Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include parts of the first two paragraphs and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.
Don Snow
UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 9 May 2009, from 9 am until noon IN THE EDGEWOOD/RIVERSIDE LDS CHAPEL, 3511 North 180 East, Provo, Utah. The chapel is behind the Jamestown shopping plaza on the east side of University Avenue in the Provo "River Bottoms". You get to it by turning east at 3700 North ("Will's Pit Stop") from University Avenue and then south on 180 East. There is a map showing the new and old locations on the group's website http://uvpafug.org .
The main presentation for this meeting will be by Donald R. and Diane M. Snow on FINDING GRANDMA THROUGH THE LONDON FAMILY HISTORY CENTRE. Don and Diane Snow recently returned from the England London Mission with the particular assignment of serving in the London Family History Centre. This presentation will describe the odyssey of finding information about Don's Grandmother, Ann Stafford Snow Condie. Where she was christened in England and information about her family have been a genealogy brickwall for many years. The Snows daughter, Linda Westover, in preparing for a trip to visit them in London a year ago, found information in an index of a parish register that was newly posted online and which broke through the 20-year old brickwall and opened up lots more. They will describe the entire odyssey and show how they used websites, timelines, libraries, GPS's, Google maps, digital newspapers, and many other on- and off-line genealogy records. This research all culminated with the visit of the daughter and her husband to England and a trip to see the actual location in Derbyshire. The Snows both taught at BYU, Don in Mathematics and Diane in Humanities. They have 6 children who live with their families in Utah, the Midwest, and on both coasts. Don and Diane are snowbirds and spend part of the year in Provo and part in St. George. Don was one of the early founders of the UVPAFUG and has been working with and teaching classes for it since 1991.
Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) On the Path with PAF, by Ralph Hansen; (2) PAF 5: Advanced Search, Custom Lists, Global Search and Replace, by Duane Dudley; (3) Discussion: Genealogy Software for the MAC (cont'd), by John McKinney; (4) Workshop: Organizing Your Family History System, by Beth Ann Wiseman & Renee Zamora; (5) Q&A on Finding Grandma, the London FHC, and British Research, by Don & Diane Snow; (6) Video of last month's main presentation: Exciting Family History Discoveries in the BYU Special Collections Library, by Roger Flick; (7) Legacy, by Joel Graham; (8) RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell; and (9) Ancestral Quest, by Don Engstrom.
All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow and Brian Cooper, VP's; Beth Ann Wiseman, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are online at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.
Don Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group
Donald R. Snow, recently returned from the England London Mission,
London Family History Centre
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
snowd@math.byu.edu
