MVGS March Monthly Meeting
Dr. Tom Jones emphasized that most of us want to prepare family histories that future generations will cherish. Not all succeed. Many genealogies contain only “harvested” information, which our descendants will be able to obtain themselves (perhaps more easily than we can today). Some of that information likely is wrong. We begin to create worthwhile and accurate family histories by collecting and sharing family stories and DNA test results—information that might soon disappear. If we pay attention to four factors: biography, accuracy, documentation, and explanation—our history will be irreplaceable.
Dr Jones has been pursuing his ancestry since 1963. For the first twenty-five years he was clueless about what he was trying to accomplish and how to do it. When he started climbing the genealogy learning curve he repeatedly experienced the challenges, joys, and rewards of reliably tracing his ancestors and fully understanding their lives. He eventually became an award-winning writer, a Board-certified genealogist, and editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly which he has co-edited for the past 15 years.
He is the author of two textbooks: Mastering Genealogical Proof andMastering Genealogical Documentation. He is a professor emeritus at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
MVGS 3rd Annual Lock-In
Twas the day before the lock-in and all through the Hall (Hollin that is), MVGS planners and helpers were setting up rooms for the third year. They set up room 112, 216 and 217 for classes, 218 as the giveaway info room, and of course the Research Center would be open. As the tables and chairs were being arranged the afternoon before, planners were conscious of the fact that outside a March Nor’easter was blowing yesterday and today. Trees were being toppled onto power lines and homes; lights were going on and off throughout the community.
The planners had registered 42 MVGS members and three non-members, set up an email system to notify everyone if there was inclement weather; but if the lights were out email would definitely be “snail mail;” and of course classroom projectors and computers would be inoperable—bummer. Hollin Hall had agreed to give us a key to open the facility. Their staff was home this Saturday and we would be on our own. What to do?
It was decided that one of us would visit Hollin Hall before sunrise on 3 March to see if the parking lot lights were on. If they were on, the building should have power, and we could proceed with the meeting. Glory Days—the landscape lights were on so let’s get on with the show.
The doors opened at 830AM Saturday morning and we ended up with 38 of the registered attendees and six walk-ins for a total of 44. Not bad even with the wind still blowing outside. The day progressed pretty much as planned with everyone attending four of the 12 class options. We did have one of the instructors stuck in Key West and unable to return in time because of the storm and airline cancellations.
CONGRATULATIONS
MVGS Mouse Pad Rhonda Trent
Ancestry Bag Trish Green
Ancestry Bag Brenda Knitter
MVGS 1yr Membership Janell Blue
Ancestry Bag Craig Wolf
1 Month Ancestry.com Lisa Coyle
Family Tree Maker Gill Siegert
Family Tree Maker John Cross
Newspapers.com 1yr Janet Kowall
Fold3 1yr Subscription Clare Coulter
Ancestry Bag Rita Phelps
Ancestry Bag Susan Skypeck |
Lunch time found everyone in room 112 eating their sack lunch and discussing their personal ancestry trials, tribulations and successes. After lunch, tickets were drawn and door prizes were awarded totaling over $350 dollars. The lucky winners are shown left.
The rest of the day proceeded with attendees going to two remaining sessions and the day wrapping up around 315PM.
Everyone had a good time and also hopefully learned something. The day consisted of three tracks; Beginner, Technical and Research with 12 differing sessions; everyone having a choice of attending four of the hour-long briefings.
The end of the day found the planners and helpers rearranging all the rooms the way they found them, putting tables and chairs away and returning the Hollin Hall keys.
Thanks to everyone who braved the receding winds to attend, and all those who participated in the planning and setting-up of this event.
Inclement Weather
It's that time again when Mother Nature gets excited and decides to disrupt us humans. Did you realize our February monthly meetings for 2015 and 2016 were cancelled because of bad weather?
Let's presume you are scheduled for a SIG group meeting or a census training session today at Hollin Hall, and when you get up it is snowing. Do you get dressed and prepare for the class or stay home and miss the class?
The answer is fairly simple – check the status of the Fairfax County Government. If the Government is closed or delayed, all "scheduled" activities (that's MVGS and your SIG class) will NOT meet. Hollin Hall will be CLOSED.
I gave you the simplistic answer, but if you want to read the Hollin Hall inclement weather policy just click
HERE.
If you are not sure, call the Senior Center at 703-765-4573 to verify closing information.
We sure found out that March can came in like a LION...
Library Catalog Now Online!
The Mount Vernon Genealogical Society library catalog has now been ported to the website as a fully functional interactive on-line application. The cataloging system software in the Research Center was no longer supported by the developer.
You now have access to all the information in our library holdings from anywhere you have internet connectivity. A number of features, not found in the index system previously online, are now available to members and the public. Searches by “Subject”, “Location” and “Media Type” can now be made on almost 2800 holdings in the library. Further searches can then be done on “Title”, “Author” and “Call Number”. Once the desired list of records is found they can be “printed” to a PDF document by clicking on the “PDF List” icon. Additionally, each record can be viewed and printed by clicking on the “eye” icon. Clicking on the “Broom” icon will clear the information in the selection or search box. In addition to searching the database for individual records by "Call Number", "Title", and "Author", the entire database or any filtered selections can be sorted by "Call Number", "Title", or "Author" by clicking on the word at the top of each column.
Clicking on the “View Categories” icon provides another method of search for desired material. Categories of holdings can also be filtered by “Subject”, “Location”, and “Media Type”
The library catalog will always be current now because library accessions are available for viewing as soon as they are put into the online system. Previously the indexes were only updated periodically.
This additional Society benefit would never have been possible without the hard work of volunteers who planned and executed the library database conversion; thank you Jeanne Wilson, Anne Barber, and Gerry Ward.
You can find the library catalog HERE.
