|
Past
Years' Meetings
The 2008 Calendar of
Topics
March 8 - 1:00 PM - 3:15 PM
“The Joys, Surprises, and Cautions in Telling Your Life
Story” by Eileen Kent of Utica, a member of the
Association of Personal Historians. She has a business called STORIES of a
LIFETIME and she will lecture on preserving family stories. As a prelude
to her talk, an expert panel will be discussing Irish research.
April 12 –
10:00 AM - Noon - “Genealogical Resources at Rundel
Library” and “German Research” by Larry Naukam, head of
the Local History and Genealogy Division of the Rochester Public Library.
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM - “Genealogical Resources at Cornell
University” and “Using Maps in Genealogy”
by Bob Kibbee, Map and Geospatial Information Librarian, and Virginia
Cole, PhD, Olin Library reference librarian. Cornell has numerous
genealogical materials and a large collection of 280,000 paper maps,
several thousand atlases and many files of digital maps.
Cornell Library Resources for Genealogical
Research
May 10 - 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
“Brick Wall Battering Rams” by Dick
Hillenbrand, a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
Dick will speak about some new ideas and resources to solve genealogical
problems. Members will be encouraged to submit their brick wall problems.
Sept 13 - 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
“Genealogical Resources at the JCHS”
and “Battleship in the Wilderness”
by Tim Abel, PhD, the Director of the Jefferson County Historical Society
and an archaeologist who has conducted dozens of excavation projects in
northern New York. “Plate Glass Negatives” by a representative of the Lyme Heritage Center,
will lecture on a treasure trove of civil war era negatives from a
photographer’s shop in Clayton.
-
Oct 11 - Full Day Conference Program
-
Stephen Morse, PhD - guest speaker
-
Guests are
welcome for a $20 donation.
8:30 a.m. Registration
- 9:00 – 9:45 a.m.
-
"One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of
Genealogical Search Tools"
-
The One-Step website started out as an
aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly
afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census.
Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes over 100
web-based tools divided into 13 separate categories ranging from
genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to last-minute
bidding on e-bay. This presentation will describe the range of tools
available and give the highlights of each one.
-
-
10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
-
"One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of
Genealogical Search Tools" (continued)
-
-
11:15 – 12:15 p.m.
-
"What Color Ellis Island Search Form
should I use?"
-
In April 2001 the Ellis Island ship
manifests and passenger records went on-line. A few weeks later the
One-Step Ellis Island website was created to make this resource easier
to use. Since that time the One-Step site has been greatly expanded to
include new search capabilities and an array of color-coded search
forms.
-
-
This talk will describe the evolution of
the website from both a historical and a practical perspective, and
provide a beacon for navigating through this color maze.
Lunch Bring your own lunch or eat out. A map of local restaurants will be
provided at registration.
-
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
-
"Playing Hide and Seek in the US Census"
-
Even before the 1930 Census was unlocked
on April Fool's Day 2002, researchers began wondering how they were
going to locate people's records. The lack of indexes presented a real
challenge. Several solutions to this problem have since evolved. The
One-Step Census website presents a street aid for finding records. A
similar aid exists on the NARA website. Commercial websites have
developed extensive indexes which are available for a fee. The One-Step
website has since been expanded to include 1910, 1920, and 1940 as
well. This presentation describes and contrasts these various solutions
of searching in these census years.
-
-
2:45 – 3:45 p.m.
-
"Deep Linking and Deeper Linking: How I
get the most out of existing Search Applications"
-
Deep linking provides a means of
optimizing the information extracted from existing third-party websites
in general, and from search applications in particular. Various means
of deep linking are introduced such as URL editing, using search forms,
and placing a man in the middle. These are the very techniques that are
used by many of the tools on the One-Step website. Then the tables are
turned and methods of blocking others from deep linking to your website
are described. The legalities of deep linking are also discussed. The
purpose is not to make you an expert at improving other people's
websites. Rather it is to expose you to the techniques that were used
on the One-Step website and give you a better appreciation for what is
there and how to use it. As such, no knowledge of webpage programming
is required. However, if you have such knowledge you will be able to
apply the ideas presented here yourself.
-
- Biographical Data
-
- Stephen Morse is an amateur
genealogist who has been researching his Russian-Jewish origins.
Several years ago he developed some web-based searching aids which, much
to his surprise, have attracted attention worldwide. He has received
both the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical
Societies, the Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society,
and the first ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional
Genealogists.
-
- In his
other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in
electrical engineering from New York University. He has held research
positions at Bell Labs, IBM Watson Research, GE Corporate R&D, and
Compagnie Internationale pour l'Informatique in France. He has been
involved in development at Intel Corp, Alsys Inc, and Netscape. He has
taught at CCNY, Pratt Institute, UC Berkeley, SUNY Albany, Stanford
University, and San Francisco State. He has authored numerous technical
papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known
as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's pentium
processor), which sparked the PC revolution 25 years ago.
Nov 8 - 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
“Discovering Your House History”
by Rick Porter of Finger Lakes House Histories. He will speak on
researching house histories. As a preliminary offering there will be an
expert panel discussion on heritage societies and how to join them.
The 2007
Calendar of Topics
- March 10 1:00 PM
- 3:30
- (To view PowerPoint slides please
click on the highlighted program title)
-
-
Local Government Sources and
How to
Prepare for a European Research Trip:
Ken Stuetz, Regional Advisory Officer with the New York State Archives,
will discuss oft-forgotten sources that can be found in local
municipalities. His second talk should be very helpful to those planning
research trips.
-
- April 14
- (To view PowerPoint slides please
click on the highlighted program title)
10:00 AM -
Reading Old Handwriting and
Early vital Records in New
York State: Presented by Dr. Marian Henry, Historian/Genealogist
for the Rochester Genealogical Society, the audience will be treated to
lessons in 18th and 19th century handwriting analysis as well as to the
vital records found in the Vosburgh and Barber and Bowman collections.
1:00 PM
- Holland Land Company Records and
Finding the Ladies:
Dr. Henry details the early 19th century Holland Land Company records that
are so helpful to those doing western New York research and lastly she
gives numerous aids to help us trace our female ancestors.
- May 12
1:00 PM
(To view PowerPoint slides please
click on the highlighted program title)
Crossing the Pond: Techniques for Finding
Your Elusive Eastern European Ancestors and Identifying
Immigrant Cluster Communities: Lisa Alzo, M.F.A., author of Three Slovak Women and Finding Your
Slovak Ancestors and numerous magazine articles, will share her
experience in genealogical research in Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia
and the Czech Republic.
- Sept. 8
1:00-3:30 PM
(To view PowerPoint slides please
click on the highlighted program title)
Cryptic Clues in the
Boneyard
Video by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack offers tips on cemetery
research, grave photography, and tombstone rubbings.
(Due to the size of the documents, the
PowerPoint slides are in several parts. Click on each part highlighted
below to get the full presentation)
Using Military Records at the National
Archives (part 1,
part 2,
part 3,
part 4) and Using Pre-1850 Census to Locate Familial Relationships
(part 1,
part 2):
Archivist Jean Nudd from the NARA Office in Pittsfield, MA, will share her
knowledge of the holdings in NARA.
- Oct.
20 Day Long Conference
- (To view PowerPoint slides please
click on the highlighted program title)
Dick Eastman, who is well known online for his
website "Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter", will be presenting four
lectures.
8:30 am Registration
9:00 – 10:15 am
The Latest Technology for Genealogists
This presentation will feature a look at today’s
technology. The topic is subject to change as new products and services
are announced. Mr. Eastman will discuss devices and software to make
genealogy easier: handheld computers, GPS receivers, shirt-pocket sized
scanners and more.
Listing of
products mentioned in presentation
10:30 – 11:45 am
Genealogy Searches on Google
Extracting the most genealogy information possible
from everyone’s favorite search engine. This presentation will cover two
primary topics: (1) how to search for genealogy information on Google in
ways that most people never thought of and (2) how to view thousands of
full-length genealogy books at no charge.
Lunch Bring your own lunch or eat out. A map
of local restaurants will be provided at registration.
1:00 – 2:15 pm
Where is Genealogy Software Headed?
This is a bit of a crystal ball exercise. Dick
Eastman claims that most of our latest genealogy programs are very
old-fashioned. Many have not changed significantly in 20 years and yet
there is hope on the horizon. Mr. Eastman will show demos of the latest
trends in web-based genealogy software.
2:30 – 3:45 pm
Photographing Old or Delicate Documents and
Photographs
Use your computer BEFORE you snap the picture! This
presentation will discuss lighting, photo stands, macro lenses and even
software to be used before the shutter is pressed. There will also be a
brief discussion of software used to enhance photographs after the picture
is taken. The presentation will focus on digital cameras and “digital
darkroom” techniques.
Biographical Data
Dick Eastman kept his first genealogy database on
80-column punch cards.
For some 30+ years, Dick Eastman has been honing his
vision of the future to improve our picture of the past. A high school
writing assignment started him asking questions about family, and tuned
his ear to the stories of Eastman, Dow, Deabay and Theriault elders at
family reunions.
Along with this growing curiosity about his roots, an
early interest in ham radio awakened his penchant for all things
electronic, and he was ready for computers almost before they were ready
for him. This odd combination of interests came together, and by the
early 1970’s, Dick was already using a mainframe computer to enter his
family data on punch cards.
It was only natural for him to play with PCs and
Macintosh computers when the information age invaded households across the
continent. He immediately saw new and better and faster ways of
researching his family. This was too good to keep to himself, so it’s no
surprise that the internet became his playground, where he would exhort
others to bring their ancestors into this digitized world.
In the mid-1980’s, Dick actually went knocking on the
door of a rising online star called CompuServe to propose a genealogy
forum: a move by which he built a community of family historians over the
next 14 years. He preached the benefits of technology to an even wider
audience of genealogists, including national and international
genealogical organizations, and of course, GENTECH, an organization that
helped him to spread his message.
For the past 11-plus years, Dick has pursued his
mission through an online periodical he writes every day, simply called
“Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.” He loves to share technology
“finds” that can help both new and seasoned genealogists.
Nov. 10
1:00-3:00 PM
Jim Meyer of Meyer Bookbinding Co.
in Auburn will be giving a presentation on Rebinding
and Restoring Old Family Bibles and Historical Books. He will
also be on hand to offer free estimates of how much it would cost to
restore your family bible so be sure to bring yours to the meeting!
Members will discuss favorite
publications. A Librarian from OCPL will discuss recent acquisitions in
the Local History Department.
The
2006 Calendar of Topics
March 11 Irish
Genealogy
Anne Ruggeri, genealogy chairperson of the Irish
American Cultural Institute,
1:00 PM
will help you find your Irish ancestors.
April 8
Who’s Your Most Interesting Ancestor?
During this sharing session CNYGS members and
10:00 AM
guests should be prepared to make a
short (3 minute limit, please) presentation about their favorite/most
interesting or most illustrious ancestor. Why is he/she interesting and
how did you find out?
1:00 PM
Writing About Your Ancestors
will be easier after you view the
NEHGS video Genealogical Writing Style Guidelines and
Practical Advice by Henry Hoff. You’ll be ready to
turn your 3 minute presentation into a full page in your family history!
May 13
Oneida County Resources:
Mary Anne Buteux, a volunteer at the Oneida
County Historical 1:00 PM
Society who also does private family research, will tell us what’s
available on line and where to go to find vital records, naturalization
papers, land records, probate records, and historical information.
Sept. 9
Using Census Records
The first Federal census was taken in 1790 and
many have been taken
1:00-4:00 PM since then.
Today these records have the potential to reveal much about your
family's history. During this workshop you will learn how to search them
and use the indexes to them. You will also learn how to use the New York
State Census. Presentation by Wayne Wright, NYSHA
Oct. 14
Day-long conference:
Curt B Witcher, Manager,
Historical Genealogy Dept, Allen County
8:30 AM-
Public Library Program to be held at Jamesville DeWitt
Middle School.
3:45 PM
Mining the Mother Lode: Using Periodical Literature
for Genealogical Purposes
Effective Use of the
ACPL Historical Genealogy Dept.
Using Military Records for
Genealogical Research
Using Church Records
in Your Genealogical Research
Nov. 4 What’s
New in the Genealogy
Department of the OCPL
Librarian Holly Sammons will bring us
1:00 PM
up to date on the genealogical resources available
at and through the Onondaga County Public Library, including
HeritageQuest and the Syracuse Newspapers Archives. Program to
take place in the Curtin
Auditorium at the OCPL Central Library.
The
2005 Calendar of Topics
March 12 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1 PM - Genealogical
Research in Madison County
Sue Greenhagen, Town of Eaton Historian
and
Technical Services
Librarian at SUNY Morrisville; Roberta
Kincaid, Certified Genealogical Record Specialist (CGRS);
and Harold Witter, Family Genealogist
and author of
Witter Genealogy,
will present research resources and
ideas. Please join
us as we kick off our new season at
the new site!
April
9 - 10
AM - Tips and Tricks for Finding Your Female Ancestors
Patti
Haggerty,
CNYGS Board Member, using
David Dearborn's video, Finding
A Wife's Maiden
Name
(NEHGS - New England Historic and Genealogical
Society).
The discussion includes her personal
experiences in
breaking down brickwalls of five
different Abigails.
- 1 PM -
Researching the
'Net -- My Favorite
Website.
Open Forum -- Each of us has a favorite family-
history research Website. Bring yours along with
its web-
address (URL), and share how it is useful,
and any of its
drawbacks. A list will be collected
and distributed to the
membership (and posted
here, of course).
May 14 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1 PM - Using
Digital
Cameras to Film Historical
Documents
Kent
Stuetz,
Regional Advisory Officer with the
New York State Archives, will discuss and show how to
film historical documents using a
digital camera,
including different types of cameras,
settings, filming
techniques, and secret tips.
Sept. 10 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1 PM - Plant
Your Tree On
The Web
Mary
D. Taffet will
discuss the steps involved
in publishing your genealogical data on the Web,
including choices of website hosts, consideration of
privacy
issues, and use of various programs to prepare
and upload your data.
Mary received a 2001 GENTECH
Scholarship for
her project, Automatic Tagging of Genealogical
Data
to
Enhance Web-based Retrieval.
Oct.
1 - (9 AM -- 3
PM) - Conference: Finding and
Using New York
City
Records, at the Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School's
Large Group Instruction Room, located at 6280 Randall
Road, in DeWitt.
Leslie Corn, MA, FGBS, and
Roger Joslyn,
CG, FASG,
nationally-known
genealogists will be our presenters.
Click Here for
more
details about this exciting Conference.
Nov. 12 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1PM -
Genealogical Research
Using Invention Patent
Records
Pamela Lipe Revercomb will discuss the
government documents and original patent record books,
not available electronically, that she used to learn about
patents that her ancestors had invented.
Mary
D. Taffet
will discuss how more recent patent
records can be searched using the Internet.
The 2004
Calendar of Topics
- March 13 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1
PM - Making the Best Use of the Onondaga
Historical
Association Research Center and
Archives
- Michael Martin, Associate Archivist and
-
History
of Syracuse Cemeteries
-
Dennis Connors, Curator of History, Onondaga Historical
Association
April
3 - 10
AM - Genealogical Research
using Rhode Island
Records
-
1 PM - Genealogical Research
using Massachusetts
Records
- Ruth
Quigley Weller, Research Director of the New
England Historical and Genealogical Society
(NEHGS)
May 1 - 10AM
- Board Meeting (in the Church Gymnasium)
- 1
PM - Share Your Family Trees
and Treasures
(Click
on this Link, to see PHOTOS)
- CNYGS
Members - This program is to be presented
by all members of our society in the Gymnasium. Bring
something to share, such as a genealogy
or family
history, or family artifacts
(i.e., tools, quilts, clothing
and Family Bibles. Come and see
how others have
organized and preserved family
histories and heirlooms.
To reserve space, please
contact Donna Johnson Brown,
by email to: CNYGS@Yahoo.com,
or by mail to:
137 Crooked Land
Road, Tully, NY 13159.
Sept. 11 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1 PM - Using
Death Records in Your Research
Barbara
will include many records surrounding a death
to help with your family research: civil, newspaper,
cemetery, sextant, funeral home, stones, internet, and
taking pictures of an preserving
the stones.
Barbara
Dix, retired Oswego County Historian
- Oct.
2
- 10AM - Tracing your Civil War Ancestors,
On and
Off
the Internet
-
Darothy DeAngelo, authority on the Civil War, and
Sue Greenhagen, Reference Librarian, Morrisville
College,
will show us how to find our Civil
War ancestors using
traditional methods and Internet
resources.
- 1 PM - Lineage Organizations and How to Join
Them
A
panel of lineage society members will discuss
the
- societies and how to join them.
DAR
- Leola Crane Sutton
SAR
- John Downing
Civil
War Organizations - Darothy DeAngelo
Mayflower
Society - Marion Chester and
Sharon
Matyas.
Nov. 6 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1PM
- Why Did They Come Here? How Our Ancestors
May Have Ended Up In New York
This
talk will examine some of the political, economic,
and social contexts in which our ancestors lived, and
thus compelled them from their
ancestral homelands
to New York State, thereby
helping us to develop a
fuller sense of our
family history.
Robert
Arnold III, Record Services, New York State
Archives.
The 2003
Calendar of Topics
- March 15 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1
PM - Preservation of Photographs - An introduction
to
- photographic history, proper storage
and care, indirect
-
information about dating old
photos, with time for
-
questions.
Gary
Albright, Conservator - George Eastman
House Museum, Rochester NY
April
12 - 10
AM - Pennsylvania Migration
Trails
Considering
the trails and reasons why your migrating
ancestors left Pennsylvania will give
you some clues
as to where to search for their origins
there.
-
1 PM - When
there is no Will there still is a Way
Probate
records and the analysis of what one might
find in them. We will explore the Russell
Index System
that is prevalent in Pennsylvania.
Elissa
Scalise Powell, CGRS, has been doing
genealogical research since 1985, and
helps others
find their ancestral roots through
community college
classes
in beginning genealogy
and computers.
May 10 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1
PM - Genealogy Databases for the PC
Norm
Young has instructed several
beginning genealogy courses, has demonstrated-
genealogy databases and is president of the
St. Lawrence Valley Genealogy Society.
Sept. 13 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1 PM - Digging
Up the Dead with a GPS
Learning
to use a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)
receiver and mapping software for your genealogy
research. A GPS receiver can help you find your way
to a cemetery, mark the exact
location of an
abandoned cemetery or even a specific grave site.
Gary
Jones and Anton Ninno -- Gary is a
librarian
with the Local History / Genealogy Dept of the
OCPL. Anton is a staff trainer at OCM- BOCES,
helping
teachers integrate technology into
their classrooms
and student projects.
Oct.
11 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1
PM - New York State Historical
Library at
Cooperstown,
NY -- Resources
Wayne
Wright,
Associate Director
Discover
the many genealogical resources in this regional
library.
Nov. 8 - 10AM
- Packrat or Genealogist?
Effective Methods
for
Organizing your History Research
Explore
both traditional methods and computer technology
to organize family history documents, photographs, and
other important papers and data
for quick retrieval, as
well as tips for distributing- and
sharing this information
with others.
- 1
PM - Beyond the Family Tree: How to Write A
Compelling
Family History
It is
easy to overlook the stories of how our ancestors
lives were influenced by local and world
events and
conditions. This workshop will show
how to liven up your
family history by placing your
ancestors in the larger
context and will demonstrate
how to produce interesting
copy using
such items as vital records, documents,
photographs
and more.
Lisa
A. Alzo, Ithaca, NY
Lisa
has taught genealogy courses at BOCES and given
talks at area historical societies.
The 2002
Calendar of Topics
March 16 - Technology
and Genealogy: Selecting and using
Digital Cameras, Scanners & CD-Recorders
("burners").
Family historians will want
to attend, to gain valuable
information for
use in their own family history
documentation.
Al
Fasoldt, Technology Writer Syracuse
Post
Standard and Newhouse News Service,
Point &
Click host, and "Random
Access" radio show host.
April
13 - 1
PM - Preparing for
A
Successful Research Trip
Panelists:
Harlow Dunton, Roberta Kincaid
CGRS, Roger Williams
May 11 - 10AM
- The Ease of Doing French-Canadian Genealolgy,
and
Some of its Problems
- 1
PM - Name Changes and Variations in French-Canadian
Names
Roger
Lawrence, American-Canadian Genealogical
Society - Manchester, NH
Sept. 14 - 1
PM - Reading Early American
Handwriting
Videotape,
produced by 123-Genealogy
Location-change:
to be held at the Jamesville-DeWitt
Middle School, off Randall
Road in DeWitt.
Oct.
12 - 10AM
- Board Meeting
- 1
PM - Post-Revolution
Settlement of Central NY: Military
Tracts
and Other Land Tracts
that Attracted
People
-- How Central New Yorkers Got
Here
James
Darlington, Adjunct Professor of Geography
and History at SUNY-Cortland
Broad
patters that brought people from certain regions
to settle in central NY, and the makeup of our local
countryside.
**
CLICK HERE for Mr.
Darlington's SLIDES **
Nov. 9
- 10AM - Board Meeting
- 1
PM - A Lawyer's Guide to
Finding
Genealogical Records
-- Courthouse Resources
Roger
B. Williams, Esq. - Syracuse
Roger
has been practicing law for over 30 years and exploring genealogy
for the the past 10 years or so. In this presentation, he will share
the ways in which his legal experience has helped him find family
records and supported his research. You will have an insider's tour
of the typical county courthouse, and know where to look and what to
ask for when you visit your ancestor's locations. Finally, you will
understand the record-keeping and indexing systems in use locally,
which apply with minor variations across the U.S.
The 2001
Calendar of Topics
- March 17
- "Church Archives - A Resource for Genealogists"
Peter
Christoph, Archivist for Lutheran
Church Upstate N.Y.
-
Synod
Rev.
Charles Marks,
United
Methodist Church
Commission for
-
History and Archives
Joan
Green, Asst. Archivist, Episcopal
Diocese of Central
-
New York
April 21 - "Lighting
Your Fire,
and Getting Started in Genealogy"
Clancy
Hopkins, Editor of the Informer (Newsletter of
the Jefferson
County Genealogical Society
May 12 - "Flatlands
and Rock Farmers: Research in
Vermont and
Pathways
to New
York"
Alice
Eicholtz, PhD, CG, Director of Lifelong Learning,
Norwich University
September 15 -
"Show and Tell" -- CNYGS Members share their
genealogical discoveries and surprises
of the past year.
One of the best ways to learn research
methods is from
other genealogists and family
historians who have had
successes in breaking
down a research-barrier, creatively.
October 19
& 20 -- CNYGS
40th Anniversary Celebration
"Mining
for Genealogical Gems"
Speakers
include Diane Snyder Ptak, Christine Crawford-
Oppenheimer,
Judge John Austin and others.
November 10 -
"Using Genealogical Journals to
Research Your
Family
Tree"
Joyce
Cook, Librarian -- Fulton Public Library
Previous Topics & Resources
March 18,
2000 Henry Z.
Jones, Jr., FASG:
(10
AM) "When
the Sources Are Wrong!"
(How
to spot and overcome the obstacle of errors in
primary and secondary sources.)
(1
PM) "Tracing
Origins of Your Early 18th Century
Palatine
Emigrants," and "What's
New In Palatine
Genealogy"
(A
step-by-step plan for pinpointing and fully tracing
your ancestors' European roots.)
Hank Jones
graciously provided us with a copy of his notes. The handouts from
his talk may be printed from these links:
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