Computer Tips was our main topic today. for replay: click here

Also, on 9 Nov 2021 at the Family History Center Evening Program, Lisa Weakland presented on Military Records, click here for replay.

 Pension Records

Our meeting today focused on discussing personal genealogy research and pension records.

For the replay of the Pension Records: Click here

 Genealogy Angst

Our main topic was based upon the FamilyTreeWebinar "Never Give Up: 5 Strategies for overcoming Genealogical Angst" which is available free to all until the end of September 2021: Click Here

For the handout from that session: Click Here

For a link to the Google Sheets referenced in this session: Click here, then download as an Excel file to your hardfile

For the video of this session: Click Here

There was great discussion before and after the meeting.  Here are some of the items:

1) Organizing your research by using the application forms for various societies (thank you Brenda):

• Colonial era Clergyman 
• Descendants American Prisoners of War Application

2) Guilds: Guild of Colonial Artisans and Tradesmen 1607-178

3) Simple Research Logs (thank you Michele): LisaAlzo.com/articles/2015/Blank Research Log.xls

 Research Tips and summer review

We had a great first meeting after summer and learned what other genealogists in our group had been doing with their research discoveries.

Our Main topic was Research Tips, the replay is here: Click Here

Brenda Larsen introduced us to a new society that just started: Descendants of American Prisoners of War: https://dapow.weebly.com/

We talked about North Carolina Research (the Genealogy Website spreadsheet has been updated).  A fun story telling site for Appalachia is: Blind Pig & the Acorn.

I have also created a new category in our Genealogy Websites called : Women, where I have added a number of great websites for finding your Female Ancestors.

Michelle suggested several good books "Bound Away" and "Viking Heart".

 New England Research

I have created a handout for the web links presented in today's session.  Click here

 First in-person meeting since March 2020

We had our first "Hybrid" meeting of DIRT, this was a combination of In-person at the Lakehouse and virtual using zoom.  I appreciate all of you that joined and helped to identify some of the concerns with doing this combination of delivery vehicles.  I will work out these issues for the next Hybrid meeting. 

In July we will start having these "in-person" and zoom meetings on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday from 1:30-3:30 pm at the Lakehouse, Osprey 2 and also virtually using zoom.  (July 14th and 28th).  Come join the fun, bring your questions and your computer.

During the session today we covered: (There is no recording for this meeting)

1. Using the new information available on the blog: Blog Index and Listing of Genealogy Websites.
2. We also reviewed MyHeritage photo enhancement/colorization and animation.
3. Then covered some resources available from Family Tree Magazine: US Migration Map, US Naturalization Laws, Women Naturalization Laws and State Vital Records Summary.

I have updated the List of Genealogy Websites to include ones identified in the "Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors" webinar hosted by the Southern California Genealogical Society on 16 June 2021.

 Geni.com "How to Use"

Our main topic for today was How to use Geni.com a collaborative World Genealogy tree. If you get a chance to read J.A. Jacobs book "It's All Relative" he describes building this tool to connect the world through relatives.  For video replay of session: Click Here

Other topics: 

Southern California Genealogical Society has a Jamboree of webinars, to find out more Click Here

  - June 16 Free - Researching Pennsylvania Ancestors

Virginia Genealogical Society: Click Here

The Conestoga Wagon: Click Here

 Library of Congress for Genealogy

Our meeting today focused on how to use the Library of Congress for genealogy.  Here is a link to the recording: Click here

We will start having an in-person DIRT meeting starting June 16th at the Lakehouse from 1:30-3:30 pm.  

Hope to see you there.

 Immigration to U.S. pre-1820

Our main topic today was on Immigration to U.S. pre-1820 and research materials available for finding your ancestors: Click here for the video replay

Resource list with hotlinks for Researching you immigrants to Colonial America before 1820: Click Here

Ellie Burnaford recommended reading the book "It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree" by A.J. Jacobs

 Immigration to US post 1820

That was our main topic for today.  For the video recording, click here

During the session, there were references to several sites:

• Just How were Passenger Manifests created? Click here
• US-Canada border crossings: Click Here
• Naturalization Records: Click here
• NARA's digitizing partners: Click Here

Charlie Black presented "Timelines and how to use them" for the FHC on Tuesday May 11, 2021, for the video recording: Click Here

Brenda Larsen suggested a site for North Carolina research called NC Pedia: Click Here

 NARA National Archives and Records Administration usage

Our meeting focused on NARA usage: Click here for replay

Upcoming free genealogy webinars:

• Southern California Genealogical Society: Click here
• May 19, Wednesday 6:00 PM PST, Using GEDmatch Basic Tools
• Jun 16, Wednesday, 6:00 PM, Researching Pennsylvania Ancestors
• National Archives and Records Administration: Click here
• May 12, Wednesday 1:00 PM EST Finding Genealogy Resources and Tools on Archive.gov

 Allen County Public Library Research

Our session today had two main topics:

1. What is new at Ancestry.com: Click here for recording
2. Allen County Public Library Research: Click here for recording

We also introduced the book "Revolutionary Mothers, Women in the Struggle for America's Independence", by Carol Berkin.  I will loan this to anyone who wants to read it, just send me an email to get on the waiting list.

Some of the 24 hr Marathon Legacy Family Tree Webinars are still 

posted as FREE.  To reach them: Click Here

RootsTech 26 Apr 2021 DNA Day Series: Click here

 Genealogy Ancestry.com Research Tips

We had a good session today and welcomed Carol Jeffery who is just joining DIRT.

Our major focus was on Genealogy Ancestry.com Research Tips: Click Here for replay

Other topics included:

• New York Public Library as a Research center: Click Here
• Linking to the Ancestry.com blog: Click Here
• Recent Ancestry Collections: https://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections
• Family Tree Webinar 24 hour marathon and getting access to syllabus
• Family History Center Evening Program: April 13: Ancestors Hide and Seek Click here for replay

 Goldie May Automatic Research Log

The main topics for today's DIRT Meeting were:

1) Fifty Overlooked Genealogy Research sites: Click here for presentation

2) FamilySearch 10 Links to Try - Click here for replay

    Click here for presentation

3) Goldie May Automatic Research Log Part 2: Click here for replay

4) Also highlighted ColonialVirginiaPortraits.org site

 Automatic Research Log

Today we discussed and demonstrated Goldie May, an automatic Genealogy Research Log. Click here for video replay.  

  3 Time Saving Tips and RootsTech

We covered many topics, however the focus was on two specific topics and you can see the replay by clinking the links:

1. 3 time saving tips for gmail: Click Here
2. Research Tips summary from RootsTech 2021 Sessions: Click Here
3. Reviewed the GenealogyGems website and all the wonderful information
4. Demonstrated downloading Ancestry files to your computer
5. Other discussions

 Browser and Search Engine Hints

Michelle Weiner shared a Research site for Scotland: Scotland's People

Our main topic for the 17 March DIRT meeting was on Browser organizing bookmarks and using different search engines.

We showed how to organize the browser bookmarks into folders and putting folders on the tool bar for easy access.

Next we discussed using different Search Engines.  Even though Google has 91% of the market, it is useful to develop your search in Google (using wildcards - click here for handout on wildcards), then going to other search engines which use different search algorithms to discover new sources of information.  

Market share

• Google (91.54%)
• Bing     (2.44%)
• Yahoo  (1.64%)
• DuckDuckGo (0.45%)

 Our working session today covered:

We are revamping the BLOG, note our new tabs which are described below.

1) RootsTech 2021 - how to use and explore the hundreds of offerings for free: 

• Click here to register,
• Click here for video replay of our session.

2) Offer to help our members use the College of Charleston student facilities to do Research, Click here for replay.

3) Index of our DIRT Blog.  We have completed (thank you to our club members) the excel spreadsheet that provides Category, Titles and hotlinks to the resources we have covered from 2017 to present on our Blog.  Click here for access.  This will be updated as more materials are available or presented.

4) a new tab on our DIRT blog of Genealogy Websites has been created.  This is a growing list of resources and hotlink websites for genealogy research.  Again, we are collecting any additional onews from all of you.  Please send your useful websites to Lynn Baker at bakerlynnd@gmail.com.  Click here

 DIRT Blog Index

We are working on an Excel spreadsheet to give you an index of all the materials available through this blog in the last 3 years.  It will give you an opportunity to do an easy search for information we have shared - when you need it.  First draft will be available next week.

We had a discussion on using Software programs to organize your current digital photos (all those photos taken on the phone, downloaded from facebook, etc.

 Nurturing your family Tree

Our session today covered the following topics:

1) Revolutionary Era

•     Valley Forge youtube video : Click here
•     Sex in the Revolutionary War youtube video : Click here

2) Discussed creating an index for all the materials on the DIRT Blog for easy access

3) Nurturing your Family Tree: Video replay: Click here

   - for comparison table: Click here

Brenda suggested a book on Women who were at Valley Forge: "Following the Drum" by Nancy K Loane

 Irish Genealogy

This session was on Irish Genealogy

• To see replay: Click Here
• For access to Charts used in presentation: Click Here
• For latest Genealogy Websites with new Irish recommendations: Click Here

 Genealogy Websites

We had a great meeting with the following subjects:

1. General discussion
2. Recap of 7 years war in colonial America
3. Genealogy Websites: Click Here for replay
4. For excel file listing 317 websites: Click Here

 DIRT Meeting with focus on Finding your Immigrant Ancestors town of origin

1) We discussed my College of Charleston "History of American Revolution 1763 - 1815", there will be updates each DIRT Meeting.  During this session we discussed the Religions during the Colonial period.  Click here

2) We discussed what members were currently working on and shared some of our 2021 Goals, Click Here

3) Main topic: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors Town of Origin, Click Here for replay

          For the Research Links used: Click here

 DIRT Meeting, beginning a new year.

We had a good meeting on January 6th and focused on:

- Discussing current member progress on their genealogy and suggesting some alternatives

- Overview of accomplishments for DIRT in 2020, meetings, video recording and much more

- Setting Genealogy Goals for 2021: to view recording: Click here