I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Here are some photos of Christmas from over 100 years ago, notice the candles and packages.

Our Holiday party was a smashing success.  Everyone brought food, drink and wonderful stories.  Thank you to everyone who participated.

We did have some meeting information to discuss as well:
1) How to use Google history to look at old searches (www.google.com/history)
2) Reminder to frequently check the upgrade status on Family Tree Maker to keep up to date
     Help Tab - Check for Updates
3) Bob's Corner - Thoughts on sharing your genealogy boxes with Family History Center : Click here
4) Discussed the upcoming Genealogy Fair 2020 and got lots of new ideas
5) Discussed changing the meetings for 2020 - one meeting focused on beginners and the second one of the month on more advanced researching.  Split beginner meet into 1 hour teaching new approaches, second hour on working in groups with computers to try what was taught in the first hour.
6) Lynn to post 3 month schedule with topics on blog

Began Step 3: Know the History of the Area you are Researching

Before jumping into the next topic we also discussed
1) State Projects
2) Bob's Corner - he talks about his experiences and insight volunteering at the FHC: Click here
3) Review of Source Citations and using Family Tree Maker with templates and Ancestry.com
4) Discussed Christmas party and the January 14, 2020 Genealogy Fair - speakers and approach

5) Began new session on "Know the History of the Area you are Researching" for handout click here
    - we had groups focus on North Carolina and Virginia investigating the links in the handout

November 27, 2019 Meeting cancelled due to Thanksgiving holiday.

Began step 2 of Beginning Genealogy - Keep Good Records and Cite your Sources
  - Organizing your records
  - How to create a full citation using the 5 Ws from Thomas Jones
       - Who
       - What
       - Whereis
       - When
       - Wherein
- Group exercise using this approach, then developing the citation: Who, What, Whereis, When, Wherein
- A handout will be provided to all paid members with a summary and the specific "requested citation examples from this session"

Our State Project focal points gave a great review on their respective status. If you are interested in joining any of these groups - New Jersey, North Carolina or Virginia, please send me an e-mail.

We started "Bob's Corner", where Bob Silkett who is now volunteering every Friday at the Family History Center will give us his "new" knowledge of research approaches.  Today he recommended we all join the "FamilySearch.org blog", Click here to keep up to date on new information concerning the FamilySearch.org site.  You can also subscribe and get constant updates to enhancements and research strategy.

Summary of FHC "Gen Tech 2019" Workshop

This was a great success on Oct 12, 2019, held at the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints on Sam Rittenberg Road (over 168 attendees).  There were some great displays in the lunch area. Just a few are shown below

Here are the handouts for the session, click on the title for the link:

       Overall schedule for workshop

• Ancestry.com Deep Dive for research
• Antebellum Records
• Best Genealogy Software
• Capturing your Living History
• Enslaved Blacks in White Church Records
• Evolution of Family Search History Research
• FamilySearch Indexing
• FamilySearch.org - Advanced
• FamilySearch.org - Beginners
• Genealogical Interviewing
• Genealogy Tech Savvy
• Get more from FamilySearch digital collections
• Having Fun With Family History
• How I found my German ancestors
• Reconstruction Era Records
• That We May Remember
• Using City Directories
• Using Google for Genealogy

Several sessions did not have handouts.

Yesterday's meeting had a great turnout.

The focus of the meeting was, (1) State group projects, (2) the beginning of a new series on "How to begin your Genealogy Journey and improve your research" and (3) the latest updates on Ancestry.com.

There are currently 3 State group projects underway (1) Virginia, (2) New Jersey and (3) North Carolina.  If you have interest in joining one or more of these send Lynn Baker an e-mail.

For the begin series we will cover the following steps in the coming sessions on "How to begin your Genealogy Journey and improve your research": For handout: Click here

1. Research known information
2. Keep good records & cite your sources
3. Know the history of the area you are researching
4. Know what records are available for each time period – FamilySearch Research Wiki
5. Dead-end?  Consider a variety of alternatives
6. Know the meaning of the legal and genealogical terminology used
7. Make wise use of libraries, courthouses, archives, etc.
8. Don’t believe everything that is in print
9. Beware of genealogical clichés
10. Observe genealogical etiquette
11. Seek help

Every Session will have an overview of updates on research sites.

At our 25 September meeting we discussed the basic outline for doing genealogical research and had great examples and input on what to add.  This structure will be used for our coming sessions to make sure that we have a basic set of approaches to all the genealogy that we do.  Future sessions will build off this outline.
1. Research known information
2. Keep good records & cite your sources
3. Know the history of the area you are researching
4. Know what records are available for each time period
5. Dead-end? Consider a variety of alternatives
6. Know the meaning of the legal and genealogical terminology used
7. Make wise use of libraries, courthouses, archives, etc.
8. Don't believe everything that is in print
9. Beware of genealogical cliches
10. Observe genealogical etiquette
11. Seek help

DIRT Meeting

We had a good discussion of:
1) How to read a passenger list
2) How to develop a research question and a research plan
3) Discuss individual research questions and give helpful hints
4) Upcoming events

Link to presentation: click here

August 14 Meeting

Our topics were
1) Exporting data from Family Tree Maker for use in Microsoft Excel
2) Using Microsoft Excel for Genealogy
3) Brief overview of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-DNA
Click here for slides.
A Excel practice sheet will be sent to attendees of the 14 August meeting.

Check you calendar and plan to attend the Family History Center Annual Genealogy Meeting on October 12, 2019 at the FHC at 1519 Sam Rittenburg Blvd, Charleston from 8:30-2:00.  To see the schedule of session click here.

At the FHC session on Tuesday August 13 (6:00-7:00 PM), great tools for viewing your FamilySearch.org family tree information was provided.  Use the links below to see some of the tools available to you.  (You do need to have your family tree in FamilySearch.org to use these tools):
1) Welcome to Family History Technology Lab: Click here
2) Relative Finder: Click here
3) Virtual Pedigree: Click here
4) Descendancy Explorer: Click here
5) Tree Sweeper: Click here
6) Pedigree Pie: Click here
7) One Page Genealogy: Click here
8) Family Calendar: Click here
9) Veteran Finder: Click here
10) Geneopardy: Click here
11) Wheel of Family Fortune: Click here
12) Ancestor Games: Click here
13) Record Quest: Click here
FamilySearch.org
  - Discovery: Click here
  - Connect: Click here
  - Photos: Click here
  - Keepsakes: Click here
Other Links
14 Stories: Click here
15) Rootsmapper: Click here
16) Genealogy wall charts: Click here
17) Historylines: Click here

June 26th meeting

Great stories from our members about their personal genealogy research over the last 6 weeks.

There will be no DIRT meetings in July 2019.

The main discussion was on "Using Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets for Genealogy".  After reviewing some very basic Excel concepts, we jumped right into some examples of using this for genealogy.  One source was Thomas McEntee Research Log: Click here, then scroll down on the page until you see the list of resources: select Genealogy Research Log.   As we discussed uses for excel, this became more of a "what would you use it for, would it be useful to you" instead of a "basic features of Excel". So it was decided our time would be spent showing ways to use it, then during our next DIRT meeting in August to have everyone build or use their own spreadsheet and show more tips.

I did show how to export your data from Family Tree Maker to a .csv file, then to convert this to Excel and have all your choosen data automatically populate an Excel table, saving lots of re-typing of information.  I will post a video "how-to" do this in the coming days.

June 12th meeting

We covered the following

1) Research questions and reading a tips on reading a U.S. census: click here
2) how to prepare for a Research Trip handout: Click here
3) How to prepare for a Family Reunion: Click here
    - interview questionnaire: Click here
    - family genealogy questionnaire: Click here

We will not have any DIRT meetings on July 10 or July 24th.

Our May 22nd session focused on
     (1) Ancestry updates and
     (2) Creating a book with Family Tree Maker. 

We reviewed several new tools provided by Ancestry.com (1) TreeTags for use with your trees, (2) New DNA Matching tools and (3) DNA Thrulines.  If you are interested in these updates, please review the slides used for last nights meeting on Ancestry updates: Click here.

We then spent time reviewing how to create a book using Family Tree Maker.  Each person used their own computers to build a sample book.  They had experimented with Family Tree Maker using the knowledge and slides from our May 8th meeting and came with excellent questions.  Everyone who had Family Tree Maker finished the meeting with their own sample book and a strategy to start using the various "collections" in Publish to start creating pdf files or printouts of their work.  All paid members of our club received the instructions from the 8th May meeting.

During our 8 May session we did a quick overview of the Four Genealogy Giants, with emphasis on each of their strengths and data.

The main topic for this meeting was to "Create a book" using Family Tree Maker.  We went through each of the steps for creating the title page, table of contents, photo pages, pedigree charts, descendant charts, index and much more.  There is tremendous power are your fingertips to pull out of Family Tree Maker a great printed book of pdf file for sharing with your family (free).  I will send a pdf file of the presentation (steps) to all the 2019 paid members of our genealogy club.  All of our attendees with laptops at the meeting created their own example book along the way.  There was a quick overview for using Ancestry "MyCanvas" online book creation and also using the plug-in from Family Book Creator to automatically generate a book from Family Tree Maker - both of these options do cost money ($).

At our next meeting we will review "Create a book" using Family Tree Maker, answering questions.

We had a great class today to discuss and Family Tree Maker (FTM) and how to create books or manuscripts from FTM.  Also, how to use MyCanvas (part of Ancestry) for online publishing and "Family Book Creator" as a plug in to FTM for producing books.  Our major focus was on how to use FTM to create your own customize book or pdf file.  If you are interested in the handout or guide on how to do this, please send bakerlynnd@gmail.com an email and he will send you the presentation used at todays session.

Keep exploring your family past and fun new discoveries.

Lynn Baker
845-242-2344

The Charleston Family History will change its hours beginning on May 1, 2019.   The new schedule is as follows:

11 am to 7 pm - Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays
11 am to 3 pm - Fridays
11 am to 3 pm - 2nd & 4th Saturdays only
Closed Sundays & Mondays

DIRT Meeting - Doing State Research in the USA

We discussed and showed 9 websites for doing research at the state level.  Then each person pick "one" site (not to overlap) and took 45 minutes to investigate that site for information.  Then each person discussed with everyone else what they had found and how to use the site.  Here is a handout with the 9 suggested sites for today:  Click here

Items that were re-enforced:
- Use different websites for looking up the same information, do not depend upon only one place
- Use different search criteria
- Go back to the site later, there is always new information being posted
- Write down your path and what you find or do not find
- Explore
- Have fun

We also discussed the following:
Charleston Chapter South Carolina Genealogical Society: https://charlestongenealogy.org/
Upcoming: Census Puzzle, do you know all the pieces by Pat Kruger
          - Sunday, 28 Apr, 2:30-3:30 Masonic Temple, 1285 Orange Grove Rd, West Ashley
Upcoming Creating your own Free Blog for Genealogy: May 23: 7:00-9:00 PM

There is a change in topic for the next meeting on May 8, we will demonstrate and for those of you with Family Tree Maker, have you create a book of one of your ancestors.

Our session on April 10th was an overview and update on "Interpreting Your AncestryDNA" and included the new tagging of your Matches and the new Thrulines analysis.

The group had a great discussion about what information they had found about their ancestors and how they had found the information.

Here is a copy of the new handout: click here

March 27 DIRT Meeting

Our focus for this meeting was FamilySearch Deep Dive session II.  The handout for the FamilySearch: click here

FamilySearch crib sheet: Click here

Before we got to the main topic we covered:

Digital Afterlife, keeping track of your digital information - excel spreadsheet: Click here
Research log excel spreadsheet: Click here
Genealogy Checklist: Click here

During the Family Tree Maker session (3:30-4:30) we covered these topics:
Family Tree Maker Media: Click here
Family Tree Maker Web Search Ancestry and FamilySearch: Click here

Getting the Most out of FamilySearch Part I

Before we got into the main topic, there was a demonstration of using the flat bed scanner for slides.  Next we shared the AncestryDNA Thrulines new view and discussed its use in genealogy.  We had an additional discussion of 52 Questions and asked if anyone else wanted to be included.  If you want to get the 1 question a month, then send a note to Lynn Baker (bakerlynnd@gmail.com) to be added to the list.
Referenced guides:
Genealogy Checklist: Click here
Research log example: Click here

As we went through how to do FamilySearch Name level searches, everyone had an opportunity to use the search methodology on their own computer to make discovers while learning new ways to get citations and use some of the often overlooked capabilities in FamilySearch.
FamilySearch top overview of screens: Click here
FamilySearch Part I/II handout: Click here

In the extended session (3:30-4:30) we focused on Family Tree Maker, how to use the features for inputting your family tree: Peope - Tree/Person View crib sheet: Click here
Here is an additional set of instructions for adding Media to your Family Tree Maker: Click here

Today's focus was on Scanning Photos and Documents.  Before we got into the main topic, we discussed:

1) Our own 52 Stories project.  LDS has created 52 questions to be asked one a week for a year. These questions could be send to parents, Aunts/Uncles or done yourself.  You get the question and take 10-15 minutes a week to answer it and store it.  After 52 weeks of questions you have a wonderful repository of information to make a great story.  If you are interested in receiving these notes, contact Lynn Baker at bakerlynnd@gmail.com.

2) RootsTech 2019 started today.  There is an excellent iphone, android or ipad app for RootsTech 2019 that will tell you all about the activities. It even gives you access to the handouts "for free".  Also, you can go to RootsTech.org and see the schedule of 4 live streaming events a day that you can observe "for free".  After RootsTech is completed they will post a number of the sessions on line for us to access - I will let you know when that happens.  You can join the learning fun over the next few days "for free".

Our main topic of Scanning Photos and Documents included a demonstration of using the flatbed scanner and the offer for any DIRT member to borrow the scanner to do their own scanning at home without purchasing a scanner.  The key to scanning is being aware of the "scanning resolution" to preserve, save and share.  Here are the handouts:

a. Scanning Photos and Documents handout: Click here
b. Computer terminology: Click here
c. 31 Web sites to find Old Family Photos: Click here

For using your iphone to scan documents (pdf) while doing research, I use the app: Tiny Scanner.  Here are some others: Scannable and iscanner.

For March, our afternoon session will be extended from 1:30-3:30 and extra hour.  During the 3:30-4:30 period we will focus on Family Tree Maker, FamilySearch, AncestryDNA and questions to help with the beginners doing research.

Our session on Wednesday (Feb 13) went very well.  We talked about some tips on using FamilySearch.org fan charts and then focused on:

1) Organizing your digital genealogy
       - handout: click here
       - Some of the slides that were requested: Click here
2) Discussed how to draw a Genetic (DNA) pedigree chart and use it to determine who should you get tested to help with your genealogy: Click here
3) Feb/Mar Genealogy Calendar: Click here

We had a good group of 18 people at today's meeting.  We went over some of the basics of doing Genealogical Research, got a chance to meet the new members and discussed some tips about Ancestry.com, AncestryDNA, and FamilySearch.  See below some of the handouts:

- Welcome handout: click here
- Research log sample: click here
- 6 Generation pedigree chart: click here
- Family Group Sheet: click here
- February 2019 Genealogy Calendar: click here

Great "Genealogy Fair 2019" event.

The turnout was fantastic.  We had 66 people attend and over 50% were new.  I hope some decide to join our club.

For a copy of the presentation used at the Fair, click here

We had many guests at the Fair including representatives from: Family History Center; South Carolina Room - Charleston County Public Library;  Charleston Chapter South Carolina Genealogy Society; Daughters of the American Revolution, Jamestowne Society. 

Our crossword puzzle was difficult, the definitions of the words will be posted in a future posting.

There was high energy, enthusiasm and interest in our great hobby.

I want to thank those members of DIRT that made this happen by their terrific efforts: Bonnie Bohme, Mirian Chamberlain, Henrietta White, Ivy Blake, Brenda Larsen, Bob Silkett, Lynn Maney McIntosh, Martha Reed Baysden, Deborah Getter, and others.

I look forward to our new year 2019, we have started with a great event!!

Reminder, we have the "Genealogy Fair 2019" Find your Past, Preserve your Family History on Wednesday, January 9th from 1:30-3:30 PM at the Live Oak Hall, Lakehouse.

Come out and meet other members and welcome potential new members of our Digging Into Roots Together Genealogy club.

Guest Speakers will be from: (1) South Carolina Room - Charleston County Public Library, (2) Charleston Chapter South Carolina Genealogy Society, (3) Family History Center, (4) Daughtrers of the American Revolution Lineage Society, and (5) Johnstowne Society.