TIP OF THE WEEK – GFO VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE 2022 The Genealogical Forum of Oregon will be hosting another Virtual Open House this year. Last year they filled over 2,000 virtual seats with attendees from 26 states and five countries. This Open House will run from Saturday, March 26, 2022 – Saturday, April 2, 2022. Twenty-three free presentations are planned. This year includes presentations focusing on African American, Canadian, Irish, German, Latino, Polish, and British heritages. With something for everyone, topics will include: A full day of DNA classes for beginners. Getting Help Solving Tough Research Problems. Online Newspapers. How and Why to Record Your Oldest Relative’s Life Story The Modern U.S. Census including the nearly released 1950 census No fees, but you do need to pre-register for each presentation.
TIP OF THE WEEK – BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS AND A WEBINAR Jill Morelli passed along this tip; it originally came from Valerie Beaudrault. The University of British Columbia has made the BC Historical Newspapers database, a digital collection of 168 newspaper titles published between 1859 and 1995, available on their website. Toward the bottom left hand side of the web page is an alphabetical selection list of the newspaper titles. And to the right of that list is a map that pinpoints the home of each publication. To explore a specific title, click on it in the alphabetical selection list toward the bottom of the page. But if you want to search the entire collection, that search box is located toward the top of the web page. Newspaper page images can be downloaded and saved. Here’s the link to the website: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers
If BC is an area of interest for you, check out the webinar “Genealogical Gold in British Columbia” with Dave Obee, Canadian genealogist, journalist, and author. It is scheduled for Friday, February 18, 2022 at 11:00 AM PST. This is one of many free webinars hosted by Legacy Family Tree. Register at: https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/genealogical-gold-in-british-columbia/
TIP OF THE WEEK – FREE LATIN HANDWRITING WEBINAR The objective of this 5 day series is to teach beginners the basics of Latin handwriting and documents as it pertains to genealogy research. At the end of these 5 classes one should be able to:
Use online resources to help you read Latin documents
Understand basic Latin grammar in order to determine relationships
Translate simple Latin documents
Fritz Juengling, PhD, AG, is the instructor. Remember Fritz from our Spring 2020 Seminar turned webinar? He is the German, Dutch, Scandinavian research specialist at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. He reads documents in German, Dutch, French, Latin, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
TIP OF THE WEEK – SELECT, COPY, AND PASTE PAGES OF CENSUS DATA Here’s a nifty process to extract full page(s) of US Census Data from Ancestry (or FamilySearch) and paste it into Google Sheets to make a table of the data.
To copy the Census Data into Google Sheets you will be using the commands Select, Copy, and Paste Special – Values Only. Below I’ll describe the basic process using Ancestry and Google Sheets. If you prefer to use Excel instead of Google Sheets, you will use the commands Select, Copy, and Paste Special as text; nearly an identical process.
Step one is to search and find the US Census record you want to collect data from and use View Image to open the actual image. In Ancestry, located at the center bottom of your screen next to the image number, you will see an icon resembling a person. It’s called the “Index Button”. Click on it. Notice a transcription of the Census page is now displayed in the lower portion of the screen. Place your cursor anywhere in that area of the lower portion of your screen and click. Now you’ll use the shortcuts: Ctrl + A to select all data; data will now be highlighted Ctrl + C to copy all data you selected above Ctrl + Shift + V to paste special that copied data into Google Sheets Move forward or backward to the next Census record image, repeating the 3 command steps shown above , until you have copied all the data from the Census you want, and you have pasted that data into your Google Sheets table. Now you can filter and analysis the data you have collected.
For more detail on filtering, table formatting, practical applications, and suggestions, take the time to watch one or two of these videos by Connie Knox of GenealogyTV :
Find More Ancestors By Extracting Census Data Into Google Sheets
#1 Way to Breakdown Brick Walls – Updated 2020
Connie uses this process for FAN Club or Cluster research. Here are the links for those videos.
Videos from many of the past RootsTech conferences are available for your viewing online. You can search the videos by conference year or by speaker. Right now the years you’ll find in the archive are 2015-2020. If you missed the entire conference or simply want to review a single session, visit : https://www.rootstech.org/video-archive?lang=eng
TIP OF THE WEEK – 1950 U.S. CENSUS It’s almost here! The long awaited 1950 U.S. census will be released to the public in April 2022. FamilySearch expects it will happen on April 1st. This census will not be indexed when it is first released. The time it will take to index depends on how many volunteer for the job and how dedicated they are. The 1940 census consisted of roughly 132 million people and took 4 months to index. The 1950 census consists of approximately 150 million people.
TIP OF THE WEEK – 1921 CENSUS OF ENGLAND AND WALES The National Archives of the UK has announced the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be available online at Findmypast beginning January 6, 2022. This census is especially important since the 1931 census was destroyed by fire and no census was taken in 1941 because of World War II.
TIP OF THE WEEK – ‘TIS THE SEASON Predictably, DNA Test kits and memberships with the major DNA testing companies and family history research companies are on sale in November.
Ancestry is advertising their autosomal DNA Test kits on sale for $59 plus shipping. Also they have gift membership subscriptions on sale for 30% off. This sale is advertised to run until November 24, 2021. No guarantee, but in previous Novembers their autosomal DNA Test kits have sold for $49 plus shipping on Black Friday.
23andMe is advertising their Ancestry+Traits service for $79 (20% savings) and their Health+Ancestry Service for $99 (50% savings). This sale is advertised to run until November 29, 2021.
MyHeritage is offering DNA tests for $47 plus shipping and gift membership subscriptions starting at $99.
If you are in the market for DNA tests or membership subscriptions, check out each company’s web site for the services and deals that suit your needs.
TIP OF THE WEEK – SGS BOOK SALE WE’RE HAVING A BOOK SALE!
SGS has successfully moved our library to the Good Shepherd Center and will open soon for your research use. Meanwhile, at our former home on Sand Point Way there remain many, many books and periodicals that will not be making the move – and a few file cabinets, chairs, tables and bookcases as well. Don’t miss this chance to give some good books a new home!
SGS BOOK SALE – MEMBERS ONLY HOURS Thursday, November 11, 2021, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Sale opens to the general public from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
SGS BOOK SALE – OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC Friday, November 12, 2021, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Everything must go!
The sale will be held in our former library space under the blue awning at
TIP OF THE WEEK – LEARN THE LEEDS METHOD WITH A VIDEO The Leeds Method is simple, useful, and visual. After doing it once, you might comment “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”. This method can be especially helpful for an adoptee or for someone with an unknown parent or grandparent.
In the Leeds Method you are organizing your DNA matches; therefore, generating hints for yourself by grouping your DNA matches according to shared (in common) DNA. Your matches are color coded and displayed in columns in a table.
In the purest form you will end up with 4 columns, each representing one of your grandparents’ family line. Then you must further evaluate each column of shared DNA matches by doing traditional genealogy.
You can learn the steps and more about the Leeds Method at Dana Leeds’ website: https://www.danaleeds.com/
But, since the Leeds Method is so visual, why not get a quick start by watching Dana’s presentation at RootsTech 2019. In the video, she is the third speaker in the hour-long Power Hour Session entitled “You Can Do DNA”. In this video, there are 3 speakers and 3 subjects:
“Do: The Right Test” with Christi Jacobsen “Do: Understand Your Ethnicity” with Diahan Southard “Do: Work on Your Matches” with Dana Leeds
Watch the entire video or skip to about 40 minutes to see Dana’s presentation.
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