Genealogy, baseball, and the Hall of Fame

Paula Stuart-Warren  Baseball    2 Comments

In case you don’t know, I am a big fan of the Minnesota Twins. Thanks, Dad, for taking me to Twins games when the Twins arrived in Minnesota. In 1987, I attended three World Series games here at the old Metrodome. I am a big fan of my birth and home city, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Baseball games on playgrounds and high school fields everywhere in the city. I grew up a few blocks from the Ford Little League Fields and watched some games there. I’ve watched my kids and grandkids play baseball and softball. My great grandson is a pretty good baseball player.

I’ve been to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and saw the displays for Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett and others who I was fortunate to have watched in the game. Thank you to my friend and colleague Karen Mauer Jones for that and our genealogy trip. I now go to 6-8 Twins games a year with my friend and genealogy colleague Alice Eichholz. Thank you for moving to Minnesota and being a baseball fan, Alice. We enjoy the game and also have some genealogy discussions. I get to talk baseball with other friends on Facebook. I am going to a game soon with one of my grandsons and another one with most of my family. Special times. Then a game in August honoring Joe Mauer for what took place today.

Speaking of special times and today, today was one of those in a big way. I listened to one more St. Paul connection, Joe Mauer, be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Thanks to MLB for broadcasting that online today. I was fortunate to see him play for the Twins many times and to be inducted into the HOF today. FOUR St. Paul boys playing baseball over time at fields in close proximity to each other grew into men who excelled at the game and are now Hall of Famers. Joe Mauer, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, and Dave Winfield. Baseball and Saint Paul. That’s quite a history for one city. some links for more on the Twins and the Hall of Fame:

https://baseballhall.org/nine/minnesota-twins

https://www.mlb.com/twins/history/baseball-hall-of-famers

 

 

Genealogy research trips and planning trips

Paula Stuart-Warren  Research, Research trips    Leave a comment

Still planning some U.S. summer and fall travel for family history research? A few things to think about:

  • Will the old family town have a festival occurring during your trip. That means many people around who might have some connection to or about your family, a family home, or business. It also means that area hotels might be more expensive even if rooms are available. A courthouse or historical society might have limited hours during the event time span.
  • That county or state historical society where your research is focused may have limited hours. For example, the Minnesota Historical Society (including the state archives) only has research hours three days a week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10-4 only. https://www.mnhs.org/library/about/hours
  • Are appointments required or suggested? Many research places strongly suggest making appointments. 
  • Check the website of that courthouse or historical society under all tabs/buttons. You might find a surprise or two including some indexes, other finding aids, and research tips.
  • Hopefully a guided tour or another helpful guide will help you make the most of your time during the research.
  • Planning for three hours or even a day at one place? Might not be enough. You might discover some records that lead to more delving into things you had not planned for previously. That’s good fortune, thought. Maybe two staff people called in sick and that delays some of your work.
  • Taking along a niece, grandson, or your own child? Are there age restrictions at the research site? How will you occupy them if you find fantastic records and clues that keep you busy for extra hours?
  • Check about bringing in your computer, tablet, scanner, camera, or other equipment. How are copies made? What is the cost?
  • Doing as much research online before you go is probably something you already have planned. Add your list of research needs for each place you will visit.
  • Be flexible. That research list may need to change depending on what you find along the way, if a place is closed, or if the weather is not cooperating.
  • Walking the streets of the place where great grandma grew up is special. Entering the old courthouse where grandpa paid his taxes might give you a few good bumps.
  • Enjoy the trips. These are well worth it.
  • Didn’t make the trip or made it but needed more time. Hire a professional genealogist in that area to help with the work. Also well worth it?

 

 

Registration is open for the 2024 North Star Conference of the Minnesota Genealogical Society

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences, Minnesota Genealogical Society  , , ,  Leave a comment

Unlocking the Past, Shaping the Future. Two fantastic, featured speakers plus 12 additional speakers await you in October. A pre-conference DNA day, a Friday evening banquet, vendors, and a syllabus to boot. The Minnesota Genealogical Society conferences have education, discussions, and more for every level and of family historian.


I will be presenting two sessions and there are many others on the program.

  • Researching Midwestern and Plains States Native Americans
  • An Anytime Library FREE From Your Home 

Full details https://mngs.org/North-Star-2024 Get October 24, 25, and 26 on your calendar today.

FREE BCG-SPONSORED GENEALOGY WEBINAR. July 15, 2024

Paula Stuart-Warren  Education, Webinars  , ,  1 Comment

Not your ancestry? Oh, it’s still worth an hour of your time. You never know what you might learn about oral history, what someone with Asia-Pacific ancestry might ask you about in six months, or simply expanding your history knowledge. When I was doing publicity for and co-chairing large genealogy conferences, I often suggested that researchers attend at least one session that wasn’t connected to their ancestral research needs. I did that myself and was happy for the expanded information.

“Oral Genealogy in Asia-Pacific: The Essence of Personal Identity and Tribal Connections”
by David Ouimette, CG, CGL, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, 8:00 p.m. (EDT). From a BCG (Board for Certification of Genealogists” press release:

“Oral genealogies celebrate ancestral connections in indigenous cultures across Asia-Pacific. As one paramount chief in Samoa declared, “The most important thing for children to understand is their family connections. The knowledge of history is their treasure—not gold and silver, but genealogy.” Learn about the significance and richness of oral genealogies and current efforts to preserve them in Asia and the Pacific.

David Ouimette, CG, CGL, manages Content Strategy for Asia and the Pacific at FamilySearch, prioritizing records of genealogical value for digital preservation and online publication. His team prioritizes camera placement and targets records for preservation in national, regional, and local archives. David has researched in several hundred archives in over seventy countries spanning all continents. Previously, David was product manager at Ancestry.com, responsible for family trees, United States records, DNA testing, and the search experience. David regularly lectures at national genealogical conferences and institutes. He serves as a Trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists and has served as Vice President of the Utah Genealogical Association and on the board of the National Genealogical Society. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics from Brigham Young University, has contributed articles to many magazines and journals, and authored Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide. David and his wife, Deanna, live in Highland, Utah, are the parents of eight children, and have seven grandchildren.

BCG’s next free monthly webinar in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree Webinars is “Oral Genealogy in Asia-Pacific: The Essence of Personal Identity and Tribal Connections” by David Ouimette, CG, CGL. This webinar airs Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. 

When you register before July 16 with our partner Legacy Family Tree Webinars (http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=9013) you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Anyone with schedule conflicts may access the webinar at no charge for one week after the broadcast on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

“Education is one of the most significant ways of achieving BCG’s mission for promoting public confidence in genealogy through uniform standards of competence,” said President Faye Jenkins Stallings, CG. “We appreciate this opportunity to provide these webinars that focus on the standards that help family historians of all levels practice good genealogy.”

Following the free period for this webinar, BCG receives a small commission if you view this or any BCG webinar by clicking our affiliate link: http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619.

To see the full list of BCG-sponsored webinars for 2024, visit the BCG blog SpringBoard at https://bcgcertification.org/bcg-2024-free-webinars.  For additional resources for genealogical education, please visit the BCG Learning Center (https://bcgcertification.org/learning).

Lisa S. Gorrell, CG
BCG News Release Coordinator

The words Certified Genealogist and its acronym, CG, are a registered certification mark, and the designations Certified Genealogical Lecturer and its acronym, CGL, are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation.

Mark your calendars for August 2, 2024. Course titles for GRIP Genealogy Institute 2025 . . .

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  , ,  Leave a comment

Friday, August 2, 2024 is just under a month away. That is the date for the release of the course titles for the 2025 edition of the GRIP Genealogy Institute. The announcement will be live on Facebook.

I’ll share more details about 2025 once I receive them later in July. The virtual Zoom week of GRIP 2024 is finished and it was a great week. The in-person courses week starts in Pittsburgh in one week.

Not familiar with GRIP? Check out the details here https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/



There are good experiences and then THERE IS AWESOME! Virtual GRIP Genealogy Institute was awesome last week!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Institutes, Uncategorized  ,  Leave a comment

Last week, as some of you already know, I taught in three courses of the virtual week of GRIP Genealogy Institute. On Friday night, the adrenaline was still present. Slept very well that night and the next two nights. I guess the exhaustion had set in. A good kind of exhaustion. The students were amazing, inquisitive, sharing, friendly, and kept me on my toes. Other instructors in these courses have expressed pretty much the same feeling.

  • Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills (Coordinator and instructor)
  • Not Just Farmers: Records, Relationships, and the Reality of Their Lives (Instructor)
  • Midwest Family History Research: Migrations and Sources (Instructor)

I am a person who loves the virtual aspect via the Zoom platform. While the presentation is live, the students and other instructors can immediately add information and questions to the Chat. After those are addressed in the Q&A for sessions, they can raise their virtual hands to ask more. It’s easy to tell in which order the hand was raised. I found that in some sessions, students were immediately checking some of the websites that were discussed. They loved being able to sleep in their own beds and more came online early in the morning for discussion.

I have seen lots of great comments and appreciation on various Facebook pages and that makes me smile. The public GRIP Facebook page is noted below. Registered students also participate in a private Facebook group. Both are valuable in many ways.

So many people to thank but my fellow coordinators, Jay Fonkert and Cari Taplin, for sure. Then the fellow presenters in each course. I must mention the four who participated in Digging Deeper, and they are Amy Arner, Cyndi Ingle, Debbie Mieszala, and Cari Taplin. Wow, the work they put into their presentations and the syllabus sections. Debbie helped with two of the extra afternoon sessions for solving student research problems. Amy was present most of the week and I appreciate her discussions with the students when I was busy in other courses and a sudden meeting I had to attend. Cari and Cyndi had more presentations to give in the Not Just Farmers Course. What a week. The GRIP Guides in each course kept us going and on schedule.

Kristi Sexton and Gena Philibert-Ortega, the co-managers of this 2024 GRIP and I hope for a long-time to come, herded us well, and they certainly had a lot on their plates. They did a great job. Paula Williams, the overall Tech guru was fabulous, too. It was the first year of GRIP under the auspices of the National Genealogical Society.

A special thanks to Tami Osmer Mize who not only was a student in the Digging Deeper Course, but this past Sunday, her Genealogy Conference Keeper email newsletter included this surprise. Thanks, Tami!

“This past week I participated in my very first week-long genealogy institute, choosing the Genealogical Research Institute (GRIP)’s “Digging Deeper” course, coordinated by Paula Stuart-Warren, to help refresh my research skills which, for anything other than finding genealogy events, have gotten a bit rusty. What a great choice, too — Not only did I learn a lot, but I came away with new ideas, resources, and strategies, as well as renewed determination to solve my brick wall ancestor puzzle (I’m talkin to you, Milo Allen!) I attend webinars a lot, but devoting a full week to genealogy education, with lots of interaction between instructors and other students, is the best!”


Conference Keeper Genealogy Calendar of Events https://conferencekeeper.org/

GRIP Genealogy Institute https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/

GRIP on Facebook (join the other 6,000 participants) https://www.facebook.com/GRIPGenealogyInstitute


What about a 2025 Virtual GRIP? That news isn’t fully ready yet, so be patient while the in-person GRIP takes place in a couple weeks. I think some people will need some rest before sharing the 2025 news later this summer.

1 July 2024 means a hopfully easier birth family connection for adoptees born in Minnesota

Paula Stuart-Warren  Adoption, Uncategorized    2 Comments

I was fortunate to have been raised by the parents who gave birth to me. I knew all four grandparents and two great grandparents. I have not had to wonder where my Irish, German, Danish, French, other ethnicity, or where my short stature came from. I have friends who have provided a really wonderful family to a child given up for adoption. I have friends and extended family members who themselves are adopted or who gave a child a chance at a life they were not able to provide at the time of their baby’s birth. There are questions that arise at times due to my occupation as a professional genealogist. Many years ago, a 16-year-old friend of my then teenage daughter asked me to help find his birth mother and told him to come back to me when he was 18. That was difficult to do. Not every adoptee will be inclined to search, but at least this step is available should the inclination start today or five years from now.

Today, 1 July 2024, marks a big step in information sought by adoptees in Minnesota. Born in Minnesota and 18 or older means they can request their original birth certificate (OBC) from the Minnesota Department of Health. The request form also provides who else can request the OBC. This is not the court adoption file nor is it the information kept by an orphanage or other entity. There is no guarantee that the OBC exists or is completely filled in. The MDH website states the following:

“We will provide requesters with the following, if they are available on the date of the request:  

  • A noncertified copy of the adopted person’s original birth record 
  • Any evidence of the adoption filed with the State Registrar 
  • A copy of a contact preference form if birth parent(s) on the original record submitted one (Contact preference forms can be submitted at any time; only forms submitted prior to your request will be included.)
  • Report of any Affidavit of Disclosure or Non-Disclosure filed by a birth parent on the original record, on or before June 30, 2024. We’ll provide information included on disclosure documents, if allowable.

This request can only be fulfilled by MDH; it’s not available through county vital records offices. We will notify you if we cannot find the requested birth record.” 

The MDH website also discusses how the OBC was created and then replaced by a “new” birth certificate once the adoption was finalized. The MDH website has other important details. https://www.health.state.mn.us/people/vitalrecords/adoption.html

The form to request the OBC is here Request for Original Birth Record Information under Minnesota Statute 144.2252 (PDF). It is a two-page form and the fee is $40 to submit your request. 

What genealogy events are coming up? Which are virtual? Which aren’t?

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences/Institutes, Webinars  , ,  1 Comment

Sure you can click on the tab above the says SPEAKING to learn about the upcoming presentations I am doing. I appreciate all of you that attend both the free and fee-based events and gratefully applaud the organizations that invited me. Looking for another topic or speaker? Check out Conference Keeper. The free website has a wide variety of events and more that are submitted by organizations. A genealogical or historical event can be submitted at NO charge. https://conferencekeeper.org/. It might be a one-hour webinar, a full day seminar, or an institute. It even has a link to see only virtual events as you can see below under the Calendar tab. Click on the Submissions tab to submit you events. Tami Osmer Mize does a great job with Conference Keeper!



Minnesota Historical Society Digital Newspaper Hub adds more old newspapers

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota, Newspapers, Uncategorized  ,  1 Comment

The updates to digitized newspapers for Minnesota keeps adding to my research task list! I already found one new item about my late father-in-law.

MN Digital Newspaper Hub – May 2024 content update
A content update to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub today added 10,025 new issues and 158,877 new newspaper pages. New publicly available titles & date spans: