Way back in the 80s and 90s when we were just starting to use computers for our genealogy collections, even when we were first putting what we used to put in our typewriters into our word-processers, we wanted more.
My son had a Commodore 64 with a black and white TV for his monitor and my cassette recorder for his hard drive. I couldn’t wait for him to write a program to put my genealogy in. Then one day when I was volunteering at the Ocean Springs Library, the head librarian Elizabeth came and told me we had genealogy software for the Apple 2E computers in the library. I didn’t know anything about computers back then, but I was going to learn! Elizabeth said the kids had been using the computers for weeks. So I said if a kid can do it I can.
The first thing I did was wipeout the program. Luckily Elizabeth could get another copy form the Pascagoula Library in a couple of days. I asked if there were any books on the computers and she brought me out a stack of books from her office about a foot high. In the very first book it said put write protect tabs on the disk. The disk were 5¼ inch paper floppies with a notch on the side that you covered with a peace of black tape. There were no hard drives back then. I asked if the other software, the kids were using, had tape on them and she said no. I spent the next few days checking disk and she had to go to Pascagoula and replace many more disk. We both learned a lot from that.
I was hooked. I got my first IBM clone computer in 1987. It cost me $2500.00 and it came with DOS , no windows or mouse, two 5¼ floppies, a monochrome monitor and keyboard, but I was thrilled. Things have changed a lot. My grandchildren do things on their cell phones that I couldn’t even imagine on my first computer.
I am still hooked. My computers , desktop and laptop, are used everyday. We do photography and I restore old pictures plus I am still doing genealogy. I think they go real good together.
The OSGS has a computer interest group that meets whenever there are people needing computer help. At first we met at Barbara Johnson’s house in the 90s and now we meet at my house, but if there is a need to meet someplace else I’m sure we can work it out.
If you are interested please let us know.
Lettie White