Volume 18-3, Fall 2005 - Programs & Events

29th ANNUAL GENEALOGY CONFERENCE

Come join the excitement of the 29th Annual Genealogy Conference. This exciting learning experience will be held 11-12 November 2005 in Panama City Beach, Florida at the Bay Point Marriott Resort (4200 Marriott Drive).
Our featured speaker, Donna Moughty, will present four exciting lectures you will not want to miss. Ms Moughty is a well known genealogical instructor and lecturer and her topics will be:

• "Applying for Your Irish Passport"
• "Immigration"
• "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are--Hide and Seek on the Internet!"
• "Using Griffith's Valuation"

In addition to the featured speaker, we will have Pamela J. Cooper, Amy Larner Giroux, CG(sm), CGL(sm), Ann Mohr Osisek, Gladys Friedman Paulin, CGRS(sm), Deanna D. Ramsey, William Zehner, CGSM, and James McSweeney (NARA SE Region Archives). All total, we will be providing the opportunity to participate in about 19 lectures covering Censuses, Military, Methodology, National Archive Resources, Naturalization, Land Records, Organization, Cemetery Records and Computer/Technology.

We are also pleased to announce that Dean DeBolt, noted Lecturer, historian and author, will be our Banquet Speaker.

If you would like further information, contact A. Staley, P. O. Box 441364, Jacksonville, FL 32222 Email: astaley@comcast.net or you will find the registration form online at the FSGS Web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~flsgs

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BEGINNING GENEALOGY CLASSES
By Vera Zimmerman, Education Chairman

The Summer session of the BGS Beginning Genealogy Class ran from Thursday July 7 to August 11, 2005. A binder with an excellent syllabus put together by Betty Eichhorn plus many useful forms was given to each of the twenty students. Betty Eichhorn and Vera Zimmerman were the regular teachers with Frank Bryan, Thana Cottrell, Patrice Green and Joan Bullard teaching segments on specialized subjects. Thanks to much hard work by Betty Eichhorn the syllabus is being reorganized for next year. This Winter session will be held in Room 1, accommodating a maximum of forty students. Classes will run for six weeks starting on Thursday Jan. 12, 2005 from 9:30 to Noon


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BIO

DAVID L. STEWART

Copyright laws

The speaker for the September 12 BGS meeting will be David L. Stewart who will speak on Copyright. Mr. Stewart is an attorney with Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath and Gilchrist, P.A. He is a member of the Florida Bar, District of Columbia Bar, the Virginia Bar and the United States Patent and Trademark Office and is Adjunct Professor at Florida Institute of Technology. He has worked as Administrative Patent Judge (Examiner-in-Chief) Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, United States Patent and Trademark Office and as Special Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Patents and concurrently Director of Systems Modeling and Advanced Studies in the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for Information Systems.


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GENEALOGY SOCIETY OF SOUTH BREVARD

The Genealogy Society of South Brevard will meet Wednesday Sept. 14, 2005 at the Melbourne Library, 540 E. Fee Avenue. Social hour begins at 9:30 and the program starts at 10 am. The program will be presented by Ada Forney, Master Story Teller. She will be showing us how to connect our family's stories to historical events.

Bio: Ada Forney
Ada Forney is a professional, full-time storyteller, singer, author, composer and a native Florida Cracker. She is a member of Florida Storytelling Association, the National Storytelling Network, Florida Folklore Society, Florida Historical Society and Toast-masters International. Ada teaches storytelling, stars in a half hour storytelling TV show, is a guest teller on public radio and has performed at many storytelling festivals including the prestigious Florida Folk Festival. She is also the storytelling coordinator for the Barberville Pioneer Days.

Oct 12th “Getting To Know You" did you ever wish that you knew individual GSSG members better? This will be a fun program where each of us will learn more about the members of our group. Social time begins 9:30am and the program at 10 am at the Melbourne Public Library 540 E. Fee Ave Melbourne

Nov 9th "The Making of a Flag" presented by the National Sojourners. A most enjoyable patriotic program. Social time begins 9:30am and the program at 10 am at the Melbourne Public Library 540 E. Fee Ave Melbourne

December 14th GSSB Christmas Party. A sharing of our Christmas memories and Christmas goodies. A holiday music program will also be presented. Social time begins 9:30am and the program at 10 am at the Melbourne Public Library 540 E. Fee Ave Melbourne

(18-3) PRESIDENTS MESSAGE By Peter Bradish

We are finally on the road and have plans to attend the FGS Conference in Salt Lake City in the week following Labor Day. Maybe we'll see one or two of you there, we hope so. FGS and NGS conferences are always educational and we would encourage any and all of you to try to attend at least one. FGS has probably had the closest one (in Orlando not long ago) but if you can combine a trip to see a relative or friend (and hopefully bum a place to stay) with a conference you will not regret the experience. As a genealogical friend of ours once said in his seminar, "Conferences are 50% seminars, 50% vendors and 50% talking to other people there."

Fall is coming and so is cooler weather. It will give us all a chance to move forward with photographing stones in central Brevard cemeteries. It will also be a relief to not need to depend on air conditioning. We can let fresh air in and this always stimulates the brain to higher levels for our personal research efforts.

We will return by Halloween so don't be concerned when you don't see us at the September and October meetings. At the October meeting we plan to present the candidates for society officers and committee chairmen. If you would like to run for an office, please contact Doug Burnett our Nominating Committee Chairman. If you don't have an urge to hold an office, please consider becoming a member of one of the committees. We always need new ideas, and society members are our most valuable resource in this respect.

So, until November, happy ancestor hunting... Peter Bradish

(18-3) THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT and Members...

THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT
Vera Zimmerman, August 12, 2005

In the May 2005 issue of National Geographic a headline caught my eye - "The Ultimate Family Tree." It described a worldwide research project to map the history of human migration around the globe by analyzing DNA being undertaken by National Geographic along with IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation.

Dr. Spencer Wells and several leading scientists are collecting DNA samples from indigenous people all over the world. Another group is looking at archaeological DNA samples. We can participate by buying a Geographic Public Participation Kit and submitting our own DNA samples. Each kit has a confidential ID number which is used to access the results of our own personal DNA test online. Besides learning about your family's oldest ancestors, you will be contributing to the project. All proceeds from the sales of kits will go to support additional research.

As soon as we got home from this year's RV trek, I sent for a kit for me and one for my husband. They arrived in about a week and contained:

• a swab kit with instructions on using the cheek scrapers to gather our samples, vials to hold the swabs for return and a self-addressed envelope to return the vials
• a DVD with Project Overview by Dr. Spencer Wells, visual instructions on how to use the kit and a bonus feature program "The Journey of Man," a National Geographic Channel/PBS documentary.
• a brochure on the project
• a National Geographic map showing what is currently known about human migration routes
• a 2-part consent card with your confidential Project ID number.

You sign the return portion of the form and indicate if the sample is from a male or a female. The part you keep has the number you will use to view your results in about 6 weeks on the web site at www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic

You can also view more information on the project and on DNA research at that site.

The kits were easy and painless to use and the map and DVD are worth at least part of the price. Knowing you are contributing to the expansion of knowledge is priceless.

Samples from men are tested by looking at the Y chromosome passed from father to son and analyzing the genetic markers. So my husband's sample will tell us about the ancestors of the Zimmerman line. Samples from women analyze the mitochondrial DNA which comes from the mother. If you've read "The Seven Daughters of Eve" by Bryan Sykes, you already know something about this research. I can hardly wait to find out which daughter is my clan mother.
If you want to contribute your results to the global database you'll be asked a few phenotyping questions to place your DNA sample in cultural context. This optional process is totally anonymous. The importance of this project cannot be over-emphasized. Dr. Wells says "It is the moon landing of anthropology."

If you participate you might not fill in any more names on your pedigree chart but you will learn where your family fits on the ancient family tree of humankind. As Dr. Wells says "We are all effectively cousins separated by no more than 2000 generations."


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WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE DOING

DOUG and LONA BURNETT

Family reunions conjure up imagines of fried chicken, watermelon, potato salad, and lots of good desserts. Well, let's try coronation chicken, neeps and taddies, haggis, sticky toffee pudding, dancing at a Ceilidh and visiting the Crannog where your family was first known to settle in 1300's. Doug and Lona Burnett of Satellite Beach just returned from three weeks in Great Britain of which one week was spent near Banchory, Scotland attending their family reunion. One hundred and eleven family members from six countries gathered on August 3rd to renew friendships, identify new cousins and meet the Keeper of the Name, James C. A. Burnett of Leys.

On the day of arrival, the event started with a reception and dinner at the House of Crathes, the home of Mr. Burnett. The next day was spent touring Crathes Castle and it's magnificant gardens, the home of the Burnetts of Leys from the 1500's to 1951 when it was turned over to the Scottish National Trust. This was followed on Friday with a tour of other homes in the area which the Burnett Family was instrumental in building. These included Fasque House, now owned by the Gladstone family, Muchalls Castle now owned by the Hogan family , and finally Fettercairn Distillery. Along the way the Burnett family's impact on the area was discussed by Mr. Burnett, our tour guide for this day's outing.

On Saturday we were guests in his marquee at the annual Aboyne Highland Games. These in fact were very similar to the games here in the states with the exception that we tend to have more vendors where they have more entertainment for the children. That evening we had a personal tour of Crathes Castle and banquet preceded by talks from Charles Burnett, Ross Herald for Scotland, Gordon Casely, historian, and Eileen Bailey, Scottish Genealogist and General Editor of Mr. Burnett's latest book on the family, "The Holly and the Horn".

Sunday morning Mr. Burnett and Mrs. Bailey took family members on a tour of the Crannog where the Burnetts first lived in Scotland and provided a historical picture of what life was like there in the 1300's. As we stood there in the blustery August weather it was almost impossible to appreciate what our forefathers had endured to live, survive, and prosper in this area.

(18-3) Hickham Field, December 7, 1941 [Part 4] by Jim Fulton

There were six B-17 “Flying Fortresses” in our flight led by our squadron commander, Blondie Saunders, but I don’t know which squadron has supplied the planes and crews. Nor do I know in what direction we made our search for the Japanese fleet, but in 1983, at the second reunion of the 23rd Bomb Assoc., Blondie told us he’d protested that “they” were sending us in the wrong direction. It didn’t seem very long before we spotted a “log-carrier” (float plane) boring in on us on our port side. We figured he was a U.S. Navy, but he kept on coming, so Blondie ordered us to open fire. The float peeled off in a hurry. I doubt we shared any radio frequencies with the Navy at that time.

Our flight started climbing and we crawled into our sheepskin clothes. It was at 27,000 feet that I felt the pain in my left knee---bends, for the first time. I don’t know how high we’d have gone, but Blondie leveled the flight off at an altitude where I could stand the pain. It didn’t seem we continued the search very long,--we never found the Jap fleet.

For about the next two months our crew flew patrol almost daily. I recall that we flew a fan-shaped route: about 600 miles out, 300 across, and 600 miles back. We flew at very low altitudes. Ours was the #2 crew, with Capt. George Blakey pilot, Lt. “Tex” Burns co-pilot, Lt. Hugh Mahoney navigator, M/Sgt. James “Shanty” O’Shea bombardier, T/ Sgt. Joe Anselmi engineer, Sgt. Lee Benbrooks radio op., Cpl. Jim Fulton, (me) asst. radio op. George Sherba and perhaps Harold Fishencord gunners.

On one very calm day we spotted the wake of a submarine traveling with “scope-up”. He left a white ribbon about a mile long behind him on the glassy sea. We flew down the ribbon, but when we were over the sub our bombardier, O’Shea, said he wasn’t ready; so we swung around and made another pass. Shanty dropped this tie. We estimated he missed by about 75 feet. Tho we saw oil, most of us figured we’d missed him, but the Navy gave us credit for a kill. Shanty was sure he had a hit.

An Old, slow B-18 of another squadron on patrol came on a “mother “sub towing two mini-subs on the surface. Their drop was a direct hit on the big sub, but when they saw the bomb bounce off the hull, they realized someone had forgotten to remove the arming wire from the bomb’s fuse. The sum dove immediately and got away, but I’ll bet that sub crew had a ringing noise in their ears for a month!

On 16 Jan. 1942, our crew, two others from the 23rd, and three from the 50th Recon Sq. of the 11th Bomb Group, left Hickam Field with secret orders to the Malay Peninsula. We carried a M/Sgt. instrumentation expert on our plane as a passenger (“sandbag”); and had a 2nd Navigator, Lt. Cecil Smith., aboard. A B-17 of the 50th landed short on Palmyra Island and tore off its tail wheel on a gun emplacement. We left it there. Between Palmyra and Canton Island, Shanty claimed another sub – I never saw it, but then I was busy reporting to Pearl. We also got lost, with two navigators on board! Canton didn’t want to turn on it’s radio beacon for us, fearing the Japs would home in on it, but eventually B3nbrooks picked up “MO’s” on Canton’s station, but years later Dean Gregg, so-pilot on Lt. Ralph Wanderer’s crew, told me that they had taken off again and circled over Canton while Johnny Straight sent the “MO’s”. We picked him up just before we carried out our plan to ditch beside a tiny atoll we’d found, so we made it safely to Canton.

Returning from a patrol out of Canton a few days later, we had no head wind to help slow down on landing. I felt the braked take hold, then let go. Probably the brakes had been over –stressed when she landed on that fighter strip on Dec.7th. We went over the side of the runway which was raised 4-to- 6 feet, Damaged two props, and the landing gear. Another plane flew back to Palmyra and scavenged parts from the plane we’d left there and we were soon in the air again. The five planes flew down to Fiji, where, after a day or two, we got the word that the Japs had taken Malaysia. We were ordered back to Hickam, leaving Wanderer’s crew and crippled plane in Fiji. When I checked in at the 23rdBomb orderly room at Hickam, they told me to pack my bags; I was leaving on a boat the next day for enlisted pilot training in Calif. So, on 1 Feb 1942, I said goodbye to the outfit I’ve cared for most in 22 years of service.

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