What You Missed: The March 2008 Computer Class

"European Resources Online" was the broad topic that Bette Butcher Topp addressed on March 15th in the Gates Computer Lab of the Spokane Public Library. Because of the wide scope and the literally thousands of websites that address genealogy in Europe, Bette's syllabus covered some main points and some of the most popular European countries to research. She encouraged her attendees to use Google ("denmark genealogy", "french genealogy", etc.) and Cyndi's List (go to the main page and find the name of the country you wish to research) to find more resources. I always enjoy Bette's classes and never attend without coming away having learned something new! Here are some of the things from her syllabus that were new to me:

• She listed a variety of terms used in old European village names. For instance, "juxtz" means "next to" and often referred to a river which was used to distinguish between two places with the same name.
• Wisconsin had a lot of Belgian immigrants, and so their state library has a lot of Belgian resources.
• Norway and Denmark have free sites on the Internet with census and parish records.
  

Bette has listed her syllabus online at her website here for a limited time only! I encourage you to visit and then print up her syllabus for future reference.

The next computer class will be presented by Donna Potter Phillips on "Ancestry.com - Extended" on Saturday, April 19th. If you are interested in signing up, please contact me, Miriam Robbins Midkiff, at the e-mail address listed in the previous paragraph, or see our member directory for my telephone number. Currently, there are some spots available during the 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM and the 1:30 - 2:30 PM sessions. You must be a current EWGS member to attend. If you are interested in joining EWGS, please go to our website here and download the membership application.