Vol 5 January 2002

2002 Meeting & Events Schedule
Milwaukee May 15-18 2001 National Genealogical Society
Trip to Salt Lake City - Part 2
Annual Enumeration of Farm Statistics - Good Stuff
November 10, 2001 Meeting
January 12, 2002 Meeting

As a general rule, meetings will be held at the Plain Library on the 2^nd Saturday of the month at 9:30 am in "odd" months. An email and newsletter will come out before the meeting. Things can change so check the website and watch your mail.

Jan 12 Mar 9 May 11 Jul 13 Sep 14 Nov 9

We would also like to have some guided trips in 2002. Some good possibilities would include a trip to Baraboo to visit the Sauk County Court House and the Sauk County Historical Museum. Another spot to check out is the Wisconsin Historical Society Library in Madison. For planning purposes, it is likely that these trips would take place in April 2002 and June 2002. Drop me a line if you are interested and what dates would work for you.

Costs: You can attend one day or more days as you wish. The cost per day is $75. To attend all four days of lectures, the cost is $195. (For members of the NGS the cost is $165. I believe the annual membership is $40-$50, so there doesn't appear to be a big discount for being a member.) If you register after Mar 18 2002, the cost jumps to $225.

This gets you in the door. There are extras if you want them.

Labs & Workshops. These are one to two hour sessions at a cost of $50 each. Most of theses are computer related. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANY OF THESE SESSIONS. 1) they are expensive 2) you have to "miss" a lecture to attend them 3) the topics seemed to be geared for beginners - but I think they are too short to get anything out of them 4) you will be better finding a computer geek to help you one to one.

Lunch & Dinner. Lunches cost $21 and they are put on by different groups. I will be attending several of these lunches only because I want to meet people from these groups. For the "normal" person who only wants to get something to eat, this is a little pricey. I can point you to several nearby places to eat.

Dinners cost $33 to $41 dollars. As with lunches, you could probably do better yourself. I would strongly recommend going out to the Miller Baseball Park for a game. The baseball schedule is not available yet. Even if there isn't a game, there is a casual, moderately priced restaurant that is open all but 2 days a year. It is great to eat overlooking the outfield. I plan on going out to the park during the conference.

Vendor tables: Bring cash and credit cards. There will be people selling books, magazines, tapes, computer stuff and all kinds of other stuff. For me, the conference is done when I am out of money or the weight of the stuff that I bought slows me down.

Lectures: These are the main reason you go. Go to the website to get a detailed list of what is being offered. The following are the ones I am considering.

Some lecture tips.

Eat a light lunch. - If not you can be one of the many people that fall asleep
Talk to people - You never know who you are going to meet
If you are only going to attend one day - Saturday might be the best

Possible trip scenario: Arrive Friday Afternoon, take in a Friday Night Brewers Game,find a "guide" and visit downtown Milwaukee. Saturday attend lectures, go to Maders Restaurant for a good German dinner (and Hummel shop). Sunday visit the ZOO and the Mitchell Park Conservatory and Lake Michigan

In the last newsletter, I wrote about how to get to Salt Lake City, where to stay and some places to eat. What makes it worth the 5+ hour trip? In this issue I will write about why you would want to go in the first place.

The main reason to go is that the world's greatest genealogical library is found in Salt Lake City at the Family History Library - FHL . The LDS church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) has gathered records from all over the world. The fact that all this stuff is in one place makes this a "gotta see" library.

It is true that you don't have to go to FHL to use their films. For about $4 each you can have the films sent to a local LDS Family History Center. However it can be "quicker" to review an entire community's films onsite. (Waldmuenchen has over 150 films itself.)

The library also has all the census and shipping records. These records can be gotten at the WHS library in Madison. You definitely want to use the records in Madison before you go to Salt Lake City. It is a waste of your time in FHL to look up stuff that you could've looked at on a weekend while at home. However, when you are doing research you generally will find some "hot" clue in a foreign film that you want to nail down. Having all the films at your fingertips in FHL will make your research easy.

Another reason to go to FHL is that most of their books can not be sent to the local Family History Center. These books cover a wide range of topics: local history, holdings at foreign archives, family pedigrees.

The staff is another reason to make the trip. The staff has a wide and deep level of experience in "everything." These staff members are very familiar with the language of "their" country and many have done research in foreign countries. I was able to find one of these staff members to hire as a translator. (I have a number of old German documents.) This person is able to read the old German script and translate on the fly. She also was very familiar with the documents. There is a German expert on duty at all times - so you can get a lot of free help.

There are a lot of rules and helpful research tips that can be found in books. One of the best, and most up-to-date, is GOING TO SALT LAKE CITY to DO FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH by Paula & James Warren. This book also covers a lot of the things that you should do to prepare for the trip.

Even if you weren't interested in genealogical research, Salt Lake City is a great place to visit. In the next newsletter, I will write about some of the things to see as a tourist.

This might sound boring but it is really good stuff. Each year since 1923, each farm had to fill out an annual report. These reports are available in Madison at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library (1923-1980). What stuff is on these reports? The specific questions change from year to year, but there are basic categories.

Who is on the farm: The name of person operating the farm and the postal office serving the farm. Many of the years include the number of people living on the farm. Some give the age of the operator of the farm. On some there is a breakdown of the people living on the farm by age ranges.

Crops: What was grown on the farm is given in acres or bushels. Wheat, oats, hay, cabbage, corn, beans, clover, tobacco, beet, cucumbers, soybeans, peas, rye, and barley are some of the crops covered.

Animals: Cows, cattle, pigs and chickens are covered in most years. Bulls and horses appear in a few of the years.

Miscellaneous: The number of acres, silos, and tractors are counted for various years. Some of the "earlier" years have data about when electricity was brought to the farm and for what it was used. One of the years even has the name of the cheese factory used by the farm. Some years ask whether there was a furnace, running water and a bathroom.

I have copied many of the records for Franklin, Plain and Bear Creek. It is my intention to copy "all" of these records for the local area and create a CD disk of this data. If possible, I would like to have this done by the end of Summer 2002.

There were several handouts distributed at the meeting. Eventually all of these will be available at the website.

We started with a review of the Nov 2001 newsletter. This review included the Oct 20, 2001 Wisconsin State Genealogical Society seminar that dealt with how to use archives. The May 15-18, 2002 National Genealogical Society convention that will be held in Milwaukee was talked about in general terms. The current newsletter has more details about this event. The benefits of joining the Milwaukee PAF User Group was discussed.

The first attempt at a brochure describing our group was handed out. This brochure will be helpful in letting people know about our group. This first draft was to see how pictures would turnout and get a feel for how much information can be included. The "final" draft will be prepared after the new library is open.

We had a discussion of how to use the information that we have on computer disks. Since a large part of what our group does involves a computer, this will be the first of many computer training sessions. The "only" way that you will learn how to use a computer is to actually work with one. One of the first steps of learning is to understand the boatload of computer terms and phrases. After you hear this stuff a couple hundred times it starts to make sense. Some portion of every meeting will deal with a computer related topic.

Since many of our ancestors lived on farms, information about these farms fills out the picture of how they lived. A handout of the transcription of the 1860 Federal Census Agriculture Supplemental Schedule for Franklin Township was distributed. This transcription shows detail information about individual farms. We also discussed the Annual Enumeration of Farm Statistics filled out by farmers between 1923-1980.

Karen Beth gave a presentation on the Sep 2001 seminar held in Loganville. This seminar was put on by the Wisconsin Council for Local History, southwest region. The seminar was sponsored by the FRIENDSHIP RURAL SCHOOL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The goal of this society is to preserve the rural school that closed due to school consolidations in the 1960's. The society has entered into an agreement with local Amish that allows the Amish to use the school in exchange for maintaining the building.

One of the benefits of attending these types of meetings is that you get to meet people that are also researching local history. You never know who you will meet that is researching the same topics that you are.

A highlight of the day was the playing of a movie about 1907 in Loganville. It is a movie of reenactments by current people about what it was like to be in those times. The narrator of the movie is a teenage boy and done with a great sense of humor. This film is available through the Sauk Co Library System and is a definite recommendation.

In the afternoon, one of the Amish farmers talked with the group. He told us about the Amish culture and answered questions. Education of their children, handling of horses, means of transportation, use tractors, medical treatment and the origins of the Amish were discussed.

The day was finished by a tour of the school. In all it was a great day.

We talked about the changes to our group's website. The HAAS-BAUER portion of the website gives you access to the data on the 6-disk set. There is a tremendous amount of data on these disks. The trick is knowing how to get at this information.

The website now has indices that summarize what are on the disks. These indices are in PDF format, which can be printed out. I would recommend that you printout the

ALPHA GROUPS and SUMMARY OF PERSONS.

Some new sections have been added to the PLAIN HISTORY GENEALOGY portion of the website. One new area deals with our members. Members can submit data about themselves that will be posted to the website (when I get around to it). This member data can be thought of as "bait." The website can be viewed by anybody in the world. You never know who might be able to help you with your personal research. This "bait" can get them to contact you.

Another new area deals with LOST & FOUND. Everybody has photos they can't identify or research problems they need help with. This section of the website will allow you to post your problems to the world looking for help. Results can't be guaranteed but you would be surprised who might see the stuff and can help you.

We looked a number of websites. Links to these websites are found on SELECTED WEBPAGES. Some sites that I recommend that you visit often are:

000 GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE - the best search engine on the website

001 SHSW madison - gives you access to online catalogs of the Wis Historical Society

005 LDS FamilySearch - gives you access to the holdings of the LDS church.

300 Waldmunchen - german website covering the home of many of our ancestors

100 Library of Congress - like your grandma's attic, there is lots of stuff here

We also had a great deal of "unstructured play time" that allowed attendees to talk. It was amazing the stuff that people had. There were some amazing old photos. And we had the benefit of a "young" guy who was able to identify some mystery people in the old photos that people brought it.

Our next meeting will be held Saturday January 12, 2002 at 9:30 am upstairs at the Plain Library. We will have a presentation on what you can find out about the ship that your ancestors came to the United States on, and how & where you can find stuff. There will be "shorter" discussions on digital cameras and pay-to-use genealogy sites.

We will also have a lot of unstructured playtime. Bring your stuff and your "problems" to the meeting so they can be shared with the group.

Be sure to check the website occasionally. solo18.abac.com/garylhaas/