NGS 2004 Conference set for Sacramento
The Genealogical and Historical Council of Sacramento Valley, California will host the National Genealogical Society's 2004 Conference, "A Golden Prospect," on May 19-22, 2004.
For more information, contact Iris Carter Jones at ijones@accessbee.com or phone 916-682-3381 or visit website http://www.sacvalleygenes.org.

Janet Meeker of Littleton, Colorado, the Columbine Genealogical & Historical Society Newsletter quarterly editor, passed away December 7, 2003. Jan was the quarterly editor since April 2002. Shortly after accepting the editor position, she was diagnosed with cancer. Instead of resigning, Jan continued as editor through months of debilitating chemo. In her short time as editor, she made some creative and innovative changes to the Quarterly, such as the photo cover.

Okie Jasper Folsom, 89, of Fredericksburg, Virginia died on October 29, 2003 at Woodmont Center. Born December 17, 1913, in Anita, Iowa, to Bill and Hallie Folsom, he attended a one-room school in Iowa and Nebraska. In 1939, he married Elvira Farley who preceded him in death in 1944. After moving to Virginia, he worked many years for Pet Dairy Products and Farmer Creamery. Mr. Folsome married Irene McWhirt in 1965, and together than ran Folsome Catering. Survivors include his son William Folsom of Alaska; grandson Aaron Folsome of Alaska; granddaughter [name removed at persons request]; and sister Dorothy Andrews of Arizona. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Southern California League of Genealogical Societies formed
Last summer, leaders from 19 of the genealogical societies gathered to discuss common problems and solutions confronting genealogical societies in Southern California. The outgrowth of that meeting was the formation of the SCLGS.

In order to immediately promote the flow of information of interest to genealogical societies, a web page has been created and is now online. You can visit the web page and read about the League as well as keep abreast of the goings-on in our area. The website is www.cagenweb.com/kr/league. Check it out!!!
Our thanks for this information to Ventura County Genealogical Society, P O Box 24608, Ventura, CA 93002.

University of Florida library parking area closed till 2K6
The University of Florida Library West parking area closed on December 1, 2003. The building closed on December 24 2003 for major reconstruction.  It will not reopen until 2006. All books, bound periodicals and microforms are being housed off site and retrieved for use in the Marston Science Library at a later date, depending on when the item is requested. The reference materials are scheduled to move into Room 100 of Smathers Library. The P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History will remain in service on the second floor of Smathers Library. It is strongly recommended that people call ahead if they plan to visit during this construction period. The reference phone number is 352-392-0361.

A few facts...about computer ills
A virus is usually a stand-alone program that performs destructive or other malicious or annoying actions. Destructive actions can vary from erasing or modifying the contents of files or sectors on a hard or floppy drive to a complete destruction of data on an entire media.

Some viruses can destroy Flash Bios of certain types of motherboards and that will make an affected computer unbootable.

Certain viruses can disable keyboard or mouse or only specific keys on a keyboard. Other viruses can disable certain features of an operating system.

A few viruses perform annoying actions like changing position of icons on a desktop or showing video effects that makes a system hardly usable. Which then infects the applications that are transferred to other computers.

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. The main difference between the two is that a virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program, while a worm is self-contained, it does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself. In addition to replication, a worm may be designed to do any number of things, such as delete files on a host system, or send documents via email.

Thanks to Mike Rose for the above information.

Our appreciation for this information goes to Lake Havasu Genealogical Society, Inc. Newsletter, P O Box 953, 1750 N. McCulloch Blvd., Lake Havasu City, AZ 86405-0953.

Finding New England ancestors
The Boston Transcript, a newspaper, published a regular column of genealogical queries and answers from 1896 to 1941. These genealogical columns have been indexed in the American Genealogical-Biographical Index, published by the Godfrey Memorial Library of Middletown, Connecticut. The columns themselves are available on microfiche in many genealogy libraries, such as the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
The columns are also available in the Long Beach Public Library. The queries were clipped from the Transcript, pasted onto 3" x 5" cards, and filed alphabetically by surname in a card catalog cabinet in the Genealogy Department. If you have ancestors from Massachusetts or other New England states, see this file for a possible link to your ancestor.
Submitted by Robert Brasher, Library Liaison and Volunteer at Long Beach Public Library.
Source: Questing Heirs Genealogical Society Newsletter, P O Box 15102, Long Beach, CA 90815-0102.

Kirsty, daughter of Majoribanks Chief, weds Graeme Galbraith
Kirsty Leslie Majoribanks of Greenock, Scotland, youngest daughter of the Chief and of his wife Fiona, was married on September 6, 2003 to Graeme Donald Galbraith of the neighbouring town of Gourock.
The ceremony took place at Finnart St. Paul's Church, Greenock and was followed by a reception at the Royal Gourock Yacht Club and a dinner and dance at the Kip Marina, where all of the resident yachts were decorated from stem to stern with flags in honour of the occasion. The bride and groom, both enthusiastic sailors, spent their honeymoon cruising in the Firth of Clyde.
Our thanks for this information to The Marjoribanks Letter, The Majoribanks Family, 2228 Kipling Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1H6T5, Canada.

Help reopen the Statue of Liberty
The public has been unable to visit the Statue of Liberty since September 11, 2001. Due to security concerns there are a number of improvements that must be made before Lady Liberty can reopen.

The National Park Service in conjunction with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. is collecting funds to make these necessary improvements. Tax-deductible donations may be made online at http://www.statueofliberty.org/aboutframe.htm or mailed to The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., Department Open Liberty, 292 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017-7769.

Source: Escondido Genealogical Society Newsletter, P O Box 2190, Escondido, CA 92103-2190.

Understanding legal abbreviations important
Many old legal documents contain abbreviations, most of which derive from Latin. Sometimes a failure to understand their meaning can interfere with a correct interpretation of that document. Examples of some abbreviations are: et ux which means "and wife"; et vir which means "and husband"; d.s.p. which means "died without issue"; liber which means "book or volume"; or d.v.p. which means "died in the lifetime of his father."

Since legal documents such as probate records, court records and property transactions can provide so much information to genealogists, an understanding of legal terms is important. A very useful guide to legal terminology is Black's Law Dictionary. Paperback versions are reasonably priced and available in bookstores. It is also available in virtually all libraries.

Source: Escondido Genealogical Society Newsletter, P O Box 2190, Escondido, CA 92103-2190.