THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’sThursday EveningE-News, Edition25 January 2018 |
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For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. We love hearing from you! For a complete GFO CALENDAR click here. Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for January 2018, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy HERE. NOTE: The Insider issues are now located under the “Learn” > “Our Publications” menu at www.gfo.org. |
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership?? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member! |
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Smile with us! Donate to GFO while shopping Amazon! |
Did you know you can contribute to the success of GFO while SHOPPING on Amazon? WOWZERS!With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, remember to lend a helping hand to GFO by shopping as smile.amazon.com. Don’t want to deal with the hassle of searching for us at Amazon’s Smile website? Simply click our unique AmazonSmile link HERE to go directly to amazon, sign into your account as you normally would, and let the magic take hold! Once you’re at this link, GFO will receive 0.5% of the price of all your eligible smile.amazon.com purchases, regardless of whether you use the unique AmazonSmile link to return to the site. Thank you again! |
This new TV show, “We’ll Meet Again,” features genealogists helping people in non-family tree ways. Listen/read HERE all about Ann Curry’s work in this new series. |
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FIRSTLY… GFO recently received a request for a French Canadian and/or Arcadian SIG!Interested in helping get this group off the ground? Email our SIG Liaison Bonnie Randolph today. This type of group would be especially wonderful considering the French Canadian resources recently added to GFO’s library. Because of this addition, GFO has one of the best French Canadian collections outside of Canada. SECONDLY… GFO’s Illinois SIG is back on, starting Feb 10th, 9:30 – 11:30amThis group, which has not met officially for some time, is resurrected! Lynn Rossing (with assistance from Duane Funk) has agreed to serve as the group’s facilitator. Participants at the first meeting will help decide the geographic focus for the group: Upper Mid-West? Great Lake States? Duane Funk will give a short presentation on IRAD (Illinois Regional Archive Depositaries). GFO’s busy schedule will bump this group in March (for the Open House) and in April for the Spring Seminar, after which, the group will meet regularly on the second Saturday of each month at 9:30 am (except Jul/Aug/Dec) in the GFO Library. All interested researchers are welcome to join us. If you would like more information about this group, or have questions, you may contact Lynn at larossing@gmail.com. |
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Rogue Valley Genealogical Society presents a spring WORKSHOP and SEMINARWHAT? OUR ANCESTORS & GOOGLE EARTH: Did They Serve? Did They Plow? Did They Move? THE POWER OF GOOGLE EARTH FOR GENEALOGISTSThis two-hour live demonstration provides an overview of how to put the power of Google Earth to work and view your genealogy in a new way. Mark and map sites; view your ancestors’ communities on period maps or land plat maps. Experience a new visual learning experience. Learn the Google Earth tools. Don’t miss out! Register HERE today! |
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This GenTalk has been moved! WHAT!? Yep! Join us May 19th at 2pm at the GFOPresenter: Janice Sellers “I was always told that I had cousins who had immigrated to Cuba, but no one could remember their names or even which branch of the family they were from. And Cuba is a difficult country to research. As more records have become available online, I was able to uncover enough clues to find and contact some of my Cuban cousins. In the summer of 2015, I traveled to Cuba to see what traces I could find of my family there.” |
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GFO’s 2018 Elections Call for Candidates!The following positions are available for new candidates this coming fiscal year:
Interested in taking on one of these roles! Please email president@gfo.org today! We need candidates candidates candidates. And there is on-the-job training available for all of these positions. These people help keep the GFO going in so many ways. Just curious?? Send a note to Laurel Smith at president@gfo.org for more information! Insider Editors NeededWe also need two or three people to help take over editing and publication of the Insider this summer. This is our monthly newsletter and our fearless editor is stepping down this summer. Interested in helping out? Email Jackie Olson at insider@gfo.org. |
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This Week at the GFO… |
SATURDAY, January 27thLIBRARY CLOSES at 12:45pm The library will close early to researchers on this date to accommodate Special Interest Group scheduling. This 12:45pm closure will occur four times per year, on the fourth Saturday of January, March, May and September. DNA Advanced Group 9am – noon Confused about Family Tree DNA’s Big Y test and how to use SNPs to make comparisons? Guest speaker Jef Treece has the answers! Jef Treece is a volunteer who has been working to obtain P312 clade age estimates using Dr. Iain McDonald’s Big Y analysis software. In this session, he will dig into Big Y results, what the raw data files represent, and various ways you can inspect and analyze the raw data using freely-available open source software tools. He also discusses how to make individual SNPs testable and strategies for comparing additional testers to someone with Big Y results. To get the most of this session, you should come with basic knowledge about Y testing – what STR and SNP testing means and basic Y testing terminology. Related background information is available in the primer by Dr. Iain McDonald here. Feedback form for this meeting can be downloaded here. African American Ancestry Group 12:30 – 2:30pm Stephen Hanks will discuss his genealogical research which led to his book, Akee Tree: A Descendant’s Quest for His Slave Ancestors on the Eskridge Plantation Stephen is a legal process server in the state of Oregon, and a specialist in African American genealogy, volunteering his time in helping to promote African American genealogy through his network, Genealogical Networking Services. In 2006 Hanks was a contributor to the PBS special “African American Lives—Oprah’s Roots” which examined the genealogy of Oprah Winfrey. He lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of Akee Tree: A Descendant’s Search for His Slave Ancestors on the Eskridge Plantations. He will discuss – helpful hints to African descent genealogy; overcoming roadblocks in your research; and share his personal family research. Julie Ramos will facilitate the group. British Group 1 – 3pm At this meeting we will discuss: Focus: Researching in the British Isles, including England, Wales, Scotland, and Scots-Irish. We try to have speakers who provide interesting experiences or online databases for research in these countries. One hour of the two hour meeting is devoted to Brick Wall questions. SUNDAY, January 28thLibrary/Labeling Work Party 9am – noon There’s another work party at the GFO library today for those of you who can come. We need book labelers again this weekend! Doors open at 9 and work usually wraps up around noon. Some people come for just an hour or so and you’re welcome to do the same. Any time you can share is valuable. Hope to see you there! WEDNESDAY, January 31stBeginners’ Boot Camp 9am – 6pm Join Laurel Smith for a day of beginning genealogy. There will be classes about the census, vital records, immigration and naturalization, discussions about genealogy software and database use, organizing your research and more–all geared toward beginners. A half hour will be set aside for lunch so you may get something from a cafe nearby, or you may bring a sack lunch. GFO members may attend for free, non-members $20 at the door. Attendees may bring their laptop, but it is not required. Please let Laurel know if you plan to attend by sending a message to RSVP@gfo.org. A link to the class notes will be emailed a day or two beforehand. |
