TGS Newsletter
Vol. 25 No. 10 January 2007

Visit our home page at http://www.rootsweb.com/~laterreb/tgs.htm

QUARTERLY COLLATING
     We REALLY need your help, this time, no fooling. Several of our members are seriously incapacitated and will have to stay home. So WE NEED YOU!!!
     We will start at a little after 12 noon on Thursday, 25 January, 2007, at the North Branch meeting room. BE THERE!!! 
     P.S. If a lot of helpers show up, we could finish in record time, and you can take a copy home with you to read right then.... and a good time was had by everyone at the Christmas Social. I’m sure. I know I did. We had a short (absurdly so) business meeting, introduction of guests, and lots of refreshments and gifts (not necessarily in that order). I particularly want to note that some of our guests made a special effort to attend our 25th anniversary celebration. I distinctly remember seeing Wilma B. BOUDREAUX, Ledora S. HERNANDEZ and her husband, Juan, Jim and Judy COGSWELL, and I enjoyed listening to their reminiscences of how things were done “in those early days of the society.” We owe all those early members a debt of gratitude, for it is largely because of the work that they did that our society has the respect that it has today. You can contribute, too, if you wish. Tell us what you need and how we can help you “do your genealogy.” What kind of articles do you need in our quarterly? Let us publish your memoirs and your research. Have you traced a family back to Acadia, England or France? Send your thoughts and ideas to our quarterly editor, Audrey WESTERMAN, at the address of the society, above. Or email her at the following address: awesterman at mobiletel.com. She will be glad to hear from you, I guarantee. And she just loves queries. No matter how long you have been looking for someone, don’t give up on your queries. Audrey told me that she found a query online that had been there since 2002, waiting for a response, and just this week was able to send the person an answer. Submit that query or queries. The more the better. But make sure the query gives everything you know about the person being researched.
     Speaking of the beginning of the society, be sure to check out Vol. 1, No. 1 of the newsletter, noting the enthusiasm of those early days. Have we lost some of that drive? Don’t get confused, now. The information is twenty-five years old. Your dues are different, now (Surprise, surprise!).
     And speaking of dues, it is time to check your mailing label to see if you need to renew your membership. On the first line is the mailing code: MS, 5-3, 4-C. 6-C. etc. tells the volunteers how to sort the newsletters to please the U.S. Postal workers. Next is the type of membership: Complementary, Contributing, Exchange quarterly, Family, Individual, Lifetime or Library. The last item on the top line is EX2/07 and/or EX2/08 which tells you when your membership expires. If you see 07 then your membership expires at the end of February, 2007.  And, of course, 08 means February 2008. I hope I don’t have to tell you that February 2007 is next month. So, if you want to keep receiving this scintillating newsletter and our fabulous quarterly, Terrebonne Life Lines, you have to make sure your label says EX2/08 by sending in your dues. Which are: $25 for an individual, $30 for families. Check out the enclosed application blank for the latest and best information.

DEATH: It is with a heavy heart that I report the passing of a good friend and faithful charter member of our society. Dorothy NAQUIN SMITH died Friday, December 1, 2006. She was 83, a native of Gray, LA, and a resident of Schriever, LA. Dorothy was buried in St. Bridget Catholic Church Cemetery, after services in the church. She is survived by one son, William SMITH, Jr.; two daughters, Ananell BRACY and Phyllis SMITH; one brother, Donald NAQUIN; three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, William R. SMITH; her parents, O’Neil and Jeanne PREJEAN NAQUIN; one granddaughter, Jodie BANAS; one brother, O’Neil NAQUIN Jr.; and one sister, Ann NAQUIN ROBINSON.
TERREBONNE PARISH LIBRARY: Do you want to learn how to use the new equipment? Specifically the ST200 Scanner. It works through the computer that is placed against the wall to the right as you enter the Genealogy Department. It can scan books and other printed material, and besides that, can copy from microfilm. It makes a digital copy, so whatever you do with a digital copy, you can (eventually) do with this. Make a hard (printed) copy, email it to yourself at home, or to another researcher, put it on a portable memory device, like a floppy disk or a USB flash drive.
     I purposely said “eventually” because the email and printer have yet to be set up, as of this writing. But I’m excited about the flash drive. If you use a computer, you may want to get one of these, anyway. They are available pretty much anywhere, now: Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Target. I found some good bargains at the last two places: 512MB for $13.99 and $9.99; 1.0GB 2-pack for $37.99. Should I explain that MB and GB are measurements of storage space? You may already know that a regular 3.5-inch floppy can hold a little over 1MB (1.44MB, to be exact), so a flash drive that can hold 512MB will hold as much as 355 floppies. A flash drive with 1.0 GB of space can hold as much as 1000MB — like two of the 512MB drives or 694 floppies. About names: people call them different things: Target calls them “USB Drives,” imation (a manufacturer) calls them “Flash Drives,” Sony calls theirs “Micro-Vault Tiny — Lexar Jump Drives,” Memorex “Travel Drive,” SanDisk “Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive.” Depending on your expected use, you shouldn’t need a very big one, (They are all small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.) (I’m referring to capacity.) somewhere in the range of 64 to 256MB should be plenty big enough unless you want to download music or graphics. Some of the files from the scanner ran in the 0.5MB to 1.0MB range. Of course, if you can afford it, go as big as you can.
     Back to the subject: learning how to use the equipment: Darryl ESCHETE, Reference Librarian, has kindly offered to give instruction on the ST200 to our members on Tuesday evenings January 23 and January 30 at 5:30 in the Genealogy Department. It should take less than an hour, depending on questions, of course. After this month, we will see about individual training for volunteers from our society.

LOUISIANA GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY SEMINAR: Mark your calendar: Saturday, 14 April 2007 is the date; Holiday Inn South, 9940 Airline Hwy., Baton Rouge 70816 (Airline at I-12) is the place. John A. SELLERS, nationally known speaker, and a specialist in courthouse research in Texas and Louisiana will give four presentations. Full details are available at http://www.rootsweb.com/~la-lghs/ Members registering before April 1, 2007: $30. Non-members & members registering after April 1: $35. Attendees will have to find lunch elsewhere. Baton Rouge has plenty of good places to eat. A block of rooms has been reserved at a special conference rate. Contact Holiday Inn directly at 1-800-HOLIDAY (or 225-924-7021 during business hours).