The Livermore Roots Tracer Volume XXIV Number 4 November 2004 Editor:  Editorial Board, rootstracer@l-ags.org Web Editor: Vicki Renz, webmaster@l-ags.org

The Roots Tracer is a quarterly publication with articles of interest to the genealogist.  It is published in February, May, August and November. Members are encouraged to submit articles of general interest. The deadline for each quarterly issue is the 15th of the previous month. Submissions must contain the name of the submitter, as well as the name of the author, publication and date of any published article that is being quoted. Send material to: The Roots Tracer, P. O. Box 901, Livermore, CA 94551-0901 or e-mail rootstracer@l-ags.org.

Queries are free. Please send your queries to querymaster@l-ags.org.

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Welcome to Our New Members

We are grateful for the generosity of these members of L-AGS:
Patron
David Steffes

Benefactors
James Bahls, Lois Barber, Sandy and DeLynn Clark, Philip and Deborah Eckert,
Ted and Gail Fairfield, and Robert Paulsen

Membership Report As of October 30, 2004

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Last November, I wrote a little suggestion to help you start writing your life story (write about the vehicles your family owned). I hope you started a "My Life Story" folder and have one or more pages about your family's cars including some photos. Now let's add to our Life Story folder.

Pick an age when you can remember the house you lived in – how about when you were 8 or 10 years old?

Describe how you remember that house.

Where was your bedroom?

Did you share your room with a sibling?

What was the kitchen like?

Did you eat your meals in the kitchen or did you have "family dinner" in the dining room?

Was there an attic or a basement? What were those rooms used for?

What do you remember about the street where it was located?

Were there lots of houses close together or were there large lots with plenty of space to play?

Who were your neighbors?

Were there other children in the neighborhood that you played with? Tell about them.

Was the house close to stores and your school?

Was there a park or playground nearby?

Can you draw a floor plan of the house?

Can you remember how the furniture was arranged?

Does that house still exist?

Have you seen it and how has it changed?

What has taken its place, if it is not still there?

Ask siblings about the house – they will probably remember different things that will help you bring more detail to your story.

You can include a map (for instance, from MapQuest or Topo Zone) to show the location of the house (or where it used to be). Be sure to search for old photos of the house and neighborhood, and include them on your page of memories (I was only able to find photos with the swing set in the back yard and some of us kids on the front sidewalk, but none of the whole house). If you are fortunate enough to live close to that house, or can visit that town, you could take photos as it exists today and include them to show how the house has changed.

This exercise will bring back related memories, so keep extra paper nearby to jot them down. Then later you can expand on them and add them to your life story.

You can continue with the house theme and create pages for the first house you can remember, and each house you have lived in, from childhood to the present. If you have moved several times, you will have lots of information about your life on these pages.

Don’t think of this assignment as a chore; and you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. You can have fun remembering and writing about the houses, neighborhoods and towns where you lived.

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Last month six ladies from JHL, Jane Cote, Jane Everett, Linda Garrett, Glynice Pomykal, Suzanne Wade, and I, boarded a plane for New England, beginning a trip where we marked the graves of three Revolutionary War ancestors, two of mine and one of Jane Everett's, and honored John Dale, a Patriot ancestor of Linda Garrett.

We began our trip by spending Friday, October 8, in Wilton, New Hampshire, visiting the town where Linda's Dale ancestors lived along with her Holts and Perrys. When we stopped at the Wilton Library to drop off Linda's genealogy to the library, one of the Historical Society Trustees was just arriving to go in and he gave us a wonderful tour of the old Library that they are restoring. Afterwards we headed out to the cemetery to try and locate John Dale's gravestone. As luck would have it, we parked right in front of the grave.

The grave of John Dale, who came to Wilton in 1739 as one of the first settlers, was found nestled in the serene setting of Vale End Cemetery just a few yards from the flagpole where the American flag waved. Our group gathered around his grave and had a ceremony to honor him and his service to the cause of freedom.

We know that John Dale signed a letter of Association that proclaimed his patriotism and his support of New Hampshire in fighting against the British. At this time, his papers are at DAR National Headquarters awaiting approval. It is the contention of Linda Garrett, sixth g-granddaughter of John Dale that the military service that was given to his son, John Dale, Jr., was really the service of the father. She is waiting to see if National will recognize what she has found to support this claim. Even if they don't accept this military service, the signing of the letter of Association is acceptable as service.

Linda has two other men of Wilton, New Hampshire, who have already been accepted, Ebenezer Perry and Abijah Perry and there are two more at National Headquarters awaiting approval, Joseph Holt, Jr. and Joseph Holt, III. In total there will be five DAR Patriots of the town of Wilton that Linda descends from, three she is establishing.

On Saturday we were joined by two other members of our DAR chapter; Marilyn Carter, who was on holiday with her husband, and my sister, Mary Jane McCarthy, who came from Maryland. Although the sky was overcast, it was the first day the weather had finally decided it was fall. Nearly forty people gathered around the grave of Ebenezer Hurd in Newport, New Hampshire, to honor him for his service in the American Revolution. Joanne Tuxbury, a very special lady I have been communicating with for well over a year, who helped me plan this day, and members of the Reprisal Chapter, a local DAR chapter in Newport, New Hampshire, participated in the ceremony along with an honor guard, led by Commander Wilfred Gonyo, from American Legion Post #25 of Newport. Shelley Huneven, a trumpeter from the Newport High School Band, played Taps at the end of the ceremony.

Following the ceremony we were given a tour of the Little Red School House in Newport, built in 1835. The Reprisal Chapter restored the schoolhouse and continues to maintain it. Afterwards we were treated to a delicious "Harvest" lunch prepared by members of the Reprisal Chapter. We had a wonderful afternoon making new friendships with these DAR Sisters 3000 miles away. In appreciation for their help and participation, JHL presented the Reprisal Chapter with an American flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol in remembrance of this very special occasion. Unbeknownst to us they were in need of a new flag for their Little Red School House and so this turned out to be the perfect gift.

Sunday was another beautiful fall day. The morning was brisk and cool with rays of sunshine dancing their way down through the trees, touching multi-colored leaves as they made their way to the ground, gently falling around the nearly fifty people who came to honor Justus Hurd, the Patriot, of Keene, New Hampshire. It was a special honor to have New Hampshire State Regent, Elaine Bean, attend and participate in the ceremony. Marilyn Pratt and members of the Ashuelot Chapter from Keene also participated. Once again we were very pleased to have an honor guard, this time from the Keene, New Hampshire Legion of Honor Post #4. Mr. Robert Whitney, an 80-year old bugler from the same American Legion Post, ended the ceremony with Taps.

Both ceremonies were beautiful, very patriotic, and well attended. I would like to think that Justus Hurd and his son Ebenezer were looking down on us both days, smiling and proud. Proud that, over two hundred years later, we were honoring and remembering them for something they believed so strongly in that they were willing to, and did, "sacrifice their lives and fortunes for."

Monday the six of us were back in the car and heading down to Massachusetts for six days of sightseeing. We traveled to Concord and Lexington, going to the bridge where the shot heard round the world was fired. Next we visited Salem, where the famous witch trials were held, and toured the House of Seven Gables. Of course, a trip to the Higginson Book store was the perfect stop on a rainy morning and we all had fun perusing the bookshelves. I think the prize for most books bought went to Jane Cote.

The next stop was Boston for the day. Glynice and Suzanne opted to spend the day at the NEHGS Library while Jane Cote, Jane Everett, Linda and I chose to tour the city on the trolley bus. Our first stop was the Bunker Hill Museum where we viewed the movie, "Don’t Shoot Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes," and then on to the USS Constitution where Linda and I took a tour of this famous ship. After a stop for lunch at Cheers, we continued our trolley tour through the city and back to the library where we met up with Glynice and Suzanne. We left Boston to spend the night in the town of Quincy, the home of John Adams, before leaving the following day for Cape Cod where we would spend the next two days in Plymouth visiting "The Rock," the Mayflower Ship and various other places. Those of us who are Mayflower descendants, of course, had to make a stop at the Mayflower Society Library. While Jane Everett, Linda Garrett, Suzanne Wade and I spent the rainy afternoon amongst the stacks, Jane Cote and Glynice Pomykal spent the time visiting the Pilgrims Museum.

On Friday, our last day before flying home, we went to the "Ancient Cemetery" in Centerville, Massachusetts and marked the grave of Jane Everett's Revolutionary War ancestor, Jesse Crosby. Once again, on an overcast and misty morning, we six ladies gathered around the grave of Jesse Crosby, put an American flag next to his headstone, and paid honor to yet another Patriot. We six ladies stood on the side of a hill, visible to all who passed by, praying and then with hands over our hearts we Pledged Allegiance to the Flag, sang our National Anthem and then did an a cappella rendition of Taps.

As we finished the ceremony a car drove up alongside the cemetery and a lady stepped out. With tears in her eyes, she told us how moved she was seeing the six of us standing there, in that tiny little cemetery, on a rolling hillside, on the side of a busy road, paying tribute to someone who had died so long ago. This stranger took the time to turn around, although she was in a big hurry, to come back and tell us what a wonderful thing we were doing.

Wow!! What a way to end our trip.

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Mary Maenchen has had two researching experiences that have convinced her this is a very good reminder. She was talking with her mom, hearing stories and writing them down and decided to write to a cousin who agreed to help with family history.

Seven years later Mary received a great deal of information from her cousin! She says it was "like frosting on the cake." On her mom’s side there were two brothers who emigrated from England and here were war records, birth certificates; you name it, they were in there. It was worth the wait!

On her dad's side, after finding a "new" cousin listed in Family Search, Mary learned that her grandfather had two brothers and not just the one as she had supposed. The cousin had been gathering information on the family and said she would send it soon. It was five years later that the GED file arrived and it was made into a book about 1-1/2 inches thick. A whole new family had been found. Seems like we should all follow Marys advice! Some pretty serendipitous findings can come to us.

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Dana and Joe Baca joined our Society in July as a result of attending our booth at the Pleasanton Fair. They grew up in Alameda and are living there now.

In Dana's father's line the surnames are:

1. Gerdes — who lived in the Coffeyville area of Kansas and in Fredericksburg, Texas

2. Tweedie — who lived in Norborne and Carrollton, Carroll County, Missouri

In Dana's mother's line the surnames are:

1. Ivy — who lived in Rapides Parish and Grant Parish, Louisiana

2. Williams — who lived in Louisiana in 1917

In Joe's father's line the surnames are:

1. Baca — who lived in Colorado and New Mexico

2. Garcia

In Joe's mother's line the surnames are:

1. Talay Albunjo (Allen Tal) — who lived in the Philippines

2. Mercado Trahquilina  — who lived in the Philippines

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I remember a conversation I had with an Irish cousin several years back shortly after meeting him for the first time. He is a second cousin once removed, a relationship most of us in the USA would probably term a distant cousin. Nevertheless he and his family had welcomed us like long lost friends to his farm  our common ancestors have farmed since the 1840s. In our conversation we discussed my relationship to others in our common family. When the discussion came to a person who was a 2^nd cousin, his comment was that 2^nd cousins was a very close relationship indeed. It didn’t take me long to learn that he and many of my other Irish relatives enjoyed a different perspective of 2^nd and even 3^rd cousins than I did. They not only know who they are but if they are still in the area are included in various family celebrations. Even they however, would probably say a 7^th cousin would certainly qualify as a distant cousin.

Imagine my surprise when I found a 7^th cousin who isn't very distant at all. I use the Family Tree Maker software program to record my family lines. One of the reports this software offers is a kinship report. When I first ran this report I was sure the program had absolutely gone crazy. There I was on the report, not only listed as Self, but also as my own 7^th cousin and my own 7^th cousin once removed. Further it indicated my own father was also my 6^th cousin once removed and my 6^th cousin twice removed while my children were also my 7^th cousins once removed as well as my 8^th cousins. And so it went with my siblings and my uncles, in fact with many of those in my paternal line. What was going on here? Surely there had to be an error somewhere in the logic for this program.

Imagine again my surprise when I found out it wasn't a software glitch at all. Tracing back through one of my paternal lines I found that a set of 3^rd great grandparents were themselves 2^nd cousins once removed. They shared a common set of grandparents. In my 3^rd great grandfather's case they were his great grandparents while for his wife they were her 2^nd great grandparents. I thus also have 2 lines to these same common grandparents and they are both my 6^th great grandparents along one line and my 7^th great grandparents along the other line. Those 2 lines to the same grandparents are what make me my own 7^th cousin and 7^th cousin once removed, depending on  line is followed.

It is not quite the same as being my own grandpa but it can certainly be about as confusing. I am sure there are probably many others who similarly have two lines of ancestors converging at a common set of grandparents. If they haven't already, I suspect they will experience a similar surprise upon running a kinship report.

Note: The Roots Tracer of November 2000,  is online at http://www.l-ags.org/tracer/vol_xx4.htm#Chart contains a relationship chart that can help explain the structure of cousin relationships.

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Sonia Gividen, one of the owners of Callaghan Mortuary in Livermore, asked the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society if we would be interested in transcribing their records and making them available to fellow genealogists. The Society agreed that it would be beneficial, and began with the earliest records available. These early records begin with two ledger books,  are probably incomplete, followed by several boxes of receipts for service. Each book or box was entered into a separate database.

All of the transcribed records are now available in full text on our web site at http://www.l-ags.org/callaghan/mort_main.html.

Adding the mortuary records brings to thirteen the number of databases that L-AGS has posted on the Web for the benefit of genealogists and local historians. Links to all of them are found at http://www.l-ags.org/databases.html. David Abrahams led the project, with help from the following member volunteers: Emily Bailey, Gail Fairfield, Mary Maenchen, Eileen Redman, and Jane Southwick.

The dates shown may not always be accurate. They were drawn from mortuary records and supplemented or confirmed by data in "Livermore Cemeteries," published by the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society in 1988. The full text of this book is online at http://www.l-ags.org/cem_liv/livintro.html.

The printed version is described in our list of publications (http://www.l-ags.org/pubs.html). In the future, the dates in the mortuary records may be supplemented by information found in local newspaper obituaries.

In the database, some of the cemeteries have an asterisk (*) after them. These indicate that we were able to correlate the burials to the "Livermore Cemeteries" book, published by L-AGS. Note that the information presented is as read in the original Callaghan records. No attempt to correct spelling errors was made. Therefore, the names and dates may not match exactly between the Callaghan records and the cemetery book.

Some records only show that remains were removed to the local morgue,  was located at the Callaghan Mortuary. Many of these remains were shipped to other locations for burial; therefore they don't show up in local resources.

Unfortunately, the data presented in the database is all that is available. The Mortuary does not have any other records. Obituaries may have been published in local newspapers. Microfilms of the Livermore Enterprise, Livermore Echo, and Livermore Herald may be found at the Livermore Public Library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue, or at The Livermore Heritage Guild museum in the Carnegie Building on Third Street in Livermore. The same microfilms are also available at the Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Some of the records show that people are buried in the Masonic Cemetery. This cemetery is the same as Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Memory Gardens Cemetery may also be referred to as the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

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A committee, chaired by David Abrahams, with members George Anderson, Leo Vongottfried, and Frank Geasa, has been reviewing the L-AGS Bylaws and Standing Rules. Changes to the Bylaws must be approved by a quorum of the membership after the second reading of the proposed changes. We will be holding the first reading at the November meeting (November 9), and the second reading at the December meeting (December 14). It is very important that we have as many members as possible at both of those meetings so we can vote on the changes. Please make every effort to attend.

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Okay, I work in the technology field and acronyms are very commonplace. When my I.T. staff lingers in the hallway having what we feel is a "normal" conversation, people always say, "Wow, you guys talk funny!" (Oops, that’s Information Technology, not I.T., sorry!)

Thinking back, I believe I can blame my maternal grandmother for my tendency to "talk funny." Her introduction of "Uncle" Paul and his children from Texas traumatized me for life. He was introduced as Uncle Paul, your 1st cousin 2 times removed, from Texas. I don't recall his children’s numbers. Now, you have to understand that I grew up in the country outside a very small town in the Central Valley of California. I didn't know what or where Texas was. I heard Texas and I assumed it was another country. If I didn't understand "Texas," how was I supposed to understand "1st cousin 2 times removed?" Okay, I had one cousin. I logically understood that part. But removed where? Removed why? Was he kicked out (removed) from the family twice because he was bad? Should I shake this bad man's hand? I don’t think so!

My grandmother spent years trying to make me understand my Arkansas family relationships. I know of a few 1st cousins marrying 1st cousins in my family tree. There's a reason people just nod their head knowingly when someone says, "They're from Arkansas, you know?" And yes, I have some really wacky relatives that I wish could be introduced using a few more of those "removed" numbers my grandmother was so good at remembering.

So this brings us to Relationship Charts. Yep, lots of those charts are on the Internet – 34 listed on Cyndi’s List alone. I'm still trying to understand this confusing concept of "Uncle" Tom, who wasn’t an uncle but a distant cousin of some sort and is still a puzzle to me. This "first cousin twice removed" is still a concept I struggle with to this day.

From the Internet, I found there are all kinds of systems to measure kinship degree – bilateral and unilineal used to make distinctions between relatives on the basis of kinship distance for determining inheritance and succession rights. There are 6 basic kinship numbers and calculations: cousin range, civil degree, canon degree, collateral degree, Murdock's system, and parentalia. Obviously, the last 5 are the more precise systems of calculations, and the last two won’t even be discussed here. No wonder this concept never has made sense to me.

The civil system calculates the number of links between one relative to the other. They have to share a common ancestor. It has an important advantage, as it is equivalent to a genetic measure, the inbreeding coefficient,  predicts the probabilities that each of two intermarrying relatives will pass on the variant form of a gene inherited from a common ancestor to one of their children. Now this I could understand! I do have some pretty wacky cousins – yep, the civil system must work for them.

Civil Common Ancestor	Canon Common Ancestor	Collateral Common Ancestor
Civil 7 degrees	Canon 4 degrees	Collateral 3 degrees
Created using Microsoft Visio Professional

The canon system assigns kinship based solely on the larger of the number of links to the common ancestor. Canon degree, also known as the Germanic system, is of both contemporary as well as historical importance. It is enshrined in British common law and was used in Catholic canon statutes prior to the Vatican II reforms. Canon degree places all nuclear family members in the same category, primary kin, reflected in Western traditions. It also groups bilateral descent groups at various degrees of removal.

The collateral system involves the least number of degree calculations and focuses on identifying genealogical relationships in reference to a core ancestral line and its collateral offshoots. It is formally defined as the lesser number of links that each of the two relatives have from its common ancestor. This system is inherent in the English differentiation of cousin types – degrees of removal (once removed, twice removed, etc.) refer to generation differences. For example, first cousin once removed.

Or another way to calculate Generation Names (cousin range):Reference: www.alvyray.com/Family/GenerationNames.htm)

Handy Rule #1: Nth cousins share a gg...g[n times] parent. For example, 1st cousins share a gparent (grandparent); 2nd cousins share a ggparent (great-grandparent); 3rd cousins share a gggparent (great-great-grandparent); etc.   Or, using an exponent to indicate the repetition of the count of the "g"s: nth cousins share a gⁿparent, or g³parent = great-great-grandparent.

Handy Rule #2: Your generation count is 1 more than your "g" count. For example, you are 2 generations removed from any grandparent (gparent, with 1 "g").

Rule #1 only - handy algorithm: Jane (n) and Jack (m) have a common ancestor. Jane's ancestor is gⁿparent; Jack's is g^mparent, or Jane's g⁷parennt and Jack's g⁵parent, always assuming they have no nearer common ancestor. Since Jane's 7-great is larger than jack's 5-great parent (n>m), find someone in Jane's line that is the same generation as that of Jack's. We'll call this person Sarah. Jack and Sarah are mth cousins, or 5th cousins.

The first half of the answer is "5th cousin" (where m is the smaller of m or n).

The second half of the answer is "...p removed" (where p is the difference between Jane's 7-great parent and Jack's 5-great parent, or p is n - m) or Jane and Jack are 5th cousins 2 times removed.

An Exercise Using Rule #1 and Rule #2: Dave is 5 generations down from the nearest common ancestor, and Brenda is 8 generations down from the same ancestor. What is their relationship?

First determine m and n. They are not 5 or 8 as you might first assume. Ther generation count is not the same as the number of "g"s in front of a parent. Here is where Rule #2 applies. You are n + 1 generations removed from your gnparent. So Brenda's g⁷parent is in common with Dave's g⁴parent. Some direct ancestor of Brenda's in the 5th generation with Dave is his 4th cousin. It doesn't matter who that person is. Determining the p (the "remove") is simple. It's 8 - 5 (or 7 - 4) equals 3. The p is the difference in generations between Brenda and Dave. So Brenda and Dave are 4th cousins, 3 removed (or "3 times removed," or "thrice removed").

So, clear as mud, yes? Now, if you ask me to calculate your ancestral relationships, I'll have to refer you to George Anderson, Dick Finn or Frank Geasa. I'm still trying to find out where Texas is located and the other three unknown men my grandmother married!

And "consanguinity" means being of the same blood; relationship by descent from a common ancestor; blood relationship (Oxford English Dictionary). And yes, I had to look up the spelling of the word in the dictionary. But I'm making progress - I do know how to spell "Texas."

To learn more about kindred relations & references:

Cousins Removal, by Michael John Neill, http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=2856

Descent Systems, by Brian Schwimmer, http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/descent/cognatic/degree.html

Generation Names, Alvy Ray Smith, http://www.alvyray.com/family/generationnames.htm

Cyndi's List, http://www.cyndislist.com/cousins.htm

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The State of Michigan History, Arts and Libraries site has several searchable indexes including those for the 1870 census and for naturalizations.

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17449_18635_18646---,00.html

A new BYU project is underway will attempt to use emigration records in the emigrants' home countries to locate more definitively their birthplaces. Many of these are listed very generally or are missing entirely from documents available in the countries they immigrated to.

http://immigrants.byu.edu/IAP/

If some of your ancestors were from northeast Tennessee, you will want to visit the site of the volunteer Cemetery Survey Team for that area. The site includes links to many transcribed cemetery lists and links to other good genealogical data sites.

http://cemeterysurveyteamofnortheasttennessee.com/

This site,  might be particularly useful for those beginning their genealogy, offers some very good forms to help organize your search. They are free for the printing.

http://www.genealogyforum.com/gfaol/beginners/forms.htm

The Ontario Genealogical Society (Canada) has an ongoing project indexing the names of ancestors buried in that province's cemeteries. The site also has census indexes and many other databases of genealogical interest.

http://ogs.andornot.com/cemmenu.htm

This site offers an alphabetical search list of the soldiers from Pennsylvania who fell in World War I. The fortunate searcher may also find a photo of their ancestor.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/1pa/military/ww1/haulsee/wwi.html

A directory of obituary databases and archives on the Internet can be found at this site.

http://www.newspaperobituaries.net/

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a searchable index of Civil War soldiers from that state. They also offer a list of more than 100,000 Wisconsin obituaries and biographical sketches, copies of  they offer for purchase.

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/genealogy/

An unusual genealogical resource is this Slavery Era Insurance Policies Register site from the State of Illinois Division of Insurance. It lists insurance policies taken out by some slaveholders on the lives of their slaves. It is alphabetized by the names of both the slaves and slaveholders.

http://www.ins.state.il.us/consumer/slaveryreporting.nsf

If your German ancestors immigrated to South Carolina in the mid 1700s, you might want to visit this site. Considerable genealogical information is given for the individuals listed.

http://www.palmettoroots.org/Auswanderer.html

If your Norwegian ancestors made their voyage to the USA prior to 1875, you might want to visit this site where you can search over 50,000 names from early passenger lists.

http://www.norwayheritage.com/ships/

If your research includes the Civil War, either looking for an ancestor or for another interest, you will want to visit this excellent National Park Service site,  has several great search lists.

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/

This Essex, England site offers online transcriptions of the 1841 census for many towns in that county. It also offers several other lists of genealogical interest.

http://essex1841.com/

This site offers a unique genealogical resource, a list of Galizien German families applying for resettlement from the Russian controlled area of Poland after Germany and Russia split that country in 1939.

http://www.galiziengermandescendants.org/

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Find the Hidden Words A Word Puzzle The 84 genealogy-related words listed below are hidden in this square array of letters. See if you can find them. In contrast to the puzzles in the last few issues of the Roots Tracer, this is not a meander puzzle: all of the hidden words lie on a straight line, either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. They may read backward or forward, upward or downward. Many cells are part of two or more words, and some words are buried completely within other words, as in the case of "child" buried within "childhood". The numbers beside some words mean that they appear that many times in the puzzle. After you have found all of the words, there will be four letters left over in the array. They spell a familiar acronym. Don't peek now, but the answer is farther down this page.

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Have you ever been asked, "Why do you belong to a genealogical society when you can find everything you need on the Internet?" Or how about this one, "Why should I join when someone in my family has already done all my research for me? What more can a society provide to me?"

Well, one good reason I've found is that I can talk to someone about my family history research without a glazed eye response. You know that, "Oh no! Here she goes again look." You all know of that  I speak I'm sure. We all have family members who just want to hear about the "good stuff." You know, the murder and mayhem. Since this excitement isn't typically what you find in your daily research, it's nice to have society members around to listen and rejoice in the discoveries you make – and without the glazed look. There is definitely a nice social aspect to your membership.

Brick walls are sometimes hard to break down by yourself. This is a situation where more is definitely better! There always seems to be an extra pair of eyes or someone more experienced in a specific area of research. Oh my, the time it can save you when you consult with your fellow society members when you find those blind alleys and brick walls! And there isn't a group of people more willing to share facts, knowledge and funny stories than fellow genealogists.

Your society provides skill development through education, publications, seminars, workshops, research assistance and networking.

You owe it to your descendants to make certain your research meets the highest standards of ethical research principles and practices. Why go to all the work of researching your data and not document the proper sources. Your society can help teach you how to discern fact from fiction, and how to document your finds so they won't be doubted by others.

Join a genealogical or historical society in the area of your research. What better way to find out about your ancestors than from those who probably research the same location and surname?

Internet – fact or myth? Do you know how to sift myth and lore from actual facts? Okay, I know the myth and lore might be more exciting and romantic, but let's leave a true and faithful legacy for our children's children.

Learn about ever-advancing technology and how it can help you further your research and meet new cousins.

A great way to get recharged in your research is to help acquaintances or strangers connect with their ancestors — a short break away from your bygone ancestors. A good way is to become a docent at the Pleasanton Library or at a Mormon Family History Center. See http://www.l-ags.org/libraries/libraries.html. And don't forget all those ongoing special community service projects such as documenting local church records, mortuary records, and cemetery records. Many of these projects are split into small sections and the work can be done in your home.

Do you have a funny or interesting story you would love to share in our newsletter but don't feel you know how to write it properly? We have people willing to listen to your stories over the telephone and write those stories for you. That's society teamwork and it's how we help each other to grow our society and share our family stories.

What better place to have free coffee and cookies once a month with friends.

On June 27, 1977 our society was founded with these purposes in mind:

To help beginning genealogists get started.

To exchange information with fellow members.

To learn more about sources available for genealogical research.

To undertake genealogy-related public service projects.

Our organization has done all this and more. We have special interest groups to help beginning genealogists. We have groups and e-mail lists where you can ask for help with research problems, and computer hardware and software questions. [Lists: Study Group, Computer Interest Group, Family Tree Maker, and The Master Genealogist] We have a web site with excellent resources provided at the click of a button. Our service projects are ever ongoing and are preserving information for generations to come, information that would be lost forever if it weren't for the dedication of those very precious active members.

Sincerely, folks, your society is only as good as its members. I was amazed at how willing people were to help me when I first started researching my family history. Your Board wants to know what we can do to make all members active participants – whether you live near or far. What can we do to help you with your research? What topics would you like to see covered in our special interest groups? Are you aware that you can belong to the e-mail lists for the special interest groups even it you aren't able to attend meetings? We would love to see e-mail from you – either with questions, answers, or a gentle nudge to get someone going in the right direction. That's active participation – that's sharing and we love it! If you have research experience, you have something worthwhile to share with others.

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The book San Francisco, California I.O.O.F Crematory Records, by Barbara Ross Close, California Genealogy Society; 929.5 SAN FRANCISCO (ISBN0967240921) in the Pleasanton Library, has an index of 10,000 San Francisco cremation records dated from 1895 to 1911, some being disinterment of earlier burials. Nearly 6,000 individuals whose deaths pre-date the 1906 earthquake are included.

According to Barbara, "The records of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Crematory of San Francisco are the focus of this index. In 1980 the Neptune Society acquired the remaining portion of the original IOOF cemetery property and donated most of the records to the California Genealogical Society. These records include an index to the IOOF cemetery burial records, various other ledgers of accounts, superintendents' reports and the eight-volume cremation register."

The index in this book shows: name, birthplace, age at death, death place, cause of death, date of death, whether an obituary is with their records, and the Certificate number.

A lot of the bodies that were buried in San Francisco were moved to Colma or other cemeteries, but some cremated remains are still in the Columbarium Mausoleum at One Loraine Court, near Geary and Stanyan, in San Francisco.

Some of the niches contain the deceased individual's personal items. In one niche a person's ashes are in a Jim Beam whiskey bottle.

As much as Barbara's book is extensive, it is not all-inclusive. The Columbarium office staff searched their register for me and found a few other family names that were not listed in her book.

The Columbarium Mausoleum building, inside and out, can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/columb.html.

Other local mausoleums are at the "Chapel-of-the-Chimes" on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, and on Mission Boulevard in Hayward. All are well worth a visit.

There are thousands of individuals in these places. For ancestors who have been cremated, looking in a mausoleum may be another way to locate the final resting places.

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"He alone deserves to be remembered by his children who treasures up and preserves the memory of his fathers." — Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

Sometime ago I put together a family history book for a branch of the family. I particularly put it together for one of the younger members of the family hoping perhaps to spark a bit of interest in family history, genealogy etc. This is what I wrote as a foreword as to "why do genealogy."

"Science teaches us that every part of our bodies and minds has been programmed from the genes given to us by our parents at the moment of conception. We are, in body and mind, the product of these genes. It is important to remember that characteristics of our parents are not themselves inherited, but that each of our parents gives us tiny, real, physical, bits of themselves, called genes that determine our characteristics. These real bits of our parents combine to form a single cell,  then replicates to form all the rest of the cells of our bodies. Thus, we grow to adults with every part of us predetermined by these tiny parts of our parents, called genes.

"Of course, the process follows that our parents are each the product of the genes given to them by their parents and the process goes on back through the generations to whomever preceded each of us. Thus, you, Young Tyler, have in your body, as a very real physical part of you, genes, passed to you from Charles Tyler, who lived in Virginia in the 1600s, from William Cash, who came from Scotland to live in Virginia in the 1600s, from Peter Gottfried Mueller, who was born in Solingen, Germany in 1758, from William Sorrell, born in 1730 in Virginia, Joseph Mellor from Yorkshire in England in the 1700s and many, many others even more long ago. These people are never totally dead, as a very real part of them still exists in you.

"This book, by letting you get acquainted with some of the people who are here, hopefully may contribute in some small way in you getting to know yourself. Appreciate these people, each and every one of them, because they, in sum, are you."

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All of the most frequently requested records in the National Archives can be ordered online. The National Archives and Records Administration has made all of their form requests available online at http://www.archives.gov/research_room/orderonline.html.

The site requires that you register as a user and that you pay with a credit card. Using Order Online, you can order:

• copies of passenger arrival records
• copies of specific pages from the Federal census
• copies of Eastern Cherokee applications
• copies of Federal land entry files
• Federal military pension files for the Revolutionary War through the Civil War
• military service records for the Revolutionary War through the Spanish American War.

The archives will continue to accept paper forms. Paper forms can be ordered by e-mail to mailto:Inquire@nara.gov or by calling the toll free number, 1-86-NARA-NARA (1-866-272-6272).

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Censuses were loose sheets of paper before they were bound and then filmed. After the loose sheets were bound, a number was stamped on the page. Sometimes the papers were not in sequential order when bound. You may find your ancestor at the bottom of one page and turn the page expecting to find the rest of the family and they are not there. Grandpa appears to be living alone. However, the rest of the family may be two pages away.

Check the sequence of numbers for family and dwelling.

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The Master Genealogist Tri-Valley TMG Users Group Kay Speaks, Leader

We have started working our way through Leo Hoffman's book on Getting the Most Out of the Master Genealogist, a very worthwhile book that complements the Wholly Genes' TMG software very nicely.

Several of us travel regularly to Oakland to attend the California Genealogical Society's TMG Workshop by Kathy Watson, held the first Saturday of every month. Kathy is extremely proficient with TMG and holds good training sessions. She in turn shares her knowledge with our group. It has been very exciting to learn some of the new techniques this wonderful software provides to the family researcher.

One of our special projects is to review a new method of entering census data, as posted by one of the users of TMG. This methodology has been much talked about by many of the master TMG users and teachers on the Wholly Genes' TMG users web site.

In November we'll be covering database and project management, Chapter 2, of Mr. Hoffman's book.

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Puzzle Solution Hidden Words Revealed   Each word starts with a small circle and ends with an arrowhead, but not necessarily the first arrowhead after the circle. The unused letters form the acronym "LAGS."

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Last modified 21 November 2004 vlr