March Meeting Postponed!
Due to the memorial service for our fallen police officers, the March 7th meeting has been canceled.
NEW SCHEDULE FOR MARCH MEETING & LECTURE:
March Lecture
Thursday, March 14, 2013
1:00 to 3:00 pm
Scotts Valley Public Library
251 Kings Village Road, Scotts Valley, CA 95066
For more information, please call Jennifer at (831) 419-7244; Email: GenSocBlog@me.com
Remember, Scotts Valley Library has AMPLE & FREE parking!
Snacks and beverages will provided!
Speaker:
Warren C. Pratt, PhD
Lecture Topic:
Taking Down a Brick Wall, One Brick at a Time –
A Case Study
For genealogists, brick walls are difficult problems for which sufficient evidence has not yet been found to reach a conclusion meeting the genealogical proof standard. Many, perhaps most, brick-wall problems can be successfully resolved. However, doing so usually requires a disciplined research process and the use of many sources of information. The conclusion many times comes from the use of correlated indirect evidence; after all, if there were direct records simply establishing the relationships, the problem would be less likely to have been classified as a brick wall.
This presentation focuses on some of the research principles, methodologies, and sourcing that can be applied to resolve brick walls. Illustrative examples are taken from a case study researched and written by the presenter and recently published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
The problem solved in this case was the identification of the father of a child born in 1809 to an unwed mother. The father’s surname, his given name, and his location (Kentucky or Virginia) were not known at the outset of the search – even the child’s mother was in question. His mother left no records for the year the child was born and there only two records of his father’s entire life – the father’s birth and death dates in a family Bible and one tax record. The solution required genetic testing and back-tracking a young single woman across four counties in two states in the late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds.
Biography
Warren C. Pratt was born in southeastern Kentucky and spent his early years among relatives and friends in a small town of 800 residents. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, all in electrical engineering. Dr. Pratt spent his career of about 30 years in the computer industry working in Colorado, Toronto, and California.
Dr. Pratt had a passing interest in genealogy while working; however, it was upon his 2006 retirement that it became a priority. The quest to spend a “little time” putting together a family history for his children developed into a thirst to resolve questions that others had abandoned as unsolvable. Warren has been very fortunate to receive excellent mentoring along the way and he enjoys attempting to repay that debt when he has the opportunity to help others.
Click Here to Learn All About This Fantastic Opportunity!
(Photos: Jennifer Cobas, gensocblog@me.com)
June Lecture
Thursday, June 6, 2013
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Santa Cruz Public Library, Central Location
(2nd floor meeting room)
224 Church Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
For more information, please call (831) 427-7707, ext. 5794; Email: IVCLB@comcast.net
Speaker:
Pamela Erickson
Lecture Topic:
Planning a Successful Research Trip
When you discover that your family moved to a location you have never seen, do you want to visit the area and learn what resources are available? Or, have you wanted to go to Salt Lake City and use the vast collection available at the Family History Library? Remember, too, that the tips we cover also apply to visiting your local library.
With the cost of airline tickets or gas for our vehicles, we need to make sure we’re prepared before setting off. We’ll spend time together to determine what you should do before you leave, what you should pack, and what arrangements you should make. Each visit will require slightly different preparation, so we will go over what’s necessary and what’s optional according to where you go, how long you will be gone, and what places you plan to visit.
Carolyn Barkely said in an article last February,
“First, remember that research is a cycle of work with several important steps: planning, collection, organization, analysis, reporting, and then planning once again. Each research trip builds upon the work accomplished in previous trips and sets the stage for work to be accomplished in future ones.” Bring your ideas to share, too. Let’s work together to plan a successful research trip.
Pamela Erickson teaches genealogy and creative/memoir writing to adults in San Jose, California and surrounding cities and has done so for over 20 years. She has helped her students research their families in the United States and around the world and leads a group of interested people to Salt Lake City, Utah every spring for a week of genealogy research at the LDS Family History Library.
Her personal family research started as a child and has taken her to the Southern states, Canada, and across the pond to Great Britain, Sweden, France, and the Czech Republic. Pamela has researched and written over 250 articles for newspapers, magazines, and educational books and has been employed as a journalist, technical writer, and editor. She has taught at genealogy conferences around California and at writing conferences in California and Florida.