Manasota PAF News
Apr 2002 -  Volume 8 Issue 7 - A publication of the Manasota PAF User Group, Bradenton, Florida
See also: Part 1

Sunday Morning Coffee...a must read regarding old photos.  forwarded by Frenette Brown frenb@pcsonline.com, posted by Colleen Pustola ladyaudris@earthlink.net to the public genealogy mail list: GACOFFEE-L@rootsweb.com 

"THE LOST

Whoosshhhh!!

She looked around.  Where was she?  People surrounded her for what seemed like miles and miles!  Where in the world had they all come from?  One minute she was alone, the next she was sitting amidst this huge crowd!  There was no sky; there was no earth.  What kept this mass of people so closely grouped together?

...and the DUST!  Whew!  Between that and the overbearing pressure of the crowd, she felt as though she could hardly breath!

Then she saw them, her family.  There were her parents and all eleven siblings!  Why, that's her as a young girl and there's her long-dead sister, a child again!  Over there were her husband and eight children! She looked around a little more and found a few of her aunts, uncles and even some cousins!  Everyone seemed to be there ~ a REUNION!  Oh, yes!

But there were also many, many people she didn't know.  "Let's think on the positive side of things, though," she thought.  Just look at everyone she DID recognize! 

Look at her dad!  He's so proud of his family!  You can see his pride by the way he stands, his shoulders thrown back.    The long, hard years of farming show in his weathered face.  Her mother looks delicate in the
face; those long skirts covering her frailness.  She won't live much longer... the doctor said she shouldn't have had so many children. 

She noticed her two grandfathers by the oxen-pulled wagon.  Both her grandmothers and both families' children were in it.  She saw her father as a boy!  "Everyone is on their way to a Fourth of July community
picnic," he'd once told her.  To look at them their clothes weren't the finest ~ rather plain actually.  One grandfather wears a beaten up hat as proudly as though it were a gentleman's derby.

And there!... there are six of her great-grandparents!  Those people pioneered this area.  Two pairs of those grandparents made their way over to America ~ one from Germany, the other from Ireland.  Best friends, they are and what a combination of personalities they make. 

One of the great-grandmothers was even a handmaiden to the queen herself before she got married!  But they all died, the last one 17 years ago, wasn't it?  How could they be here now?

And just in front of her ... her mother had once told her they were her great-great grandparents from the old country!  They look a little smudged.  How in the world could they be here in this crowd?  They look  like they might be awfully warm in those heavy clothes.  Her first impressions of them hadn't changed ~ he still looked friendly; she still looked strict!

What's going on? she wondered.

See those two women over there?  One is a cousin to her, the other just an acquaintance.  The two young women are best friends, so close you'd think they were sisters.  They have their arms wrapped around each
other.  They once vied for the attentions of a young man, but she doesn't see him in the crowd.  Did either of them marry that man? 

She looked at the two women more closely.  Why does her cousin's friend have that scar across her face?  Her friend didn't have that before ...at least, it looks like a scar.

Some of them had names, some didn't.  She was one who didn't.  Some were in groups of full families, while others just one or several people. 

Some were dressed in their Sunday best; others in worn and ragged clothing used for working.  The styles of dress of the children was as mixed as the adults they co-mingled with.  The old, old gowns of some of  the women ... how could this be?  How could these people who had already passed on be here with all these younger people today?  What kind of a reunion is this?

Whooshhhh!  She felt the cool air waft around her.  It wasn't as crowded anymore; the dust was still in the air but it wasn't as choking.

Where'd everyone go?  She felt as though she was being looked at. 

"This one doesn't have a name, either."

Whooshhh!  Back into the crowd again!

This is crazy!

Wait!  Who is that?  That woman who is standing with her hand on the man's shoulder as he sits?  Who IS that??? 

Her sister!  It's her sister!

It can't be.  She died when a horse pulling a wagon ran over her 9 years ago!  What a beautiful woman she was before she died.  But she and her husband look so faded now...

There wasn't a mirror to look in, but she knew the dress she was wearing wasn't the one she had on earlier today.  As a matter of fact, she hadn't worn this dress since she was 18!

Dateline 2002: Antique Store, Any City, Any Country

"These old pictures, just look at all of them ~ tintypes, sepia-tones ~ all kinds!  They sure are dusty!  Some of them are in pretty bad shape, too."

"I know, it's such a pity that a lot of them don't have names.  They're from quite a few old estates.  We just took all the pictures and stuck them in that box to get them out of the way.  It's rare that anyone looks at them, but we have an occasional customer who looks through them.  If we get too many more pictures though, we'll probably have to throw these out to make more room.  We'll get rid of those unmarked ones first."

FINIS - And so it goes, a dusty box of old pictures sits in yet another out of the way place in one of the world's antique shops (or maybe even a flea market or garage sale).  Some of the photographs may be marked with names, dates, places, and/or relationships; many aren't.  Certainly, all of the people in the box had life stories, most of which will never be known to future generations.  If you haven't figured it out yet, "she" was one of the unmarked pictures in the box ~ one of the lost souls. 

I wonder how many of us will become one of the lost souls in yet another dusty box of unmarked, unwanted, uncared-for photographic treasures. How many of our descendants will end up saying, "I haven't the slightest idea who s/he is but s/he sure looks familiar!"  Is that really what you want, gentle reader?  Are your pictures labeled?  Will your grandparents, parents, sister, even YOU be known to your descendants 3-4 generations from now?

Obviously this was a work of fictional fantasy, for we KNOW that souls aren't really attached to pictures ...are they?

It's family ... and that's what we're all about."

PAF VIEWER for your handheld submitted by Pat Richley DearMYRTLE@aol.com  
After much discussion about the hiding of its location, let me assure members of our society (Ed Gaulin and Dorinne Campbell in particular) that the Personal Ancestral File folks STILL provide a PAF VIEWER for your Palm Pilots. You still download it for free from www.familysearch.org for free. Here's how:

  1. Go to www.familysearch.org

  2. Click on ORDER/DOWNLOAD PRODUCTS

  3. Select SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS - FREE

  4. Select PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE, and click PROCEED

  5. Click CONTINUE to indicate license agreement.

  6. Fill out the registration form and click SEND.

  7. You'll then be taken to the PAF DOWNLOAD SCREEN. (On 4 April 2002, they were up to version PAF 5.1.12.).

  8. SCROLL down the page past:
    PAF 5+ in one language
    PAF Add a language
    OTHER OPTIONS lessons, international font
    ALL IN ONE DOWNLOAD

  9. Click on the option ALSO AVAILABLE: PAF data viewer for Palm handhelds. or Click Here (Size: 52 KB)

To prepare your PAF (Personal Ancestral File) 5+ database for export to your handheld:

Notice that once you click at option A, you will not have all of option B items available. Most notably this removes the options to include sources, multimedia links, contact information, names on living individual and submitter info. From this point, we pick up the HELP suggestions from PAF 5.1.12.0 to continue with your export:

Of particular importance is the following notation about editing when using PAF VIEW:

"Personal Ancestral File for Palm OS Handhelds software is a data viewer only. You cannot add, edit, or delete the data on your Palm and then use it to update your .paf file on your computer. You can, however, take notes on your Palm. The next time you HotSync with your computer, use the notes to update your .paf file. You can then create a new file for your handheld."

System requirements

To use Personal Ancestral File for Palm OS Handhelds, you need the following equipment:

Radios in use 1930 from Heritage Quest Magazine Online by Magazine Executive Editor, Leland K. Meitzler. Uncover the interesting history of the radio in Leland’s latest article.  http://www.heritagequest.com/magonline/html/l_020402.html  

"With the release of the 1930 census, many of us are finding all kinds of new information about our families. One of the questions in 1930 asked who owned radios. It turns out that about 12 million homes had radio sets in 1930..." [Read more about the history of broadcasting, etc. in the full article.]

1930 Census Extraction form from Ancestry.com. You'll find a concise 1 page version easy to print out by going to Ancestry's Charts & Forms where you'll also find:

Although we typically use our computers to create the items I've highlighted with a ** (double asterisk), you might enjoy them as an alternative when sending out a letter of request to distant family members.

Ancestry's Latest Databases  from Ancestry.com. Directly from their front page.

If you'd like to receive a free e-mail each weekday, with helpful articles, and notices of newly added databases, go to the Ancestry.com. Remember there many of the newest databases are free for ten days, before they are filed in the "PAY PER VIEW" areas requiring quarterly or annual fees. 

Recent Releases/Updates:
·

1930 US Federal Census images (Delaware, Utah)
·

1920 US Federal Census index with links to images 
(Massachusetts, Louisiana, Wisconsin)
·

1860 US Federal Census index with links to images 
(Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Dist of Columbia, Florida)
· Hastings West District Ontario 1901 census: Belleville
· North Carolina Wills and Inventories
· New York Times, (New York, New York), 1881-1882
· Cheshire, England: Parish and Probate Records

Historical Newspaper Archives  from www.ancestry.com 

They've done it again! Another fantastic database collection is coming online at Ancestry! "See how your ancestors lived! READ actual pages from the New York Times and other papers dating back to 1851. VIEW over 150,000 pages. Thousands more added daily. SEE old ads, obituaries, articles, comics, etc. SEARCH by name, date, newspaper or region.

You can view samples online without subscribing by going to: http://www.ancestry.com/landing/historicnewspapers/newstoyou.htm before making the decision to join. Current Ancestry.com database subscribers can upgrade for $29per year, new subscribers can join for $69 per year.

Making a Book - submitted by Pat Richley DearMYRTLE@aol.com  A new friend is going to publish a family history book based on the data, documents and photos his parents collected over the years. He asked which of the many genealogy software packages to use for data entry. I recommend PAF. He had been given an earlier edition of Family Tree Maker, and liked it's book creating capabilities.

I still recommend using PAF for data entry. Its free, and it works. However, I know Barb swears by FTM.

Earlier versions of Family Tree Maker were notorious for not taking everything on an individual when creating a backup. I found this out by sad experience when trying to move files from an old computer to a new computer for a Perico Island resident, a well-loved volunteer at our local Family History Center. We actually called tech support which acknowledged the problem. I admire the newer versions of Family Tree Maker for its improvements. 

I like the variety of book printing options built in to all of the main stream genealogy database programs. (See Cyndi's List - Software:  www.cyndislist.com/software.htm ) BUT MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK PRINTING SOFTWARE is:

Output is to MSWord or WordPerfect. From there, you can add more photos, biographical sketches, etc. then use the word-processing software to generate the table of contents and the index you specified in GENBOOK. Ink up your printer, and fire away! You'll have a first rate copy for printing. If you wish to save the file to a CD, you can take it to a printer with higher quality laser printer. They all have computers that can read Word and WordPerfect files. Kinkos comes to mind here.

Be sure to visit Rex's site to see sample printouts! -- You'll want to order GEDBOOK, rather than GENBOOK, so it will work with your PAF 5+ GEDCOM file.

Our Video Library This article is for Barbara W. WE forgot to tell her about the Manasota PAF Users Group's lending library of video tapes --  available only to members of the Manasota PAF Users Group. Basically you "check it out one month, and bring it back the next month". You may want to order your own copies from the websites indicated. We show excerpts from videos at each meeting, providing expert advice from nationally-ranked genealogy specialists. Because we've put our newsletter online, we have money on hand to purchase these great tutorials!

What's the Difference?  Manasota Genealogical Society and the Manasota PAF Users Group submitted by Pat Richley DearMYRTLE@aol.com  

A friend from Sarasota approached me at the Manasota Genealogical Society on Wednesday, and asked if her membership in the Manasota PAF Users Group covered both societies. I KNOW its a bit confusing, because this year I've done a lot of work at meetings of both societies. However, they are two distinct organizations. It just happens that many of the MGS folks also love coming to PAF meetings! 

The Manasota Genealogical Society, Inc (MGS) is a non-profit group that began meeting in Bradenton, Florida in 1974. In 1977 they went for the incorporation and non-profit status. At that same time, a group of the society's members living in Sarasota County decided to break into their own group, forming the Genealogical Society of Sarasota. Both societies have flourished over the years. The Manasota Genealogical Society:

The Manasota Genealogical Society typically meets the first Wednesday of the months October through May in the Auditorium at the Manatee Central Library in Bradenton Florida from 10-noon. After lunch, members may come to the workshop, which begins at 1:30 and runs for an hour or so. The MGS publishes a newsletter four times a year, sponsors educational workshops and seminars. Their web site is www.rootsweb.com/~flmgs/ There is also a genealogy mail list for the group known as FLManasotaGen.  The subscription is free:

LIST MODE: (individual messages)
Send the word "subscribe" (without quotes) via e-mail to: FL-MANASOTAGEN-L-request@rootsweb.com.

DIGEST MODE: (periodic consolidated messages)
Send the word "subscribe" (without quotes) via e-mail to: FL-MANASOTAGEN-D-request@rootsweb.com.

The Manasota PAF Users Group, Inc. (PAF) began in the winter of 1993, with the encouragement of our beloved Elsie Naylor. At the time I was out in Utah for eight months, so I missed the beginning PAF lessons taught by Phil Harris from Apollo Beach.  I didn't begin teaching the classes until the next year when Phil and his wife went on a LDS Church Family History Mission to England. They worked 2 years on a project piecing together the remaining military records damaged by water from the fires of the bombing of London during WWII.

The Manasota PAF Users Group meets the first Saturday of the months October through June from 9:15-11:30am at the Manatee County Library on 26th Street in Bradenton. We typically devote about 30% of our time on genealogy software (not just PAF), 30% of our time on basic research strategies, and 30% of our time on internet research. I like to say the rest is a general "free-for all" which really means that we do a lot of sharing back and forth. The session is quite open, with lots of questions and answers coming from all corners of the room.

The Manasota PAF User's Group decided to try publishing its newsletter on the web, in order to bring down costs. We found it also makes it easier for snowbird members to keep up with the new technology. We decided to print up a few copies each month, for guests. And GUESTS is the new angle we hadn't anticipated. We typically have 2 or 3 guests that are in the area during a vacation that coincides with our meetings. Responses to our web presentation have been marvelous, with folks from Australia, Scotland and England reporting that they use our publication for their meeting syllabus just as we do. Owing to management and financial changes at xoom.com after it was purchased by nbci.com, our web site has been moved to: www.DearMYRTLE.com/PAF 

I can only imagine our new genealogy friend's confusion is because she has seen Barbara Schulz and others working quite actively in both societies. For the past year, Barb has served as VP of the Manasota Genealogical Society, and Treasurer of the Manasota PAF Users Group. I have served as the President of the Manasota Genealogical Society and the instructor at Manasota PAF Users Group during this same time period. Think of it this way -- the first week of the month there are a LOT of genealogy discussions going on!

Upcoming Events  

1 May 2002 - Manasota Genealogical Society, 10am-Noon, Manatee Central Library, Bradenton, FL.
4 May 2002 - Manasota PAF Users Group, 9:30am to 11:15am, 26th Street library in Bradenton, FL.

Final Word  from Orson Wells: "In Italy for 30 years under the Bourgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, blood shed -- they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!"