TEXAS RESEARCH RAMBLERS

GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

           Volume XV, No. 6, June 15, 2005     Bryan-College Station, Texas

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Officers
2. Last Meeting
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Next Meeting
5. Future Seminars and Trips
6. Armchair Genealogy
7. Success Stories
8. Websites
9. Historical Moment
10. GenQuip

OFFICERS  for 2004-2005

President:  Bill Lay

Vice-President:  Mary Elizabeth Dresser

Secretary:  Georgianne Bigam

Treasurer:  Sue Foy

Corresponding Secretary:  Carol Lyon

LAST MEETING

President Bill Lay called our May 27, 2005 , meeting to order.  Minutes were approved. Committee chairmen gave their reports.

Speaking of our president, some of you may already know of the article about

 Bill and Mary Jo Lay in the “One Spirit—One Vision” Spring 2005 report on the Texas A&M Campaign. The couple has endowed two $25,000 scholarships in TAMU College of Education and Human Development to support students who are making a difference through teaching.  What a wonderful gift!

TREASURER’S REPORT

 Sue Foy reports the ending balance as of May 27, 2005 , was $5,474.35.  She also stated we will pay $500 to Heritage Quest to help keep this valuable service on-line for our members.

We welcome our newest member, Novella Hronek.  You can reach her at novella.hronek@verizon.net.

With no new business, we were ready for Rodger Koppa’s program, “Federal Lands into Private Hands:  Homesteading and the Genealogist.”  Through a powerful PowerPoint presentation, Rodger showed us through the legal procedures necessary for the homestead application.  If we can get an application copy, we can find all sorts of genealogical gems, such as names and ages of family members, farm buildings and equipment and their cost, crops and livestock as well as testimonies of witnesses.

 Interestingly, only ½ of claims led to ownership before 1900.  Many applicants faced agricultural problems on the plains; immigrants faced cultural problems, and opposition for some from cattlemen.  One point to remember in tracking down a Homestead File Application is that if the person paid cash, he will not have filled out an application.

Lunch is a great time to ask and answer questions about the program or any other subject. 

Just ask some of these Ramblers.

NEXT MEETING DATE AND PROGRAM

“Success Stories” will be the topic of discussion at our next meeting on June 29, 2005 .  We will meet at the College Station Utility Service Center , located at 1601 Graham Rd. in College Station at 9:30 a.m.  

FUTURE SEMINARS AND TRIPS

·        Every 2^nd Wednesday of the month:  a trip to Clayton Library in Houston .  Meet at Sam’s Club Parking Lot prior to 6:45 a.m. $7.50 to your driver.  Sack lunch.  Contact person:  Bliss Wolfe, 696-0170 or (even better) cell ph# 255-2429.

·        Every 3^rd Wednesday of the month:  Computer Users Group, headed by Bill Adams, will meet at the Exit Teen Center , 1600 Rock Prairie Rd., at 9:30 a.m.   Everyone is invited to eat at a local restaurant after the meeting.

·        Every last Wednesday of the month:  Research Ramblers will meet at College Station Utility Service Center at 9:30 a.m.   Everyone is invited to eat at a local restaurant after the meeting. 

·        Every 3^rd Tuesday, Rambler Writers will meet at the home of Sue Foy, 804 Vine St.., Bryan, at 4 p.m.    All are welcome to join us.

·        No Roots Magic meetings this summer.

·        For a complete listing of events, see the Calendar posted by Barbara Althaus.

·        For workshops around the state: http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Etxcoke/txsem.html .

·        For trips to the library in Salt Lake City , Utah , October 23-30, 2005 or to the Dallas Public Library, July 31- August 4, 2005 , contact Travel Committee Chairman, Mary Elizabeth Dresser, meatd@cox.net.

·        June 22, 2005 :  Exploring History Lunch topic will be about the Czechs in the Brazos Valley .  Lunch is from 11:30-1:00 at the CS Conference Center.  This luncheon would be a great way to get background information before the Czech Conference in July.

·        July 21-23, 2005 :  The Texas Czech Genealogical Society presents a conference in Caldwell at the Caldwell Civic Visitor Center , where our very own Bill Page will be one of the presenters.  For registration information, access http://www.txczgs.org

·        Our July meeting will be include a potluck lunch.

FYI:  Tips from others

Back to Basics is the column that Terry and Jim Willard write in Ancestry magazine.  In the May/June 2005 issue, page 47, they discuss “10 Common Research Mistakes and How to Avoid Them”

Mistake #10:  Failing to record information on standard genealogical forms.  Did you ever write down information on napkins, scraps of paper, or the backs of envelopes and then fail to transfer the information to its proper place on a standard form or software program?  If you start out on a standard form, you will provide something for others to work with after you have passed your research to them.  These forms are only roadmaps to future research and not the finished project.

Mistake #9:  Ignoring the siblings of the ancestors you are researching.  When researching censuses, for example, you might find the parents of an ancestor living with one of their other children.  Not only will this provide you with the names of the parents, it also places the parents in a location that can then lead to additional information.

SUCCESS STORIES

“It pays to keep on Googling,” says Georgianne Bigam.  Recently, she was looking for information on the wife an an ancestor.  “On Google, I entered, in quotes, Daniel+burroughs.  One site I picked from the hits was

http://pages.prodigy.net/parrish55/Fox ValleyDanielBurroughs.html .  This is the site where I got the pictures of Daniel’s grave,  From this site and other ‘googles’ I learned more about Daniel than I had known before.”

FYI

“Mark Twain knew the ways of Southerners almost as well as he knew the twists of the Mississippi ,” writes Jeffrey McQuain in his book, English: American Style.  The Civil War was known as “the War,” and its effect lasted long beyond the 1865 surrender.  “In the South,” Twain once commented, “The War is what A.D. is elsewhere; they date from it.  All day long you hear things ‘placed’ as having happened since the War; or ‘du’in’ the War,’ or ‘befo’ the War.’”

WEBSITES

Some results of the War include magazine articles, such as the Confederate Veteran Magazine.  Articles can be found at the first  two following websites:

http://lvaimage.lib.va.us/collections/CV.html

http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/cvwar-cv.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pensions/civilwar/moindex.htm is a website for all states to get information on pensions.

Library Spotlight:

http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/    is a website for the Tennessee State Library and Archives, which offers a variety of online resources, such as vital records, military records, Confederate Soldier’s Home Application Index, etc.

http://www.statelib.lib.in.us is a website for the Indiana State Library

http://www.mlin.org/books/manuscripts/index.php  is a website for Massachusetts  Library’s collection to The Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections Directory.

http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us is a website that will get you into Pennsylvania State Archives

HISTORICAL MOMENT

May 13, 1865 :

The Battle of Palmito Ranch was fought near Brownsville , after the official end of the Civil War, because word of the war's end at Appomattox on April 9 has not yet reached troops in Texas .

GENQUIP

Shh!  Be very, very quiet…I’m hunting forebears.

The Research Rambler Newsletter is published by the Texas Research Rambler Genealogical Society, P. O. Box 11195, College Station, Texas 77842-1195. Editor,  Helen Kunz, hkk@tca.net