1 Meeting Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. May Only Meeting Place: Donner Room of the Event Center Welcome to Our New Members Pat Best Mary C. Dahl Jan Dietrich Jackie Graham Janey King Mary Jane Koller Diane Smith Steven Tirrell Wendy Watling Richard and Kathleen Williams 2015/16 MDGS BOARD MEMBERS President Stan Wells Rec Secretary Shirla Klenk Treasurer John Gilbert Directors Bob Wolf Margaret Ready Program Chair Mary Ellis Publicity Chair Susan Rush Membership Chair Nickie Allen Newsletter Bob Wolf May/June 2016 For questions or information about MDGS, please contact Stan Wells at [email protected].
Transcript
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Meeting Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
May Only Meeting Place:
Donner Room of the Event Center
Welcome to Our New Members
Pat Best
Mary C. Dahl
Jan Dietrich
Jackie Graham
Janey King
Mary Jane Koller
Diane Smith
Steven Tirrell
Wendy Watling
Richard and Kathleen Williams
2015/16
MDGS BOARD MEMBERS
President Stan Wells
Rec Secretary
Shirla Klenk
Treasurer John Gilbert
Directors Bob Wolf
Margaret Ready
Program Chair Mary Ellis
Publicity Chair
Susan Rush
Membership Chair Nickie Allen
Newsletter Bob Wolf
May/June 2016
For questions or information about MDGS, please contact
This will be my last message as president. A new president will be in office by the time the next DIGGER is published.
At this May 20th meeting we will be accepting nominations for officers and board members and in our June general meeting we will have elections.
I am pleased to report that the society has reached the high level of 115 members as of this month and that the attendance at our meeting has topped out at 70 in April. As those of you that were at that meeting know, we are overflowing our room capacity so we will be making arrangements for a larger space in the near future.
It has been very gratifying to see the expanded interest in genealogy and the benefits to genealogical research that you feel you are gaining by participation in the society. Our growth has occurred by virtue of the contributions of the dedicated board and committee members that have planned, organized and conducted our meetings and workshops. I wish to thank them all for their support and devoted effort in making these past four years of progress possible.
The interest, appeal and fascination of searching ones ancestors continues to expand and I know that the Mt. Diablo Genealogical Society will be prepared to provide assistance, support and insight for its members research,
Thank you so much for your support.
Stan Wells
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The Mt. Diablo Genealogy Society web site is up and running. It can be found at http://mdgs.webs.com/. We urge you to visit it often and see what there is to learn on it. Sign up to access the members-only pages. Also, MDGS now has a Facebook page, which can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/mdgensoc/. Check it out and click LIKE.
There is a plethora of shows currently appearing on TV or scheduled to begin soon. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Season 3 has ended, but you can watch all ten episodes from season three, as well as the episodes from seasons one and two on the show’s website at: http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/episodes/ Long Lost Family season has ended. Who Do You Think You Are Season 8 just concluded (May 1). There have been no announcements about a subsequent season. Genealogy Roadshow has announced its Season 3 premiere, which airs on PBS Tuesday, May 17 from Albequerque. In its episodes it will visit Boston, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and more.
In addition to a different location for the May meeting (see pg. 1 of the Digger), there will be a departure from the society’s usual format. In place of a speaker, a panel of seasoned local genealogists will present “Now What? Answers to Your Genealogy Questions.” When family researchers gather, tales abound with struggles such as the difficulty in tracing female ancestors, the inability to find origins of a family’s immigration, the puzzle of a family member’s apparent disappearance, or how to access the service record of an ancestor in the Civil War. A panel drawn from the membership and led by President Stan Wells will share insights and techniques as they respond to challenging questions posed by meeting attendees.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Speaker Mini Speaker
June17, 2016:
Cath Madden Trindle, Websites for Irish
Research
Mary Ellis – Finding Living Relatives on the
Internet
July15, 2016
Gena Ortega – Genealogy Roadshow
To Be Announced
August 2016 – No Meeting
September16, 2016
Pamela Dallas - “Help the Courthouse Burned!
Now I Can’t Research My Family.”
To Be Announced
October 21, 2016
Shelia Wells – Researching Mortuary Records
To Be Announced
November 18, 2016
Katherine Borges - DNA Results
To Be Announced
December 16, 2016
Holiday Dessert
No Mini Speaker
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2016 Membership Application Your membership runs from January through December. Please Print Clearly
Total amount paid ..................................................................................................... $ ____________
Dues entitle you to attend monthly MDGS meetings and to receive The Digger newsletter. Please attach your payment and send to Mt. Diablo Genealogical Society, 1001 Golden Rain Road, Walnut Creek, CA 94595, or you can drop off applications at the Rossmoor Administration Bldg., or bring with you to the monthly meeting.
***************************************************************************************************************** MEMBER INFORMATION
MDGS has my permission to publish my name, contact info and surnames/locations I’m researching in The Digger and in the MDGS member directory on our website. [ ] YES [ ] NO
Would you be interested in participating in a “Hands On” workshop to learn new ways to organize your research online? [ ] YES
Would you be interested in “One on One” clinics to help with brick walls or problems? [ ] YES
***************************************************************************************************************** Would you be interested in serving or volunteering? [ ] YES
The organization is separated into committees so that administration activities can be divided over a larger portion of the membership.
We need your participation in the following committees. The idea is to break-down the committee’s activities into small tasks that will not put a heavy chore on any single individual.
Please signify that you are willing to lend a hand in a small way to keep the Society working for all. Add your name alongside one or more of the following committees that you are willing to support.
I am sure Income Tax Day is still fresh in most of our minds. However, let us keep some kind thoughts for taxes and assessments. They can be a boon to our genealogical research.
The income tax is only one of a number of taxes that have been imposed by the US government. Other taxes include inheritance taxes, operating licenses on businesses ranging from eating houses and bowling alleys to bankers, auctioneers, pawnbrokers, brewers, and jugglers. Stamp duties have been paid on legal documents and a variety of products, including medicines, playing cards, alcoholic beverages, and cosmetics.
Taxes have been in existence since ancient times. Most commonly they include property taxes and head taxes (like the ones paid by Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem). Other taxes levied in colonial days include a tax on tea and the Stamp Act.
In early American history taxes were usually assessed by the colony or state, but collected at the local (town) level. Often copies of tax records were forwarded to counties. Sometimes tax rolls can be found in state or regional archives. Tax lists are occasionally abstracted in periodicals, and can be found by using PERSI (PERiodical Source Index). Sometimes these lists can be found in the online Family History Library Catalog.
In July 1862, the US Congress enacted the first American income tax to help defray the cost of the Civil War. After the Supreme Court in 1895 ruled that the tax was unconstitutional, it was eliminated. As a consequence, all income tax returns were destroyed, but the tax assessors’ lists were retained. Income taxes were re-introduced by the sixteenth amendment in February 1913.
Ancestry.com has made available a new database: U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918. The database contains information from forty states. Most of these include only the years 1862-1866, but a few (such as Colorado and New Mexico) cover dates as recent as 1918. The information is listed by assessment district.
References:
“The Taxman Cometh” by Patricia Law Hatcher from the Ancestry Magazine July, August 2003 issue.
”Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years” by Cynthia G. Fox from the National Archives Prologue magazine, winter, 1986 issue.
“Using Ancestry: IRS Tax Assessment Records” by Juliana Smith from Ancestry Weekly Journal, 14 April 2008 issue.
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From GenealogyInTime Magazine April, 2016 issue
Mocavo Website Shuts Down
The Mocavo website has shut down. Mocavo was an ancestral search engine. It was backed by a firm based in Boulder Colorado. They launched with great
fanfare in March 2011.
Mocavo started out as a free search engine. Their original platform found free
genealogy records available on the internet. By the end of 2011, however, they began the switch to a subscription model. Apparently, the increase in
subscription revenue was not enough to sustain the company. In May 2012 (just 14 months after launch) they received $4.1million in venture capital money to
help expand their operations.
Mocavo used some of the funds to buy a small scanning company. They started
scanning and putting online some unique records. In particular, they started putting online US high school yearbooks at a time when there were not many
available on the internet. They also expanded to a full subscription model at around the same time.
Although Mocavo had some initial success, they were never able to gain the
traction needed for a company funded by venture capital. In particular, their rankings over the years in the Top 100 Genealogy List showed that they were
never able to break into the top ten (the Mocavo rankings were 2012 #45 | 2013 #25 | 2014 #28 | 2015 #20 | 2016 #32).
Mocavo was eventually purchased by FindMyPast in June 2014. Presumably they were interested in Mocavo’s search technology. FindMyPast has now decided to
fold Mocavo into the FindMyPast website. This is a common approach in the genealogy industry when a large company buys out a smaller competitor.
Eventually they tend to shut them down. Here is the official announcement.
We always viewed Mocavo as a bit long on promise and a bit short on delivery.
When they launched in March 2011 they also claimed to be the first large scale ancestral search engine on the internet. That was not quite true. For example,
we had launched our own Genealogy Search Engine in January 2011, about two months prior to Mocavo. What they had done is launch a website with some
unique search technology, which has now been folded into FindMyPast.
From Genealogy Insider by Diane Haddad (Wed. May 11)
Looking for early immigrants to America, before passenger lists were required in 1820? Try these resources:
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s: This index by
P. William Filby and Mary K. Meyer compiles information from a variety of records. It's in print at many libraries and searchable
on Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.comand through HeritageQuest Online (available at many libraries).
Early passenger lists: A few early lists exist. For example, Philadelphia
passenger lists from 1729 through 1808 (with a break during the
American Revolution) are transcribed in Pennsylvania German Pioneers by Ralph B. Strassburger and William J. Hinke, and the National Archives has
microfilm of some early lists for New Orleans and Philadelphia lists.
Land records: The colonies of Virginia and Maryland made land grands to those who sponsored immigrants. The patent or headright would name
those transported.
Naturalization records: In the Colonies, non-English immigrants had to
swear oaths of allegiance as part of the citizenship process. The US passed its first naturalization act in 1790. These records have sparse information
but may include the date, ship name and port of departure.
Newspapers: Articles might announce new arrivals or carry notices of those seeking missing immigrants. Using a digital newspaper site such
as Chronicling America, Newspapers.com or GenealogyBank can save you hours of scrolling.
Donner Room of the Event Center Panel of Experts Program: “Question & Answer”
Friday, June 17, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Creekside Clubhouse, Rossmoor Speaker: Cath Madden Trindle Program: Websites for Irish Research Lunch with our Speaker
Each month (except August and December), members and guests are invited to attend lunch with that month’s speaker, held at 12:30 a.m. at the Creekside Grill. Lunch reservations need to be made by the Thursday before the meeting. Contact Susan Rush at 925-674-0929 or e-mail her at [email protected].
