2017 is shaping up to be a busy year for classes, webinars, and seminars for me. I will be in many states and online! Join me at the events listed on my just updated speaking calendar. As I have said before, it’s fun to meet my blog readers. All my presentations have handouts that accompany the PowerPoint presentations.
If you ever see an error on one of those handouts, please do let me know!
It’s been a year filled with too many low lights, but there are good things, too. I
won’t detail all that has happened but here are a few of them.
It’s the end of 2016 and I have great hope for a fantastic 2017. Please. 2016 was a big downer for me. Not the result of the election (though, ouch), not the loss of so many wonderful actors and musicians, but the family and friends issues of 2016. I feel like much of the year was spent in doctor’s offices and hospitals taking care of or watching over others. (more…)
A new name to more accurately reflect what this organization is doing now and in the future! The press release on the new name:
International German Genealogy Partnership is new name of young organization, reflects growing global participation
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—International German Genealogy Partnership is the new name adopted by members of a new and rapidly growing global organization known since its founding less than two years ago as the German-American Genealogical Partnership.
“New member societies are coming into the Partnership from around the world. There is a growing international participation in the Partnership, and our members decided on a new name that better describes the organization’s international presence,” said Kent Cutkomp, a Minneapolis resident and co-founder of the partnership.
The Partnership was founded in 2015 by genealogy society leaders in America and Germany. Today, the Partnership joins Germanic societies across America, Germany, Canada, England and other European countries.
“The purpose of the Partnership is to expand cooperation among societies nationally and internationally. It’s a great way individual societies can become more successful in serving their members, and that includes helping their members make personal connections worldwide. We’re delighted to see such interest coming from so many parts of the world,” Cutkomp said.
He said organizations joining the Partnership range from small to large. For instance, the Germany-based Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Genealogischer Verbände, a founding member of the Partnership, comprises more than 65 societies serving 22,000 individual members.
Several major initiatives are being undertaken by the Partnership, including the 2017 International Germanic Genealogy Conference, scheduled for July 28-30, Minneapolis, Minn., and themed “CONNECTIONS: International. Cultural. Personal.”
Other initiatives include sharing of knowledge and resources such as exchanging periodicals, sharing researcher and speaker lists, and creating a list of most valuable references, resources and websites. Communication and connections between Partnership organizations are important parts of the process.
For information about the Partnership, visit the website of the Minnesota-based Germanic Genealogy Society at www.GGSMN.org, click “German Partnership.” The Partnership’s official website is expected to launch soon.
Earlier this week, I was adding up the number of ancestors and collateral relatives that I had as Illinois residents. To that I add those of my children. No wonder why I feel comfortable and knowledgeable about Illinois research! For full details and registration on this December 1st webinar, please visit Family Tree University.
I am a bit behind on this but Findmypast is offering free access to a wide variety of military records in honor of Veterans Day. From their press release:
Findmypast makes entire collection of more than 70 million world military records free for four days. Allll UK, Irish, Australian, Canadian and US military records free from the 10th to the 13th November 2016. Includes free access to over 43 million US and Canada military records.
From 04:00 EST, 10th November until 18:59 GMT, 13th November 2016, all 70 million records within Findmypast’s “Military, Armed Forces and Conflict” category will be completely free to search and explore, providing family (more…)
I love California and especially the greater Bay Area. I lived in Mountain View for a year when my ex-husband was stationed at Moffett Naval Air Station and my oldest son was born in Mountain View. I haven’t been back there for a few years, but this weekend, Saturday, October 22nd, I will be there.
Why? I am presenting an all-day seminar for the San Mateo County Genealogical Society. It’s a wonderfully organized organization. The four presentations are:
Join me and the society for an educational and fun day. My presentations apply to locations all across the U.S. I hear there are some neat silent auction items, too. Registration can be done at the door. For more info, check here.
Bonus payment applications, 4 page questionnaires, membership applications, family assistance details, descendant membership applications, old soldier home applications, and more yield great details on military personnel from the 19th and 20th centuries.
To learn more about these records found all across the U.S., join me tomorrow at the Minnesota Historical Society for a class that I am teaching from 10:00-12:30 on Saturday, October 8th. This is a Minnesota Genealogical Society class being held in the Gale Library at the state historical society in Saint Paul. The handout is 6 pages long! Register now to be sure you get the handout. You may also register “at the door” but the handouts may be gone.
http://www.mnhs.org/event/1970
If there are any issues on Kellogg Blvd. getting into the MHS parking lot due to preparations for the Twin Cities Marathon, just say you are going to attend a class at MHS.
The timeline of places where one of my great great grandfathers resided has always fascinated me. Today I was searching online using some of my more unusual ancestral surnames. I repeat this every few months in order to see what new items appear online. The result was that I added a street name for William Rudolph Slaker’s butcher shop in Berlin, Wisconsin.
One search was done on the freely available HathiTrust. Up popped the “Gazetteer and directory of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway and branches, the Western Union and the Sabula, Ackley & Dakota railroads : embracing all alphabetical directories, with sketches of all towns lying along the lines of the above railroads, distance tables and other information.” (Detroit, Mich.: Polk, Murphy & Co., 1875.) This is not a regular city directory, but it gave me what I needed.
He was a butcher before he retired and was also a butcher during his brief Civil War service that he entered from the town of Berlin. He later followed his two sons (Louis F. and Fred) to many locations around Wisconsin as they moved from one railroad station to another. Eventually they ended up in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My own hometown was not the last place of residence for all of them.
It’s ironical that I found William listed in a publication related to the Milwaukee Road. His two sons, and later a grandson, worked for the “Omaha” (Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Railway).
Now I need to get back to Berlin and check out any of the old storefronts on Huron St.
Learning more about your family members who served in the U.S. military is helped by a wide variety of records. Some are created after the person is no longer serving and some involve survivors of those who died in the war effort.
In October, I am teaching a class on this topic: More than Pensions: 19th & 20th Century Military Records
Military personnel also received bonuses, tombstones, land, and other benefits. Applications, rejected files, correspondence, finding aids, indexes, organizational applications, and more at federal and state levels exist for them and for survivors. You will be surprised at what family details available in these records at state archives, historical societies, and other repositories from coast to coast.
Join me for this Minnesota Genealogical Society class on October 8th at the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul. The class runs from 10:00-12:30 p.m and each registrant receives the extensive handout.
