Saturday, March 26, 2011

Next meeting - Saturday, April 16, 2011

UP-COMING PRESENTATIONS FOR APRIL & MAY 2011.....

APRIL 16, 2011 -BOB & JOEL KROFF ARE COMING BACK! For those who saw their first presentation on 'Uncle Verl' you know that they can sure put on a great presentation and provide us with good information for our own use.
Bob & Joel are returning with 'Beyond Uncle Verl - Family History & the 21st Century.
Ways of keeping up with what is available to us today in Family History. This will be a great presentation and we invite all to come and join us.

May 21, 2011 - This will be our last meeting before our summer break. Just to remind you we DO NOT hold meetings in June, July & August.

For our May meeting we have invited Doug Alder to be our presenter. Doug is currently involved with St. George Live - Former President & Professor of Dixie State College. For our May meeting Dougs presentation will be on 'Early Washington County History.' We invite all to come and join us in hearing about the areas early history.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Saturday, March 19, 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, March 19, 2011

GREETERS: ..... Marilyn Rohrer, Wilma Staton and Sandra Bryantd
WELCOME: ..... Fran Lightner – 10:00 am
OPENING PRAYER: .....Helen Lenz

✱Welcome was extended to all members and visitors.

✱Fran Lightner the president explained to the group the concept of our September meeting. With their input and approval we will be doing a “St. George Live” Tour. The group will be paying for the cost of the tour for our members. A list has been circulated for all those interested to sign. Reservation are necessary for any attending the tour.

✱ Fran noted Don Snow’s classes being held at the Morningside Stake Center were going well and listed the last classes for this season. Those remaining are:
6 April 2011 – The Lay of the Land - Online Maps for Family History
20 April 2011 – A Case Study Using New Tools

TEACHING MOMENT: Family History Center Introductions

Helen Lenz, Vice-President, introduced the Directors of the Buena Vista FHC, Tom and Betty McKnight, told of their newly renovated center and the schedules.
They are open: Tuesday - 9am-5pm; Wednesday - 9am-9pm; Thursday - 1pm-9pm


PRESENTER, Jeanine Vanderbrugger, was Introduced by Fran Lightner

Jeanine Vanderbrugger is on the Board of Directors of the McQuarried Memorial Museum and the President of the Washington West Company of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP). Jeanine spent 30 years in a working career with a large corporation in Los Angeles, and upon retirement, and upon obtaining her teaching credential, she began teaching elementary school.
Jeanine relocated to St. George from Southern California in 2005, and was immediately introduced to the DUP. This brought about the realization that all of her ancestors were among the original settlers of Southern Utah. She enjoys drawing upon these experiences to the history of our early pioneers with those old and new to this area, with visitors from around the world, or with school children.

PRESENTATION: Jeanine Vanderbrugger

Jeanine opened the presentation with the History of the settlement of St. George which was accompanied by a Power Point Presentation.

Charles L. Walker, among one of the first workers on the St. George Tabernacle, described the area.
“Saint George was dry and forbidding. When he arrived, Charley observed, "St. George is a barren looking place .... Very windy, dusty, blowing nearly all the time. The water is not good and far from being palatable. And this is the country we have to live in and make it blossom as the Rose. Well its all right; we shall know how to appreciate a good country when we get to it, when the Lord has prepared the way for his People to return and build up the waste places of Zion."

Brigham Young called several hundred Saints to southern Utah—Dixie—to raise the crop most in demand since the War Between the States began. In October 1861 - 300+ families were “called” to settle southern Utah. The main settlement was called St. George and another group was sent to Santa Clara (Swiss colony), most of these individuals in this group spoke little to no English. Those selected were people living in the Salt Lake Valley area who were from different parts of the US and Europe. It was noted that those who were selected had proven they would not give up. Many who came were traders, farmers, blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, musicians, merchants, etc.

Arrival began with the fist two families on November 25, 1861, the Robert Thompson and William Fawcett families. The majority of the “called” families began arriving on December 4, 1861. The first organization, Camp Council was set up on December 5, 1861. The first camp was in the area of the present day Dixie State College.

William Carter was the first to plowed a furrow in the rocking sandy ground.

Rocks were so abundant that the black volcanic rock was used for foundations and red sandstone for the walls. Good timber was found in surrounding mountains where saw mills were constructed. The first saw mill was in Pine Valley.

Money was almost unknown so many items were traded. To attend a social function, tickets were purchased with produce, molasses, squash etc., and performers were paid with the item brought.

St Georg Tabernacle cornerstone was laid June 1, 1863 and the building was dedicated December 28, 1872. Immediately thereafter the St. George Temple was begun - 1872 and completed in 1877.

Some of the first families to St. George were: Robert Gardner, George Woodward, Daniel D. McArthur, William Carter, Angus M. Cannon, James G. Bleak, Benjamin F. Pendelton, Ute Perkins, William Lang, William Fawcett, Israel Ivins, Lysander Dayton, Aston Kelsey, Jacob Gates, Walter E. Dodge, Orson Pratt, Jr., and many others.

Included in the Power Point presentation were pictures of many of the antique Items in the museum. The museum also includes Photos of early”“DIXIE pioneers; Histories of early pioneers; “Under Dixie SUN” history of southern Utah; Listings of markers and monuments of Washington County; Map of Early St. George.

Jeanine Vanderbrugger has created an Index for the "Under Dixie Sun" book. This is a great cross-reference for those looking for pioneer ancestors who are mentioned in the book. This book is a wonderful resource for learning the history of the early settlements and pioneers of Washington County, Utah and is available at the museum.

CLOSING PRAYER: Fran Lightner

RECORDING SECRETARY: June Morton


Members Attending: 27
Visitors 3

TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 30

PRIZES: Dwight Seamons, Betty Versteeg, and Lena Jones

Friday, March 4, 2011

Our Saturday, February 18, 2011 Meeting

Souther Utah Family History & Genealogy Group -
St. George East Stake Building
449 South 300 East, St. George, UT Saturday, February 19, 2011
GREETERS: Marilyn Rohrer & Wilma Staton
Welcome: Fran Lightner – 10:00 am
OPENING PRAYER: Gaye Bateman
ºWelcome was extended to all members and visitors.ºFran explained our need to use the smaller, Young Women’s Rooom, as there was a funeral being held in the Relief Society Room. Apologized for the inconvience to the members.
ºFran told the group we were having a booth at the St. George Family History Expo on the 25th and 26th, Friday and Saturday. Hoping their were members who would volunteer to man the booth.
ºOur group is in need of a Publicity Chairperson. If you are interested, please check with Fran after the meeting.
U Don Snow mentioned that the Church History Newspaper had an article about the Roots Tech Conference and encouraged all to read the article. RootsTech was not the ordinary type of conference. It was an interactive presentation between the presenter and attendees.
Don Noted his classes being held at the Morningside Stake Center were going well and handed out his list of forthcoming classes. Those remaining are:
02 March 2011 – Filling Out the Family: Censuses in Family History
16 March 2-11 – Great Grandpa was a Mormon: LDS and Utah Records
Family History Center Intro:
The Hurricane Family History was scheduled but unable to attend.
Helen Lenz, instead, gave a short presentation on what a microfiche was and stated that most FHC’s had them.
PRESENTERS: Robert and Elaine Booth
Bob and Elaine Booth are the Directors of the Family History Center. They have been members of our group for years and presenters on many occasions. And when we have projector and/or computer problems Bob is the first one to get a call and he responds quickly and fixes the problems. Elaine noted that she became interested in Family History at the age of 15 year, before joining the church. Bob became interest when he met Elaine, at the age of 16 year. As young married Elaine and Bob served in the Peace Corp in Brazil and other South American countries. During this time with Peace Corp. Is when they were introduced to the Gospel.
After returning to the US they became professional students for a time until Bob finally found a subject that he was interested in., it took a BS and two Masters to get there but he finally found his niche ... Computer Science. Bob worked for the Family History Department of the Church for 20 years before retiring 12 years ago. After moving to St. George they were still involved in Family History by helping others and creating their business, CSG, Computer Science, which is now been laid to rest because of their call to become Directors of the St. George Family History Center
PRESENTATION:
Bob Booth’s presentation focused on New.FamilySearch.org .... some changes and different methods of use. He began with outlining the information from New.FamilySearch.
New FamilySearch Website (new.familysearch.org): February 2011
New Features as of December 2010
The December 2010 release has many improvements. Among these are the ability to watch individuals, receive e-mail notifications when changes occur, and some temple-related changes.
Receive E-mail Notifications for Changes
You can now “watch” individuals in your family tree and receive an e-mail notification when information about them changes.
For now, the notification identifies the following types of changes:
* Someone changes the individual’s summary.
* Someone starts a new discussion or adds a comment to an existing discussion. * Someone combines an individual that you are watching with another record. * Someone separates a record from an individual that you are watching.
The notification e-mail will eventually list more types of changes.
Select the Individuals in a Family Whose Ordinances You Want to Do
When you reserve the ordinances for a family, you can now deselect any family member whose ordinances you do not want to do.
Reserve Ordinances for Someone Born in the Last 95 Years
If you try to reserve ordinances for someone who was born in the last 95 years, the system now asks whether you are the closest living relative or have permission from the closest living relative to do the ordinances.
Note: The closest living relatives are, in this order:
* An undivorced spouse. (The spouse to whom the individual was married when he or she died.) * An adult child. * A parent. * A brother or sister.
If you need to obtain permission to do ordinances, verbal approval is acceptable. Family members should work together to determine when the ordinances will be done and who will do them.
Please honor the wishes of the closest living relative. Doing ordinances against those wishes can cause hard feelings within families and towards the Church.
Increased Size Limit for Discussions
In the previous version of the system, discussions and comments could contain up to 1,000 characters (500 for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). The size limit has increased to 4,000 characters (2,000 for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).
Internet Explorer 6
Support for Internet Explorer 6 has been discontinued.
You can use the new FamilySearch website on several browsers and operating systems. For best results, use one of these combinations:BROWSER Operating Systems
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 and
newer * Windows XP (Home and Professional SP3 and newer)
* Windows Vista (32-bit)
* Windows 7
Firefox 3.0 and newer * Windows XP (Home and Professional SP3 and newer)
* Windows Vista (32-bit)
* Windows 7
Safari 3.12A Mac OS X (10.5.6 and newer)
Note: Support for Macintosh and Safari is limited. If Safari
does not work well, try using Firefox instead


You can use other browsers and operating systems, though some features may not work as well.
Corrections and Additions to the User’s Guide
This document summaries the changes made to the new FamilySearch website for the December 2010 release.
A User’s Guide to the New FamilySearch Website (December 2010) explains the changes in detail. These Changes are marked with blue arrows like the following:
The most significant changes occurred in the following chapters:
Chapter 1, “Introduction to the New FamilySearch Website” Chapter 4, “Correcting Information That Is Already in the System” Chapter 5, “Working with Others Users” Chapter 8, “Performing Temple Ordinances for Your Ancestors”
At the conclusion of this review, Bob outlines the following:
What you should do now
• Register on new FamilySearch
• Keep your best information at home
• Clean up your genealogy database
• Scan your documents
• Check Ordinances
Access new FamilySearch
• Directly in new FamilySearch ) OR
• From home genealogy software )
• Check ordinances
• Correct localities
• Upload new data
• Download new data
*Upload sources and scanned documents
At the conclusion of the presentation, Bob noted the description of classes being held at the St. George Family History Center located at 410 So. 200 East - St. George
Classes at the FHC
● New FamilySearch
● PAF and Family Insight
● Ancestral Quest
● Legacy Family Tree
● Root Magic
● Comparative Features of Home-Based Genealogy Software
● Records Organization
● Scanning
● Photo Editing
For a list of all the classes being held go to: http://www.familyhistorycenter.org/
CLOSING PRAYER:
RECORDING SECRETARY: June Morton
Members Attending: 33 Visitors 6
TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 39

Saturday, Marth 19, 2011

St. George is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the settling of the area. There will be many activities involved during this time of celebration.
We have invited the Daughters of Utah Pioneers to share with our group some of the many artifacts, histories of early settlers and information that is part of the McQuarrie Memorial Museum (DUP Pioneer Museum).
Jeanine Vander Bruggen, President of the Washington West Company of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the McQuarrie Memorial Museum, will be our presenter.
Jeanine also volunteers in the Museum along with members of the other 15 camps in Washington County.
Jeanine relocated to St. George from Southern California in 2005 and was immediately introduced to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers bringing about the realization that all of her ancestors were among those who originally settled Southern Utah in 1861.
Jeanine spent 30 years in a working career with a large corporation in Los Angeles, and upon retirement, and after obtaining her teaching credential, began teaching elementary school. She enjoys drawing upon these experiences to share the history of our early pioneers with those old and new to this area, with visitors from around the world, or with school children.
We invite you to come and enjoy this presentation.