Ford Genealogy Club February 8, 2001 Meeting Minutes

Reports:

• President: Chuck Oslund
• Vice-President: Mike Saulsberry
• Treasurer: Mark Krugman
• Secretary: Diane Oslund
• Newsletter: George Newton

Old Business:

• The Election will be held at the next meeting on March 8!
• Nomination commitee report
  Mike, although not presenet reported by e-mail that Karen Krugman has been nominated for President,
  Diane Oslund has been nominated for Vice-President
  Nominations from the floor
  Mark Krugman has been nominated for Treasurer. Although this exceeds the two-year limit, per FERA rules, the club can re-elect a person to office if there is no other candidate to run.
  Mike Brautigan was nominated for Secretary. He had previously indicated he would be willing to run for an open office.
• FGC Consititution changes
  Bob Biting is working on revisions to our constitution to make it easier to read. Following FERA’s lead in doing so with theirs. Such things as excess wordiness that makes it hard to understand. He is altering the portions than needed to be changed based on the new revisions from FERA that we have discussed at several meetings. We discussed several sections he is making changes in and places he and others had questions about. Bob will continue to edit and present it to us again at a future meeting. Thank for all the hard work Bob. We know this isn’t easy.
• Send any Queries and Articles for the Newsletter to George Newton

New Business:

• We also discussed moving to another building. Our room was taken last night and we had to use a smaller conference room and make sure everybody coming could find us. Maybe we need to consider a building a little easier to get into?
• Chuck our president, asks that if you have any free area (bulletin board) in your office building, can you/ will you post a notice about a week before each meeting to let others know when and where we meet. Maybe we’ll pull in more members that way. Or at least get the word out that we’re here.

Presentation:

Sharon Brevoort spoke Fact Finding For Genealogists
(or how to go about finding the facts; especially from afar)

She has nice handouts and used overheads that are hard for me, your humble secretary, to note in our minutes. So this time I am making lists of things she discussed or felt noteworthy in her discussion. See the hand outs or bug Sharon if you need more information on any of these items.
(I didn’t tell them to see you Sharon, honest I didn’t. It must have been Chuck typing that up when I had my back turned.)

Writing letters
Sharon talked about letter writing skills to improve your correspondence:
• Chose how and when to write
• Write carefully when you are rested and less apt to make mistakes
• Reread what you wrote (REREAD)
• Ask yourself, is this letter easy to understand
• Ask yourself, how can someone misread my letter? Can they misunderstand what I’m asking?
• If the letter is complex ask someone to read it before you mail it. Ask for their advice on editing weak spots to make them better understood..
• Remember the 7 c's of correspondence clean, correct, clear, courteous, considerate, concise, complete, cheerful. (I ended up with 8 so courteous and considerate are probably the same one)
• Remember when someone writes to you asking for information, you are NEVER obligated to respond. Keep that in mind when you write to others too. Think of way to write that will cause them to want to respond.
• Useful Phrases to use. Sharon has on one of her handouts so I’m not adding them here. Get a copy of her handouts.
• Contact information. Can you be reached? Always include you email address, phone number, url address if you have one, your full name and street address in every letter. (See Mike under ‘points brought up by others’ below for a example of not doing this) Also put contact info in your queries on the internet or anywhere else you place them.

Adding interest to your letters, queries etc.
• Use interesting facts
• Add a short story if it really is on topic. Very short. Remember these people reading your letters are busy people.
• Make a rough draft with a sample piece of your research.
• Add graphics, clip art or scanned photos, to letterhead or envelopes (be careful doing this. don’t go overboard)
• Send thank you notes after receiving a favorable response. Let them know you appreciate their efforts on your behalf.
• Sharon suggested you might scan a family photo (old one) and perhaps incorporate it into your letter when writing to such offices as county clerks. Remember, she said, most of these offices are manned by women. How do you think they’ll react to a 1897 photo of a child who happens to be your great somebody or other. Only make it small so it fits on your letter page, not a separate page adding bulk to your letter..
• Consider that stamp collecting is one of the top hobbies in the nation or around the world. Think about using commemorative stamps on your letters. Chances are the person you are writing to knows someone collecting such stamps. Especially when writing to distant places.
• Perhaps use rubber stamps to print graphics on your envelope to make it stand out in the pile. (Crayola has rubber stamps you can purchase for stamping on your envelopes or on anything.)
• There are ‘Pentel pens’ that are acid free and should be used in place of regular ones when writing in your scrapbooks or on copies of documents, photos etc. Not that you should write on photos.

Checking Accuracy
• Be sure to find the correct contact person or office and use their address. Don’t depend on one office passing your letter on to another office. They might but they might not. Even if they do the process can really slow down the response coming back to you.
• Check county boundaries to be sure you are writing to the correct office for the time frame you are looking for that record in.
• Check on the dates of record keeping for the state or county you are interested in. Don’t write for a birth certificate when that state didn’t require births to be recorded until long after your ancestor was born. Because they won’t have it. And you not only waste your time in writing the letter but you waste the clerk’s time in responding to you too.
• Look for printed forms for ordering certain records. Many are on line with instructions on their use. Check it out. Some offices will not accept your letter, you must fill out their form before they’ll even look at your request. So get it right the first time.

Streamlining
• Go to your local library and use their phone books for books you don’t have at home.
• Purchase a copy of a certain phone book if you are doing a lot of research in one area. That way you have phone numbers and addresses at your finger tips.
• Check on-line sites that have white & or yellow pages for the area you are interested in.
• Keep an accurate postal scale at home to weigh your envelopes containing more than four pages. This will help you to know how much the postage should be, both on your SASE and the outside envelope.
• Print or purchase labels to place on back of enclosures and include your email address on these if you have one. Make it easy for people to find you.
• Make a big batch of SASE envelopes to keep handy. Then when you are pinched for time you don’t have to slow down to fill out two envelopes.
• The best thing to do is to get size 9 envelope for the SASE’s because they are just slightly smaller than a size 10. You don't have to fold it to put inside the size 10 envelope. It’s less bulky and less apt to get caught in postal machines.
• Print your own postcards or note cards to use as thank you note instead of purchasing them. You can make them fit your personality or your family research.
• Create templates of various types of letters to you will frequently be writing. That way part of the letter is already finished before you even start.
• When possibly you might cut and paste vital facts instead of typing them up time and time again..

Book
• Check Bookfinder.com on the internet.
• Long Distance Genealogy costs $19 new. Sharon recommends it. (Diane has a copy of this book too. It’s really great as a ‘how to’ telling you what kinds of records you should consider looking for but it also helps to steer you in the direction of just what kind of library or government office holds that type of record. There are also many sample letters in to write to these offices)
• The Beginner's Guide to Family History Research. The url for this is in handouts

Reference Materials on CD that Sharon really likes
• Ani Map
• Percy (this is in our club library)
• Ancestry
• Family Archives National Genealogical Society Quarterly Index
• Avotaynu this is mainly New York research, Jewish.
• Early American Gazetteer
• American Genealogical Biographical index
• Label Pro

Educate yourself. Use some or all of these types of things.
• Genealogy Magazines
• Newspapers
• Online columns & Articles
• Local Classes
• Online Classes

There are research tools and article links on the Washtenaw County Genealogy Society web page that Sharon is in charge of. There is an entire page of links to various short articles & journals dealing with genealogy. URL link from the Ford Genealogy Club page; and I believe it’s in Sharon’s handouts.

There is at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor ‘UM Bibliography’ for the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. The handout is free, just go to the library and ask. We have had this handout given to us when we had a talk on the resources at the Library of Michigan. So we might have a few hanging around somewhere in our files.

Search the internet
• Surname searches
• Genealogy society finders
• Place name search
• There’s all kinds of things dealing with genealogy to find on the internet. Just spend some time surfing. You’ll likely be amazed.
• Use a reverse address book I think this is when you have the address but don’t know who lives there.
• Maps. All kinds of geographic maps, railroad maps. If you need it take a look and see if anybody has it on the web.

If you need to deal with other languages in your research consider, translation software. There is one ‘free’ on the internet. You can purchase cd’s for translations. Remember you get what you pay for. If it’s free, it’s likely not all that good. But try it anyway. Compare and see what works best for you. Purchasing software while better than free web site software, the best would be finding a real live person to do the translation for you. But that might be the most costly too.

When purchasing translation software, read the package. See just how the software works. You never want a word for word translation. That can greatly alter the real meaning of phrases.

Round Table:

Jerry: Working on the internet he’s found a person with the same surname he’ s researching on his mothers line. They haven’t found a connection as yet between them. He’s interested in any one name studies that may exist for this name and wants to work on that.

Donna: Doesn't have anything new going on but she is in the market for a digital camera. She got a few suggestions at the meeting but would welcome any suggestions from the rest of you on scanners and digital cameras to use for copying old pictures. Write to Donna if you can help. dyambasky@aol.com

George: Yesterday was George's birthday. That would be Feb 7th. Happy B Day George. His brother & sister-in-law are getting ready to move. They live in the home that used to be George’s parents. They have found a few gold mines in the attic. They found their dad's old yearbooks from school, even some of their mothers, as well as some old photos from both dad's and mom's side of family. And luckily most had dates and names on them. They also found some of their dad’s keepsakes. A couple he mentioned were a hat with a long feather and sword from a Masonic association he belonged to.

Ray: He’s looking on web for family but hasn’t found anything yet.

Mary Beth: In the beginning she sent out letters to all the people she could find with the same surname. She never got a single response. Now years later, she was contacted by a nephew from the other side of her family whose interested in doing genealogy.

Bob: Went to a class on using the internet for genealogy. He suggests we hold such a class for our members. Showing them what’s out there on the ‘net.’ We did have one such class early last year. But it’s time we set up another one. So we’ll keep Bob’s suggestion in mind.

Herb: He’s scanning pictures from his mother-in-law’s albums. He’s checking out information that he's received. And he discovered that a place called Erin where someone in his family is buried in none other that our very own East Point. At least that’s what it’s called today. (Hope I have that one right too. Sometimes it’s hard to type as fast as you need to and you get garbled words. His aunt is ‘hopefully’ printing a book SOON on one line of his family. She’s been promising to publish this book for a very long time. He's also looking for a picture of the ship his ancestors came here on. Nobody on the internet seems to have a picture of that particular ship.

Matt: Welcome back Matt: His daughter is now abt 15 months old and the twin boys are 3 1/2 years.
Matt brought the following information dealing with Detroit’s 300th birthday and the pioneer certificate you might be able to get. He’s brought us the url for it so check it out.
Information from Matt LaDuke Detroit 300 celebrates the original settlers of Detroit; http://www.detroit300.org/settlers/settlers_program.htm
Can get a certificate if your ancestors were in the Oakland Macomb Wayne Essex counties between 1701 - 1750.
form to fill out at http://www.detroit300.org/settlers/descendency_chart_1.htm
Also this page give a list of surnames of people they know were in Detroit in that time frame. If you descend from any of these it sounds like you don ’t have to prove anything. But if you have ancestry that was here in that time frame and the name is not on the list, you must submit documentation to prove what you say. http://www.detroit300.org/settlers/original_settlers.htm Double check this as I might be reading it wrong.

Chuck: He’s doing a little work on his DeSensi line. He had corresponded with some folks in Kentucky with the same surname who also have similar given names running in their lines but he can't find a connection. He was recently contacted by a guy from Australia whose DiSensi line came from the same town in Italy as Chuck's. They still need to find a connection, if there is one, but Chuck's family knows that some of their DeSensi line did go to Australia. So it sounds pretty good.

Diane: Reviewing obits and notes and copies of records in my files, trying to sort and make sense of my research and I discovered I have leads I didn’t know I had, to people I lost when they moved out of an area. And now I am finding them.

Sharon: Says she’s all talked out from giving the lecture. She added however that her web site for the GSWC (Genealogy Society of Washtenaw County) asked her to do a talk on pre revolution research in New York and New England. So she's working on her early Brevoort’s to help her find the research tools to talk about. She’s found many useful items and is still looking for other she didn’t find.

Mike Wisner: He’s back after 4 years away. Mike was one of the founders of the Ford Genealogy Club. He is off on of work on a medical leave at the moment so just might help our newsletter George ‘Fig’ with some articles.. Last September he organized a family reunion that grew and grew and grew. Finally got to meet a lady from Iowa he’s corresponded with. She has a cousin (I think he said that writing Mike to get information.

Andrea: Wrote to PA for death certificates costing $3 each. They had the informant's name and address on them so she wrote to them. In doing so she discovered two cousins who had lost track of each other and she was able to help them contact each other. Kind of neat I think.

Doug: Has not been doing much research but he found a group of Mutters living in the small town his family came from. He was all excited and told his day only to find out they aren’t related. His dad says there was only him and his sister descending from his father. So he doesn’t know of any connection to these other Mutters. They all lived there at the same time and didn’t know each other. Maybe if Doug digs far enough he’ll find a connection. Maybe back 10 generations or so. Huh Doug?

Minutes submitted by Diane Oslund

Ford Genealogy Club - February 8, 2001 Meeting Last updated Feburay 19, 2001. Comments?