Weekly Bulletin - April 9, 2015 Meeting

Posted by Richard Garcia 
on Apr 17, 2015
 
Donna McCullen was welcomed into membership in our Club by Ron Bott and Mary Garcia
 
 
Guests
  • Marnie Oaks
  • Donna McCullen
  • Rebecca YoungJones
 
Announcements
  • On April 15 we’re having the Council on Aging Opening Day cookout, at 1:30, at the Stow Town Hall. This is also Jackie Robinson Day. One difficulty yet to be overcome: The game is in the MLB channel, which may not be available.
  • Due to the Reality Fair next Friday, there will be no meeting next week; the next meeting will be April 23 at Nancy’s Airfield Café.
  • Reality Fair: lots of volunteers are still needed for Friday’s event. We’ll also need people at 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening for setup.
  • April 30 is the Best of Times Wine Tasting event, sponsored by the Acton-Boxborough club at the Holiday Inn Boxborough. Our club receives revenue by selling tickets to the event.
  • Board meeting:
    • $200 was given to the After Prom party at Nashoba High School.
    • Heard a report from RFK school: June 22 will be the opening of the school’s ropes course.
    • We now have three proposals for our next Global Grant. These will be described at next club assembly, in May.
  • The Interact Club at Nashoba Regional High School has elected officers. Their application now goes to Rotary International, and the charter will probably be issued in May.
  • The District Training Assembly will be held April 25 at the Marlborough Holiday Inn. All current or potential club officers are encouraged to attend. The club will pay the $10 fee to attend.
  • The District Conference will be held May 15-17 at the Marlborough Holiday Inn. You can register at rotary7910.org.
  • Gabriel, the Gift of Life child, is doing well; the fluid is removed from around his heart and the problem seems to be resolved.
  • We Are One Project: The re-fitters in the Dominican Republic are close to completion of the mobile dental lab vehicle.
  • The next Repair Café is scheduled for May 30 at First Parish in Bolton.
  • Power of Change Event: A documentary about the event is being edited for use by town cable channels. Thanks go to Dan, Nancy, and Karin.
  • Wings & Wheels: Sponsors are needed by May 15; levels of sponsorship are $100, $300, and $500. Top level sponsors get banners to be placed at the airport; all sponsors will be on Facebook and on the Wings & Wheels website.
 
New member
  • Donna McCullen was welcomed into membership. She is branch manager at Workers’ Credit Union in Lancaster, and has been a great supporter of Purple Pinkie Day.
 
Happy/sad fines
  • Carl: is happy to be back from Africa.
  • Ron: is happy about Nashoba High School’s Interact club.
  • Mary: is glad to welcome Donna into membership, and happy for all the love received in regard to the house.
  • Fatima: is happy for her new office in Marlboro; and for her second immigration clinic, which featured pro bono lawyers.
  • Jim: looked at an apartment, which was not good, but he was glad to have seen it and will stay in his house.
  • Mary Ann: is back from Florida
  • Laura: her son got into college in Santa Barbara, with a 3.2 average. She’s back from Ohio, and her sister is back from Malawi.
  • Rebecca: is interested in joining our club. She’s happy that she had a good day at work, and that the Red Sox won.
  • Bob: is happy for our new member; also that he gave blood yesterday, and made a plug for giving blood.
  • Ray: his father-in-law is turning 90 and he’s looking forward to turning 70.
  • Richard: is glad to welcome Donna as a new member; glad that Gabriel is doing so well; and that that Carl got back from Africa in one piece.
  • Don: is glad that our speaker, Marnie, can be here, who gave him a used tennis ball (a perfectly sized cover for an airplane instrument); also he has cataract surgery next Tuesday.
 
Speaker
 
Marnie Oaks spoke to us about filling in a family tree.
  • She began by giving out a six-generation pedigree chart. To fill it in, ask family members what they know. Anecdotes are useful for filling in information; then begin to gather supporting documents. You may have to send away for them, and maybe to prove your relationship. There are books in Dropbox.com; there’s also a lot of genealogy software.
  • If you add a record to a database, be sure you have the right person. It’s easy to think that you have the right one, but the same or similar name can be misleading.
  • Be ready for what you might find. There are skeletons in any family!
  • Watch for conflicting dates and ages. This may be faulty record keeping, but more likely they point to someone else if the dates don’t match.
  • Do your own research; don’t copy someone else’s family tree. Treat other family members’ work as hints only.
  • Document your sources. If you find something that doesn’t mesh, you can’t trace the error if you can’t find your source.
  • Use a research log.
  • Familysearch.org has a free database, maintained by the Latter Day Saints (Mormons); rootsweb.com  is another free database; the public library in Stow has an ancestry library available; Heritage Quest (heritagequestonline.com) also has an index to records available on CD ROM plus magazines, books and software. There are over 5,000 Facebook pages that deal with genealogy. It’s also possible to use databases at the Boston Public Library. And if your family came to America through Ellis Island, check out ellisisland.org.
  • DNA testing won’t tell exactly who your ancestors are, but will tell you the percentages of your ancestry.
  • Use every possibility of names; guess, if necessary, what it might have been.
  • Records before the 1400s are poor.