East Texas Genealogical Society

East Texas Genealogical Society will hold its regular monthly meeting on Saturday, May 12th at 2:00 p.m. at the Tyler Public Library in the Taylor Auditorium featuring Debbie Parker Wayne. Debbie will present a program called "Enhancing Your Civil War Story: The Official Records of the U.S. Civil War."

Debbie will show how using information in the Official Record (OR) can add historical context to your Civil War ancestor's biography. A description of the contents of the Official Records is given along with case studies demonstrating use of the information to enhance a family narrative. The methods discussed can be used with both print and electronic versions of the OR. Tips for using the CD-ROM version are also included.

Debbie spent over 25 years in the computer industry, starting out as a computer technician. As her education and skill levels increased she moved into training, technical support, computer programming, and then database administration and web design. In 1990 her interest and experience with computers provided a perfect complement to a new-found interest in genealogical and family history research. Since that time she has worked on expanding her own family history and genealogy.

Her memberships in genealogical organizations include: Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, International Society of Genetic Genealogy, National Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society in which she serves as their District 7 Representative, ETGS, Nacogdoches Genealogical Society where she serves as Publications Editor and Committee Chairman, and Angelina County Genealogical Society.

Her genealogical training includes: American Genealogy: A Basic Course offered by the National Genealogical Society, Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis, Land Records and Writing and Publishing for Genealogists, all taught at the weeklong Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) at Birmingham, Alabama. Numerous seminars attended during national and regional conferences such as FGS, NGS, GENTECH, Angelina College Genealogy Conference and others.

Her computer training and experience includes: Web design, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, C Programming and many UNIX and PC administration and support classes, database design and administration for Oracle, Access, MySQL, and numerous seminars attended during 25 years in the computer industry.

Approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the regular program and refreshments, the Computer Interest Group of the East Texas Genealogical Society will meet with Barbara Galbreath who will present a program on "What's in the Tyler Library. How to use their resource material and computers."

ETGS meetings are free and open to the public. For more information about ETGS, go to our website: www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs or contact Scott Fitzgerald, Publicity Director at scottfitzgerald@tyler.net, (903) 597-7865 or (903) 592- 6576.