one. It helps to have another pair of eyes read your work. The Do-Over has provided me with many clues that I already had but was unaware.

Kerry Scott's book How to Use Evernote for Genealogy was the resource for the brief Evernote demonstration. I briefly showed how to add a box for a to do list. My use for Evernote is current research. Showed how to add spreadsheets made on desktop to Evernote. Question, will the spreadsheets open up on a tablet or is Microsoft necessary? Yes, today I opened a census spreadsheet on my Toshiba tablet and had the option to view or edit. As everyone saw, I had at least 12 Dunham research spreadsheets on my desktop. Not only difficult to find in the clutter, but which one do I want? Now all the sheets are on one Evernote note, sorted and with a typed note listing what censuses surnames not found. So can have imported spreadsheet and a typed note on same note page. Questions? Contact Vicki Evans or Selma Blackmon for assistance or see us at the all day workshop on 5 March.

Genealogy, like anything worthwhile, takes commitment and work. Sharing encouragement from Doug Grady, we ended with the question, "What is holding you back?" It is a four letter word FEAR. So we are to Choose simply, Choose powerfully, Choose now! Doug Grady has a song which brought a smile or laugh to almost everyone as we could identify with his  Tough Mudder Song on YouTube.

3 April OGG meeting will include a panel discussion on "Tracking Research" and "Conducting Research." See members page for downloads, these will not be shown at our meeting. Bring your questions for the panel.

5 March is OGG all day Saturday free workshop. Invite your friends, bring questions to work on, volunteer! Sign up now!