I love this! 3,000 of the 25,000+ maps held by the Wisconsin Historical Society are now digitized and online. I spent too much time already tonight looking at various maps for cities and towns where my ancestors resided.
Click here to read the full article.
Click here to access the maps and atlases and learn more about the collection.
I really enjoyed the special genetics learning day at the Jamboree. The speakers, lectures, and comaraderie were great. I volunteered as a room monitor all day and tonight my feet really know I did that! I learned a lot about DNA testing from knowledgeable presenters in the rooms where I worked. I am convinced more than ever that I need to do this NOW.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. during a late afternoon break with Cyndi Ingle Howells and Elyse Doerflinger. Thank you to Cyndi for arranging the meeting.
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| Elyse Doerflinger, Dr,. Gate, and me |
I met new friends and spent some time with long-time friends. That’s an important part of these conferences. Also, that we ate too much! Looking forward to three more days in Burbank learning, presenting and having meetings. Hey fellow Minnesotans, the sun really does still exist.
The Minnesota Genealogical Society and the St. Cloud Area Genealogists are hosting the St. Cloud Genealogy Conference on Saturday, June 22, 2013. It’s an all-day event and the cost is only $35 which includes lunch and snacks.
The program features two plenary sessions and two rounds of breakout sessions, with topics including researching at the National Archives, scanning images, finding European origins, and the newest changes at FamilySearch.org, plus two German research topics: reading German church records and German research on the web.
The location is the Apollo High School at 1000 N 44th Avenue in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
For more details and to register, visit the MGS website: www.mngs.org
We all hear about interviewing the older generations of our family before they are gone. I have an additional task for your list of family history activities. Take pictures of the ancestral homes and businesses now. That’s now as in NOW.
We don’t know when the buildings might be destroyed by fire, floods, tornados, or by a wrecking ball. This afternoon I decided to drive past a couple places where my family had lived in the past. 1011 Portland Avenue in St. Paul looked just fine. This is where my maternal Grandmother Gertrude M. (Cook) Hanley lived for many years as a child.
But earlier I had driven up Marshall Avenue from the St. Paul Cathedral to take a look at 358 Marshall where the sisters of my maternal Great Grandfather John T. Cook had lived. Minnie, Ellen, and Catherine Cook had a nice home where members of the greater family were welcomed. I have written about this home several times. I have a faint memory of being in the home as a very young girl. My mother and grandmother told me about the many happy hours spent there.
As I drove west on Marshall I saw two fire engines with lights flashing. My heart sank and I hoped that the house wasn’t on fire. It had been in less than ideal condition the last time I drove by there. Then I saw the fire engines were in front of homes in the lower address numbers. Whew!
A couple seconds later I was in the correct block and there was still shock. The house is gone and replaced by a big building. I had never stopped to take a picture of the home. I am kicking myself and feel sad about it. In its place is 370 Marshall. It was built in 2005. Had it really been that long since I drove past there?
I came home and did some online searching. 370 Marshall is a 68 unit upscale condominium building. I found one item on an older city council agenda:
Agenda of the St. Paul City Council
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
5. Letter from the Office of License, Inspections and Environmental Protection announcing a public hearing before the City Council on October 22, 2003, to consider the appeal of Real Estate Development Group to a decision of the Heritage Preservation Commission denying a demolition permit application to raze the house and garage at 358 Marshall Avenue in order to construct a six story 68-unit condominium building.
Take those pictures now or get someone to do it for you if the homes and businesses are not nearby. I will be taking many pictures of other homes and businesses in the coming months.
Another press released was received from FamilySearch this week. How often do you check the FamilySearch website’s section of digitized records and indexes? When you visit the website click on Search and then scroll down the next page to “Browse All Published Collections” and then click on the country of interest. I plan to keep checking the Illinois county marriage records.
“FamilySearch has added more than 2.16 million index records and images this week from Argentina, Austria, Italy, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 1,152,830 index records and images from the U.S., Illinois, County Marriages, 1810–1934, collection, and the 244,523 images from the Spain, Province of Valencia, Municipal Records, 1611–1935, collection. See the table below for the full list of updates. Search these diverse collections and more than 3.5 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org.”
Check the full table of this week’s updates at https://www.familysearch.org/node/2181
Memorial Day weekend brings another press release about free access to military records. Enjoy!
“In honor of Memorial Day next week, MyHeritage is granting free access to millions of military records from our most popular collections. The records can be accessed from here.
The free offer ends on May 28.
The collections will help you journey back in time to some of the most important conflicts in world history, which impacted American families as well as millions of families worldwide.
Here is the link to our official blog post here – http://blog.myheritage.com/2013/05/memorial-day-free-access-to-us-military-records/ and an image is attached.”
Click on “Search Now” in their blog post.
Just six weeks left to take advantage of the fantastic $50 savings on the 2013 Federation of Genealogical Societies conference registration. If you register for the FGS Fort Wayne conference no later than July 1st, you will save $50 off the full four-day registration price. The savings on a single day registration is $20. The conference has things of interest for all levels of genealogical experience.
If you have already registered, please let your genealogy co-horts and fellow society members know about the savings deadline. Consider registering soon for workshops, luncheons, and special events. All of these are showing fantastic registration numbers and some may fill soon.
It’s easy to go back to the registration page of the conference website, log in, and add luncheons, special events, the Farewell Brunch, donate to the War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions Fund, or other items.
Check out the conference website at www.fgsconference.org
Have you recently checked the Minnesota category of the Historical Record Collections at FamilySearch? It has 22 section of material related to the state. Add a lot more when you check out the U.S. census records. Many have digitized images, some are record abstracts, and some are indexes. Check out the list below (and many others) at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=18. Check back at least every month to see if more had been added. Once you are on the page, check the last column to see when each collection was last updated.
SLIG Registration Opens June 1
The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy is opening registration June 1, 2013 at 9:00 AM Mountain Time. So many great tracks for January 13-17, 2014!
Course 1
American Research and Records: Focus on Families
Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA
Course 2
New York Research
Karen Mauer Green, CG
Course 3
Research in the South
J. Mark Lowe, CG
Course 4
Scottish Research
Course 5
Advanced Research Tools: Land Records
Richard G. Sayre, CG and Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, CGL
Course 6
Credentialing: Accreditation, Certification, or Both?
Apryl Cox, AG and Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL
Course 7
Producing a Quality Family Narrative
John Philip Colletta Ph.D., FUGA
Course 8
Researching in Eastern Europe
Kory Meyerink, AG
Course 9
Advanced Genealogical Methods
Thomas Jones Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS
Course 10
Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum
Angela McGhie and Kimberly Powell
Course 11
Problem Solving
Judith Hansen, AG, MLS
Please visit the website for more information: www.slig.ugagenealogy.org
Email [email protected] with questions.