HCGS Meeting Feb 11, 2023

 

            Meeting of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society   ZOOM   Feb 11, 2023

                             

                             MINUTES FOR THE FEBRUARY 11, 2023

   MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Present: Janice Choat-Zavaval, Lenore Hansen-Stafford, Karin Jones, Stanley Jones, Larry Meyers,

Isabelle Rivera, Deborah Richards, Ellen Schneider, Alan Toft and Donna Wendt

Meeting began at 9:00 a.m.

   OLD BUSINESS:

Due to conflicting schedules, the signatory changes on the HCGS’s bank account have been postponed.

The parties hope meet at the nearest bank branch in the near future to complete, schedules permitting.

   Clarifications/Corrections to the January 14, 2023 Minutes –

Under Presentation – The last paragraph, date should be corrected to read:

[On February 13, 2023, Karin sent to select members a link to sign up for this free event. There is no

obligation.]

  Under Calabash Bowl – Alan Toft’s information regarding half-siblings should read:

At the death of a person who owned property, full siblings and their children, are given priority to the

inheritance, before any half siblings.

   Under Calabash Bowl – Donna Wendt requested clarification regarding the paragraph advising caution on Ancestry messages from people inquiring on relatives:

Caution was in reference to sharing personal family information, which is not public knowledge, with

new contacts. Verify their connection and then make a decision how much you wish to share. Donna

added that it is advisable to communicate through personal email if you decide to continue the

connection.

 

   CALABASH BOWL:

Genealogy Events and Tools:

   February 13, 2023 – Southern California Genealogical Society is presenting an online Legacy

seminar. It will include an open discussion on problems you may be having regarding genealogy.

   February 25, 2023 is Forever Family History Event. The topic for this year is “What to Do with

Your Research”. Time is from 7 to 10 a.m.

On February 13, 2023 Karin sent to select members a link to sign up for this free event and

Lenore emailed the link on February 17, 2023. There is no obligation.

https://www.forever.com/ambassador/karin-sorge/events/family-history-virtual-event-2023.

   RootsTech 2023 Conference is being held on March 2nd through the 4th in Salt Lake City. Inperson

attendance will be $98 and it includes the free virtual pass. You can sign up for the free

virtual pass at Familysearch.org/RootsTech.

    Larry Meyers has been watching Legacy Family Tree webinars through MyHeritage. Access to all

programs costs $51 a year. Larry is highly impressed with a particular 12 program once-a-month

series by Elizabeth Shown Mills. A recent webinar – Trousers, Black Domestic, Tacks &

Housekeeping Bills: Problem-Solving with “Trivial Details” addressed how to look in depth at

details and clues, looking beyond what we see on the surface.

Donna Wendt purchased at a past genealogy conference a well-known book, “Evidence

Explained” by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Donna still has it and recommends it as research book.

    Donna has been using for quite some time a fast file search engine, MasterSeeker. It quickly

searches files and directories by name, size and inside specific directories and it is free. Go to

www.master-seeker.com for more information or to download.

 The Families App is “designed to operate in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree. Your Legacy

family files can be easily transferred to your smart phone, or device, enabling them to be viewed

and edited wherever you are” (online description). Alan Toft highly recommends this app.

Through Lenore’s February 17, 2023 email, Alan shared personal experience, some information

and the download site for this app. https://www.telgen.co.uk/families/.

    Podcasts are great sources of learning. Donna uses the Podcast Addict App to search for

interesting podcasts – Family Tree Podcast, Genealogy Gems, The Genealogy Guys, Ancestral

Findings, Extreme Genes are a few examples.

    Recommended Family Tree Article, “11 Must-See Genealogy TV shows that Will Inspire You”.

A New Leaf – Ancestors – Ancestors in the Attic – Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

- Genealogy Roadshow – the Genetic Detective – The Generations Project – Long Lost Family –

Relative Race – Roots Less Traveled – Who Do You Think You Are?

    Suggestion courtesy of Lenore regarding entering information on trees with no official

documents/sources (example: vital statistics) – place a note in the tree how the information was

determined or who provided (example: “verbal information” or “from a family Bible”, etc.)

   Media:

Deborah Richards inquired on “fixing” photos. Getpaint.net (search for the free download) is an app

Donna Wendt has shared about in past meetings. There are many popular software packages such as

Adobe Photoshop available.

   From a podcast, Donna heard of a photo scanning app, Photomyne. It provides scanning, enhancing and restoration of photos. The free Photomyne Basic allows customers to try out a limited amount of the app’s scanning capabilities before deciding whether or not to upgrade to a paid account. Upgrading will unlock more features and remove restrictions after your initial sampling of the Basic. With the upgrade you will have unlimited scanning, sharing and saving to your device or computer, photo-to-PC transfer, photo backup, multi-device access, web access, online photo storage and unlimited photo styling & enhancements.

   My Heritage does not “fix” photos, but their photo tools will enhance pictures you download.

Forever.com will also try to get the best results possible for any media sent to be stored in the user’s

account.

Member Notes:

   A highlight of Alan Toft’s January 2023 Maui vacation was a visit to the Alexander & Baldwin

Sugar Museum in Puunene. He also recommended a book, “Life Behind Barbed Wire: The WWII

Internment Memoirs of a Hawaii Issei.

Alan will be travelling April/May 2023 in England. He will be gathering with cousins from his

maternal grandfather’s family.

   Lenore Hanse-Stafford has been fixing her home.

   Karin and Stanley Jones have future plans to move from their current home to another part of

Oahu.

   Keeping legacies alive – the family of an old family friend were pleased with letters Karin Jones

had found and sent to them. Deborah shared how touched an aunt had been over a family

album Deborah had made on their immediate family.

Deborah also inquired if anyone had experience dealing with embassies, maritime organizations and

entry ports. Donna has visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts and Alan with

Halifax, the Ellis Island of Nova Scotia.

    After a break of a few months, we returned to the 1853 journal of Donna’s gold prospecting relative,

Wesley Stevens. We find him continuing his quest to find California gold with his partner. They have

gone through Cache Creek, Sacramento into the gold hills, Grass Valley by Lake Tahoe, up to Ophir and finally back to Sacramento and Cache Creek. Rain, sickness and loneliness for his family and friends back home were part of Phineas’ days. He also found wonder in the natural beauty he traveled through and a deepening faith in God.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday, March 11, 2023, 9:00 a.m.

Meeting adjourned around 11:30 a.m.

(minutes by Bella Rivera)