February 9, 2002, MEETING OF THE IMPERIAL ST. LANDRY GENEALOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, held at 10:00 AM, in the third floor auditorium of
the Opelousas General Hospital.
Estelle Perrault, President, called the meeting to
order. She introduced Charles
“Charlo” Guilbeau, President of the St. Pierre Genealogical Society of
Carencro. Mr. Guilbeau briefly
spoke about his introduction to genealogy, which occurred about five years ago.
When he spent time with his dying grandfather, he was told of relatives
who belonged to past generations. In
Mr. Guilbeau’s words, he became obsessed with finding out more about his
family’s history.
Mr. Guilbeau then presented his idea to produce a
CD, which would give an accurate portrayal of the people of South Louisiana.
He asked society members to make a list of suggestions about content of
the CD. Mr. Guilbeau plans to
attend the society’s meeting in March, at which there will be further
discussion. Miss Perrault appointed
a committee to work on suggestions for the narrative to be included in the CD.
The committee members are:
David Lanclos
Sylvia Morel
Wyolene
Orihuela
Etha Amling
Joan Nacoste.
Juergen Amling, Web Master for the society, asked
members for help in obtaining correct e-mail addresses for the following
members:
Eldridge Miller
Joe Miller
Evelyn Bertrand
Winston Deville
Erin Douget
Milton Guilbeau
Mr. Amling offered suggestions to maximize the use
of the computer. A short cut to
“copy “ when “highlighting” existing text which is to be included in an
e-mail message, is to press the “control” key and the “c” key.
This eliminates going to “file”, which pulls up “copy”, and then
pointing the cursor to “copy”.
He said that “control” and “v” key can be used
to “paste”.
Another tip he offered is: when forwarding a message (in AOL) that
you received from someone else, and you do not wish to include the whole
message, you can highlight only the part that you wish to forward and
then click "Forward" and write
your own personal message, if desired, and “send” the completed version and
it will include only the highlighted part instead of the whole original message.
He talked about the various formats used in
storing information, especially pictures. He
recommended storing those files in “jpg” file, because this compresses well
to a very small size, using very little “storage” space in the hard drive.
Comparison of the features offered in various
genealogy software was then presented, and Mr. Amling pointed out that all
available programs have both desirable and undesirable characteristics.
It is up to the individual user to decide which program is better suited
to his needs.
A very useful program, called “Family Tree Super
Tools”, takes data from other genealogy files, and will provide specific
information charts or reports on individuals.
It is not part of “Family Tree Maker” (in fact it has nothing to do
with "Family Tree Maker" but is put out by http://www.whollygenes.com
, the publisher of "The Master Genealogist" program), and will only
produce reports based on information transported from genealogy files.
Miss Perrault asked Juergen to speak with Robert Wolfe,
local engineer, who has a printer which is capable of printing oversized charts.
She suggested that the society might be able to acquire a used printer,
which could be used to print large family charts.
Deni Taylor won the door prize, which was a canvas
tote bag.
Glenda Schoeffler, who, with her father, is planning a
museum which would portray the historical and cultural significance of Louisiana
cattle brands, will be the speaker at the next meeting, on Saturday, March 9.
Meeting adjourned at 12:15PM.
Submitted by
Sylvia David Morel