Monday, July 11, 2022

Honlulu County Genealogical Society August 13, 2022

Honolulu County Genealogical Society August 13, 2022

Saturday 9am ZOOM

The meeting was held on ZOOM... information will be posted her later.

The Sept 10th, 2022 HCGS meeting will be on ZOOM at 9am .... same ID and same password.

Contact Lenore for information or problems.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Honolulu County Genealogical Society

June 11, 2022 Zoom Meeting

Attending: Bella, Lenore in California, Donna, Karin (Susan Victor and Sue Miller sent regrets)

Ancestry.com news – "Side View" is a new feature showing your DNA broken down to both parents

Family Tree Maker– security against hackers has triggered a error when synching – you must remove any “Class.” In your notes, etc. Do a Find for "class" followed by a period.... and Replace

- If you want to open another window while looking on ancestry, click on ….next to URL (this will also show you the photo of what your are searching for under HINTS)

Ancestry.com --has Photomyne on website or phone app. Go to your tree's Gallery and select a black and white photo... then select the "edit" pencil -- you can colorize that photo, the original black and white is saved.

Paper Flattening - Lenore has baptismal certificate of father from 1915..she wants flattened and asked for advice. Linda offered advice from a study she has done on paper and paper flattening with a humidity box. "I'm attaching a picture of a newspaper flattening project I did for the Hawaiian Historical Society. It involved just a styrofoam box; a suspended wooden frame with plastic screen hammered to it; and putting a pan of boiled water beneath the screen and changing it frequently. I think it took 2? weeks for me to get the curled up newspapers flat. When they eventually began to "relax" I inserted empty glass jars to hold them partially open and continued the hot water steaming. The process is gradual and cannot be speeded up otherwise the paper will crack. I hope someone at UH Preservation will be able to help with this or maybe there are written instructions or Youtube demos online. It might be called a "humidification chamber." Determining the stability of the ink used on the paper, before humidifying it, is advisable, because the paper becomes somewhat damp. I used "dispensable" duplicate newspaper issues to practice on -- since I was totally "winging it." But it worked and all of the newspapers were eventually able to be microfilmed."

Next meeting July 9^th. 2022 on Zoom. Same ID and password and link.

MINUTES FOR THE JUNE 11, 2022 MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Present: Lenore Hansen-Stafford, Karin Jones, Stanley Jones, Isabelle Rivera, and Donna Wendt With a sparse gathering this beautiful Kamehameha Day our June meeting was begun at 9:10 a.m.

OLD BUSINESS: The Cemetery Pupu Theatre sponsored by Hawaiian Mission Houses is back! Donna Wendt has purchased her ticket for the event for the 18th of June. Anyone interested in joining her will need to purchase her/his ticket soon. Attendees and participants are looking forward to a great time after a two year COVID19 shutdown.

Longtime member, Linda L., via Donna Wendt, had additional suggestions regarding an inquiry from April 9, 2022 into separating fragile papers. She took up the challenge and did some research. Instructions can be found online for making your own humidification chamber and flattening paper. It is a process that takes time and patience. Before using this technique make sure to check the stability of the ink. YouTube demonstrations from the University of Hawaii’s Preservation Department can also be found online.

Karin Jones continues her work organizing and documenting Stanley Jones’ family tree and life. She shared their current project of creating a Forever book on Stan’s children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.  The first page is cleverly title, “So How Are We Related?” Shown on this page is Stan Jones with his first wife, Catherine Martin, their children and grandchildren.  The second page has photos of the great-grandchildren (1st cousins once removed or second cousins)  Karin cleverly used colored frames around the photos to distinguish the different families. Part of this project is the use of QR coding. Through Forever.com you can now record, store and watch videos. Karen agreed to have a formal presentation on Forever QR coding at our September 10, 2022 meeting. Zoom

With the growing use of Zoom, a discussion popped up regarding sharing hosting duties. Donna asked about the “host key”. This “host key” is applied to meetings scheduled by the initiating Zoom host. The Google instructions regarding the “host key” are as follows:  Sign in to Zoom  In the navigation panel, click Profile  Scroll down to the Meeting section  Select the eye icon next to your Host key to view your current 6-digit pin  Click Edit  Input the new host key desired and click Save.

Scanning Suggestions If you are scanning documents or photos which are grainy, set your computer on the gray scale. Scanning important documents? Use 600 megapixels. Less important documents, use lower megapixels such as 300. Photographs Ancestry.com now offers a colorization process on the Ancestry phone app (and website at the individual's Gallery). Ancestry.com has partnered up with Photomyne. “Photomyne is a media preservation and archiving specialist company”. Photomyne provides an “easier way to digitize old family photos by scanning and uploading multiple photographs at once through the Ancestry mobile app.” Click on a photo from your Ancestry gallery > In the Edit tool on the right side, choose Edit Image Colorize. It will not affect the black & white original. Always keep your originals safe. Though not as good as the MyHeritage program yet, it is pretty good and they continue to work on improving it.

CALABASH BOWL: Podcast recommendation – Blast From the Past sponsored by MyHeritage. Interested in joining a hiking group? Donna has a couple of suggestions – Hiking With Aloha, information can be found on their website, www.meetup.com; and a Facebook Group, “Aloha Hiking Explorers & More. Places she has been to include, the Bamboo Forest off the Pali Highway/Nuuanu, Koko Crater Botanical Gardens in Hawaii Kai, and discovering neighborhoods.

The memory of a past excursion to Hawaii’s Plantation Village in Waipahu by the Honolulu County Genealogical Society was mentioned. Donna offered to search for a video on immigration which had been filmed that day. Bella Rivera noted ties that her family had to part of the land which the Plantation Village now sits on. Her paternal family farmed on that land for decades. Many members have very busy summer schedules:

 Lenore Hansen-Stafford joins us today from a very hot Sacramento, CA. She heads to Portland in a couple of days. She returns to Honolulu on June 17. She continues her summer travels in August with a cruise to Iceland/

 Karin and Stan Jones will continue their summer travels planning to be away the next 2 months. They will first head to the Forever.com convention taking place in Denver. After that they head off to Sweden.

 Susan Victor is celebrating this Kamehameha Day with friends in Michigan.

 Donna Wendt will be traveling to Denver.

. For those listed above and everyone else enjoying their summer, we wish you all well, safe travels and look forward to seeing you whenever you are able to join our zoom meetings. Our next meeting will be on Saturday, July 9, 2022, 9:00 a.m. Donna Wendt might be sharing a presentation she had given in June 2022 at The Caledonian Society of Hawaii – Research Tips in Scotland.

Meeting adjourned at 11:19 a.m. (Emailed on 07/08/2022 by Bella Rivera)

Friday, May 13, 2022

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY --- MAY 14, 2022

The May 14th 2022 HCGS meeting will be on ZOOM. Contact Lenore Hansen for the code and password. Lenore attended from Washington and Susan from Michigan..

The May 2022 Zoom meeting

Susan Victor with head lei for Ukraine from Michigan by Zoom

Leilani Maguire opened our meeting with the following question, “Has anyone written down your family history?” She recalled a speaker who suggested researching relatives, one at a time.

Deborah Richards shared that her family does not like to write, so they video tape share sessions.

Lenore Hansen-Stafford encouraged people to sit down with your subject and ask questions in an

interview format.

Donna Wendt recommended taping the conversation on a tape recorder, diction machine or other

recording device. Using photographs are great memory joggers.

A live transcription/translation program highly recommended by Susan Victor – Live Transcribe which is only for Apple I-Phone or I-Pad users. As a person is speaking, the program is transcribing the

conversation onto the I-phone or I-pad. It is also able to translate from a foreign language. Susan did a

quick presentation from Michigan. Find it on www.livetranscribe.app.

One of most commonly used online translation provider is Google Translate. Members have found that translations are not perfect, but it is still a popular, and free, site.

Deborah Richards exclaimed, “I’d love a book from each of you!” With that encouragement, to those who have already begun recording their life and family stories, keep going; and to those who have yet to begin, e’eu (get going/get a move on, from hilo.hawaii.edu/wehe website).

Heritage Tour - Needing a guide and translator in Portugal, Leilani negotiated with the taxi driver to spend the day taking them around and helping to translate. It worked out very well for her.

Contact Hawaii’s Portuguese Heritage Society if you are looking for information of Portuguese ancestors.

Ancestry.com – New feature: A new DNA feature on Ancestry is the Side View Technology. It sorts/organizes your DNA into the portions of each region you inherited from each parent. The chart will not tell you which parent the result is for, but there are ways of deduction that you may be able to figure it out on your own.

DNA testing for the mitochondrial (maternal) and the Y (paternal) is currently only being offered by

Family Tree. For $159 you can discover the migratory path of your female and male ancestors. Go to

FamilyTreeDNA.com.

As fascinating as this information sounds, there was a word of caution from Donna. Trying to

understand and research DNA information can be overwhelming. She has chosen to turn her focus on

the stories of more recent relatives for awhile.

Saturday, March 12, 2022

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY MARCH 12, 2022 MEETING

The Honolulu County Genealogical Society met by Zoom on March 12, 2022 at 9AM

There was some initial confusion about getting onto the ZOOM. The link sent out for February meeting does not work for any other month. Lenore is administering/hosting the Zoom Meetings with her account. She has the meetings all scheduled using the same new ID and Passcode. She sends an email out before the meeting as a reminder and includes the ID and Passcode. This should be written down to use for the entire rest of 2022.

HOW TO ACCESS THE ZOOM MEETING

To access ZOOM first go to your internet browser and put " zoom.us " in the the address window. Then click on the "JOIN A MEETING" tab at the top.

Type the ID into the place for " ENTER MEETING ID". and click " JOIN"

I usually end up clicking on both the boxes "OPEN ZOOM MEETING" and "LAUNCH MEETING"

Wait for small pop up box to appear and follow what it says ... I think the next thing is to put the PASSCODE into the box.

Wait for Lenore to let you into the HSCG meeting.

Please phone Lenore if you are having problems - also check your emails from her.

For the month of March 2022 we had an enjoyable meeting covering many topics, especially digitization of photos and documents as nearly everyone has these they would like to preserve.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY MEETING FEB 12, 2022

The February 12, 2022 meeting of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society will be held via Zoom at 9 am.

New information will include the 1921 Census for England and Wales by Alan Toft in British Columbia, Canada.

The National Archives (TNA) at Kew, London and FindMyPast have announced that the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be released to the public on 6 January 1922. Visitors to TNA will be able to view digital images free of charge. Researchers viewing the online collection – exclusively at FindMyPast – will have to pay £2.50 to view a transcription and £3.50 to view an image of the census return; search results, showing name, age, birthplace, and one or two other names in the same census return, will be free.

This census was taken on Sunday 19 June 1921, having been postponed from 29 April 121 due to the arrival of economic depression following WW1 and Spanish Flu, and a threat of imminent strike action from miners, transport and railway workers, and dockers.

It gathered information on more than 38million individuals, resulting in 18,235,242 census return images. Most of the data requested was similar to that required in previous censuses but there are some changes and additions. Not only was a person's occupation noted, as before, now the person's employer's name and address was recorded

MINUTES FOR THE FEBRUARY 12, 2022

MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Present: Janice Choat-Zavaval, Lenore Hansen-Stafford, Kathy Hudson, Karin Jones, Stanley Jones,

Leilani Maguire, Larry Meyers, Sue Miller, Trisha Robertson, Deborah Richards, Isabelle Rivera,

Ellen Schneider, Alan Toft, Susan Victor and Donna Wendt

Meeting began at 9:00 a.m.

OLD & NEW BUSINESS:

Reviewed the Minutes of December 11, 2021

Correction 1: Page 1, in the “Present” paragraph, remove Trisha Robertson. She was not present at the

December meeting.

Zoom meetings will now be administered by Lenore Hansen-Stafford via her Zoom account. Look for the Zoom link on Lenore’s email prior to our next meeting.

Thank you to Trisha Robertson for facilitating all of our past Zoom meetings. We wish her a speedy and complete recovery.

Welcome to Janice Choat-Zavaval. We hope you enjoyed attending today’s meeting and will return.

Every member of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society wishes to send our condolences to member,

Faith Burgwinkel and her family. Donna Wendt shared an obituary notice from the January 7, 2022

Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Faith’s son, Lee Kauila Burgwinkel, had passed away on December 1, 2021.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Faith and John.

Karin Jones will update us on her “Writing Your Own Story” session(s) at our March meeting. At our

October 9, 2021 meeting, Karin told us about her 52-week ½ hour sessions she would be introducing at

2 conferences on the mainland. Due to the time differences, it was hoped to offer these sessions to our

HCGS members at the beginning of this new year. Due to various reasons this plan had to be put on

hold.

Our presenter today is Alan Toft. Alan first visited Hawaii, Maui to be exact, in 1983. In 2006 he and his family were living in Hawaii. He worked for a software company with a contract with Hawaiian Electric. When the contract ended in 2009, they left Hawaii. He retired in 2015 and enjoyed travelling, until COVID hit. He has been living very contentedly in Canada and we are glad he reconnected in our Zoom meetings. Alan’s began researching his family history in 1989, the year before his mother passed.

PRESENTATION BY ALAN TOFT – THE 1921 UK CENSUS

Bullet points are taken directly from Alan Toft’s presentation.

Basic Background on the 1921 UK Census:

 Taken every 10 years and released after 100 years.

 1801 through 1831 – statistical – no personal information

 June 7, 1841 – poor addresses, occupant names, ages (adults rounded to nearest 5),

male/female, flags for whether born in this country or whether born outside England, but not

where!

 March 30, 1851 – accurate ages and birthplaces, relation to head, marital status, state, flag for

blind/deaf/dumb.

 April 7, 1861 – ditto, plus flags for imbecile/idiot/lunatic.

 April 2, 1871 – ditto

 April 3, 1881 – ditto – I have these on CD’s from pre-internet days.

 April 5, 1891 – ditto – the first census in which there are people I remember.

 March 31, 1901 – ditto – thinks this is the first census that was available online shortly after

release.

 April 2, 1911 – nicer format, 1 page per household, number of children born/living/deceased

(this information is helpful with finding children who were born and died between censuses now

that GRO gives mother’s maiden name on the indexes for dates prior to 1911. Clearer

profession/occupation/occupation location (e.g. Warehouseman in a Soapworks). Nationality,

Infirmity (although this seems to be blanked out in online records).

 1939 UK Register – September 29, 1939 – this was not a census, more like the 1901 UK Census

format but no birthplaces. Exact date of birth! People not know to be deceased are banked out

– can submit death certificates on FindMyPast to get the records opened – when it works!

 1941 – no census was taken

 1951 – I’ll be103 when it is available.

1921 UK Census – taken 19 June 1921

 Only on FindMyPast – for now anyway.

 Even with an annual membership you pay for each record. I pay $4.41 US for each 1921 Census

image and $3.15 for each 1921 Census transcription.

 I think you can sign up and view the indexes for nothing.

 I have a US 12-month Ultimate British & Irish subscription. The cost is $171.50 US ($179 US next

year) but I only paid $152.15 US in November 2021 (probably a loyalty discount).

 Most censuses I only keeps the census image, but …

 In the 1921 Census only, the transcription contains the address!

 The images are more important – and transcriptions have errors – I have reported many already.

1921 UK Census – What was my approach?

 Direct line ancestors have to be found!

 Anyone I actually met has to be found!

 Favourite cousins’ ancestors have to be found!

 Favourite cousins’ spouses’ ancestors have to be found!

 Any ‘special project’ relatives have to be found!

 Basically, it’s totally out of control and I need to set up a GofundMe page!!:)

So What Did I Learn, and Receive, From the 1921 UK Census?

 You could survive with just the transcription but you need one for every occupant of the house.

 There may be more than one image for every house.

 You need the transcription for the address but I much prefer the image.

 It’s a good idea to do an address search or advanced search on every address!

 I got to see a lot of people whom I knew and was very fond of.

 I realized why my mother was so close to her aunts and uncles, almost to the exclusion of all

other relatives.

Alan demonstrated a search on FindMyPast, searching for his father, Leonard Toft. We viewed an image of the transcription for Leonard Toft.

Alan showed us photos of his father’s birthplace on 424 Knutsford Rd., Warrington, UK and of other

relatives, including a favorite great-aunt, Ada Lowe Sutcliffe (1891-1982). His Great-Aunt Ada lived with various family members at 26 Thewlis Street. Alan shared pieces of their lives and relationships.

In your search for families you may find that many people worked at the same place. Are there

connections in your family where some worked in the same occupation or the same employer?

In his presentation, Alan showcased a Family Chart. When asked about it, he replied that he used

Legacy Charting. Legacy Charting is a program which comes with Legacy Family Tree. The online

information states that the Standard Legacy Charting download is free, but it only goes up to 4

generations). The deluxe version allows up to 100 generations on most of the charts.

Alan was finally able to read the book, mentioned in the past two HCGS Minutes, The Family Diagram & Family Research by Victoria Harrison. It is a book on trends of families. Alan found it interesting, so if you think that is a topic you would like to learn more about, then it would be a good book for you to

look at.We were reminded to respect wishes of relatives who do not want their names put out on public

records.

There was a brief discussion of scandals and family secrets.

Question from Sue Miller – What does the UK government use the census records for?

In 1939, it was used for distributing rations during WWII. Otherwise, Alan suggested that it may be used for data – area growth, planning tools, perhaps.

Leilani Maguire wanted to know if Alan has written down any of his great stories. He replied that he has written some stories provided by relatives and research notes on Legacy, for himself and his son. He

carries his Legacy Family Tree program in his phone app. Make sure your phone has enough storage. It

is easy to download if you use Legacy Family Tree – go to the Legacy website > go to the Family app.

Donna uses Family Tree maker.

CALABASH BOWL:

In regards to searching FindMyPast census records, Donna Wendt had the following suggestion: If you

obtain an address for a family member, search by the address, not the name. You may be able to get

names, birth years, birthplace and parish information for free!

Donna shared a couple of photos – one was a 2012 photo of herself with Alan’s son, Michael; and the

other, a photo of herself with Lenore enjoying the 2012 Southern California Jamboree.

Donna had an issue of with opening some PDF documents emailed to her. As she would click to open

the PDF file, it would turn into an internet link in the browser on Google Chrome. She uses the Chrome

browser but for some reason she is unable to view the PDF file(s). ANSWER: Karin Jones had the solution: In the top box, change the Type of File. Change the type of file to Google Chrome.

Donna mentioned receiving a DVD gift from a relative in the UK, but it is a limited region play so she has been unable to view it. Alan’s solution: Purchase an inexpensive non-name brand DVD play. Alan has found that these cheap units usually play almost everything.

Karin Jones also shared lovely old photos of her great grandparent’s wedding. They both came from

Sweden. They were married in Chicago, where they settled.

When searching for records remember to check the online files of the Library of Congress and

Newspapers.com, Leilani reminded us.

The National Archives has not sent out documents for the past two years due to COVID and no staff.

Our meeting was adjourned at 11:55 a.m.

(Emailed 03/11/2022 by Isabelle Rivera)

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY DEC 11, 2021

A Zoom meeting was held on Saturady, Dec 11, 2021 at 9am for the Honolulu County Genealogical Society.

Many items of genealogical interest were presented.

It was decided that the January 2022 meeting will be skipped as several people will be away.

Zoom meetings will resume Feb 12th

Monday, November 15, 2021

Honolulu County Genealogy Society

13 Nov 3032 - 2nd Saturday 9 am

The HCGS Meeting met on Zoom

The November HCGS meeting was held on Zoom.

Some of the Zoom participants

We were glad to see Alan Toft from Vancouver, British Columbia attending. Everyone contributed to the genealogical conversation and questions were answered.

Specific topics included:

The website "The Ancestor Hunt" and the link on this free website to access collections of "Free Stuff"

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The FRITH Photo Collection is now at www.FindMyPast.co.uk with an amazing collection of thousands of very old post card photographs from mainly the UK, but also Hawaii. Dates in Hawaii from 1935 and 1982.

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News that the 1921 UK Census of Wales and England will be available on Jan 6, 2022

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The website MyHeritage.com has acquired tons of French records previously owned by "Filae" a leading French Genealogy Company. This is a gold mine of information for those with any French roots.

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"BREAKING DOWN A BRICK WALL"

Susan Victor

Susan Victor gave a power point presentation on how her sister, Nancy, solved a long-time brick wall to find her grandmother.

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We also discussed this relationship chart

Monday, October 11, 2021

HCGS October 2021 meeting ZOOM Genealogy

Honolulu County Genealogy Society

9 October 2021 - 2nd Saturday 9 am ZOOM

The HCGS Meeting met on Zoom.

Many topics were discussed including photo storage, The Family History Guide (free online genealogy guide), Getting death records from the GRO (gro.gov.uk) record office in the UK, Updates at Ancestry.com, and "Telling Your Story" as a future project.

Part of the audience at the October Zoom meeting

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Death Certificate 1891 Wales from General Record Office
online 7 pounds UK    example
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The Family History Guide - a free online source for help with
genealogy sites and information
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Next Zoom meeting Nov 13th, 2021 9am
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MINUTES FOR THE OCTOBER 9, 2021
MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Present: Lenore Hansen-Stafford, Karin Jones, Stanley Jones, Sue Miller, Deborah Richards, Isabelle Rivera, Trisha Robertson, Ellen Schneider, Susan Victor and Donna Wendt
Meeting began at 9:12 a.m.
OLD BUSINESS:
Following up on her suggestion to look into the possible use of a room in the Pearlridge Center American
Savings building Karin Jones reported that the idea did not pan out. Non-employees are not allowed to
use the facilities.
DISCUSSION:
Donna Wendt began this portion of our meeting by reviewing the September 11, 2021 minutes. She spoke a little more on the process she used to improve the newspaper image of Susan Victor’s uncle-inlaw.
Donna shared a host of genealogy news:
The Family History Library in Utah has completed digitizing all of their microfilm stored in their mountain vault. Though digitized, not all the records are indexed, nor listed in the Family Search catalogue at this time. Periodically, you can check the Family Search card catalog for updates and new information. If you have time, volunteers are needed to help with indexing.
Searching for certificates of birth and deaths in England? The General Records Office for the UK is a wonderful source for these records. For about $10 (US), you will receive a PDF copy of a requested
record. Hard copies are available to order. Payment is by credit card. Go to their website, gro.gov.uk > register>create a login >request.
It was noted that Find My Past is the #1 site for families in the British Isles.
The Family History Guide, offers free programs, activities, events and a catalogue of tutorials to help
enhance your knowledge of family searches. They can help you to understand what the 4 main data providers are about and what they provide – Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, Family Search.com and FindmyPast.com. Check out its website, www.thefhguide.com.
Backblaze is a “scalable low cost cloud backup and storage service”. Backblaze claims to be “the world’s easiest cloud backup” provider. Donna uses this company and pays a yearly charge to back up her entire computer.
Forever.com also provides backup media service lasting for your lifetime, plus 100 years. You pay once based on the size you are storing. Whenever you need more storage you can purchase additional space for the one time cost. Contact Karin Jones if you are interested in getting more information.
Reminder regarding Renewal Fees – keep a record of your various subscriptions and the renewal date(s).
Some sites will automatically renew your subscription using your credit card on file. Some sites will send you a notice in advance informing of the upcoming charge(s). For most providers, you will need to make a phone call to cancel.
Recommendation – Every Month Crista Cowan, aka The Barefoot Genealogist, presents a seminar,  “What’s New at Ancestry”. Find her video(s) online.
Throughout October 2021, The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Library will be celebrating a virtual Family History Month. 22 programs are on the slate. Go to acpl/genealogy.com for more information.
Susan Victor shared that the small Grand Rapids Library offers free searches if you contact them.
The Jones’ will be on the road again this month. Karin Jones will be speaking at a conference in Chicago and San Jose. She will be introducing a 52 week series on Writing Your Own Story on October 30, 2021. The weekly half-hour sessions will be presented via Zoom beginning on the first Wednesday in November 2021. The times of the sessions are based on mainland time zones (3 p.m. or 5 p.m.).
Depending on the response, there could possibly be more than one session a week.
Karin wanted to open it up to the members of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society but the challenge will be the Hawaii time zone. Karin could keep us informed via Lenore Hansen-Stafford on the session days and times if members would like to join existing groups, or perhaps she will start a session for Hawaii only. Another option will be to record her sessions and set it up for future viewing. Susan Victor suggested starting Hawaii sessions in January 2022.
If anyone has questions, or would like to check on the live mainland sessions, contact Karin at karinjs74@gmail.com.
CALABASH BOWL :
Deborah Richards’ grandnephew will be taping her next month as she discusses their family’s genealogy.
What a wonderful gift to her family as she shares her years of research and stories.
Deborah already has a YouTube presence. She can be found sharing on Wahi Pana: Papakolea, a 2019 video about the community of Papakolea.
Deborah made a statement worthy of consideration, “How has our research blessed each other?”
Donna Wendt is also a YouTube contributor. She has 3 self-made videos on her own YouTube channel.   Watching Genealogy Gems Donna learned how to make a video and create her own channel. Do you have the urge to share a fascinating story, or helpful knowledge? You can also do it through YouTube.  Subscribe to YouTube Channels, use your phone to make a video and upload it to your channel.
Recommendation from Donna – An app called “Nextdoor” is a great way to keep in touch with news from around your neighborhood. Some of the alerts you will find on the site are regarding break-in’s, lost pets, sales, etc.
Donna inquired about updating the email list. Lenore has also felt the need to revise the list. Please send Lenore any information you may be privy to regarding keeping a name on the list, updating an email address or removing a name.
Our meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
(Emailed 11/12/2021 by Isabelle Rivera)

Friday, September 17, 2021

HCGS July, Aug, Sep 2021 Zoom Genealogy Meetings

Honolulu County Genealogy Society

July, August, September 2021 - 2nd Saturday 9 am

Our monthly meetings continue, on Zoom. We have been having fun discussing genealogical topics and other things. Contact Lenore or Trisha for the link and password of the Zoom meeting.

Of special interest is the abundance of newspaper photos at the National Archives that we can now search by words in the captions of those photos. It's especially great for finding things like baseball or railroad type photos, but Susan Victor has found a photo by using the name of her husband's uncle George Waikoli from the Star Bulletin Newspaper of 1916. Unfortunately the photo was very dark. But with the magic of a internet download of paint.net I was able to lighten up the picture so a face was discernable.

Check out the before and after photos of the news clipping

"George Wikoli: Son of Mr. and Mrs. John Wikoli who reside at the junction of Fort street and Pauoa road. George is a Hawaiian boy, 15 years old, and attends the Royal school, being in the eights grade. He has been selling papers for the past three or four years and has a good many customers, who look for George at the corner of Fort and Beretania streets. George's sales average over 50 papers per day."

MINUTES FOR THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Present: Karin Jones, Stanley Jones, Sue Miller, Deborah Richards, Isabelle Rivera, Trisha Robertson, Ellen Schneider, Susan Victor and Donna Wendt

Meeting began at 9:18 a.m.

OLD BUSINESS:

Potential future meeting locations are still being considered. Karin Jones will look into the possible use

of a meeting room located in the old American Savings building at the lower level of Pearlridge Center.

Donna Wendt mentioned that her Hawaii Kai building has a meeting room she could look into.

MEMBER UPDATES:

Karin and Stanley Jones are back from their 55-day trip. They visited family, attended conferences and toured Iceland.

Donna Wendt is also home from her trip to Denver to visit family. She had a wonderful example how the “genealogy bug” is such a part of us. After returning home, she saw a new doctor. With a few conversational questions she learned that they had a Green Lake County, Wisconsin thread. Taking this thread she lengthened the rope as her research found information that their families resided in the same locales.

Sue Miller was also on an extended trip to the Midwest which included a class reunion, visits to family members and successful genealogy research.

Ellen Schneider has been busy volunteering with the Friends of the Library of Hawaii.

PRESENTATION:

The internet is an amazing source for collections of old and new video’s. YouTube is the most known provider with a huge selection of both new and old videos. Donna Wendt told us of a site, WayBack

Machine. WayBack Machine was founded by Internet Archive in 1996 and launched in 2001. It is a digital archive of the world wide web for the purpose “to see how websites looked in the past”.

Internet Archive is a “nonprofit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and more”.

For this morning’s meeting, Donna Wendt, shared a short 2007 video, “Flat Stanley’s Family Tree” by Roots Television. A popular book character, Flat Stanley, was first published in 1985. The author is Jeff Brown. In this video Flat Stanley, a paper doll, goes on a quick genealogy road trip to the National Archives, Colonial Williamsburg and San Francisco with genealogist Megan Smolenyak. Donna shared how she took her own Flat Stanley character on the road with her taking many photos of their

adventures together.

PHOTOGRAPHS:

Deborah Richards brought up the topic of storing photographs.

FOREVER.com, represented by Karin Jones, is an excellent provider of a permanent and safe company to safeguard our precious media. All media you choose to store with them is kept in 3 separate locations always insuring that there are backups if one site should have an unforeseen disaster. All your information can be passed on to your designated heirs. If you wish to obtain more information on

FOREVER.com, please contact Karin.

You can also store your photos digitally with your own equipment. Remember to have backups.

Susan Victor shared that she had taken notes during a previous meeting and she went on a search into the National Archives for a photo which had a caption. She was looking for a photo of George Wikoli, her husband’s uncle. He was a 5-year old newsboy at the time. She found it! The photo was very dark, but the article was found. Afterwards, Donna used her photo enhancement tools, brightness and contrast, to “repair” the news photo and produced an improved image. Using Paint.net – upload the photo (always use a copy to “repair”)> Tools>Image. Remember to “Save As” – this will save the copy and leave the original “as is”. When creating Files and Folders, create and label what makes sense to you.

PROFESSIONAL GENEALOGISTS:

If you are becoming frustrated with your brick walls, you may want to consider getting professional help to kick start your search.

FOREVER.com has a partnership with GenWard. There are different contracts to choose from, but a simple 1-hour consultation is $119.19. The genealogist may be able to provide advice for moving past your brick wall. She also has contacts around the world ready to help in your search. Karin added that this genealogist likes to look for the stories in your family tree, not just details.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City provides knowledgeable assistance with your research.

Susan Victor praised Alan Toft for helping her friend with her research in England and the British Isles.

Members of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society are great resources and full of information to aid each of us as we continue our searches.

Donna had partnered with a friend with a genealogy search. She recommends going with the free sources first. Then, if you need more help consider hiring a professional. Locally, Donna has been to the Honolulu State Archives, the State Library and the Bureau of Conveyances and commented that it is hard work being a professional, paid genealogist. It takes a lot of time and patience. Translations are another hurdle. Translators can be found in Google and Facebook groups. Enter “translation help” on your computer’s search engine.

CALABASH BOWL :

Sue Miller – the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana offers regular meetings on various topics. These meetings are free.

Karin Jones – On a recent trip to Illinois, Karin visited the Decatur Public Library. A member of the History Room staff was able to provide contact with a classmate of Karin’s. This is another example of how valuable library staff can be.

Donna recently downloaded and highly recommended an advanced search engine – "Master Seeker."

Our meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.

(Emailed 10/08/2021 by Isabelle Rivera)

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Tuesday, June 8, 2021

HCGS June 12, 2021 Zoom Genealogy Meeting

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

JUNE 12, 2021 ZOOM MEETING

The June 12, 2021 meeting of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society will be on Zoom. Contact Lenore Hansen-Stafford for connection information

There will be plenty to talk about, including various short power point presentations.

The Zoom meetings can be accessed on your phone, tablet or desktop computer using the downloaded Zoom app, or by going to the Zoom website WWW. ZOOM.COM and click on "JOIN A MEETING" then use our ID code and password. Contact Lenore or Trisha for more information and codes. You'll need a microphone and speaker on your device. A camera is optional, but it's more fun to see everybody.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

HCGS May Zoom Meeting 8 May 2021 - Family History Interviewing

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY MAY 8, 2021

ZOOM MEETING

The May 8, 2021 meeting of the Honolulu County Genealogical Society took place on Zoom with 14 members, including Alan in British Columbia and Kathy in Utah!

Many things were discussed and Donna gave a power point presentation about questions to ask when doing a Family History Interview of relatives - or to ask and document for yourself!

Saturday, April 10, 2021

HCGS Meeting Apr 10, 2021 -- Image Search & ID using Google

The meeting for the Honolulu County Genealogical Society this Saturday, April 10th, at 9 am is our Zoom meeting. The main presentation was by Donna Wendt on: Image Search & ID using Google

To join the meeting:

1, go to zoom.us. 2. click on join a meeting 3. Meeting ID: 978 71635981

enter the password.... all of which is the same every month.

First Leilani Maguire wanted us to know that the Hawaii Mission Houses Reading Room library is

now open by appointment. Donna mentioned that at the HawaiiMissionHouses.org there is an

amazing play coming up in July (check website) live online called "Open Your Hearts Wide"

by missionary descendant, Marion Lyman Mersereau.

Following up on last month's presentation, Donna reported on finding out on Newspapers.com that her great-aunt, Fern Blanding, was not only married 4 times in her life, but five! Donna found three newspaper clippings of how Fern eloped at age 16, in 1906, lying about her age, and divorced 5 months later. All this about her 1st husband had previously been unknown, at least to Donna.

The main presentation began about how to find images or identify your images online, especially using Google Image Search

For example an old postcard (left) is identified online through a

Google Image search

We reviewed the YouTube "Elevenses With Lisa" about

image searching

Karin Jones presented about the beautiful book she is creating

with Artisan Software about her husband, Stan's, life story.

MINUTES FOR THE APRIL 10, 2021

MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING OF THE

HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Present: Lenore Hansen-Stafford, Kathy Hudson, Karin Jones, Stanley Jones, Isabelle Rivera, Martha Reamy, Trisha Robertson, Ellen Schneider, Alan Taft, Susan Victor and Donna Wendt

Meeting began at 9:13 a.m.

Todays’ presentation by Donna Wendt is on IDENTIFYING IMAGES ONLINE

Whether you are searching for images or trying to identify one that you already possess, the internet is wonderful source. Your search is enhanced when you practice some of the following techniques.

Donna demonstrated using Google Search. Go to Google Search>Click on Images>Drag your photo image onto the screen>Google will search for similar images. Use the same technique on Microsoft Bing.

An excellent good resource is Elevenses With Lisa, a free YouTube weekly show. Donna ran Lisa Louise Cooke’s video “How to Find Photos and Images with Google Images”. You can also go to Lisa’s website, lisalouisecooke.com. Highlights included doing image searches on Google Video, how to search with desktops and mobile phones, getting better image results when looking for people, filter on black and white photos in searching for old photos. Lisa recommends being flexible, put as much information as possible and consider variations.

Note: Permission is required to use images from Google Images. Check the website if an image has a copyright. If it does, send an email to the source listed for permission to copy.

Lisa’s suggestion in identifying images you possess, such as a postcard with no identifying data, is to go to https://images.google.com > click on the camera icon > upload your image.

Trying to search on a mobile? In Safari, you go to Google Images, no camera icon! You go to Google Apps, no camera icon! Go back to Settings > Go to Safari > request desktop website > turn button “on” > Google > go to the nine (9) dots icon > Google Image > camera. Now you can upload your image.

You can also copy old photos to your phone.

CALABASH BOWL :

Karin Jones began our meeting with a short presentation on the work she has been doing to put together Stan Jones’ autobiography using the FOREVER.com Artesian software. Stan’s mother’s scrapbook was a valuable asset full of beautiful photos from the 1920’s. She demonstrated how to create a page using the Artesian software. Karin will be sending emails to interested members on details of an upcoming sale for this particular software.

Kathy Hudson has very recently been helping a friend work on his genealogy linage. She was able to find much information online for his relatives who came to the U.S. in the 1920’s and she was very excited to present to him what she has found. Kathy’s “brick wall”, relatives on the Dunning line, may be coming to light. Since February of this year, a Dunning relative as begun contacting Kathy and is willing to share information and open to having a DNA test. This is a good example of patience and persistence.

Member, Leilani McGuire, is currently involved with the Hawaiian Mission Houses Archives. She had asked Donna to convey that their library reading room is open. Donna also displayed a flyer for on upcoming event – a reading from a play, Open Your Hearts Wide, by Marion Lyman-Mersereau. The play consists of interviews with the descendants of the missionaries. View more information on their website, www.missionhouses.org.

Donna had a follow up to her Newspapers.com presentation from March 2021. She found an article titled “Perjury for License”. Her great-aunt Fern had eloped at the age of 16 with a William Burnett. The couple had lied about Fern’s age. Five (5) months later they divorced.

Lenore had recently received an email from 23&Me on two (2) DNA links with her paternal grandmother’s name. She is looking forward in initiating contact.

Family Lands Scandinavia:  During a discussion of family lands later in our meeting, Karin shared photos of her heritage visit(s) to Sweden.

 Donna mentioned a new PBS Masterpiece series, Atlantic Crossing. It is based on the experiences of the Norwegian royal family during WWII. The king, the prince and Council were able to escape to England. The princess and her children fled to American at the invitation, and assistance, of President Franklin Roosevelt.

Reading Suggestions from Karin Jones and Martha Reamy:

 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It is a 1989 story about the smuggling of Jews from Denmark to Sweden on fishing boats during WWII.

 Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. This children’s novel was published in 1942 telling the story of How Norwegian children smuggled their country’s gold bullion past German soldiers to a waiting ship.

 Beethoven’s Hair by Martin Russell. This 2000 novel is about the journey through time of a lock of hair snipped from Beethoven on his death bed.

Martha Reamy inquired if anyone was having trouble printing records from Ancestry. Donna did a test right on the spot and there did not seem to be any problems.

NEW BUSINESS:

Karin brought up the topic of finding a new meeting site when people will feel safe to meet in person once again. Martha suggested finding a restaurant which would be able to accommodate groups.

Lenore Hansen-Stafford suggested Big City Diner and local libraries. Karin offered to begin the process of checking around and report back at the May 8, 2021 meeting.

Our meeting concluded around 11:52 a.m.

(Emailed 05/07/2021 by Isabelle Rivera)