TGS Newsletter
Vol. 25 No. 11 Feb. 2007

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     If you missed the January meeting, you didn’t get a chance to see the first part of the video Digital Imaging for Genealogy which was mostly about image files, scanners and file types. But it is not gone forever. I borrowed the video from the Lafourche Public Library system (Lockport branch), so you may want to check it out and catch up. There is a lot of good information available if you will seek it out. February’s meeting will see a continuation of the video where the lecturer, Richard S. WILSON, tells us about digital cameras and photo editing. Although the information is slightly out of date, you just have to ratchet up the megapixels and lower the price ranges and you will be just about right for today’s cameras. Besides price and resolution, he mentions storage (which is changing even as we write this), sound and video clips, software, memory, transfer methods, features, uses and some very good tips. After mentioning video capture and a digital video camera, he goes into photo repairs and editing with some very good advice about software. The websites where shareware and freeware are available are still active: http://www.tucows.com, download.com and shareware.com. You may want to try searching those sites for “photo edit” under your particular operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.). We may or may not have enough time to view all the rest of the tape, since he spends a good bit of time on the above topics. After those, he goes into the ways to use the images in your genealogy program. If there is enough interest, we will consider showing the rest of the tape at another meeting.
 
DEATH: Our sympathies go out to two of our members at the passing of Margaret KRUMBHAAR SHAFFER, the mother of charter member Margaret Minor SHAFFER and grandmother of member M. Lee SHAFFER III. Margaret KRUMBHAAR SHAFFER, 93, died Monday, January 29, 2007, and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Houma. She is survived by one daughter, Margaret Minor SHAFFER; one son, M. Lee SHAFFER Jr. and wife Marlene; three grandchildren, M. Lee SHAFFER III and wife, Susan, Katharine SHAFFER HOLLEY and husband Scott, and Emily Elise SHAFFER; and seven great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, M. L. SHAFFER. Memorial donations can be made to St. Matthews Episcopal Church, The Southdown Museum, 1208 Museum Drive, Houma, LA 70360, or the Terrebonne Parish Library, 151 Civic Center Blvd., Houma, LA 70360.
 
THE QUARTERLY: Our first collating session under the new procedure went off without a hitch. You may remember that we were considering all sorts of alternative ways of publishing our quarterly in order to  relieve our aging members of the necessity of lifting the large boxes of paper that we have to handle. We heard from many of our members, most of whom were not in favor of a digital solution (CD). So we tried using smaller boxes of paper. We thought it might take longer the new way, especially because we had a good many of our faster workers absent this collating session. It took about the same length of time, maybe even less time, depending on whom you asked. Many thanks to our good workers: Beverly ALFORD, Jess BERGERON, Sandra BOUDREAUX, Blanche BROWN, Geri CAVALIER, Marcie CAVALIER, Jane CHAUVIN, Phil CHAUVIN Jr., Cecil ESCHETE, Ed HICKS, Cecile RICHARD, Judith SONIAT, Jane WEBERT and Nancy WRIGHT. We couldn’t exist without our willing workers.
     While we are talking about working and the quarterly, did you know that almost all of our material in the quarterly is submitted by you, the members of our society? We don’t “borrow” any material from other societies. We depend on you. Maybe you don’t think that what you do is worth publishing. Maybe you are wrong. Ask the expert: send it in to our talented and hard-working editor, Audrey WESTERMAN, for her opinion. She will tell you if it is worthwhile. Send a hard copy to the address above, or email her direct at awesterman at mobiletel.com and do it soon, before you forget. And those queries help, too. Sometimes a query will sit in a publication for years (I’m serious — years) until someone sees it and realizes that they can solve the problem or answer the question. Sometimes you hear from a person who received the quarterly in the mail on the same day they were reading a publication with all the information you needed right before them. It happened to me just that way. I heard from the person answering my query before I received my copy of the quarterly. Strange!
 
DUES: You don’t want to take a chance of not getting your quarterly and newsletter. Check your mailing label on page one of this newsletter. 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 this 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. Fill it out, make out your check and send those two items in to the address on page one. Right now, if you haven’t already done so. Feel better, now?
 
BOOKS: Looking for a bargain? I’ve got one for you. The 2006 Houma Courier Deaths and Lafourche Comet Deaths obituary books containing the photocopies of obituaries that appeared in those newspapers, usually offered at $40 apiece are being offered at the reduced price of $25 apiece (plus postage). OK, the photocopies may be less than perfect, but they are still legible.
 
THANK YOU: We are indebted to several authors who have donated the fruits of their labors to the society and ultimately to the Terrebonne Parish Library. Thanks go out to Ronald BERGER, who donated a copy of Descendants of Eusebe Thomas GROS and Mable LEDET GROS, Vol. 1; Bertha Lena FRUGIA GABLE, who donated a copy of Ancestors of Bertha Lena FRUGIA GABLE; and Jerry KURTZ, who donated a copy of Descendants of Peter Frank KURTZ and Mena Frances KURTZ.
 
WEBSITE: You may or may not have noticed that our website was appearing neglected. For one thing, the newsletter page, which displays the latest newsletter sometimes before it is mailed out, showed the September, 2006, issue for at least four months. And the index of the last five years of the quarterly was not to be seen. I am happy to announce that all that has been rectified. I won’t bore you with the details of exactly why the situation had gotten that way, but suffice it to say that you may now access both the surname and the article index for all twenty-five years of our quarterly, Terrebonne Life Lines. From the main page (see the URL at the top of the masthead) click on Data, and then click on 20 Year Index to Terrebonne Life Lines. When that page comes up, scroll down below the table of surname initial letters to a box containing the words “The surname index for volumes 21-25 is now online. VIEW” and click on the word “VIEW” and wait for the rather large file to come up. All five years and the whole alphabet is on one page. Not the best format, I know, and it is my fault. I take the blame. But it is searchable with a single command. Just choose Edit ? Find on this page and you can search for your surname of interest. If you want to search the article index, go back to the main page, then to Data again, and click on TTL [sic] Article Index and on that page you will see a box similar to the one for surnames with the words “The article index for volumes 21-25 is now online. VIEW” and again click on the same word. Thankfully, a smaller file, consequently it is quicker to load.
 
WHITNEY FAMILY REUNION: All descendants of Washington WHITNEY and Victoria BERNARD are invited to attend the get-together on March 10, 2007 from 9:00 to 3:00 at the Holy Rosary Community Center on Main Street in Houma, LA. For details contact Patty WHITNEY at 985-447-7318. If you would like to help Patty gather genealogical information at the reunion, she needs your help. Call her!