Saturday, May 28, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Southern Utah Family History & Genealogy Group (Washington County PAF Users Group) will not have meetings in the summer months of June, July and August.
Plans are already made for our September 2011 meeting.
Members are invited to join us in the Historic St. George Live! tour on Saturday, September 17, 2011. The tour will be a gift from the SGFH&G Group Board for our members. Non-members can sign up and pay the cost of $3.00.
The year St. George is celebrating it's 150th anniversary of the settling of this area.
On this tour we have the opportunity to hear some of the history and meet those who were part of this settlers. Brigham Young, Erastus Snow, Orson Pratt, Jacob Hamblin and Judge John Menziers Macfarlane, in period costumes, will take us through this historic tour.
Mark your calendar to join us.
We will update where we will meet, and other information as the time gets closer.
For more information contact Fran at 688-1260 or June at 652-9463

Thursday, May 26, 2011

SOUTHERN UTAH FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY GROUP
Washington County PAF User Group

St. George East Stake Building
449 South 300 East, St. George, UT
Saturday, May 21, 2011

GREETERS .................... Sandra Bryant and Helen Lenz WELCOME: .................... Fran Lightner at 10:00 am

OPENINGPRAYER: .............. Gatha Wilson

Welcome was extended to all members and visitors.


TEACHING MOMENT: ............ Genealogy Related

President Fran Lightner introduced Alta Thorpe, Chapter Regent of Color Country Chapter, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. An organization that has dedicated themselves to historic preservation, promotion of eduction and encouragement of patriotic endeavor.

Fran Lightner then presented information relative to RootsMagic and backup information for the database.


PRESENTERS : ................ Don Snow
Douglas D. Alder has lived a Utah life, spending one-quarter century in Salt Lake City and another quarter century on the northern border in Logan, Utah as a professor of history at Utah State University. He then spent nearly a quarter century on the southern border in St. George. Dr. Alder received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Utah, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1966. He taught European History at Utah State University, and served as the 14th President of Dixie College. After his presidency, he remained teaching history full-time, and later serving as an adjunct professor. He and his wife, Elaine, have four grown children, 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

PRESENTATION: ................ Dr. Douglas D. Alder
The presentation was begun by asking all present where they were born ….. finding no St. George natives. Dr. Alder has been and is currently involved in researching, reviewing, and typing oral histories of Washington County residents and searching for their descendants.
When you think of Dixie you think of ARID. The early settlers brought with them the ability to create irrigation and implemented it in the early years, which included many different techniques.
As the Mormons came into the area they created “villages”, even though farming was the main industry. The people lived in the “village” creating communities and not on the farms. The families 'in town” lived on one acre lots, and on these lots the family planted gardens which provided all their food while the fathers worked on the farms raising cotton and then alfalfa.
Within the communities large fantastic building were built, which compared to buildings in the eastern states. The Tabernacle, the Courthouse, the Cotton Factory, the Temple and the Opera House.
Dr. Alder addressed and spoke of the water problem, the springs, the canals, and the damns.
He spoke of why the Temple was built here in St. George, noting that after the tabernacle was near finishing the skills and materials were already here, therefore, St. George Temple came to be before the Manti and Logan Temples.

What a great presentation we had today. Those who missed it, missed an outstanding history lesson about Washington County. Dr. Alder, with Karl Brooks, has written the book, “The History of Washington County: Isolation to Destination.”

CLOSING PRAYER: ........... Julie Hammons
RECORDING SECRETARY: ...... June Morton


Members Attending: 25 Visitors: 3 TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 28

PRIZES: Carla Tobler, Sandra Brant, Merrill Hymas

Many Thanks go out to the Board Members who came early and set-up the room for this presentation.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

We welcome all to our next meeting -
Saturday, May 21, 2011 - Our monthly meeting will
feature Dr. Doug Alder
Dr Doug Alder will be the presenter at our May Meeting.
He is a historian and will talk about the history
of Washington County. ‘From Isolation To Destination:
Washington County and Dixie College’. He will also
be a great resource to tell us about the technology and
website programs he uses to help with research.
Dr. Alder received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from
the University of Utah, and earned his Ph.D. from the
University of Oregon in 1966. He taught European
History at Utah State University, and served as the
14th President of Dixie College. After his presidency,
he remained teaching history full-time, and later
serving as an adjunct professor.
He and his wife Elaine and have four grown children,
12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The meeting begins at 10 am on Saturday May 21, at
449 South 300 East, St. George Utah (East Stake
Center RS Room).
SOUTHERN UTAH
¢FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY GROUP
Washington County PAF User Group
St. George East Stake Building
449 South 300 East, St. George, UT
Saturday, April 16, 2011

GREETERS: ….... Sandra Bryant, Wilma Staton and Marilyn Rohrer

WELCOME: ...... Helen Lenz .. 10:00 am

OPENING PRAYER: .....Pat Miller

✱Welcome was extended to all members and visitors.

TEACHING MOMENT: .....Genealogy Related

Helen Lenz, Vice-President, Introduced Wayne and Terri Shamo with the Washington County Library System. There are seven branches within the system: Enterprise, Hurricane, New Harmony. St. George, Santa Clara, Springdale, and Washington. Terri noted that they have many genealogical related items in the branches. Notably the Heritage Quest collection. For more information on the Washington County Libraries go to: http://library.washco.utah.gov


PRESENTERS : .....THE KROFF BROTHERS

Bob Kroff is a retired Teacher/Administrator from the Tooele School District. He taught and was principal at Hurricane Middle School in the early 70's and owned a Grocery Store in Springdale, adjacent to Zion National Park. While employed in the District Office in the Tooele School District, he was a Teacher Trainer and traveled Utah and Idaho presenting skills in teaching Bob and his wife Carol served a Mission at the St. George Family History Center, with a special interest in personal histories. Bob has served as Vice-President of our Group and is presently on our Board of Directors.

Joel was born in SLC Utah and raised in Tooele, Joel went to Southern California on an LDS mission and attended Brigham Young University following his mission. While going to B.Y.U Joel spent the summer in Springdale, Utah, working for his brother Robert, where Joel met and fell in love with his wife Marium. They have now been married 40 years. They are the parents of 5 wonderful boys. Joel and Marium currently reside in St. George, Utah. Joel is active in the local toastmasters club, a public speaking forum, where he has achieved their highest achievement, that of a Distinguished Toastmaster.

AND MCKAY MURDOCK from iPreserve.
Mckay was born in Kahuku Hawaii to George & Mimi Murdock, but grew up in Orem, Utah. His family moved to Hurricane, Utah in 2001 where he attended High School and started his business adventures. Mckay started, owned and sold several companies over the years. Through High School his Lawn Care and Rock Salt Delivery services kept him busy. Towards the end of High school he started an asphalt maintenance and striping company called Stripe It. He began by just painting parking lots and runways but soon expanded to asphalt crack repair, seal coating, asphalt patchwork, and paving. That was a fun adventure and taught him many wonderful lessons that he is now very grateful for! After selling Stripe It he turned into a bit of a traveler. He traveled all over Europe, Israel and the U.S. After having his share of life on the road he discovered the budding Media Conversion industry and met the founder of iPreserve. Mckay has been the owner of iPreserve for about 2 years now and loves his job! He is happy and grateful that he can be a part of a necessary and important service in preserving those priceless memories we all have, making sure they can be enjoyed for generations to come! His wife Emily and daughter Haylee love St. George as much as he does so he will be here for quite a few years taking care of all our precious memories!

PRESENTATION: .....Bob Kroff, Joel Kroff and Mckay Murdock
Bob and Joel began the presentation with a recap of how they got into digital format memory by reintroducing “UncleVerl” and displaying ‘his’ box of memories. Hopefully in October during our Family History Month we will be able to have the video of Uncle Verl again. The brothers discovered through Uncles Verl’s journal that he was a man of intelligence rather than, as children, the ‘unintelligent hermit’ they thought him to be.
Main thought was .... You do not have to wait for your WHOLE history to be completed to share your memories. Their goal was to demonstrate converting personal memories to digital format.
With the aid of a Kodak Sport Recorder of sound and picture, about $125 to purchase, memories could be saved to computer, CD and/or DVD for posterity. Many in the group experienced ‘remembrances’ of childhood days which were recorded by Joel, which we all viewed on the big screen. What a great day was had by all in the remembrances and in the new innovations that could bring childhood memories beyond the written word.
McKay, from iPreserve, was introduced. Mckay encouraged all to find the old home movies, 8mm film, audio tapes, the old slides, old negatives and/or pictures and convert them to digital format. He expressed the need to find the old media whether in the garage or attic or under the bed or hidden away in boxes some where ..... retrieve them before they are totally destroyed from heat or bugs or other harmful things to media objects. Yes, we could do it with our “home methods” but the quality and professional touch will not be there. .iPreserve has the ability to convert ANY media type ever created to digital! With iPreserve your precious memories stay local in our lab in St. George never going through the mail to be lost or stolen. Mckay will sit down with you in his store or in your home to answer any questions you might have about the Media Conversion Process.
.iPreserves is located on Sunset Blvd next to Play-It-Again Sports and the store hours are Monday - Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm or Saturday by appointment.
What a great presentation we had today. Those who missed it , missed walking down the ‘memory trail’ to your childhood and great memories.

CLOSING PRAYER: ….....Lena Jones
RECORDING SECRETARY: …..... June Morton

Members Attending:24 Visitors:16 TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 40

PRIZES: Lynn Johnston , Gordon Stewart, Marion Millet.
AND 100 photo upload to a DVD FREE from iPreserve and McKay Murdock, which was won by Ted Brewster

Many, Many Thanks to our Set-Up Crew this month!