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.