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Bill George's Web Site Home Bridge Computers Genealogy Photo-Repair Music Stamps Home A Little History In 1943, I was born in Watsonville's, Community Hospital in California, USA. I graduated from Watsonville High School in 1961 and earned a bachelors in 1966 and an MBA in 1970 from San Jose State . I worked for Lockheed starting in the late 60s and from 1978 to my retirement in 2007, for Kaiser Permanente. I've developed some competitive skills playing duplicate bridge, becoming an ACBL Ruby Life Master in Unit 500 of District 21 in 2005. I've enjoyed exploring personal computers and the Internet , trying to absorb it all. When my mom passed away in 1998, I was elected by my siblings to receive family history documents and continue with genealogy research she started. I was married to Diane Louise Silva from Feb 14, 1982 until her death on May 30, 2018. She did some amazing research into her Azores ancestry and explained how to do it in a Power Point Presentation (in zip format) and a list of links . Stuff I'm working on I've become interested in the web building app, RapidWeaver for the Macintosh. They have hundreds of add-on "tools" that produce various looks on web pages. It's quite addicting and I'm enjoying acquiring and experimenting with each of these tools. I set up a web site for my experiments. If you use RapidWeaver (and a Macintosh) I would appreciate being contacted so we could compare notes. Started working on my vacation cruise web site https://cruise.wdgeo.com in Dec. 2017. Originally created with DreamWeaver in 2007, I started using iWeb (example Mexico Cruise) when I converted to Apple computers in 2007. Apple discontinued iWeb a number of years ago, so I returned to Dreamweaver. Decided to try another product in 2017, RapidWeaver 7 (now version 8) and I redid the top Cruise webpage. Started maintaining the Indiana County U.S. Pennsylvania, Genweb Web Site on August 20, 2012, added Santa Cruz County, California on Sept. 20, 2015, added Mendocino County, California in 2017 and Mercer County, Pennsylvania in January, 2021. I also maintain https://sites.rootsweb.com/~billgeorge/ . My mother's genealogy... starting with Henry Austin Snider, my mother's maternal grandfather, born in Ohio in 1868. He has descendants in the west (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, California etc). I'm also working on my George line, but it's slow going. I've identified Samuel George b. 1815 (Indiana County, Pennsylvania), d. 1889 (Mercer County, Pennsylvania), m. 1842, my 2nd great grandfather and am attempting to confirm his father who was Irish according to the 1880 census (of Samuel and Emily George, residing in Sandy Lake, Mercer County, PA since 1871). I think I found him, a William George , father of Isabella George. I volunteered to maintain the Indiana County, Pennsylvania GenWeb site to get some perspective on where Samuel George was born and lived for most of his life. In 2021 I volunteered to maintain the Mercer County, Pennsylvania Genweb site, as Samuel moved there in 1871 (and died there in 1889). Membership in several local Genealogy groups... San Ramon Genealogical Society http://srvgensoc.org (SIG Coordinator and Webmaster), East Bay Genealogical Society currently inactive due to Covid-19 and located at https://caebaygs.wdgeo.com (webmaster), Hayward Area Genealogical Society currently located at http://cahags.wdgeo.com ) (webmaster), Livermore Amador Valley Genealogical Society http://l-ags.org and Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group http://svcgg.org in Santa Clara. Castro Valley Library twice-monthly Genealogy Study Group meeting, helped my wife to conduct this meeting. The class is held on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays from 10:30am - 12:30pm. Wayne Ainsworth took over the class in May, 2018. However, with the Pandemic its future is not clear. The library has a list of events on their web site and https://cacvgg.wdgeo.com supports the class. A Macintosh Genealogy Society I started in 2009 that has 2nd Wed. 7pm, monthly meetings at the Oakland FamilySearch Library. See http://www.macgen.org . It's currently not meeting because of the Pandemic. We may move to Zoom. I play ACBL duplicate bridge in the Southern Alameda County, ACBL Unir 500 and have advanced to the Ruby Life Master category (between 1500-2500 master points). Helped manage the Unit 499, 500 and 501 websites back in "the day". Haven't played duplicate since the Pandemic in March, 2020. Attend occasional computer group meetings, PC Community http://pcc.org , San Leandro Macintosh User Group http://slmug.org , Diablo Valley Macintosh User Group http://dvmug.org , San Leandro Computer Club ( http://slcc.wdgeo.com ) for Atari Computers and The Nybblers (TRS-80). Sad to note that the Tri-Valley Mac User Group, of which I was a member, folded shop in November, 2015. All these meetings for about the past year have been on Zoom. It may be that many meetings that involve technology will remain on zoom for the foreseeable future. Photography, stamp collecting, keyboard playing to a lesser degree. I've accumulated many of my favorite genealogy links on my personal Genealogy web page. One link that's really cool is http://www.zillow.com/ that lets you be very nosy and see what home prices are. I use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. They are easy to set up, and are FREE, as are Blogspo t blogs. FYI, Facebook allows you to create a free personal Facebook "Page" in addition to your own Facebook News Feed. Also, Facebook allows creation of open and members-only Facebook groups. There are thousands and thousands of Facebook groups on every topic you can think of. Internet Presence Active Facebook Billgeorge.com Web Site (may have to use https://billgeorge.wdgeo.com as I'm changing domain registrars in April, 2021) Twitter Instagram Not So Active Blogspot (dormant) Mac Discoveries (dormant) Flickr (dormant) Myspace (dormant) Posterous (dormant) Useful Stuff Leo Laporte's TWIT web site including https://twit.tv/live . There's also their MacBreak Weekly podcast . Family My wife Diane Louise Silva George and I were happily married from 1982 until her death May 30, 2018. She had a passion for computing, painting, photography, miniatures and genealogy. My families (Paternal is George, Maternal is Pardee) had get togethers annually. The Pardee group discontinued their picnics in 2017. I collected photos from past gatherings (see below). If you are a family member and are interested, please contact me . George Campout Pardee Picnic Computer Groups I've helped to start several computer user groups beginning 1978. All continue to exist (April, 2021). 1979 - TRS-Nybblers - for TRS-80 Computers, Windows and DOS. Rebranded as "The Nybblers", at 7:30 pm a meeting is held the 3rd Friday of each month at Ron Ring's house. Currently meeting monthly on Zoom. Request information by sending me an e-mail . 1983 - San Leandro Computer Club - For Atari Computers, SLCC meets on the first Tues. of the month, 7pm at the San Leandro Community Library on Estudillo. Contact Robbie Bridges at (510) 797-5636 or rrbridges@comcast.net . Currently meeting weekly on Zoom. 1988 - PC Clubhouse, - For IBM PC's and compatibles. It meets at 7:30 pm, 1st Friday of each month. See the web site for details. The name evolved to PC Community . Currently meeting monthly on Zoom. 2009 - MacGen for Mac computer users who are interested in Genealogy. Home | Email Bill | Google Calendar | Facebook | Twitter | Updated 6/17/21...