Genealogy, Your Computer, and How to Find Your Roots

Gene Pennington and David Williams will be giving a presentation to the Golden Gate Computer Society (GGCS) on Monday, May 24, 2010.

David and Gene’s presentation is titled “GENEALOGY, YOUR COMPUTER, AND HOW TO FIND YOUR ROOTS”.

Growing your Family Tree is fun but not always easy. May's General Meeting is all about how to get started using your computer, the Internet and local resources. We'll hear about the Family History Center's resources in Marin, what materials are available there, how to use the Internet to research your family's history, and what software to use when you want to organize the data you uncover.

Gene Pennington and David Williams from the Marin Genealogical Society will give us tips for success, tell us where to start, how to compare genealogy programs, what we can find at the Family History Center, and provide handouts with website resources.

Gene Pennington is deeply involved in genealogy research and belongs to a number of genealogical associations. His personal genealogy web site is http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~genepenn/. Gene is Chairman of the Board and Research Director for the Pennington Research Association and the web master and CIG manager for the Marin Genealogical Society. He gives presentations and classes throughout the year on a wide variety of subjects concerning computers and genealogy

Gene worked at the San Rafael Police Department for 32 years as Patrol Officer, Detective, and Captain. He introduced computers to San Rafael PD, including the use of laptop computers in patrol cars and in the field, helped develop and implement a county wide emergency radio and communication system, as well as county wide information records services. In 1999 he started a consulting business offering computer services to small business owners and to individuals. He and his wife live in Santa Venetia and have three sons and six grandchildren.

David Williams is President of the Marin Genealogical Society and is a volunteer at the Family History Center. David began researching his family history 20 years ago as a result of an inquiry from a distant cousin concerning his mother's family, and the search expanded to include both maternal and paternal family lines. Today his data base contains well over a thousand names. The search continues.

Born in Monterey Ca., David moved to Marin in 1952. After working in the Bechtel engineering department for 18 years, he became a General Contractor for 20 years before retiring. He and his wife live in Marin and have three adult children.