Lydia O’Connor
The May meeting of the SaddleBrooke Genealogy Club was conducted by Pat Rourke-Spencer. She read a thank you from our president of two years, Kerry Wolfe, thanking everyone for their hard work throughout her tenure.
We had three visitors. The minutes and treasurer’s reports were reviewed and approved. Our new slate of officers was presented and voted for: President Carol Tibor, Vice President Patty Burke, Treasurer Pat Rourke-Spencer, Secretary Christine Nelson and Member at Large Hod Wells. Congratulations to all and a special thank you to the nominating committee. The proposed yearly budget was presented and approved for 2017.
We will be having a Fall Seminar on October 21 presented by Colleen Fitzpatrick of Orange County, California. The first session in the morning is titled Identifying Old Photos, followed by lunch at the club. The subject of the second session will be Forensic Genealogy. There will be more details later.
SaddleBrooke Ranch will be starting a new genealogy group called Ranch Roots Genealogy Club with their first meeting on May 10 at 12:30 p.m. in the La Mesa Room. They will meet the second Wednesday of each month.
There will be no guest speakers at the June through August meetings but club members will meet informally at our usual location and time with members selecting topics to discuss. Everyone is welcome. This will be a great way to continue researching your family. We will resume our regular meeting with guest speakers in September.
Our very own member Christine Nelson gave a presentation on DNA research using the Ancestry.com testing product. DNA test results provide one’s Genetic Community. A Genetic Community is a group of Ancestry members who have had a DNA test that shows them all descending from a group of common ancestors. The test results also show one’s ethnicity. For example 54% Irish, 33% Scandinavian and 13% East European. Ancestry also uses information from Ancestry family trees to identify potential relationships between members who have completed a DNA test. You may learn you have cousins you never heard of before. The program will become more dynamic as more people submit their DNA samples. So now we should all want to submit our DNA to find out more about who we are, where we came from and who we are related to.
Dave Tieffenbach will be conducting RootsMagic Workshops on June 14, July 12, August 16 and September 13 starting at 9:00 a.m. through the Computer Club at MountainView Arts and Crafts Center. Classes are limited to 16 students and you must be a member of the Computer Club. Contact Dave for more information on the itinerary and for more information at [email protected].
At the end of our meeting we had two raffle prize winners, Lee Ann Parkinson and Linda Henrickson.
Hope to see you all next month for our informal meeting and a very informative get-together to help you with your genealogy search.