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Monterey County Historical Society Open House – May 20, 2023
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We want to remind you of the Monterey County Historical Society’s Open House on May 20, 2023 (Saturday) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Come join us.
Located in: Boronda Adobe History Center
Address: 333 Boronda Rd, Salinas, CA 93907
Visit Old Calvary Cemetery
- Calvary Catholic Cemetery
- aka Old Calvary Cemetery
- 99 Old Cemetery Rd
- Salinas, CA 93907
- 831-373-4345
- gps: 36.687844,-121.68181
Monthly Meeting – May 4, 2023 – “A Ticino Canton, Switzerland Research Project & How It Can Help With Your Ticino Research” by Sandy Peterson & Midge Buchert
Midge Buchert’s Italian-Swiss research project, specifically in Ticino, Switzerland was 20+ years in the making. Learn: Tool #1 – Midge’s Pedigree Database of connected Ticino Families. Tool #2 Midge’s Research Notes with some translations – This tool works hand in hand with Tool #1. Both sets of records (Tool #1 & #2) will be available through FamilySearch.org on your home computer, as well as at any FamilySearch Center. Search both resources to ascertain if your family surname is found within them.
Sandy Peterson is from the Central Coast, and has been researching her family since 1988. She began volunteering in the Santa Maria FamilySearch Center, and began teaching a few “how to” classes. 2015-2019, she served as the FamilySearch Center Director. Past president of the Santa Maria Valley Genealogical Society. She loves researching her Polish, Danish, German, Welsh, & English ancestry, and connecting with family relatives. Her favorite pastimes is to create graphic art collages from the documents, photos, and maps relating to her ancestors.
Midge Buchert’s Italian-Swiss research project, specifically in Ticino, Switzerland, was 20+ years in the making. Because of Midge’s extensive years of connecting Californian Central Coast families with their Italian-Swiss roots in the Canton of Ticino, plus the Family History Department’s interest in her valuable work. This project was first introduced in the Santa Maria LDA Church FamilySearch Center in Aug 1992, doing her own research and then volunteering for several years. She began researching Catholic Church records in Ticino, Switzerland for a friend whose Donati ancestors came from the Village of Broglio. These records were written in Latin, and because she had knowledge of the language, she’s been researching Ticino records ever since.
The Zoom meeting will start at 7:00 pm sharp. Zoom meeting details will be sent by invitation only. If you are not a member and wish to attend, send an email with your email address to our Membership VP, Marilyn Ruccello .
For additional information, call (831) 915-9465.
”Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” – Anne Herbert
DNA inheritance using letters in first names!
Ancestry has a nice new help page about DNA inheritance which uses the family names analogy to demonstrate recombination that was in the RootsTech session by Crista Cowan. This can be used to describe to newbies why testing many people in a family can be useful.
https://www.ancestry.com/cs/dna-inheritance
This is a little bit “advertisy” but scroll down to watch the letters change. This will useful for me to explain to my sister why I want to test her! 🙂
New Algorithm Cleans Up 23andMe Family Trees
Some types of close relatives, like aunt, uncle, half-sibling, nephew, niece, grandparent, and grandchild have very similar patterns of shared DNA, making predicting those relationships from DNA alone difficult. That’s why some customers might see someone incorrectly labeled as one of these relationships. To help improve detection of these relationships, 23andMe is now using a new technique that analyzes DNA from full siblings
Telling these relative types apart is especially difficult because the amount of DNA each type shares is almost identical. Because of this similarity, Bonsai relies on customers’ self-reported ages to make a decision about their relationships.
You can use this updated Bonsai method by rebuilding your family tree. To do this, you can request a recalculation of your tree through a link in the DNA Relatives FAQ page, in the question called “How do I recalculate my tree?”
The 23andMe database currently includes over 2 million customers who could be affected by this update, which translates to many thousands of relationships potentially changed. For those of you with a full sibling and a predicted half-sibling, aunt, or uncle, the updated Bonsai may produce a different (and more trustworthy) tree.
Keep in mind that unfortunately your tree annotations don’t carry over when you rerun Bonsai. Still, some of you will see changes and the predictions Bonsai now makes are much more reliable for the close relationship types discussed here.
the above is from 23andMe on Feb 22, 2023
Ancestry to Delete WorldConnect Trees and Shut Down RootsWeb Mailing Lists – Prepare NOW
The RootsWeb mailing lists will be gone April 6, and the WorldConnect trees on April 15th. for more details, see Roberta Estes at
Are Genealogy websites confusing to use?
Come to the new genealogical discussion and support meeting next Thursday to clear the cob-webs. 🙂
If you are having difficulties with Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org come to the FamilySearch Center for assistance Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm in Seaside. Be sure to bring your passwords if you already have accounts.
The door is at the LEFT REAR of the Church Building. See this link for detailed directions. https://mocogenso.wordpress.com/fhc/
If you need it, Shelley will help you sign in to FamilySearch will discuss using their site this year. Be prepared!
Monterey County Genealogy Society 