FGS Meeting - Saturday, May 16, 2009

FGS will meet on Saturday, May 16th, at 10:30 AM in the Auditorium of the John F. Germany Library in downtown Tampa. This month's speaker is Debra S. Fleming who will present a program titled, "Google for Genealogists." Debra describes the program as follows: "Google is one of the biggest tools genealogists can use for finding that ellusive ancestor. Using specific tools within Google and the audience’s search perimeters, we will search the World Wide Web and use “not so secret” skills for filtering results. In this lecture, we will cover the main uses for Google by genealogists: Book, Blog, Image, Maps, Scholar and Patent Searching. This presentation encourages and, in fact, requires in depth audience participation!

Join us for a great skill-building session, and then visit the library's excellent genealogy collection.

News from Other Societies

The Manasota Genealogical Society will meet on May 5th at the Manatee Central Library, 1301 Barcarrota Blvd., West Bradenton, Florida, from 9:30 AM to noon. The speaker will be Anne Young whose program is titled "Photographs and Souvenirs."

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The South Bay Genealogical Society will hold its meeting at noon on May 19th, 2009, at the SouthShore Library. Fran Carter Walker will present a program called "Searcing for Land and Deed Records.

News from Other Societies - Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay will meet at 2:00 PM Sunday May 17, 2009 at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, Florida for a genealogy problem solving session –"ASK THE MAVENS”. A social with refreshments and library access begins at 1:30 PM, and the featured program starts at 2:00 PM.

In this working session a panel of experienced resident genealogists will assist those who have come up against a dead end in their family research and don't know what to do next. The solutions presented should be of value to anyone doing family research.

The problem-solving panel will include Emil Isaacson, Clint Elbow, and Bill Israel - our resident experts. Dr. Isaacson has 26 years experience in Jewish genealogy and has researched his ancestral roots back seven generations to the late 1700’s in Europe. He has conducted several educational seminars in Jewish Genealogy for the JGSTB. Clint Elbow is a Business Systems Analyst working in information technology in the healthcare field. He has been researching his family roots for seven years focusing on his patronymic roots back to Germany. Bill Israel, a Director of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), has spent more than 28 years researching his Jewish roots. He has traced nine generations of his family lines going back more than 200 years, and he has documented more than 1,600 related individuals.

Those who present problems to "ASK THE MAVENS” by E-mail to prior to the meeting will be given priority by the panel.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay’s library and research resources are available to all meeting attendees and can be loaned out to members. Anyone interested in learning how to do Jewish genealogy research is invited to participate. 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 or Rita Shapiro at 446-9311.

FGS Meeting - Saturday, 18 April 2009

The Florida Genealogical Society will hold its monthly meeting at 10:30 A.M. on Saturday, April 18, 2009, at the John F. Germany Public Library at 900 N. Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa. The speaker will be David W. Dellinger, Ph.D., author of the book, The Peasant Kings. His presentation is titled, "Weaving Fiction from Fact: What a Novel Idea!" The talk will focus on researching and writing a family history. Join us for a fascinating look at the background of one novelist's adventures in writing his family's history.

News from Other Societies - Pinellas Genealogy Society

The Pinellas Genealogy Society will meet on 18 April, 2009, beginning at 11:00 am at the Largo Library, 120 Central Park Drive in Largo, FL. All are welcome to attend this free program.

The speaker will be Drew Smith, a well-known writer, genealogist and librarian from the University of South Florida. He is co-host of The Genealogy Guys Podcast and had been a featured speaker at many statewide and national conferences. He is a specialist in digital technology in genealogy.

The program topic is "Options for Family Websites" where Drew will demonstrate how to create a family website using a blog, a wiki and a genealogy software package (Roots Magic). This will be an interesting program even if you don't know a blog from a wiki.

The program is preceded by an informal Q&A session on "Computers in Genealogy" beginning at 9:45 am.

Light refreshments will be served after the presentation and there will be opportunity to talk with the speaker and PGS members.

News from Other Societies - Brandon Area Genealogical and Historical Society

I wanted to let you know about our special program this month which will cover "Italian Genealogical Research." Vince Pardo, Kenneth Ferlita and Vienna LoCicero Santisteban will present the program. Please make every effort to attend and encourage your friends to attend this program which will cover Italian and Sicilian family research from this distinguished panel of experts. We want to have an excellent attendance to support this presentation by the group coming from Tampa to be with us that evening. Even if you do not have any Italian families in your background, you will find this pesentation exciting and filled with good research tips. We will be meeting at our usual time and place - 6:30 pm at the Bloomingdale library on Tuesday, April 14th. Special Italian refreshments will be served.

Scott L. Peeler, Jr., President
Brandon Area Genealogical and Historical Society