Joy
of SIGs
By Dan Evans
The leaves are falling; Summer is well behind us. September
has already opened the SIG season. All four SIGs and the Genealogy Club
met at their regular times and places. However, it seems interest has
subsided for the Internet SIG and the Quicken SIG, as attendance was
way down. These groups reflect the interest of our membership, so unless
attendance improves the groups may be dropped. The Internet SIG has
been around a few years and has enjoyed a good following until recently.
Our Quicken SIG just started last Spring after several members expressed
interest in obtaining more knowledge using the Quicken program. Analogous
to one of our most basic human qualities; use them or loose them!
Our Internet SIG meets the third Monday of each month at St John's Episcopal
Church in Whitesboro. Jerry Finkelstein always has interesting web sites
to visit online as well as frequently bringing in handouts for you to
take home. Any and all Internet related questions or problems can be
addressed by this group. If you would like more information, email Jerry
at demetrius@aol.com.
The Quicken SIG meets the third Wednesday of the month, also at St John's.
Bo Wozniak has been using the Quicken program a number of years so is
well versed with its many intricacies. Usually there are other members
present that also use the program. A great opportunity to increase your
knowledge using Quicken. For more information, email Bo at bo_woz@netzero.net.
On the third Tuesday of each month, reserve for the 7 PM Mohawk Valley
Genealogy Club meeting, at the Oneida County Historical Society on Genesee
Street, Utica. Judi Boniface coordinates a very active and interesting
evening devoted to the subject of Genealogy. Last May's meeting, Judi
had an "Ancestor Road Show" when members brought a memento
or artifact from their family histories to share with the group. Called
"the most interesting meeting we have ever had", items displayed
and talked about included an antique porcelain doll, Civil War sabre,
hand piece quilt, pocket watch as seen in an old family photograph as
well as family history written by ancestors, old photos, tin types and
various certificates. June's meeting was the last before the Summer
break. Cemetery Research was the topic for the evening. Summer being
the perfect season for travel and cemetery exploration, a little preparation
goes along way finding that grave. This evening covered how to find
out where your ancestor is buried, cemetery records, locating cemeteries
on the web and research techniques. The first meeting in the new season,
September, saw a demonstration of the CLOOZ genealogy software. This
"electronic filing cabinet for genealogy records" works in
conjunction with your normal family tree software. Most genealogy software
focuses on individual family members so documents such as wills that
involve several family members require filing the information with each
person. CLOOZ starts with the document and source material you have
found, than details who is in each record. Pulling up the person gives
you access to all the documents you have related to them. Go to clooz.com
for more information. Two good reasons for belonging to this club are
a lending library consisting of books, index CDs, and videos available
to members, and the many Genealogy hints and info Judi emails to members.
Tim Clinehens has the answers. His Q&A SIG meets the last Tuesday
of the month, also at St John's in Whitesboro. No question is too simple
or too complex for Tim and his group. For instance, what's hot and what's
not in the PC world constantly changes. Answering the question, what
to consider when buying a new PC today? Tim covered all the major components,
relating to how the machine will be used, suggesting what should be
considered. Another member asked about cleaning his CD Rom drive. Simply,
if its not broken don't mess with it! And for sure don't blow air into
the drive to blow dust out of it. Other questions involved how to upgrade
from Win 95 to Win 98; what is the difference between a dedicated server,
proxy server and work station; what is involved with sharing your computer
with an outside computer as you might do working from home for a medical
research company and explain the various CD drive options and their
capabilities. This is just a small sampling of the many topics covered
by this group through the Summer and last September.
Basic Training meets the last Wednesday of the month, also at St John's.
Lisa Britt is there to address your most basic computer operations.
Using the Internet search engine Google.com
and a variety of web sites, Lisa finds many helpful hints to get your
PC doing what you want it to do. Sometimes an impossible task made possible.
Some of the sites we visited the past few meetings are komando.com,
techtv.com and 1001tutorials.com
looking for everything from finding a lost curser to learning to use
Windows 2000 Pro operating system.
So pick up a friend and come to a SIG. The friend will surely thank
you. And remember, if you don’t use the SIGs you may indeed loose
them!
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