THE GENEALOGIST

VOL. XXXVI, NO. 5 MAY 2016

Conejo Valley Genealogical Society, Inc.
General Meeting
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
6:30 PM 8:30 PM
Grant R. Brimhall Library
1401 E. Janss Road,
Thousand Oaks, California

GENEALOGY AS DETECTIVE WORK

This program highlights the skills used by both detectives and genealogists to solve mysteries and explores how to reason through a genealogical challenge by using the tools of a detective and using indirect evidence. It includes specific examples as well as case studies showing
how to find and put together information that at first seems elusive.
Linda has been involved with genealogy in researching and writing family stories for over 30 years. She was privileged to work as a genealogist
for the first season of the PBS Genealogy Roadshow program. Currently, she is a member of the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional
Genealogists (SCCAPG), the Genealogical Speakers Guild (GSG), the California State Genealogical Alliance (CSGA), the Polish Genealogical Society (PGS-CA), and the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America (GSHA-CA) and is a past Vice President of Programs for
the Orange County California Genealogical Society (OCCGS).
(Priscilla Pruitt, 1st Vice President and Program Chair)

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED BY VOLUNTEERS

Betty Hutson, Hospitality Chair
Elizabeth Heumior **** Jeri Robin **** Pat Ryan
CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. Box 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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MISSION STATEMENT

GENEALOGY TOOLS CLASS

The Conejo Valley Genealogical Society was established in 1979 to further interest, education, and
knowledge in genealogy/history and to provide fellowship among those interested in these subjects.
The nonprofit Society serves the entire Conejo Valley, consisting of Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks,
and Newbury Park and several surrounding neighboring communities.

Jim Cyr

The Genealogist is published monthly. The normal

deadline for inputs for each issue is the Wednesday
following the general meeting of the previous month.
Deadline for the June issue is May 18, 2016.
President
Membership:
Editor:
Circulation:

Jim Cyr
Karen Moore
Georgine Herd
Georgine Herd

805-373-6106
805-581-6240
herdg@aol.com
805-499-5553

The Genealogy Tools Class which is

a beginning genealogy workshop is
held at the Grant R. Brimhall Library, Thousand Oaks, CA, on the
third Tuesday of each month in the
small conference room from 5:00 pm to 6:15 pm (just
before the General Meeting).
CVGS members are welcomed and encouraged to
present topics of interest in beginning genealogy interest; please give Jim two months advance notice.

May 17, 2016: This months topics will include

birth, marriage, death and burial records.

June 21, 2016: This months topics will include

U.S. Census records

MEMBERSHIP
COMPUTER INTEREST GROUP (CIG)

Karen Moore

Irv Camhi

April Guests:
Jean and Larry Heimsoth
Dorothy Johnson
Brian Webb

CIG meetings are held on the second

Thursday of each month from 1:30 pm
to 3:30 pm at Grant R. Brimhall Library.

Thursday, May 12, 2016: Linda McGue will

present: Make Friends with Your Computer. (Note: change in topic from what was
advertised in last months issue.) She will be
covering topics that will help us improve our genealogy project productivity, such as ideas of
how to work on your computer more easily
when you are on the internet, in word processing
programs, taking advantage of Google search
capabilities, finding those lost files that disappear on your computer and what to do when a
program freezes up. Following the presentation,
we will have a hands-on workshop on the above
topics.

Thursday, June 9, 2016: Genealogists Writing Tools.

TREASURERS REPORT
Barbara Warren
As of March 31, 2016:
Balance per BOOKS checking
Savings Account balance
Total in checking and savings

$ 6,286
27,048
$ 33,334

Notes:
1. The Board of Directors has approved the budget.
The members in attendance at our meeting
passed the budget.
2. Profit made at March seminar was $751.
3. Ed Lewis reviewed and approved the 2015 financials.

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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were never told--until now!--about white slaves, who
did not consent and who never contracted in writing.

NEW BOOKS REPORT

Sharon Martin
Have you ever heard one of those
family stories that you had a white
child that was brought to America
during the early Colonial Period as a
slave? Richard Hayes Phillips has authored two books
that just might have the proof that the story was true.
WITHOUT INDENTURES; INDEX TO WHITE
SLAVES IN COLONIAL COURT RECORDS is the
first book and the publisher describes this book as: In
this groundbreaking work, Richard Hayes Phillips has
collected the names of more than five thousand children kidnapped from Ireland, Scotland, England, and
New England, and sold into slavery in Maryland and
Virginia, c. 1660-1720. By English law dated 1659, it
was lawful for justices of the peace to kidnap children
found begging or vagrant and ship them to the plantations as servants without indentures. The younger the
child, the longer the sentence, and the colonial county
courts were the judges of their ages.
These five thousand names, culled from the Court Order Books, some of which have not been examined for
centuries, have now been compiled into one genealogical index. In almost every case, the entries provide
the name of the child, the name of the owner, the date
they appeared in court, and the age assigned by the
judges, many of whom owned the very children they
were sentencing to servitude. For ease of use, the volume contains an index to the ships--and their captains-that imported these kidnapped children, as well as a
surname index to guide the researcher to alternate or
incorrect spellings as found in the Court Order Books.
The Introduction to Mr. Phillipss book describes the
history and conditions of white servitude in colonial
Maryland and Virginia, along with an annotated list of
the sources he consulted.
Families who have traced their ancestry back to a
name that appears in this index will know for the first
time how their progenitor got to Maryland or Virginia.
In other cases, the kidnapped child will be the sibling
in the family chart for whom there is nothing but a
birth record.
We have long known about indentured servants, who
agreed in writing, by indenture, to work without wages
for a number of years to pay off the cost of their passage and lodging, after which time they were free. We

The second book is titled WHITE SLAVE CHILDREN

OF COLONIAL MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. This
book is described by the publisher as: Picking up
where he left off in his acclaimed book Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children in Colonial Court
Records, Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips has now taken the
story back even further -- back to the scenes of the
original crimes--kidnapping of children to be sold into
slavery (ca. 1660-1720).
In his original book, Dr. Phillips identified 5,290
"servants" without indentures, transported against
their will. He culled that evidence from the Court Order Books of colonial Maryland and Virginia, where
the county courts were authorized to examine the children, adjudge their ages, and sentence them to slavery
for a number of years.
In this book, compiled from shipping records found in
the Library of Congress, the Bristol [England] Record
Office, and elsewhere, the author has identified 170
ships that carried white slave children to the plantations of colonial Maryland and Virginia. The shipping
records itemize the unfortunate kids as "cargo" and
specify the import duties paid to the Royal Naval Officers for each child. The white slave ships sailed from
no fewer than seventeen ports of departure in England.
The places from which the children were taken and
their adjudged ages on the dates of their court appearances have enabled Dr. Phillips to conduct a targeted
search of the birth and baptismal records. In all, he has
matched more than 1,400 children with the parish or
town records.
The book also contains an expos of the colonial shipping industry. Among the child traffickers were the
Mayors of Bristol and Bideford and the Governor of
Virginia.
Birth and Shipping Records--which begins with a detailed discussion of the authors sources and detectivelike methodology and concludes with a surname index--is arranged according to the localities in the British Isles from which the victims were confiscated. It
is a volume that will help researchers trace their white
slave heritage back even further than before, and it
cries out for correctives to be written in American history books regarding our colonial origins and our treatment of one another.

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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an antique store? The story behind some love letters I found in an antique store led me on a path I
would have never imagined. Come learn more
about finding and uncovering a story involving
mistresses, divorce, art, the 1893 Worlds Fair,
and accusations of disloyalty to a nation during
World War I. Fact is so much more fascinating
than fiction.

OUR NEIGHBORS
Compiled by Georgine Herd
Questing Heirs Genealogical Society
Lakewood Masonic Center, 5918 East Parkcrest
Street, Long Beach CA 90808
www.qhgs.info

Sunday, May 15, 2016: 1:15 pm. Speaker Denise

Levenick will present: Preserving the Past:
Archiving and Digitizing for Family Historians.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7171337364311718401

Sunday, June 19, 2016: 1:15 pm. We will be having an Ice Social and Member Show-and-Tell.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016: Jean Wilcox Hibben

will present Translating Latin Records of German (and other) Catholic Churches. Latin, the
traditional language of the Catholic Church, isnt
difficult to decipher. Examples of how to do this
will employ records written before the early 1900s
from churches in Germany and America.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/684565106596134401

Jewish Genealogical Society of Conejo Valley

Temple Adat Elohim, Thousand Oaks
www.JGSCV.org

Sunday, May 1, 2016, 1:30-3:30pm: Annual Yom

Hashoah Program: "Creating New Witnesses to
the Holocaust: Teaching the Holocaust Locally,
Globally and Virtually," Holli Levitsky, Ph.D.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6016500510449423105

Sunday, June 5, 2016, 1:30-3:30pm: "Exploring

Legacy Family Tree Software" by Geoff Rasmussen

Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS)

417 Irving Drive @ Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank
http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/
Jamboree Extension webinars are conducted on:
1st Saturdays: 10 am Pacific time
3rd Wednesdays: 6 pm Pacific time

June 3rd through June 5th is SCGSs annual famous Jamboree. For full information, http://genealogyjamboree.com/

SCGS also offers Lunch & Learn monthly meetings

on the second Saturday of each month. Free and open
to the public (library is not open for research). Contact Charlotte Bocage rubymoon01@yahoo.com for
more information.
May 14, 2016: Double-bill program:

The initial webcast of each session is offered to the public free of charge and are available about a week after
session closes. They can be found at:

http//www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/archive-index.html

Wednesday, June 15, 2016: James M. Biedler

will present Finding a German Home Village
Online. Securing the name of your ancestral
Heimat is crucial to research in Germany. There
are many resources on American and German
websites to help you.

Saturday, May 7, 2016: Gena Philibert-Ortega

will present Once Upon a Time at an Antique
Store: Telling the Story of Mrs. E.G. Stetson.
Have you ever found photos or old documents at

1:00 2:00 PM: Elise Woodson will present

Preserving History through Writing the Personal Narrative. The personal narrative is an
excellent way to capture and preserve our family
history. This workshop will present the Mind
Mapping method of pre-writing that will help to
begin the process of personal storytelling. Come
learn how to get started telling those rich and
powerful family stories.

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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2:15 to 3:15 PM: Dick Humphrey will present:

"Expanding Facts into Family History Stories." Often the facts we know about an ancestor
are fairly sparse. Various strategies will be presented to enhance scanty data and create more interesting reading. The goal is to create "stories" not lengthy biographies - which engage readers of
all ages. Writing about future ancestors (us!) is
challenging in many ways. Questions will be
posed with tips and ideas for writing about own
lives. Additional examples, all from publications
Dick has written and created, will address specific
childhood memories, holiday traditions and major
historical events.

Ventura County Genealogical Society

P.O. Box 24608, Ventura, California 93002
http://www.venturacogensoc.org/

Saturday, May 21, 2016 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Camarillo Public Library, 4101 E. Las Posas Rd.,
Camarillo. Ted Gostin will present Emigration
Records Tracing Immigrants From the Other
Side. U.S. immigration records of the 19th century are often not very informative, and emigration
records those documenting someone leaving Europe can often provide more information. This
lecture reviews and illustrates a number of different types of emigration records, including emigration passenger lists; convict transport records; permissions to emigrate; police registrations; and
passports and passport applications, and compare
the information they contain to that in U.S. passenger lists.
Following a brief break, Carley and Don Worth
will present Calabasas Homesteaders: Memories and Images of the Mendenhall and Lee
Families of Calabasas, California. They will
tell the history of Carley's pioneer ancestors in
Calabasas and Malibu Creek State Park and will
describe how they researched them.

San Luis Obispo Genealogical Society

Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Hall
520 Dana Street, San Luis Obispo, CA
http://www.slocgs.org/
Saturday, May 7, 2016: Two presentations will be
given by Nancy Niles Wehner:

Session 1, 10:45 a.m.: Genetic Genealogy

Practical Applications for Real Families.
Learning the basics plus some more advanced
techniques of genetic genealogy provides a sense
of accomplishment. But the real gold lies in applying that knowledge to real families. Nancy will
walk us through four completed or on-going case
studies in which genetic genealogy contributed to
breaking through brick walls and/or has provided
an unexpected insight into a family.

Following a brief break and business meeting, at

1:45 PM, Session 2: Adding Life to Your Family History. Names, dates, and places are the
backbone of the family structure. But really
knowing your family requires digging deeper and
understanding their world. Join Nancy for a discussion of the mindset and the ways and means
needed to gain this deeper understanding, as well
as how to incorporate it into your family history,
as illustrated by examples from her own and other
families.

LEGACY FAMILY TREE WEBINARS

These are free on-line live seminars to watch from
your computer in the comfort of your home. You can
also type your questions for the presenter to answer
during the live presentation. Register for free at
www.familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars.php

Wednesday, May 4, 2016: Google Drive for

Genealogists by Thomas MacEntee. Learn how
to use Google Drive - a free cloud computing application complete with spreadsheets, word processing and more - to your advantage while performing genealogy research. Well cover how to
create new documents, import documents from
your hard drive, and how to use the basic functions of each component.

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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Wednesday, May 11, 2016: Dirty Pictures

Save Your Family Photos from Ruin by Denise May Levenick. Dirty negatives, smudged old
photos, curled panorama pictures, and photos
stuck in sticky albums. Learn how to rescue your
family photos, albums, and scrapbooks from the
ravages of time.

Friday, May 13, 2016: Messages from the

Grave - Listening to Your Ancestor's Tombstone by Elissa Scalise Powell. In order to find
an ancestor's tombstone, the burial ground must
first be found. Tips are given on how to find the
different cemeteries depending on the time period, type (church or commercial), and economic
condition of the deceased. Tombstones are the
last monuments to our lives on this earth. In their
shape and inscribed symbols, they can speak of
the lifestyle of the deceased or the attitude of
death of the loved ones left behind. They are being destroyed by many factors, which make them
illegible or eradicate them altogether. Abandoned and "lost" cemeteries can be found through
records and natural signs. Discussion includes
ways to read "illegible" stones, which may be the
last time a person may hear the tombstone
"speak." This webinar illustrates these techniques and shows what problems are encountered
in reading a variety of markers and what might be
done to overcome them. Internet sources and resources are also discussed throughout the lecture.

around the world. And even though New England is in our name, we have resourcesboth
online and at our libraryand a staff of experts
who can assist in nearly all aspects and areas of
family history research. Learn about who we are,
what we do, and how we can help you explore
your families unique place in history.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016: Get the Most from

AmericanAncestors.org Claire Vail. AmericanAncestors.org is the most-used genealogical
society website in the world. It provides family
historians access to more than 400 million records spanning the U.S. and beyond, including
one of the most extensive online collections of
early American records, and the largest searchable collection of published genealogical research journals and magazines. Learn what
online resources exist, how to navigate the
website, perform effective database searches,
browse our collections online, and more.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016: Mining the bersites for German Ancestors by James M.
Beidler. While theres a galaxy of Internet sites
that can help you with your German genealogy,
some stars shine brighter than others and its not
just Ancestry and FamilySearch, although those
two 500-pound canaries both have huge assets for
those seeking Deutsch ancestors.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016: Researching

Your Washington State Ancestors by Mary
Kircher Roddy. Learn about the archives, libraries and repositories for genealogical records in
the other Washington. Find out which special
collection or digital archive will help you trace
your roots in the Evergreen State. I'll cover a
brief history of Washington State, a bit about the
geography, ethnic influences, and where to find
records online and in-person. I'll point out many
of the highlights of the Washington State Digital
Archives.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016:

Discovering
American Ancestors (NEHGS) by Lindsay
Fulton. New England Historic Genealogical Society is Americas founding genealogical organization. From our research center in Boston, Massachusetts we provide family history services, develop original scholarship, lead transformative
educational tours and programs, publish genealogies and essential handbooks, and deliver datarich online resources to our members and friends

Friday, June 10, 2016: Introduction to the

Freedmens Bureau by Angela Walton-Raji.
Newly freed slaves needed assistance with food,
shelter, rations and work for pay. The Freedmens Bureau served that purpose providing such
aid. This webinar will focus on the records from
the Bureau, and how these records will open
doors before 1870 for the African American family.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016: Ticked Off! Those

Pesky Pre-1850 Census Tic Marks by Peggy
Clemens Lauritzen. Its exciting when we are able
to find our ancestors on every census they appeared on, until we reach 1840 and before. Those
pesky tic marks seem to get in our way as we work

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/

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to extend our pedigrees. Just what do they mean,

and how can they help me? Are they throwing us
into a dead end, or can they tell us more?

Wednesday, June 22, 2016: Digging Deeper in

German Parish Records by Gail Blankenau.
Continue your work in Germanic parish records,
with examples and cases that will help you with
an array of strategies and situations to help you
learn how to bridge the gaps and build your Germanic lineage.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016: Circles or Triangles? What Shape is your DNA? by Diahan
Southard. As we march forward into another year
of genetic genealogy, much is being discovered
about the ways in which we can analyze our autosomal DNA data. There is a hot debate over

two seemingly competing ideas: the DNA Circle,

or the Triangulation method. The DNA Circle
was pioneered by AncestryDNA and relies on
small shared segments and complete family trees.
The Triangulation method requires a chromosome browser and detailed calculations of shared
amounts of DNA. We will cover questions like,
Which is the best route to take? Do I need a chromosome browser? How can I use these methods
in my own genealogy? Autosomal DNA is an
ever changing field, this lecture will cover the latest methods of analysis and interpretation for the
non-scientist genetic genealogist.

CVGS 2016 CALENDAR

May

June

6:00 PM

12

1:30 PM

17

5:00 pm to
6:15 pm

17

6:30 PM

6:00 PM

1:30 PM
5:00 pm to
6:15 pm

21
21

6:30 PM

Meeting of the Board of Directors. Grant R. Brimhall Library, T.O.

Computer Interest Group Speaker Linda McGue will present
Make Friends with your Computer.
Tools Class. This months topics will include birth, marriage, death
and burial records.
General Meeting, Grant R. Brimhall Library, T.O. Speaker: Linda
Serna. Topic: Genealogy as Detective Work.
Meeting of the Board of Directors. Grant R. Brimhall Library, T.O.
Computer Interest Group Topic: Genealogists Writing Tool.
Tools Class. Topics will include the U.S. Census Records
General Meeting, Grant R. Brimhall Library, T.O. Topic: A Research Trip to Our Own Library.

Mothers love is the fuel that enables a normal

human being to do the impossible
~ Marion C. Garretty

CONEJO VALLEY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, INC., P.O. BOX 4845, Westlake Village, CA 91359-1845
Website: http://www.conejovalleygenealogicalsociety.org/

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Library: http://www.toaks.org/library/