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Page updated: 02/09/2013
Computer Interest Group of
Central Florida Genealogical Society
Meetings are open to the public. See Meetings page for location and time.
The facility has free Wi-Fi Internet access.
Some members bring laptop computers to follow along the websites discussed during the meeting.
 
Here are some of the web sites discussed at recent meetings (older links may no longer work):
 
 
 
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Saturday February 9, 2013
We reviewed this most popular of online storage sites: https://www.dropbox.com
https://www.box.com/ - similar to Dropdox.com.
Probably the most read of genealogy news websites. http://blog.eogn.com/
http://www.findagrave.com/  has an incredibly large collection of cemetery photos.    
This very popular software is worth checking if you are shopping.  http://familytreemaker.com/
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/   is hosted by an attorney and deals with the legal issues when
http://www.shopfamilytree.com/  Besides the magazine Family Search has other goodies.
http://usgenweb.org/ - check any U.S. county for their local resources.
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Saturday December 15, 2012
 
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Saturday October 6, 2012
We explored the genealogy value of the search tool Yippy: http://www.yippy.com/
Other sites we revisited: Cyndi's list: http://www.cyndislist.com/
Vital records source: http://www.vitalrec.com/
The RootsWeb message boards: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ 
American Ancestors page of New England Historic Genealogical Society: http://www.americanancestors.org/
Genealogical standards according to the National Genealogical Society: http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/genealogical_standards_committee
The U.S.GenWeb Project: http://usgenweb.org/
The World GenWeb Project: http://www.worldgenweb.org/
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Saturday August 4, 2012
We discussed the current status of the 1940 Census:
Ancestry.com has completed the index 100%, totally searchable: http://www.ancestry.com/1940-census?o_iid=51937&o_lid=51937&o_sch=Web+Property
FamilySearch has all the states indexed but at least 20 states have yet to be released to the public pending confirmation: https://familysearch.org/1940census/?cid=fsHomeT1940Text_v2
Then we looked at some places we read about in the current Internet Genealogy magazine:
   A fascination search engine for published works containing ancestors: http://www.hathitrust.org/
   The Allen County Library was explored here: http://genealogycenter.org/Home.aspx
   A very effective search engine for finding ancestors and relatives in unexpected places: http://www.yippy.com/
   The library of Congress photo collection can be accessed here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
   The New York City phone books are connected to the 1940 Census records here: http://directme.nypl.org/
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Saturday, June 2, 2012
The places we explored:
For computer maintenance we checked out Advanced System Care: http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcarepro.html
An  online tree bulder and research source: http://www.myheritage.com/
Another useful site which searches many other sites at once is Genealogy In Time: http://www.genealogyintime.com/
We revisited GenSmarts which analyzes your database and helps fill the gaps: http://www.gensmarts.com/downloads.html
The Wayback Machine helped us find old websites no longer available:  http://archive.org/web/web.php
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Saturday, April 21, 2012
Some new sites:
Pennsylvania now has a wider collection of death certificates available 1906-1961:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/public_records/20686
Entire episodes of NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" are available for watching online:
http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/video/
Familysearch.org needs more volunteer indexers to create indexes to their many databases, but especially the 1940 Census:
https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing
1940 Census tools:
Steve Morse has a nice form for finding the Enumeration District: http://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html
Ancestry also has a form: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2442
But the records are actually here, at the National Archives: http://1940census.archives.gov/
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Saturday, February 11, 2012
We checked out a few new places:
Genealogy In Time is a remarkable search tool, try it: http://www.genealogyintime.com/GenealogyResources/Tools/free-family-tree-search-engine.html
Here's another, The Genealogy Buff: http://www.genealogybuff.com/
Getting ready for the 1940 Census: http://stevemorse.org/census/quiz.php
Back issues of Buried Treasures journal by CFGS are now online: http://cfgs.org/BuriedTreasuresArchive.htm
...and a few old standbys:
http://usgenweb.org/
http://www.worldgenweb.org/
http://worldvitalrecords.com/
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Some of the websites we reviewed:
http://www.archives.com and http://familysearch.org , the future hosts of the 1940 Census, due out on April 2, 2012.
http://blog.eogn.com/ and his news story involving the SSDI's new policy of redacting vital information.
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Saturday, October 1, 2011
We reviewed some familiar sites:
http://www.ancestry.com/
https://familysearch.org/
... and noticed some of the differences in FamilySearch.org's old site (still accessible): http://www.familysearch.org/eng/
Another enduring site which does not get much mention is Godfrey Memorial Library: http://www.godfrey.org/
A "relatively" (pardon the pun) new site which only searches genealogy databases and blogs: http://mocavo.com/
A great site, especially for kids, to start looking for ancestors: http://www.peoplefinders.com/article-find-people-from-the-past-genealogy-resource-guide-for-kids.aspx  
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Saturday August 6, 2011
Some of the web sites we looked at:
A Beginner's Guide to Researching Their Family Tree: http://www.onlinecollegedegrees.net/beginning-genealogy
American History Growth of a Nation: http://www.animatedatlas.com/movie.html 
ISTG, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild: http://www.immigrantships.net/
Google shortcut cheat sheets: http://www.googleguide.com/
StartPage - private search tool for Google: http://startpage.com/
Godfrey Memorial Library: http://startpage.com/
NewspaperArchive: http://newspaperarchive.com/
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Saturday June 4, 2011
Some of the sites we looked at:
1940 Census Research online: http://1940census.net/index.php
Email address checker: http://tools.email-checker.com/
Learning at FamilySearch.org: https://familysearch.org/learn
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Saturday, April 2, 2011
Some of the new sites we looked at:
Cook County Clerk's Office - Genealogy Online: http://cookcountygenealogy.com/
Access Genealogy A Free Genealogy Resource: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/
Castle Garden: http://castlegarden.org/
Google Books: http://books.google.com/
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Saturday, February 19, 2011
Some of the new sites we looked at:
Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispul
The new Flip-Pal scanner: http://flip-pal.com
Public Records Online Directory will link directly to local property, tax, and other records: http://publicrecords.netronline.com 
 
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Saturday, October 9, 2010
We reviewed some of the "Top 30" Internet sites from Internet Genealogy magazine:
Newspapers:
     GenealogyBank.com, subscription access to images: http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/
     Chronicling America, free images fro some obscure, but possibly useful, newspapers from The Library of Congress: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
     Google News Archive Search includes major newspapers with a timeline: http://news.google.com/archivesearch
Immigration:
     Ellis Island - Port of New York Passenger Records: http://ellisisland.org/
     Castle Garden-NYC immigration 1855-1892: http://castlegarden.org/
     Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild includes 18th and 19th century records: http://immigrantships.net/
Access Genealogy A Free Genealogy Resource: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection includes early local maps: http://www.davidrumsey.com/
Family History Archive collection housed at BYU includes privately published family histories: http://lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php
Books:
     WorldCat.org The World's Largest Library Catalog: http://www.worldcat.org/
     Google Books: http://books.google.com/
     Bookfinder searches independent booksellers: http://bookfinder.com
State and local records:
     Illinois State Archives Databases: http://cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html
     Cook County Clerk's Office - Genealogy Online: http://cookcountygenealogy.com/
Linkpendium includes local resources: http://www.linkpendium.com/
 
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Saturday, August 7, 2010010
We explored a list of genealogy links which appeared on the following page:
 
Here are few:
Vital records: http://www.vitalrec.com/ 
Cemetery research: http://www.findagrave.com/
Dropbox.com: https://www.dropbox.com/ 
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Saturday, June 5, 2010
A look at browser toolbars for genealogy:
 
Using Google's toolbar for genealogy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qefdagiK38
 
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Saturday, April 17, 2010
The following obituary web sites were explored:
We also looked at some genealogy toolbars and will demonstrate them next meeting:
 
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Saturday, February 6, 2010
Are you related to someone famous? Check the OneWorldTree at Ancestry.com: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/trees/owt/
 
Many computer applications are so portable they can be installed on a flash drive and just plugged in to any PC.
Check out Portable Apps: http://portableapps.com/
We took another look at the free anti-virus and anti-spyware Security Essentials from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
One of the oldest and very popular collaborative databases is the European-based Geneanet. See if others are researching your surnames: http://www.geneanet.org/?lang=en
There is probably a users group for your genealogy software nearby and online - well, at least online. Do a Google search for "genealogy software users groups" (not in quotes) and instead of "genealogy software" substitute the name of the software you use, such as "RootsMagic". You will soon be in contact with all sorts of advice to help you with your software. Add a location to the search and you might find a nearby meeting of the group.
Our genealogical society is now on facebook. Check it out and PARTICIPATE by adding comments or topics:
 
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Facebook is used for many genealogy surname groups, software users, genealogy societies and more: http://www.facebook.com/
 
Footnote was looked at as an alternative to some of ancestry.com's databases: http://www.footnote.com/
1saleaday.com (One Sale a day) has incredible bargains (often free): http://1saleaday.com/
 Microsoft now offers FREE combination antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-malware product call Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/  
 
Search for "genealogy" in Yahoo Groups and there are nearly 40,000 (plus several hundred more for people who misspell it as "geneology"): http://groups.yahoo.com/                         
 
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Saturday October 3, 2009
More Google tools were examined for their usefulness for genealogists, including news archives, images, maps, books, and more: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
 
Also we checked into the people search engines;
http://pipl.com which revels a lot more about a person than their phone number and address. public records, photos, archives web pages and more.
http://123people.com also includes the social network identities of people, plus biographies, web links, even Amazon wish lists.
Another useful search tool puts its results in useful groups: http://clusty.com
 
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Saturday August 1, 2009
We looked at some of the sites on Family Tree Magazine's top 101 sites for 2009:
 
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Saturday June 6, 2009
We looked at the newest search engine from Microsoft called BING: http://bing.com 
Facebook has become very popular in finding new cousins: http://facebook.com 
Wolfram Alpha is a website with unusual results for studying names: http://wolframalpha.com 
Techbite's Steve Bass has great advice and tools for computer users: http://techbite.com 
Update Notifier helps keep software fresh with latest revisions and upgrades: http://cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html 
We saw how the tools in the Google Pack of programs can be used in family research: http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html 
 
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April 18, 2009
RootsMagic4 - a look at the newly released Version 4: http://www.rootsmagic.com/
...compared to Legacy 7: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/
Browse and find old photographs at: http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/
Free, licensed software at: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/
Search for and view online pictures and  images using Cool Iris: http://www.cooliris.com/
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February 7, 2009
Online document images available at the "pilot" site of familysearch.org:
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=0
"County and state histories on CD" includes books and publications available for purchase on CDs:
http://genealogy.wehaveneatstuff.com/
Online state records which include images for free:
Arizona: http://genealogy.az.gov
West Virginia: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_dcsearch.aspx
Georgia: http://content.sos.state.ga.us/cdm4/gadeaths.php
(Plus many more - Check individual states for new online sites for vital records images online.)
Top 10 genealogy software packages for 2009: http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
We looked at Ancestral Quest software: http://www.ancquest.com/download.htm
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December 6, 2008
A look at the most popular sites of 2008:
Ancestry.com
RootsWeb.com
MyHeritage.com
FamilySearch.org
WorldVitalRecords.com
USGennet.org
Complete list at: http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008.htm
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October 4, 2008
Library of Congress American Memories project includes useful maps: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/
Encyclopedia of Genealogy includes user-defined terminology and concepts: http://eogen.com/
Google Chrome browser offers a simplistic look but fits nicely with Google tools: http://www.google.com/chrome/  
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August 2, 2008
Internet Genealogy magazine suggested sites were explored: http://www.internet-genealogy.com/  
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June 7, 2008:
Familysearch Labs The LDS folks are providing several test products and projects at the "Labs" website: http://labs.familysearch.org/
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February 2, 2008:
LEGACY standard edition: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Index.asp
"Old Version" has earlier editions of some popular software - for free. Older PCs cannot handle some of the latest editions of software, so these older versions might be just what you need: http://www.oldversion.com/
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December 2, 2007:
Review best sites of 2007: http://www.familytreemagazine.com/101sites/2007/
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August 2, 2007:
Family Tree Maker 2008 software has been released, but some folks have found it troublesome: http://familytreemaker.com/ 
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June 2, 2007:  
CutePDF Writer (freeware) will create PDF ("Portable Document File", Adobe Acrobat compatible) files from almost any printable document. Microsoft Word 2007 has a built-in PDF creator, but this utility will work for all printable files. The cheapest way to make ".pdf" files: http://www.cutepdf.com/
PrintKey 2000 allows for capturing anything viewable on your PC monitor screen as a graphic file, usable in documents, slide shows, web pages, printing etc. Microsoft Windows Vista operating system has a free, built-in "Snipping Tool", but PrintKey 2000 will work with all versions on Windows. Free version is still available: http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/files/printkey510se.zip
"We Relate" is the latest "wiki" approach to collaborative and interactive management of genealogy pages, and it's free: http://werelate.org/wiki/Main_Page
FinePrint is a utility which can print documents many different ways: standard. enlarged, two pages on one sheet, four on one, eight on one, booklets, and more. Free version has small logo on each page, but worth a try:  http://www.fineprint.com/products/fineprint/benefits.html
                   
Personal Ancestral File Companion, great utility program for PAF data is free to try, only $6.75 for full use. Downloadable from here:
http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=47657&langId=-1&cg1=14000&cg2=&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&sortId=3&sortOr=1&retURLtext=Back%20to%20'Software%20Downloads'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay%3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3BcategoryId%3D14000%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D%26amp%3Bcg2%3D%26amp%3Bcg3%3D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D1%26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1
 
Free "avast!" anti-virus software - works for all editions of Windows: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html 
Best list of freeware utilities is located here: http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/
Desktop Sidebar, one of the attractive features of the new Windows Vista operating system, is now available for Windows XP and earlier versions through this free utility program: http://www.desktopsidebar.com/
Roots Television - a collection of free, online, instructional videos on many aspects of the hobby of genealogy: http://rootstelevision.com/
 
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February 3, 2007:  
ePodunk - Profiling 46,000 cities, villages, towns, townships and podunks across America: http://www.epodunk.com/
Family Tree DNA - "we do genetic tests for your genealogy questions!" http://www.familytreedna.com/
Scanning Basics 101 - All about digital image scanning: http://www.scantips.com/
WorldConnect Project -- Connecting the World One GEDCOM at Time: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
By Way of Canada:
U.S. Records of Immigration Across the U.S.-Canadian Border, 1895-1954 (St. Albans Lists)
http://archives.gov/publications/prologue/2000/fall/us-canada-immigration-records-1.html
Old Photographs: What Do They Tell Us? Analyzing old photos  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rmbeckman/photo.html
Language Tools for translation: http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
Genealogy: research your ancestry, publish your tree on line, consult public records... - GeneaNet: http://www.geneanet.org/
Free Genealogy Lookups from Our Look Up Volunteers: http://geneasearch.com/research.htm
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet http://www.cyndislist.com/
Godfrey Memorial Library: http://godfrey.org/
 
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December 2, 2006:  
Internet Genealogy Magazine: http://www.internet-genealogy.com/
GenealogyBank.com - Find Ancestors | Family History Records: http://genealogybank.com
ancestorsonboard.com - A journey of discovery: http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/
findmypast.com - Family History, Ancestry, Trace your family Tree, Census Records http://www.findmypast.com/HomeServlet
Password Manager and Web Form Filler http://www.roboform.com/
Belarc Advisor utility inventories everything on your PC: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
 
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October 7, 2006:  
PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE from (LDS):
http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&categoryId=14000&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=13669&level=2&bcname=Software%20Downloads%20-%20Free&top=Y&resetCat=N&replBC=subcatlist13669&retURL=
 
LEGACY standard edition: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Index.asp
FAMILY TREE MAKER starter edition: http://www.familytreemaker.com/download/starter.aspx?sourceid=13744&o_iid=13744&o_lid=13744&o_it=13744
BROTHERS KEEPER: http://www.bkwin.org/
THE MASTER GENEALOGIST trial edition: http://www.whollygenes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?screen=TMG
RootsMagic free demo: http://www.rootsmagic.com/demo.htm