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August president’s message

It’s August and the end of summer is almost in sight! For some of us that means life may settle down again to a normal pace soon. (One can hope, right?).   At our July meeting we discussed possibly switching to an every-other-month meeting schedule, that would alternate with the SL-APG group meetings.  Then we completely forgot to send out notices so that there could be 30 days prior to the next meeting to vote on this at our August meeting. So! Watch for an email or in-world notice in the near future, so that we may vote on that at our September meeting instead.

Our August meeting will proceed as usual, on the second Sunday of the month, August 13th at 5:30pm Second Life Time (Pacific).  Ellington Sweeney, our VP will be giving a presentation titled  “Lineage Society Checklist: Increase Your Chances of a Successful Application!” 

You’ve finally decided that this is the year you will apply to the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Society, or other lineage society of choice. But… how do you begin? Find out what steps you can take to prepare a successful application before you start filling it out.

August 6 & 20: Also this month we are picking up our study of Blaine Bettinger & Debbie Parker Wayne’s book “Genetic Genealogy in Practice.” We’re at chapter 6, ‘Genealogical Applications for X-DNA.’ Feel free to come listen in, or better yet participate, on the first and third Sundays at 5:30 p.m. SLT at the Family History Centre in Second Life. Everyone is welcome, no matter what your knowledge of experience level.

August 24:  Looking for a nice rousing scholarly discussion? Plan to attend the NGSQ (National Genealogical Society Quarterly) study group on Thursday, August 24 at 6pm SLT.  Ellington leads this casual group monthly. You can see this month’s reading here.

Have you got an idea for a one-time or monthly group discussion? Let us know!

As always, everyone is welcome to our meetings; however, only members may vote when one is called.  Membership has its privileges 🙂  Our society is a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, so our members have access to all of the benefits of FGS membership as well, including discounts! It’s easy to join, and our dues are the lowest of any I know of. See the About section for more information on joining our society.

I look forward to seeing everyone August 13!

June President’s Message

June has slipped through our hands, and between board members travelling, working, and holidays, we’ve really gotten off our regular meeting schedule! But, we’re determined to jump right back in!

Our society meetings have been the second Sunday of the month, and July will be no exception. Everyone is welcome to our general meeting on July 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Just Genealogy Fire Pit.  We’re going to have a brief business meeting, followed by a presentation on “Using Airtable for Research Logs.”

Airtable is a completely free, incredibly useful organization tool — it’s kind of a spreadsheet, kind of a database, but better than any you’ve used before, and absolutely wonderful for genealogy research logs!

Everyone is welcome to our meetings; however, only members may vote when one is called.  Membership has its privileges 🙂  Our society is a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, so our members have access to all of the benefits of FGS membership as well. It’s easy to join, and our dues are the lowest of any I know of. See the About section for more information on joining our society.

I look forward to seeing everyone July 9!

February President’s Message

RootsTech has officially come and gone , and those of us that went are still trying to recover.  What an amazing week! It was great to meet some of our members in person!

Thank you to the group members who have paid their dues and are now official members of both the SLVGS and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)!  For those dues-paying members, we now have a private section of this website  (Members) which will include the FGS newsletter and other benefits.  If you are a member and would like instructions to register, see your SecondLife notices for the SLVGS group, or contact Ellington Sweeney, MilesAMeyer Resident, or me, Genie Weezles (Tami Osmer Mize) for more information.  Our SecondLife Virtual Genealogical Society dues are 1200 Lindens (roughly $5 US) annually, paid in-world, and cover a full calendar year, Jan-Dec.

COMING UP!

  • Monday night, February 13, Clarise Beaumont is hosting a Valentines Day dance for the Genealogists in SecondLife at Just Genealogy, with our favorite DJ, Jaffee Gaffer. Everyone is invited. There will be prizes for best costumes/outfits.  Please don’t hesitate to come and join in the fun. SL dances are a great time for conversation, and “dancing” is as simple as clicking on a dance-ball – no talent or coordination needed!
  • Next Sunday (the third Sunday of the month), February 19, at 5:30 pm, we begin our DNA study group study of the NGS book by Blaine T. Bettinger & Debbie Parker Wayne “Genetic Genealogy in Practice.” As I mentioned last month, the plan for this group is to help extreme beginners get an understanding of DNA .  For me, up til now, it pretty much has stood for “Don’t kNow Anything”  🙂  If you’ve been wanting to figure it out, but felt a bit overwhelmed, join us! The book is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle edition, and through the National Genealogical Society’s website.
    Please read CHAPTER ONE thoroughly prior to the meeting so we can discuss our thoughts and learn together. We will meet on the porch of the Family History Centre for this.
  • The fourth Thursday of the month is the National Genealogical Society Quarterly NGSQ study group which is open to anyone, to discuss an article from the NGSQ, led by Ellington at the Fire Pit. You can find the reading list here.
  • The fourth  Sunday of February will bring a fun, entertaining, and educational FIELD TRIP led by Ellington Sweeney. We will meet at the Fire Pit at 5:30 pm SL time, and then teleport for a short 3-5 minute tour of our SLVGS Clubhouse, and from there, on to a very cool site that Ellington has found for us to explore. The details and a Landmarks will be at the fire pit for latecomers to follow.

In March:

We will start holding our traditional “Meet & Greet,” a very informal and casual get together to help newcomers to SecondLife with basic functions – walking, clothing, focusing, etc. – on the first Sundays of each month at 5:30 pm (SL / Pacific time) at the Just Genealogy fire pit, possibly other locations in the future. Everyone is invited to bring their questions. We’ve all been newbies!

All of these events can be found on the Calendar here on the website.

Hope to see you soon! Leave a message here or on the Genealogists in SecondLife Facebook page if you’d like more information, or need some SecondLife help.

January Notes

The SecondLife Virtual Genealogical Society is off to a great start already this year! We held our very first meeting of 2017 on January 8, the second Sunday of the month at 5:30pm – our regular meeting time.  With bylaws, elected officers, and several dues-paying members, we’ve been able to join the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) already!

The SLVGS now has a Clubhouse just a bit away from the fire pit, with information cards in the bookcase. Just touch the bookcase and choose the information you’d like. Our bylaws, officers, and meeting minutes are currently available.

Our first new discussion group was formed as well. Anyone interested in learning about DNA and how to use it in genealogy research is welcome to attend our book study of “Genetic Genealogy in Practice,” by Blaine Bettinger and Debbie Parker Wayne.  The plan for this group is to help extreme beginners get an understanding of DNA .  For me, up til now, it pretty much has stood for “Don’t kNow Anything”  🙂  If you’ve been wanting to figure it out, but felt a bit overwhelmed, join us! The book is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle edition, and through the National Genealogical Society’s website.  The book study group  will meet on the 3rd Sunday of each month, at 5:30 pm at the Family History Centre in SecondLife. The first meeting will be SundayFebruary 19. Please read Chapter 1 prior to the meeting and come prepared to discuss, share, and learn together!

Coming up in January on our monthly calendar on Thursday, January 26 at 6pm at the Just Genealogy Fire pit, is the National Genealogical Society Quarterly Study Group, led by Ellington Sweeney.  As always, everyone is invited to attend. This month’s discussion will be on Elizabeth Shown Mills’, “Frontier Research Strategies—Weaving a Web to Snare a Birth Family: John Watts (ca. 1749-ca.1822),” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 104 (September 2016): 165-190. Optional listening, Elizabeth Shown Mills, “Reasonably Exhaustive Research: The First Criteria of the Genealogical Proof Standard,” NGS 2016, F302, available at PlaybackNGS: http://www.playbackngs.com/2016-family-history-conference.

Our next SLVGS meeting will be Sunday, February 12 at 5:30 pm. We realize many people may be travelling or just plain exhausted after RootsTech, but do try to join us for our “RootsTech Rehash,” while it’s all still fresh in our memories. What were your favorite moments/classes/vendors? Come share your thoughts, or see what you missed.

The next evening, Monday, February 13, Clarise Beaumont is graciously hosting a Valentine’s Dance for the genealogists in SecondLife, at Just Genealogy. Our favorite DJ, Jaffee Gaffer, will be playing the music, and there will be prizes for best Valentines-themed costumes. Dances are great fun, and in SecondLife, everyone is a Fred Astaire and/or Ginger Rogers! Our social events like this are wonderful opportunities to get to know one another better, and share our research challenges and triumphs.

Hope to see you soon! Leave a message here or on the Genealogists in SecondLife Facebook page if you’d like more information, or need some SecondLife help.

January SLVGS Meeting

slvgs-logoWe hope everyone is having a great holiday season. SLVGS met on December 11 to review and adopt the official by-laws for the organization. The by-laws have now been approved and we are ready to start 2017 as an official organization. We have established a dues structure of $5 (1200L$) per year due in January.  Our next meeting will be Sunday, Janury 8 at 5:30pm SLT (Pacific Time). Our topics for this meeting will be about special interest/discussion groups that members want to establish. The meeting will be held in SecondLife at the fire pit in Just Genealogy.  If you need directions, log in to SecondLife and type Just Genealogy in the search bar. We invite all who are interested to attend and look forward to seeing you.

December SLVGS Meeting

slvgs-logoWe hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! SLVGS wanted to get back together one more time in 2016 as we get ready for Christmas and many other upcoming holidays. Our next meeting will be December 11 at 5:30pm SLT. The meeting will be held in SecondLife at Just Genealogy.  If you need directions, just log in to SecondLife and type Just Genealogy in the search bar. We invite all who are interested to attend. Let’s end this year with a bang and get ready to start the new year on a strong note.

SecondLife Genealogy Christmas Dance

sl-christmas

Join us this Thursday for the annual SecondLife Genealogy Christmas Dance, hosted by the SL chapter of APG.

When: December 8, 2016
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm SLT
Where: Dee & Sherlock’s Christmastown

All genealogists in SecondLife are invited! Dress is “holiday fancy” – whatever that means to you. Plus they will be announcing the winners of this year’s indexing challenge – with great prizes! The dances are a great time to socialize and listen to some great tunes with our favorite DJ Jaffee Gaffer. Hope to see you there…with bells on! More information can be found on the Genealogists in Second Life Group on Facebook.

Notes from the November 27, 2016 SLVGS Meeting

We want to thank all the members who came to our SLVGS meeting on November 27. We had a great discussion and look forward to getting this group going.

Our officers for 2017 are as follows:

  • President: Genie Weezles
  • Vice President: Ellington Sweeney
  • Treasurer: EmBeemer
  • Secretary: MilesAMeyer

Our draft by-laws have been posted at the Family History Center in Adam ondi Ahman since August 28. We ask that everyone please review them and provide their comments prior to the next meeting on December 11 at 5:30 SLT.

slvgs-logoSLVGS members selected our official logo. There were four logos submitted prior to the vote and all were posted to Facebook prior to the meeting.  As you can see, the logo is very impressive. We also discussed having an official mascot, a slug in pajamas doing research.

We established a monthly meeting schedule with meetings held on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 5:30 SLT.

Membership dues were established and will be payable as Lindens (L$), the currency of Second Life. Annual dues will be L$1200 (approximately $5 at the current exchange rate). Instructions for purchasing L$ can be found at https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Buying-and-selling-Linden-dollars/ta-p/700107.

Follow us online at https://slvirtualgenealogy.org/ and on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/groups/GenealogistsInSL/.

We hope to see everyone at the next meeting on December 11.

SLVGS Meeting

slfhc

Happy holidays folks! We will have our next organizing meeting of the SecondLife Virtual Genealogy Society (SLVGS) this Sunday, November 27th at 5:30 PM PST (8:30 PM EST). The meeting will be held in SecondLife at the Family History Center in Adam ondi Ahman.  If you need directions, click on this link (http://bit.ly/SLFamilyHistoryCentre) and log in to SecondLife. We invite all who are interested to attend. This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor and help  create a genealogy society that can serve people from around the world.

The Second Life Chapter APG is pleased to announce the first ThanksGIVING Index-a-Thon!

ThanksGIVING Index-A-Thon

Join us on Saturday, November 26, and Sunday, November 27, as we make a final push for the finish line of our chapter community service project, FamilySearch Indexing. This is your chance to give back to the genealogy community and have a little fun while you do it!

You do not have to be a member of the chapter in order to participate. Please visit FamilySearch Indexing for information on how to participate.

Yes, there will be prizes!

Prizes for the top indexers include:

  • (2) 3-month subscriptions to Ancestry.com U.S. Discovery
  • Annual subscription to Ancestry Academy
  • Annual basic subscription to Newspapers.com
  • Annual subscription to fold3.com
  • A copy of Legacy Family Tree 8.0 genealogy software

When setting up your indexing profile, please be sure to select “Second Life Chapter APG -UT” in the Group box under Additional Indexing Information so we will be able to track your progress.

Alternatively, if you participate using the FamilySearch Indexing Beta browser-based program, you will need to report your totals so that you can be included.

Prizes will be awarded at our holiday party on December 8.

Enjoy fun and friendship while you index!

A few of our chapter members and friends have offered to share their in-world homes while you index for a little conversation, networking, and virtual hot chocolate. You will need to log into your Second Life viewer in order to join us.

The schedule and SLURLs of homes to visit will be sent out via our in-world group and posted in our Facebook group. For privacy reasons, the links will not be posted here.

For questions or for more information, please contact chapter president Ellington Sweeney.

We hope to “virtually” see you there!😀

Join Us for the ThanksGIVING Index-a-Thon!

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