***** Coming Attractions - 2008 *****

Do you remember how the movie theaters used to announce the "Coming Attractions" in great lights, colors, and titles? Well, the Florida Genealogical Society can do just the same thing! We have a LOT coming in 2008!

As always, we will host our society's Gala Holiday Party in December, with details coming in a few weeks!

The year 2008 is very special for the Florida Genealogical Society. We were founded in 1958, and 2008 will mark our 50th Anniversary! Members of your board are already culling through our historical papers in the Special Collection are of the USF Library, preparing to help commemorate and celebrate the occasion. Not only will we celebrate all year long, but our Annual Fall Conference will be a gala occasion for our commemoration.

In the meantime, we will begin our Golden Anniversary Year with some great seminars!

• January - Adrienne Condon will present "Indentured Servants"
• February - George G. Morgan will present "Effectively Using Heritage Quest", an online seminar in the JFG Library computer lab -- the first of several online classes
• March - Donna Moughty will present "Getting the Most Out of FamilySearch.com"

And that is just the beginning! Your board is planning the absolute best educational programs you have ever seen at FGS, and our Annual Fall Seminar will have evolved into the best event ever.

Be sure to renew your membership, and get your genealogy friends to join FGS too! There is going to be something for everyone, and you don't want to be left out!

Help Us Celebrate Our Golden Anniversary with Style!

FGS Program for November 17th, 2007! "COLD MAILINGS"

Cold mailing? Family Survey? What does this have to do with genealogy? Well, lots more than you would think!

Just starting your genealogy? Stuck at a brick wall? Lost contact with family members? Create a mailing or survey to help reconnect with aunts, uncles, and cousins so that you can flesh out your family tree ... and maybe even locate the 'lost' family bible and other important family artifacts!

Hit a brick wall? Scour newspaper articles, obituaries, and other articles to help contact people who might be related.

This presentation, Cold Mailings, will walk you through using MS-Word and Excel for putting a survey together, automating cover letters, generating mailing labels, creating mail merge files that address both the letters and envelopes, create and maintain a budget, and help you compile summaries of results you receive from your relatives. Handouts will be available that walk you through the entire process and give you examples and hints for your own projects.

Our presenters are Pamela "Pam" Treme and Patricia "Pattie" Schultz. Both are avid genealogists and both are professionals in the software industry. Pattie is an experienced software support and installation representative, and a software development group leader for 20+ years. Pam has a B.A. in English and has worked as a technical writer for 15 years, using MS-Word on a daily basis to produce printed books and user manuals for commercial products. Both Pam and Pattie have the expertise to help each of us master the 'mysteries' MS-Word and Excel and to learn how to use these powerful software products to augment and complement our genealogy research projects.

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn how to really use these software packages more effectively and to incorporate them into your everyday genealogy research! You will not be disappointed!

Kim Harrison Scheduled to Present Dynamite Program on 20 October!

Kim Harrison is one of the most knowledgeable individuals about online genealogical databases today! She has been involved for a number of years with several of the North American Irish online genealogical database systems providers. She has an intimate knowledge of what resources have been digitized and indexed, how the internal structures of databases operate, and how to search the databases to get the most out of them.

The Florida Genealogical Society will hold its monthly meeting on Saturday, October 20th, at 10:30 AM in the Auditorium at the John F. Germany Library at 900 North Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa. (This is a new starting time due to a change in library hours.) Our speaker is Kim Harrison, now a representative of Newsbank. Kim will present a program titled “America’s GenealogyBank: Introduction to a New Resource.” THPLC has recently added this tremendous new resource to its collection of genealogy databases and Kim will present the NewsBank and Access World News database facilities to us. Having just presented a definitive presentation to the THPLS personnel on Friday, she us eminently qualified and prepared to demonstrate to us what resources are available and how to use them to facilitate your genealogical research. Learn from and expert! Admission is free.

We sincerely hope you will join us for Kim Harrison's authoritative and insightful program. She is the most knowledgeable person in the Newsbank staff and will teach you all the ins and outs of effectively using this excellent reference resource. You can also join us for lunch at First Watch afterwards.

You do NOT want to miss Kim Harrison and her excellent program!

New Parking Arrangements at Poe Garage beside Library

Hello FGS Members and Guests!

Hillsborough County has made changes in the parking arrangements and rates near the John F. Germany Public Library on Ashley Drive. The following PDF file will help explain the the locations, new rates that may apply, and what you may expect to encounter. Needless to say, the cost of wages for the parking attendants and benefits have been escalating. The City of Tampa has finally had to respond, in its parking garages, to those expenses. You will now see new machines near the elevators at which you can pay your parking fees.

FGS President Drew Smith has had a good experience this week talking to the head of Tampa's parking administration, and he will be able to answer many of your questions at this weekend's regular meeting.

News from Other Societies

Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay Meeting
GETTING THE MOST FROM ANCESTRY.COM
Speaker George G. Morgan
Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay meets at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, Florida on Sunday, November 4, 2007. A social with refreshments and library access begins at 1:30 PM, and the featured program starts at 2:00 PM.

Ancestry.com is the world's largest online family history site with over 4 billion names in research databases including, but not limited to, census, birth, marriage, death, military, immigration, newspapers, directories, court, land, and probate records. Ancestry.com has added so many new and expanded databases in recent years that guidance is needed to make effective use of all that is there. George G. Morgan is an authority on Ancestry.com and recently published a new book "The Official Guide to Ancestry.com" to provide that guidance. He will speak on how to be more proficient in searching Ancestry.com. He will explore some obscure but useful databases within Ancestry.com that you didn't know existed, and you will learn how to get the most out of doing genealogy on Ancestry.com.

The purpose of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay is to assist interested individuals in learning about Jewish genealogy and how to research, document and preserve their own family histories. The Society does this by facilitating the exchange of research information, encouraging and facilitating research activities, educating members to help themselves and others, making available research resources and materials, and presenting monthly programs of interest to Jewish genealogical researchers. The Society’s library and research resources include both printed materials and Internet access as well as guided assistance from experienced researchers. Special emphasis is given to helping beginners.

Anyone interested in learning how to do Jewish genealogical research is invited to attend. Beginners as well as experienced researchers are welcome. For information on the organization or directions to the meeting call Sally Israel at 727-343-1652.

News from Other Societies

News from Other Societies

Presentation by Dr. Herman Koren
Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay Meeting
Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay will hold its October meeting at 2:00 PM Sunday October 14, 2007 at Temple B'nai Israel, 1685 S. Belcher Road, Clearwater, Florida for a presentation by Dr. Herman Koren on "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." This is a presentation of a love story found within the pages Dr. Koren's book "Histories of the Jewish People of Pinellas County, Florida, 1883 – 2005". This book is a comprehensive documentation of Jewish life throughout the history of Pinellas County. Dr. Koren spent several years researching and writing this remarkable book.

This joint meeting is combined with Temple B'nai Israel's program for the Tampa Bay area presentation of Dr. Herman Koren's book on the history of the Jewish People in Pinellas County. The book tells a community story within the framework of the continuum of Jewish values and history. It represents the cooperative efforts of many hundreds of people throughout Pinellas County and throughout the United States.

Dr. Koren is widely known and respected for his fifty years as a researcher, teacher, consultant, and practitioner in the environmental health field, and in the occupational health, hospital, medical care, and safety fields. He has a PhD from Indiana University, and is Professor Emeritus from Indiana State University. In addition to many publications and presentations at national meetings, he is the author of seven books. He has received the Walter S. Mangold Award, the most distinguished award offered in the environmental health science field.

This is not Dr. Koren's first venture into documenting the history of a Jewish community. In 1984, when he was active in the United Hebrew Congregation of Terre Haute, Indiana, a Reform Temple, he became the historian for that Jewish community by volunteering to write "The 150-Year History of the Jewish Community of Terre Haute, Indiana." He successfully applied his knowledge and skills from his education and professional writings to research and write Terre Haute's Jewish history. Now he has applied this same skill and knowledge to a history of the Jewish people in Pinellas County.

For information on the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay or directions to the October 14th meeting call Sally Israel at 727-343-1652.

News from Other Societies

FGS Program for 20 October 2007

The Florida Genealogical Society will hold its monthly meeting on Saturday, October 20th, at 10:30 AM in the Auditorium at the John F. Germany Library at 900 North Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa. (This is a new starting time due to a change in library hours.) Our speaker is Kim Harrison, a representative of Newsbank. Kim will present a program titled “America’s GenealogyBank: Introduction to a New Resource.” THPLC has recently added this tremendous new resource to its collection of genealogy databases and Kim will present the database and demonstrate how to use it to facilitate your use of the database for genealogical research. Learn from and expert! Admission is free.

We sincerely hope you will join us for Kim Harrison's authoritative and insightful program. She is the most knowledgeable person in the Newsbank staff and will teach you all the ins and outs of effectively using this excellent reference resource.

FGS TELEPHONE CALLERS NEEDED

The FGS Telephone Committee is in need of volunteers for our monthly calls to members to remind them of monthly meetings, Seminars or luncheons.

Each volunteer will have a list of 12-15 names.

Calls are made one week prior to monthly meetings held on the third Sat. of each month. If member is not at home, message can be left on the answering machine. If no answering machine is available, call back again at a different time. If unsuccessful, you do not have to make another call for that month.

If you cannot make your calls in any particular month due to illness or vacations, just inform me via phone or my email.

If you feel you could help out once per month for 20-30 minutes, it would be so appreciated by our committee. Thank you in advance if you choose to help out, you will be called by me with details.

Loraine Jacobs Rose,
Telephone Committee Chairman
Phone: 813-855-3614
Email: Lrose40221@aol.com

John F. Germany Library Hours Change

The hours at the John F. Germany Library in Tampa have changed. They are:

• Monday through Thursday - 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
• Friday and Saturday - 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Sunday - 12:30 PM to 5:00 PM

The changes have caused FGS to change the starting time of our monthly meetings (on the third Saturday of each month) to 10:30 AM, effective with the October 20th meeting.

Be sure to check the hours of any branch library location as their hours have also changed. A listing of links to all HCPLC locations can be found at http://www.hcplc.org/hcplc/liblocales/locationsbranch.html.

News from Other Societies - South Bay Genealogical Society

The South Bay Genealogical Society announces its programs for November and December 2007:

11/20/07 "Writing your Family History Using a Template" by Pattie Schultz and Pam Treme. Noon luncheon prior to speakers at 1 pm. The speakers will also touch on using Microsoft Word features.

12/18/07 " The George Bushong Story" by Damon Hostetler. Damon dresses up in costume portraying his 3rd great-grandfather and covers 100 years of American History, 1780-1880. Noon luncheon prior to speaker at 1 pm.

For more information, visit the society's Web site at http://www.rootsweb.com/~flsbgs/.