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1141 Adam Street Tracy
California  95376
(209) 832-1106
EMAIL:tagsca@sbcglobal.net
Website:www.rootsweb.com/~catags

 

 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
           
Brick walls.  Have you found yourself stuck and wondering why you can’t make any progress in your genealogy research?  Some brick walls we make ourselves and we can be our own worst enemy in finding the facts needed to pursue our goal.  I’d like to share with you a few of the roadblocks we put up and hopefully we can get you back on the right track in your research. 

• Direct line research:  OH MY!  I don’t know anyone that can get very far in the hunt doing direct line research and not researching out the entire family.  In many census records people went by their middle names, lived with extended family, showed adopted names on one census record and not another,  etc.  You never know who the information was handed down to and where the information is going to come from so do research those aunts and uncles and side branches – even though you think it’s a waste of time!
• “If it’s not on the internet then there is no information on these people”.  Another common misconception.  The internet is a wonderful place to start in your research but it’s only the beginning.  Once you find an index reference on where the family lived or died or that they were in the military or owned land then you need to order the original records and get to the meat of the information.  You can especially hurt yourself if your family named each generation the same as the generation before.  If you don’t order the original records you can have a huge mess and get your tree terribly tangled with the wrong children to the wrong parents, etc.  Don’t be lazy or cheap!  You can lose years of wasted time if you don’t go to the original sources!
• Speaking of original sources, may I share with you my latest pet peeve?  Have you noticed that on Ancestry.com that people can now attach information to YOUR tree you’ve worked so hard on and sourced and researched and that many of these people don’t even source where they got their information?   What a nightmare this is!!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found that people put information on the internet that is not proven out (family stories) and swear it’s gospel, only to have other people take up the information and put it in their own trees and there the falsehood continues.   Pretty soon, no one knows where the information came from (because it was never sourced from the beginning) and now we have nothing but wrong information to deal with and start from.  Have you ever tried to contact someone that put out wrong information on the internet and ask them what their sources are or explain that it’s wrong?  You’d think you just committed a cardinal sin!  Please, if you find information about your family on the internet, make sure to prove it out.  Do not believe it’s a proven fact just because you see it in someone else’s tree.
• Okay – last one.  Speaking of other people putting information in YOUR own tree – have you become lazy and started finding your family in other researcher’s trees and started to cut and paste your findings?  It’s a wonderful way to make your family grow…but again, you’re going to have a nightmare on your hands when you find out that the information isn’t correct and also in not sourcing where the information came from.  As Cath Madden Trindle, CG, just wrote in the CSGA Newsletter for September/October 2009, “Plagiarism is an unauthorized use of another’s work with the act of representing that borrowed text as one’s own ideas or research either by commission or omission.”  Need I say more? 

There are no shortcuts in doing true genealogy research.  For every bit of information you can find on a person you need to prove it out and source it.  Stories are wonderful and bring life to the people in your trees but first make sure they ARE the right people in your trees and give credit where credit is due.  I guarantee you that if you stick to these guidelines you’ll start having success in finding and proving out which ancestor is really yours!

 

WELCOME!
            A big welcome to our newest members: Stanford A. Davis, Marie and Roy Patterson and Joan DeCamara! Thank you for becoming TAGS members and welcome to the world of genealogy!

TREMENDOUS THANK YOU!!!
            We all want to thank Sandy Sinwald for her many years of service to TAGS! Sandy has been deeply involved with TAGS from the beginning and has been instrumental in her support from serving on the TAGS Board as a Secretary for many years to documenting TAGS history in the memory albums she has made to faithfully working the office on Sundays for years.  Sandy has decided to step down from her positions to spend more time with her family, a rest well deserved!  Thank you again, Sandy, for helping to shape TAGS into the vital organization we have become and for your many years of unselfish service!

TAGS NEW SCHEDULE     
            TAGS will continue to be open Tues. and Fri. from 9:00am – 1:00pm, but we will only be open 1 Sunday a month until we can find volunteers to help out.  Mike Murray has graciously offered to work Sunday, October 18th and Sunday, November 22nd .  We will send out a reminder as each Sunday approaches.  If you would like to help out by working one or more Sundays a month please contact Jan James. 

NOMINATING COMMITTEE
            Terry Ronneberg, Charlotte Conner and Sue Nelson completed the task set before them of finding new officers for TAGS for the 2010 – 2012 term.  THANK YOU Terry, Charlotte and Sue for all your efforts!         

AUDIT COMMITTEE
            Thank you to Bob Cothren, Virginia Mynatt and Sue Nelson for again helping TAGS out with our annual Audit.

LIBRARY CORNER
            We have many books that will help you in the search of your ancestors, all you have to do is look at our large library collection and you will be amazed at what we have. Check out the different states books to see if you can find information on your ancestors.  
We also have a set of new books called “The California 1890 Great Register of Voters Index” Volumes 1-3 which is alphabetical for your easy reference. The books help replace some of the information lost in the 1890 federal census. The data from this volume will give you information including:
Name
Age
Birthplace
Occupation
Home address
Naturalization information for immigrants
Remember that only males age 21 and above were allowed to vote. Women didn’t receive voting rights in California until 1911. Also, Asians who helped tremendously in the building of our railroads were not allowed to become citizens at this time and were not eligible to vote.
           
FIRST NAMES
How about looking up the many ways your ancestor might spell their first name.  Check out “Nicknames Past and Present” by Christine Rose in our TAGS library.  One of my female ancestors for example was listed as Hester, then Esther and on page 7 in this book it gives other examples such as Hessy and Hetty.  An unusual name for males to me was Greenberry, also spelled Greenbury, and on page 22 this book gives other examples such as Berry, Green and often G. B.
            I will continue this section in the upcoming newsletters to help anyone who, like me, is surprised with the unusual names of our ancestors.

 

SURNAMES
            I have Portuguese ancestors on my husband’s mother’s side of the family and even though I know them to be full Portuguese and from the Azores their surname is “SIMMONS”. When I try to find them I run into road blocks due to when they arrived they most likely anglicized their surname or had it changed for them upon arrival to the United States. Years ago at a TAGS Genealogy Seminar held with the Mormon Church in Tracy, I had the privilege of speaking with a Portuguese researcher and she was the one that told me to check for other spellings such as “SIMONS, SIMONES” etc.  I still haven’t had any luck finding them before the 1920 census.
So if you are looking for family and you can’t find them with the “accurate” spelling try being creative and looking for unusual spellings or focus on matching the first names. My parents did this looking for my dad’s grandfather.  In the 1910 census in Nebraska he and his family is listed as “McCLINTOCK” instead of the correct spelling “McCULLOCK”. They matched the first names and ages and knew this to be his grandfather and grandmother and their children.
           
CHECK OUT THESE INTERNET WEB  SITES

www.familytreemagazine.com/cds Organize Your Genealogy Life on CD
www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms Free Genealogy Forms
www.findagrave.com Find a Grave
www.facebook.com Facebook
www.accessgenealogy.com Access Genealogy
www.footnote.com Footnote subscription site ($11.95 a month, $69.95 a year)
www.glorecords.blm.gov Bureau of Land Management Gen. Land Office Records
www.civilwar.com Civil War battle maps and Civil War photos
www.Ancestry.com Ancestry.com is improving and expanding every month

These are just a few of the internet sites for searching out our ancestors. I will continue with this section in future newsletters. If you learn of a website please let me know so I can include it in the newsletter. Thank you.

 

FOR SALE

Family Quest Book 1  (3) qty.     $10.00 each
Family Quest Book 2                   $10.00 each  
    These are books that were done for our Family Quest Seminars. They are FULL of information for all stages of genealogy.

TAGS Cookbooks   (12) qty.       $15.00 each
Genealogy Forms books (2) qty   $10.00  
1916 S.J. Co. Map (CD) (2)         $10.00 each

 

GENEALOGY CONFERENCE
            Bob and Lurabeth Cothren had a great time at the Genealogical Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas this summer.  If anyone else is going to a Genealogical Conference please let me know so I can put the information in the TAGS Newsletter.

 

WINDOW DISPLAY
            Charlie Norton contacted the Tracy Public Library and we are a go with having the window to display our TAGS items in again this year.  Charlie has set up the window and done another excellent job.  Do make sure to go by and check out his handy work.
Thank you again, Charlie, for all your help!

GENEALOGY EVENTS 2009

• October 17th – 6th Annual Genealogy Seminar sponsored by the Fresno County Genealogy Society and the Fresno County Public Library.  Speaker will be Henry Z. “Hank” Jones.  Seminar title is “Genealogical Lessons Learned”.  For more information go to:  www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cafcgs.
• October 29-31st – International Black Genealogy Summit, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  www.blackgenealogysummit.com

TAGS 2009 CALENDAR
TAGS conducts general membership meetings on the fourth Wednesday in January and October. Those meetings are held from 7-9pm at the TAGS library. In addition, special workshops are held in March and June. Other events, such as our fundraiser and social get-togethers are conducted in April, July and December. See the calendar below for complete details:
October 14th        Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ TAGS Library
               28th       Membership Meeting, 7:00 pm @ TAGS Library
November 11th    Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ TAGS Library
                            No Membership Meeting
December 9th       Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ TAGS Library
                  17th    Membership Holiday Social, 6:00 pm & TAGS Library

 

    TAGS Newsletter is published bi-monthly
            (Feb., Apr., Jun., Aug., Oct., Dec.)
            Website: www.rootsweb.com/~catags    

     Office hours:
Tues. and Fri. 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sun. 1 – 4 p.m.
Membership Dues (annually):
Individual         $ 20.00
Family                $ 27.00
Editor:  Sue Nelson