2016 Meetings
  • 27 January 2016 - Cue Navadeh is the owner of ABC Photo in the Pine Tree Shoppes, Wexford. His expertise is in restoring and preserving photographs of all types. He shared tips for restoring and preserving photographs, and pointed out clues in photos that can offer an approximate date or location where the photo was taken.
  • 24 February 2016 - The new Indexing Director at the Family History Center, Stephanie Kean, offered an indexing class. She showed us how to index the massive and constantly growing genealogical data that FamilySearch adds to their collection on a daily basis.
    What is indexing? Here's an explanation from Stephanie:
    Indexing: Taking the information from photographed images and putting the important data onto a form that can be accessed online by anyone seeking genealogical information. Volunteers are needed to extract the information from these images and put them into the general information pool.
    Since 1894, historical documents have been recorded by photography, microfilm, and computer imaging, to preserve the information on them. However, they are still time consuming to use and locate. Indexing puts the important, usable data onto a form that is easy to access and read. This includes things like census records, church baptism and marriage records, birth and death records, all from different sources. There are millions of records that need to be indexed. It is not difficult, and the time involved is up to the indexer, once a week or everyday, one batch or many. It is completely controlled by the person doing it.
  • 23 March 2016 - Billie Gailey, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), North Hills Chapter, presented. Do you believe that your ancestor assisted or served in the American Revolution? Come find out what is required for membership in the DAR.
  • 30 April 2016 - Sue Ennis presented Ancestry Library Edition. The presentation was followed by hands-on work using Cranberry Library computers to access Ancestry Library. We had a limited number of computers (12) available.
    Ancestry Library Edition was in two parts - beginning at 9 AM, in the Franklin Station Meeting Room, Sue Ennis presented an overview of the Library Edition. Then, at 10 AM, when the library opened, we moved to the library's public computers. There are 12 computers, so if we share, we can accommodate 24 at this workshop. It will also be open to the public, so you'll want to register as soon as I have the link and send it to you. However, if you wish to stay only for the first hour - that's OK, too.
  • 25 May 2016 - Our presenter was Elissa Scalise Powell, Certified Genealogist. She presented "Rubik's Cube Genealogy - A New Twist on Your Old Data." We all accumulate family data, and perhaps organize it into pedigree charts and family group sheets. By looking at the data differently and giving it a new "twist," we can see new patterns emerge.
  • 22 June 2016 - In lieu of a regular meeting, our members are invited to attend one of the free evening lectures at the GRIP Conference. Evening Lectures begin at 7 PM and are held at the La Roche College campus. They are open to the public. The sessions are outlined below:
    • Monday, June 27 - Lisa Arnold of Ancestry.com, a 10th generation Quaker, sponsored by the North Hills Genealogists.  Quakers and their Records - The early Quakers (1680-1880) had a unique way of speaking, of dressing, of doing business. If you get a hint from the Ancestry search engine telling you that a name in your tree matches one from the Quaker Collection on Ancestry.com, you may find yourself wondering a few things which will be addressed in this lecture, like:
  1. Who were the Quakers and where did they come from?
  2. Are they the same as Pennsylvania Dutch or the Puritans or maybe the Amish?
  3. Why did they use numbers for of days of the week and the month?
  4. Why were they called Quakers? Is that the official name?
    • Tuesday, June 28 - Marian Smith, sponsored by Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society.
    • Thursday, June 30 - F. Warren Bittner, CG, sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society (MAGS) Understanding Illegitimacy: The Bittner Bastards of Bavaria - it happened more than you think! See new light on nineteenth-century morality. Follow a couple with three children born during a ten-year wait for marriage. You'll be amazed to learn what happened.
  • 27 July 2016 - In lieu of a regular meeting, our members are invited to attend one of the free evening lectures at the GRIP Conference. Evening Lectures begin at 7 PM,  and are held at the La Roche College campus. They are open to the public. The sessions are outlined below:
    • Monday, July 18 - Diane Gravel, CG, sponsored by Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. "Justice of the Peace: Miscellany, Mischief, Marriages, and More!" This lecture introduces a variety of records created by these local judicial / administrative officials. Learn techniques for identifying the justices and locating extant records using online resources.
    • Tuesday, July 19 - Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG sponsored by the North Hills Genealogists. "Can a Complex Research Problem Be Solved Solely Online?" Step by step, attendees will suggest online sources and research strategies for tracing an ancestor who seems to disappear and reappear. The interactive case study will show both how such cases can be solved online and the limits of material online today.
    • Thursday, July 21 - Michael Hait, CG, sponsored by the Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research.”Finding and Using Online Legal Resources” Every aspect of our ancestors’ lives–and most of the records we use to discover their lives–were either directly affected or indirectly influenced by the laws in effect at the time. This presentation will show how to locate historical laws online to learn more about the world in which our ancestors lived and better understand the records we use. 
  • 24 August, 2016 - What I Learned at Summer Genealogy Camp, presented by Rich Watson and Debbie Billeter.  Come and hear a two-part presentation on what Rich and Debbie learned at the GRIP July conference.  Rich took Intermediate Genealogy and Debbie took Practical Genetic Genealogy.  A link to one of the handouts is below...
  • Link to Debbie's Summer Genealogy Camp handout
  • 28 September, 2016 - Rich Venezia presented “Discovering Your Immigrant’s Origins: Exhausting Every Resource."  Pin down your elusive immigrant ancestor’s place of origin using a few well-known – and many lesser-known – record sets, ideas, and techniques
  • 26 October, 2016 - Amy Arner presented “Research in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.”  Amy is a former member of CGC and is the co-chairperson for the North Hills Genealogists Fall Conference, among many other tasks she performs as a member of their board.  Come and say hello to Amy and hear an excellent presentation on how to make the best use of your time when visiting the various city and county archival resources downtown.