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“Genealogy and the Internet” Presented by Peggy Johnson |
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Click for Presentation Materials: |
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Computer and Technology |
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The SIR Area 2 Computer User Group had 61 attendees at the January 15th meeting, a record attendance since the groups newly revived existence. The credit for our new record goes to both the subject matter and the presenter, Ms. Peggy Johnson. Peggy spoke on a subject of great interest to many of the Area 2 Computer Users Group: Genealogy and the Internet. She reviewed the multitude of places that genealogical information can be found. She recommended www.genealogy.com and www.familysearch.com for broad coverage. (Additional web links supplied by Peggy for genealogy research can be found at Genealogy Web Links Page )Both of these are subscription services although 'family search.com' , a LDS Church site, has a lot of useful free information and download files. Other specific sites included marriage records (Illinois particularly good), land records, death records, funeral homes (may be able to identify other family members), old city directories, library biographical records, state archives, obituaries, passenger lists, family bibles, and many others. (Check out FamilyTree Magazine Tips on Web Searches at: http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articles/feb04/search.html ) Information obtained through these searches can be inputted into genealogical software such as Family Tree Maker. Her enthusiasm for the subject was clearly evident. Ms Johnson then toured the group through Family Tree Maker. She emphasized the fact that the program was a valuable tool for use in organizing information collected from any and all the sources listed above. Family Tree maker opens with a blank form that requests as much information about a subject as is available, e.g., name of individual, name of spouse, birthday, birthplace, date of death, where buried, date of marriage, place of marriage, children, etc. By clicking onto the name of one of the spouses, this same form appears with any information that had been entered previously about that person. Clicking on one of the children will open the form for that child and allow you to enter (or recall) specific details. One particularly valuable feature is that notes, records, photos, etc., can be linked to each person or family, making it possible personalize records. In Family Tree Maker names entered into the program forms are stored in a “file” and clicking on a name in the file will bring up the appropriate form. There are numerous ways that the information can be displayed, both in text form and in tree form (ancestor, descendant, or hourglass). Family Tree Maker can be transferred by e-mail and opened by a recipient with that program. Q&A Session by Dick Curry Dick Curry, at the request of those present, spent time at the end of the program describing ways to identify programs that startup when you turn on your computer. The more that run immediately, the slower your computer will run. He listed 7 specific places within a computer that can accessed to identify programs that are launched on computer startup and ways to determine what these programs are and whether or not they actually need to run at startup. Dick also noted this was a good way to check whether or not your computer has a malware program installed - particularly spyware or a Trojan Horse. Further details and Dick's PowerPoint presentation will be posted to this website soon. |