1) Draft guidelines for AIGG proposed (Accredited Investigative Genetic Genealogist)
for public comment through May 30, 2023
2) Firebird Forensics Group Inc website update
https://firebirdforensics.org/
media has been added under “News” various podcasts, videos
Some of the old methods are still worthwhile in this new “modern” internet age. Genealogists come in two sizes: experienced and newcomers. The experienced folk (I decided not to say old-timers) came to genealogy back in days when we printed our family trees on paper. Perhaps we did it by hand using tree templates or we had a computer and software like PAF. In either case, we hated to re-print the same charts and we needed a way to place our charts in some order that allowed us to insert newly researched ancestors in place. Alpha sorting didn’t work well. A numeric scheme called AHNENTAFEL was developed that ordered our research by generation.
Time marched on and the Internet arrived. And then web sites began that allowed us to keep our trees “on-line” which protected us from computers that stopped working or fires or tornadoes and floods. Well respected sites like FamilySearch . org and Ancestry . com were developed and we slowly moved our research to these places. Sorting schemes were no longer needed because one could just “search”. Things were automatically in order.
Newcomers to the field only use the online sites, they have never used nor heard of “old fashioned” methods to order things. Newcomers generally don’t know about AHNENTAFEL. And old timers (oops, I did it) generally have stopped using AHNENTAFEL too because they have switched to using the new methods.
But, spreadsheets are good. And locating the most-recent-common-ancestors (MRCA) is one of the big challenges in DNA cousin hunting like cluster analysis. Using AHNENTAFEL numbers to order ancestors and a similar number for families can be very helpful.
An AHNENTAFEL (German for “ancestor table”) is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person’s direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent. The subject of the ahnentafel is listed as No. 1, the subject’s father as No. 2 and the mother as No. 3, the paternal grandparents as No. 4 and No. 5 and the maternal grandparents as No. 6 and No. 7, and so on, back through the generations. Apart from No. 1, who can be male or female, all even-numbered persons are male, and all odd-numbered persons are female. In this schema, the number of any person’s father is double the person’s number, and a person’s mother is double the person’s number plus one.
Simply put, imagine a horizontal pedigree chart of ancestors. Number them starting with you as 1, father as 2, mother as 3, etc..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnentafel
We need to teach AHNENTAFEL to newcomers and refresh the memories of oldcomers. Who wants to create a presentation for one of our next MoCoGenSo meetings? 😊
Last night, Junel Davidsen gave a talk at the MoCoGenSo General Meeting via Zoom. A handout was distributed to those in attendance. The talk and handout are about using Courthouse records to further your genealogical searching.
Junel has made the handout available for downloading temporarily (6 months) by all. Having this file, which is full of hot links, is almost as good as having been there!
To get the file, Click here.
If you see Junel or talk to her, give her a big thanks.
Google Inc. makes lots of tools available to people, some of which are not often talked about. Besides Searching, my favorite tool is called ALERTS. Simply put, you create a regular Google search and then have Google run it for you every day! The system will email you if it finds something matching your criteria from the past 24 hours (older stuff is ignored). The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results—such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the user’s search term(s).
To use Alerts, sign in to your Google account using the Gmail you want new discoveries to be sent to, then go to https://www.google.com/alerts . Then create a search and save it! That’s it. You can have multiple alerts, each one is treated individually.
Presumably you have previously tested your search! Alerts doesn’t validate a search, it just runs it. Here are a couple of searches that I am running daily:
“snorkel ai”
starlink OR spacex AND ipo
Yes, of course you can include genealogical searches too. But remember, the results will be newly published stuff, not previously published. Try it, free it is.
“We were born at just the right moment to help change everything.” – Eric Holthaus
I saw this blog posting about the RSS Reader called Feedly on Dick Eastman’s Blog 16 Oct 2019 and thought it was important enough to share here. Besides, I too use Feedly. It is the only way I can keep up with the rapid changes regarding DNA testing and genealogy!
“I have written before about the many advantages of using RSS Newsreaders to quickly and easily find articles of interest published on dozens, even hundreds, of web sites that interest you, including the EOGN.com web site. You can find my earlier articles about RSS Newsreaders by starting at: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aeogn.com+newsreader&t=brave&ia=web.
Brendan Hesse has posted an article that I think everyone should read: The Best RSS Readers and News Aggregation Apps. (I found this article by using my favorite RSS Newsreader, of course.) As Brendan writes, “Without further ado, here are the best RSS readers/news aggregators, plus a few alternatives for good measure.”
I also noted that he claims that Feedly is the best RSS Newsreader available today. I cannot say that I have tested as many newsreaders as Brendan Hesse has, but I will say that I have been using Feedly for several years and am pleased with it.
First of all, Feedly is a cloud-based newsreader that does not require any software installation in your computer. It works equally well on Windows, Macintosh, Chromebook, Android, Linux and Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) systems. It is also super simple to use.
Feedly has three versions: FREE, Pro, and Team.
The FREE version contains ads, the Pro version is ad-free and allows the user to follow an unlimited number of sources. The Team version is for use by corporate teams; I cannot imagine any individual consumer ever needing the Team version.
Of course, Feedly isn’t the only product available. You might prefer something else. You can read a lot more in Brendan Hesse’s article in the Lifehacker web site at: https://tinyurl.com/eogn19-10-16.
Also, see my earlier article, Is It Time to Try a Newsreader?, at: https://blog.eogn.com/2018/03/29/is-it-time-to-try-a-newsreader/.”
The above article is from and is copyrighted by the Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter at blog.eogn.com. Many thanks go to Dick Eastman for his continued support of the genealogy world.
Junel Davidsen gave a really interesting talk during our October 2018 monthly meeting about researching Deed records and other similar documents and other discoveries you can make in Courthouses!
We have here the handout containing resources and links that Junel provided at the meeting. The file is a PDF with “live” links. Download and enjoy.
Given that Adam and Eve were born in some country other than the United States (Garden of Eden) then therefore everyone here in the USA is either an immigrant or is descended from immigrants. (Native Americans also immigrated — just longer ago than most!)
Many of our immigrant ancestors came to this country through the portals of Ellis Island. It has always been a challenge to search the records at Ellis Island. I know that Stephen Morse has made it easier on his One-Step web site. And he will be the September speaker here.
BUT — a recent blog post from FamilySearch.org announced that the complete archive of Ellis Island passenger records is now available on their website, today! They are completely indexed with the real imagine available too. Hooray.
Click here to see the blog announcement:
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/archive-ellis-island-records/
The free records include the following:
New York Passenger Lists (Castle Garden) 1820–1891
New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island) 1892–1924
New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists 1925–1957
Start searching for your ancestors now. What are you waiting for!
“There is a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore looking like an idiot.” – Raymond Reddington
When you are doing genealogical research at home and run into a “pay-wall”, perhaps the Monterey FHC can help. All of these excellent websites are available at the Monterey FHC for free! If you like saving money, then use these sites at the FHC. If you find that you must have a personal login, you can always subscribe at home later. (Yes, I have an Ancestry signon, world edition.) Just another reason to come to the Monterey Family History Center – look here for directions.
Provided by the Monterey FHC Directors
Provided by Monterey County Genealogical Society
Provided by Salt Lake City Family History Library
“Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.” – Oscar Wilde
Monterey County Genealogy Society 