September Meeting: 1940 U.S. Census Release Party!

Photo of Lindy Hoppers from 1940s.org

Saturday, September 1, 2012
Research Class: 12:15 PM
Main Program: 1:45 PM

Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Hall
520 Dana Street
San Luis Obispo, California

The 1940 U.S. census has been indexed and released, and we're having a party to celebrate!

• Bring your 1940s memorabilia to display. Items can be photos, appliances, clothing... anything characteristic of the period 1930-1950. Please email Cafi Cohen to reserve display space.
• Wear clothing and/or hats from the 1940s!
• 1940s food, music, and entertainment will be provided, including swing dancers!

The research class, Advanced Census Search Techniques, will be presented by Cafi Cohen. Think your ancestors were missed by the census taker? Think again. This class covers advanced search techniques that may ferret them out!

The main program will be 1940 US Census Finds. Come see what our society members have discovered in the 1940 U.S. census, and hear how they went about the hunt. You will be inspired!

(If you have a find you would like to talk about during the main program for 2-5 minutes, please contact Cafi Cohen so it can be added to the PowerPoint presentation.)

This will be the perfect day to invite your relatives, neighbors, and friends to the society meeting. See if you can infect them with your enthusiasm for family history!

Mark your calendars... you won't want to miss this fun, swingin' event!

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Copyright by © San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society

Missing Your Genealogy Society Meetings?

Are you missing the San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society meetings in July and August? Well, we miss you, too!

Until we meet again in September, consider attending Getting The Most Out of Family Search: Advanced Techniques, presented by Cafi Cohen, on Saturday, August 11, 2012, at 9:30 AM. We will only hold this class if there are sufficient pre-registrations received by Tuesday, August 7. For information and pre-registration, visit http://www.slocgs.org/classes.html and scroll down to the Internet Genealogy Skills Series.

(UPDATED 8/8/12: Unfortunately, the Getting The Most Out of Family Search: Advanced Techniques class scheduled for August 11 has been cancelled due to insufficient pre-registrations. Sorry, folks.)

Also now enrolling is the 4-week October and November class, Creating Your Family History Book, at Cuesta College. For information and registration, visit http://www.slocgs.org/classes.html and scroll down to the Cuesta College Emeritus Program information.

And don't forget: we're going to Salt Lake City to research in the Family History Library in October! We have a special hotel rate and the opportunity to share rooms that make the trip very affordable. At 10:00 AM on Saturday, Sept 1, we will hold a trip preparation class. Be sure to get in on the fun! Visit http://www.slocgs.org/researchtrips.html for more information.

Copyright by © San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society

Behind The Home Page - GRIP 2012

I recently returned from the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, where I took a week-long course titled: "Behind The Home Page: Problem Solving With Online Repositories," taught by D. Joshua Taylor and Paula Stuart-Warren.


Much of the course was devoted to finding databases and document images -- digital collections at lesser-used archives and library websites. We learned that much of this information will never be found with a Google search because (a) it's buried too deeply at the website (Google indexes depth proportional to traffic) and (b) Google usually does not index material buried behind image logos and search screens.  


Here are a few course websites that you may want to check out today:

1. Visit the free Archive Grid beta at http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid to search historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.

2. Digital State Archives is a new but growing link farm covering 36 states: http://www.digitalstatearchives.com

We will discuss more of the course content -- including overlooked websites YOU should be searching -- at the August 2012 Professional Standards meeting. See http://slocgs.org/interestgroups.html for more information.

Cafi Cohen