The County LineBay County Genealogical Society Newsletter

Bay County, Florida

Volume 30, Number 1 January 2011

The Ancestry Detective Is Coming to Panama City!Seminar Scheduled for March 26, 2011

Debra Fleming, the Ancestry Detective, will be the speaker for our spring seminar. She has been a practicing genealogist for ten years. She is a graduate of FSU and the Institute of Genealogical and His-torical Research.

She holds memberships in Genealogical Speakers Guild, the Association of Professional Genealogists, and the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. She currently is a genealogy in-structor for the University of South Florida’s Life-long Learning Center.

The topics she will be presenting are “My Grandpa’s Three Wives: Untangling Multiple Mar-riages,” “Heritage Quest: An Underutilized Re-source!” “Family Traditions—Researching the Story,” and “Genealogy Bank: Finding Your Ances-tors in the News!”

More details will be forthcoming on our Web site and at our meetings. Make plans to attend!

This is a great opportunity to hear one of Florida’s most popular genealogical speakers. You will meet others who share your interests, frustrations, and successes. See the registration form on page 9.

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In This Issue...........................................................President’s Message 2

......................Family Tree Maker Now Available for Mac 2...........................................Who DO You Think You Are? 3

..............................BCGS Executive Board for 2011-2012 3....................................................Welcome New Members 4

...................................................................Coming Events 4.....................................................................Fall Programs 5

..........................................................Web Master’s Report 6..............................................................Librarian’s Corner 7

.........................................................................New Books 8................................................Seminar Registration Form 9

President’s MessageNew Initiatives

The birth and evolution of the Internet has pro-vided almost instant access to both finding aids and original documents needed by genealogists. Back in the bad old days, we ordered a microfilmed Soundex of, say, the 1900 census of Somestate, USA, from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, waited three weeks for delivery, drove to the local Family History Center to examine it, found our an-cestor’s listing (maybe), ordered another microfilm of the original census for the county of interest, waited three more weeks for delivery, drove to the Family History Center, examined the images, tran-scribed the relevant information onto our note paper, took it home to study, and hopefully—if it was our ancestor of interest—entered the results into our ge-nealogy software. Then we saw that we needed the 1880 census to push out ancestral horizon further back into the past. And the process repeated.

Investment: six weeks elapsed time plus handling and mailing cost of $11, plus fuel.

Today, it is possible to trace a family back through almost 100 years in a matter of two or three hours online at Ancestry.com. If using the local county library’s subscription to Ancestry, the cost is just your fuel cost to the Library. If you have a sub-scription to Ancestry.com, you don’t even have to leave your home. You don’t even have to get dressed. A few cynics of my acquaintance even say that trac-ing families is so easy these days that they are losing interest and seeking more challenging hobbies.

However, the Internet has also forced many pro-found changes in the way businesses do business. For example, our local News Herald has been forced to make major changes in their operations in order to survive. Among the changes that affect genealogists, it has eliminated the former access to birth, marriage, and death notices back to about 2000. Currently, in

order to bolster its revenues, the NH has formed a partnership with Legacy.com to provide older obitu-aries for a price of $ 2.95 each.

Our index to obituaries in the NH, compiled largely by Joan Perrullo, terminates at 20 April 2006. At the present time, the News Herald obituary ar-chives extends only back to January 1, 2008, which leaves a gap of April 21, 2006 through December 31, 2007 without an index. So our board voted to address this vacuum by creating an index to the NH obituaries during that period. Sarah Sapp has volun-teered to chair the group to correct that deficiency.

In addition, we received word that the administra-tor of the Bay County Rootsweb Message Board wished to step down. Mary K. McGraw has volun-teered to take over that task. Once again, your Soci-ety has stepped up to the plate to serve this commu-nity.

Bill Zehner, President✣

Family Tree Maker Now Available for Mac

For the first time in more than a decade, Mac users can now run Family Tree Maker on their Intel-based OS X operating sys-tem.

Available from Ancestry.com at $69, it is priced to compete with Reunion, but is slightly more pricey than most other Mac genealogy software like GE-DitCOM and MacFamilyTree. Those switching from a PC version of FTM can import their files directly into the Mac-based FTM 2011.

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2 The County Line Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011

Who DO You Think You Are?

Fall Seminar well attended

Our October 9 seminar was well attended, and received very positive reviews. It is the first time in years we have held two seminars in one year. Di-rected by Judy Bennett and produced entirely by BCGS members, it drew 35 attendees and provided a small profit after expenses. Four timely topics were carefully nestled in between donuts, coffee, pastries, a huge number of door prizes, and a great lunch.

S p e c i a l p r i c i n g y ie lded seven new members. We always collect comments and evaluations from at-tendees, and the results this year were both gratifying and surpris-ing. Gratifying in that there were virtually no negatives comments, and another interesting result was several peo-ple who reported that “everyone was very friendly.” That says a lot about the kind of mem-bers we have, and we are very proud of that. Particularly surprising was the response to the question about where attendees learned about the seminar. Leading the pack were:

• f r o m a r e g u l a r meeting

• from a friend• from the BCGS Web page• from Education Encore at the GCCC

The News Herald, which in past seminars has al-ways been the leading referral source, did not even appear in the rankings.

Topics included “Beginnings” presented by Eliza-beth Crusan, “Military Records” presented by Janice Cronan, “Cemetery Records” presented by Bill Zeh-ner, and “Using Our Local Library for Genealogy Research,” by Becky Saunders.

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BCGS Executive Board for 2011-2012

This year’s nominating committee, consisting of Chairman Phyllis Hamilton, Janice Cronan, and Jane Hinman, presented a slate of candidates to the mem-bers assembled at our annual meeting on December 18. The following nominees were elected for the coming year. Please bring your suggestions for im-proving your Society to their attention, and please support their efforts to improve our contributions to the community.

Committee chairs will be appointed at the busi-ness meeting in January. Your board is looking for a few good volunteers to serve in various capacities.

Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011 The County Line 3

Speakers, top to bottom: Elizabeth Crusan, Janice Moore Cronan, and Becky Brown Saunders Photos by Ron Young

Office OfficerPresident William J. Zehner, CG

Vice President-Programs Mary K. McGrawVice President-Membership Judy BennettRecording Secretary Marlene WomackCorresponding Secretary Suzanne ShayTreasurer Walter ShermanDirector Diana CochranDirector Sally RinehartDirector Becky SaundersDirector Linda Sowell

Welcome New MembersBy Judy Bennett

Please welcome our new members to the Society.

At the Beginner's Seminar, Kathleen Ove, Richard and Edyth Brown, Barbara Blum, Guy Jencks, David Lloyd, and Kathleen O'Brien took advantage of the special for new members. David is the son of Bruce and Carolyn Lloyd.

At the October meeting, Ben and Jan Williams

and James Bieler joined for the first time. They are working on their ancestors for First Families of Bay County.

During the November meeting, we welcomed

back Alice Locke and Mary Ann Buswell. Ann Mur-ray joined as a new member.

New members, we are so glad you are with us.

We hope our programs and seminars will benefit your research. Let us know if you are having prob-lems, as we have some “old timers” who would be glad to help you.

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Coming EventsComputer Scanning & Translation

of DocumentsBy Fred Borg

January 15, 2011: Fred Borg will show us some quick and effective tricks for scanning printed pages and converting them into MS Word or PDF files. He will also discuss how to translate documents from one language to another.

Genealogy After HoursWith Becky Saunders

January 20, 2011: Becky and the Bay County Public Library staff will open the Library from 5 to 8 p.m. for genealogists wishing to do family research. Beginners will receive a beginners’ information packet and assistance from the staff. Reservations are required. Please call 850-522-2130 to reserve a seat.

Digital Books on the InternetBy Judy Bennett

4 The County Line Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011

Members of our seminar committee, left to right: Jane Hinman, Sarah Sapp, Janice Cronan, Linda Sow-ell, Judy Bennett (chair), Mary K. McGraw, Bill Zehner, Suzanne Shay, Sally Rinehart, Diana Cochran, Becky Sanders, Walter Sherman, and Elizabeth Crusan. Photo by Ron Young

February 19, 2011: Today genealogists can find their families in digitized books now available on the Internet. I will show you different Web sites I have found that feature books that may help find your family. More and more archives, libraries, and ge-nealogical Web sites are digitizing books. Most are older books that are not copyrighted, but there are also more recent books. We will explore and see what we can find.

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Fall ProgramsResearching My Bay County Pio-

neer FamilyBy Jody Herring

October 16, 2010: Jody Herring presented an interesting and edu-cational briefing on some of the things he learned while research-ing two of his wife’s ancestral lines, as well as lessons learned in the process of qualifying those ancestors for certi-fication as First Families of Bay County. Those pio-neers spanned several generations and nine of them were certified last year. He stressed particularly the need to study the instructions until you understand them, and to ask for help with issues that are not clear. That would have saved him considerable time in the end. Jody has prepared applications previously for lineage societies. He is currently serving as a FFBC application judge.

William Cawthon and His Descen-dants

By Sarah McSwain and Linda Clark

November 20, 2010: Sarah McSwain and Linda Clark presented the fascinating story of William

Cawthon and his descendants. The Cawthon family migrated from England near the end of the seven-teenth century into Virginia. Some family members moved into South Carolina. Subsequent generations moved into Georgia, and later, into south Alabama where Dothan now stands. One family descendant named William became a resident of Walton County and was taken prisoner at Pensacola during the War for Southern Independence by General Alexander Asboth, who will be remembered by those attending our September meeting as the Union’s commanding officer at the Battle of Marianna.

McSwain and Clark, who met online by virtue of a common interest in the Cawthon family, joined

Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011 The County Line 5

Sarah McSwain, left, and Linda Clark, right.Below, several descendants of William Cawthon were present for the presentation. Left-to-right, they are Richard Cawthon, Ruth Glenn, Stevie Atkins, and Scott Atkins. Photos by Becky Saun-ders

forces to research this family. They subsequently wrote a well-documented book that sold out rapidly and is now out of print. Sarah related fascinating sto-ries about several of William Cawthon’s descen-dants, both rogues and heros Some of them are well-known personalities.

Annual Meeting

December 18, 2010: Our bylaws require election of officers and directors at our annual meeting in even-numbered years, so we held elections and in-duction of officers for the 2011-2012 term. The nominating committee presented a list of candidates, and the floor was opened for nomination. That was followed by the president's citation, recognition of some very special long-term members of this Soci-ety. Following that brief business agenda we had our Christmas party, which included a large selection of edibles and a tree ornament exchange.

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Web Master’s ReportOnline Databases Approaching

100,000 RecordsBy William Zehner

This year has been a very busy one for your Web master. Owing to a meltdown within the US GenWeb and Florida GenWeb, we withdrew our participation in that organization and created a functionally simi-lar page that serves the needs of Bay County gene-alogists even better. It is called GenGate, a “Re-search Portal to the Known Genealogical Resources of Bay County, Florida.” The site was carefully de-signed to provide easy, fast, and direct access to every Bay County genealogical asset that is currently either online or available world wide via the Family History Library microfilm lending program.

Most of the databases pointed to by this portal have been created by the Bay County Genealogical Society and are maintained on its Web site, which is

hosted free by Ancestry.com as part of the agreement under which it acquired RootsWeb.com. Other links reach out to local, state, and federal sites for histori-cal maps, deeds, original land grants; and scanned images of the Panama City Pilot, the Lynn Haven Tribune, and the St. Andrews Bay News. Even those who have no ancestral roots in Bay County can bene-fit from this site by studying the types of resources for this county that are equal or similar to resources found in many other counties. For example, did you know that maps of the evolution of counties for every state in the union, from the earliest European settlements in North America to the present, are available online? Go to www.northwestflorida genealogy.com/gengate, click on “Maps,” and choose “Evolution of Florida Counties.” Then choose your state of interest and view the county boundaries as they evolved over time.

Our Society, like thousands across the nation, serves by providing connective links to those seeking their ancestors, even those who never lived here, and who will never contribute anything to our commu-nity.

Why are we investing time and energy on the his-torical records of a county that most of us have no ancestral interest in? Well, guess what, folks? All of us have ancestors who lived somewhere other than where we live now. And we depend on the genealogy societies, historical societies, and public libraries in the counties where our ancestors lived to compile finding aids to their counties and make them acces-sible to us. Not all counties do that, but if not, then how can we complain about them if we ourselves do not strive to make our county's records available?

Over the past six years, our Society has made some really remarkable advances in the services it offers to the northwest Florida community. During 2010, we added just under 6,000 records to our on-line collection of indexes to births, marriages, obitu-aries, early voters lists, and county history books. Judy Bennett completed the marriage index for the five-year period 1931-1935, which makes our mar-riage index complete from 1913 through 1955 except

6 The County Line Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011

for a gap from 1943 to 1944. Judy, Cindy D’Aurora, and Fred Borg created indexes for four more county histories, bringing our total to 17 county histories that now have a single, combined index.

We also added another year to the Panama City Pilot birth, marriage, and obituary indexes; and two years to the Lynn Haven Tribune index. Of particular interest to those researching Bay County ancestors for their First Families of Bay County certification, Becky Saunders discovered an index to the County’s first primary election in a 1914 edition of the Lynn Haven Tribune. It contains about 1169 voters who were required to be residents here by August 1911, one year before the August 1912 registration. There-fore, everyone of the voters on this list meets the residency requirement to become a First Families of Bay County Pioneer.

Extractions for 2010 are summarized in the table below. We currently have a total of 96,989 records online in 18 databases.

Librarian’s CornerPowerful New Databases Added

By Becky Saunders

Two important new databases have been added to the Bay County Public Library’s growing collection of research tools for genealogists.

Access NewspaperARCHIVE provides public li-braries access to NewspaperARCHIVE.com's histori-cal newspaper database, which claims it is the world's largest online newspaper archive. While in the Library, patrons can browse, view, save and print more than 100 million newspaper pages dating from 1750 to 1977.

American Ancestors is a brand new research site produced by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Containing a huge collection of databases, it replaces the old NEHGS site, which had 400 indi-vidual search pages, with a powerful global search engine that permits searching all those databases at once. This site offers access to an extraordinary col-lection of original documents. It is heavily oriented around New England resources, but not exclusively so. A tutorial on using the site is available here: http://americanancestors.org/website-tutorial

Both new sites are available on the premises of Bay County Public Library on any of the public computers.

Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011 The County Line 7

Extractions during 2010Extractors Project years # recordsJudy Bennett Bay County Marriages Index 1931-1935 1919William Zehner Bay County Voters Index 1914 1169Judy Bennett An Authentic Report and History of St. Andrews Bay, Florida 1888 99

Cindy D'Aurora St. Andrews, Florida: Historical Notes Upon St. Andrews and St. Andrews Bay

1922 1172

Judy Bennett Compare With Your Life and Laugh, Lead, Live, and Look 1977 54

Fred Borg Images of America: Millville 2005 1013William Zehner PC Pilot BMD Index 1921 206William Zehner Lynn Haven Tribune BMD Index 1917-1918 27William Zehner News Herald Obituary Index Oct-Nov 2010 336

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Meanwhile, those who have a valid BCP Library card can still access Heritage Quest from their home. Experienced researchers have discovered that, when certain census images at Ancestry.com are difficult to read, Heritage Quest images may be superior.

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New BooksIn the Genealogical Collection Of

The Bay County Public LibraryBy Rebecca Brown Saunders

Genealogy SpecialistBay County Public Library

24 November 2010

AlabamaWilliam Weatherford : his country 

and his people by Lynn Hastie Thompson.—Thompson, Lynn Hastie — AL Gen R 976.121 THO

Connecticut The military and civil history of Connecticut during 

the war of 1861­65. Comprising a detailed ac­count of the various regiments and batteries, through march, encampment, bivouac, and bat­tle; also instances of distinguished personal gal­lantry, and bio — Croffut, W. A. (William Augustus) 1839‐1919 — CT Gen R 974.6 CRO

Florida This is my life : beginning 1889 through 1976 / — 

Reddick, Walker H., Sr., 1833‐1981. — FL Gen 929.2 RED

GeorgiaLand records of Houston County, Georgia / — 

Campbell, Davine V. — GA Gen R 929.3758 CAM

GeneralThe beginner's guide to using tax lists / — Carroll, 

Cornelius — Gen R 929 CAR

Supplement to Torrey's New England marriages prior to 1700 / — Sanborne, Melinde Lutz. — Gen R 929.3 SAN

VirginiaLand records of King George County, Virginia, 

1721­1743 / — Damron, Sue Ann — VA Gen R 929.3755 DAM

Virginia colonial abstracts / — Fleet, Beverley, 1883 — VA Gen R 929.3755 FLE

Virginia colonial abstracts / — Fleet, Beverley, 1883 — VA Gen R 929.3755 FLE

Virginia colonial abstracts / — Fleet, Beverley, 1883 — VA Gen R 929.3755 FLE

Virginia colonial abstracts / — Fleet, Beverley, 1883 — VA Gen R 929.3755 FLE

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8 The County Line Volume 30, Number 1, January 2011

Membership Renewal Time!BCGS memberships expire at the end of De-cember. If a $ sign appears on your address label of this issue, your dues are delinquent. Please tender payment promptly so you won’t miss any issues of The County Line.

Please mail your check or money order for $20 to: Membership Chairperson Bay County Genealogical SocietyP.O. Box 15294 Panama City, FL 32406-5294. Or save postage by paying Judy at our next meeting. Also, please indicate whether you prefer to receive your newsletter by postal mail or email.

Seminar Registration Form

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The County Line is a newsletter of the Bay County Genealogical Society (BCGS)The County Line is published quarterly (January, April, July, and October) by the BCGS. Subscription to The County Line is included in the dues of the members of the BCGS. Subscription for nonmembers is $10 annually. Editor: William J. Zehner, CGSM. E-mail: lyzehner@knology.netPostmaster: Send address changes to the Bay County Genealogical Society at the address shown above.

Bay County Genealogy SocietyP. O. Box 662Panama City, FL 32402-0662

THE BAY COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETYP.O. BOX 662 PANAMA CITY, FL 32402-0662

The Bay County Genealogical Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement, education and promotion of personal and general genealogical research and the preservation of historical records relative thereto, for the cultural enrichment of the people of Bay County, Florida, and surround-ing areas.

Membership in this organization, with voting rights and the right to hold office, is open to anyone, without restriction of race, color, creed, or sex, who has a continuing interest in genealogy and whose membership dues are current.

Meetings are held the third Saturday of each month at 1:00 p.m. in the Panama City Library. The Executive Board meets in the Library at 10:00 a.m. also on the third Saturday of the month. Membership dues are $20 per year for individuals, $20 for single-address families, and $10 for full-time students, pay-able in December for the following year. Our Web address is www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbcgs