Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei
The Italian-American Genealogy Group (Washington, DC Metropolitan Area) held its quarterly meeting on July 16, 2016, at the Westover Branch Library,1644 North McKinley Road (Suite 3) (at the intersection of McKinney and Washington Blvd) Arlington, Virginia 22205 PH: 703 -228-5260
Maria M. called the meeting to order and introduced the speaker, Joe Guirreri. Here is the information from our meeting reminder regarding his qualifications:
The speaker for
our July meeting, Joe Guirreri, is
the VP of Business Development &
Operations of Cybersalus LLC and SKC LLC, both
Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small
Businesses (SDVOSB). He was Chair of the TechAmerica
DHS Vision Conference
Committee for 8 years. He had a 7-year Federal
appointment to the NIST Information
Security and Privacy Advisory Board. Previous to July
1997, he was a Colonel in the US Air
Force as Commander of DISA-Europe (Stuttgart,
Germany) and Commander of the 1962nd
Communications Group, (Okinawa, Japan). On a
Department of State delegation to
Moscow, he was awarded the Russian Radioman’s Badge
for leading the upgrades of the
US - Russia Hotline Systems. Joe has been in charge
of Cyber defenses for 9 years in the Air Force and,
after retirement, worked
Cyber Security for 17 years on Federal contracts.
The purposes of this presentation are to show some of
the basics of cyber security practices and how to best apply them in our
day-to-day genealogy practices. The intent is to provide some suggestions on
tools and practices that will help protect data and information. The
presentation is an introduction. It is not exhaustive, nor comprehensive. It is
geared toward a computer nonprofessional.
The presentation includes:
What is Cyber Security?
What are we trying to protect?
What are some of the common problem areas?
What can we do about these problem areas? Best practices and common sense first steps. Joe’s talk was on cyber security related to genealogists. Joe provided handouts with more details.
Bottom line: Make sure you have a good anti-virus
program and keep it up-to-date. Also, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP regularly, and
keep copies in at least two places. He suggested that one of those places
should NOT be at home.
After Joe’s presentation, there were discussions
regarding use of the cloud vs. retaining the data ourselves; sharing our
genealogy data with others who then put it on-line without acknowledging our
efforts; putting data on a site like Ancestry – the pros and cons; and the need
for backups.
When we went around the room, the following topics
came up:
Someone was asking for suggestions for finding info
on family members where the grandparents had multiple marriages/children.
Suggestions included: Search several sources: Newspapers, local historical
societies, city directories, census, church records, civil records, etc. Search
variations of spelling (e.g. an ‘f’ in one record was an ‘s’ in another) Make a
chronology for each person – dates and locations
Facebook: A brief discussion about the use of Facebook to get other family members to help in doing research. Some members think it is a great resource, while others seem to feel they are giving, but not receiving any help. It seems that many Facebook users do not think of privacy when using this resource, so it would probably be best to limit the data we share. Also, verify with a living person before sharing any of their info.
Palma Family: Two cousins met today for the first
time. Katherine and Donna met today at our meeting after Katherine did
extensive research. She gave details of how she uncovered several new cousins
while researching her mother, her mother’s three siblings, and their children.
Anne: In New Castle, Delaware, there is a large Italian
immigrant community mainly from the Abruzzo region. Anne’s brother John Ciafré created
the New Castle Italian Heritage Foundation (NCIHF) in order to erect a stone
with the names of the Italian families who were born in Italy and immigrated to
New Castle. The stone was to be delivered and put in place in the Spring 2016. Unfortunately,
the stone with the etched individual names was damaged beyond repair while in
transit to the site. The dedication will have to wait for a new stone to be
etched and another delivery. As it turns out, this delay has allowed the NCIHF
Directors to plan for a larger ceremonial dedication rather than the brief
dedication originally planned.
Joe and Margaret: Told the saga of searching for
the burial plot for an ancestor buried in Brooklyn in 1901. Found out that the
cemetery had a Day Book, meaning the book contained listings of all the burials
by date. The Death Certificate had the date of the Burial, however the name was
spelled differently. There was no head stone. However, when they talked to the
Caretaker, he was able to take them to the plot. They were told that they could
put up a headstone if they wanted. Of course, it would cost $$$. Not sure if
there were multiple people buried in the same plot. If so, if a stone were
purchased, all the names would need to be added.
Jane: She mentioned that she had gone to Sicily
several years ago, visited a cemetery and three years later the body had been
moved. A discussion about how cemeteries in Italy and other countries reuse
burial plots, removing the remains after some period of time and reusing the
plots. Sometimes, the names are etched on walls in the cemetery, probably for a
fee.
Jane also mentioned that research her husband did
years ago and shared via e-mail was later found to have been shared on
Ancestry, without acknowledging his work.
Carda and Paul: Carda recently wrote up a tutorial
on Facebook on how to set settings related to privacy info, etc. They also
mentioned that they visited Lithuanian Cemeteries and found them immaculate.
The caretakers were very helpful. So much so that when they visited the US,
they met up with Carda and Paul and were given tours of a few of the local
cemeteries, along with Arlington Cemetery.
John: John is reworking his wife’s family tree. He
uses Reunion for the Mac and his Ipad. A brief discussion about various
genealogy programs and how GEDCOMs can be used as backups. Note that GEDCOMs
contain data only, not photos.
Maria M.: Maria warned us to be aware that Ancestry
Trees may have information that is incorrect. There is no vetting process to
verify data that is shared on Ancestry. Nor are there requirements that sources
should be provided. Maria also talked about a new genealogy program, TNG – The
Next Generation generated by Darrin Lythgoe. Link is: //www.tngsitebuilding.com/ She
indicated that it was difficult for her to figure out, with a high
learning curve. She had gotten the program at Roots Tech 2014.
Submitted by:
Barb (Giglio) Morten
Anne Jeffery stepped down as Webmaster. She volunteered to take over this task a few years ago and has done a great job. Carda and Paul Trauero have returned to the area and Paul has volunteered to be our new Webmaster. They are also knowledgeable on the workings of Facebook and help our members with privacy questions and issued.
Be sure to visit our website for news and information on our next meeting. Also go to our Facebook Page and ask to join our friends. Both our web page, our Facebook page and emails can keep us informed about future events and help us stay connected with our mutual interests.
Website: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapip6gs/
Facebook Page: facebook.com/groups/930431287038610/