The Minnesota State Fair, Genealogy, WCCO Radio, and the Lennon Sisters

Paula Stuart-Warren  Genealogy, Lennon Sisters, Radio, Tim Russell  Leave a comment

I bet that’s a combination you may be surprised to hear. It does not involve the Lennon Sisters performing at the fair. Minnesota has one of the largest and best state fairs in the country. I have lived a few miles from the state fairgrounds most of my life but that’s not part of the story. I am reminded of my story every year at this time. The 2017 Minnesota State Fair opened yesterday. The 2016 attendance at the 12-day fair was 1,943,719 people!

It was the early 1990s and I was listening to the radio. One of the on-air personalities was again mentioning his connection to the Lennon Sisters. Being a dedicated genealogist, I decided to call the station and explain what common ancestor they needed to have in order for the cousin relationship to be what he said. The producer asked if I would go on the air to explain it to the host. I protested but then gulped and said ok. Tim Russell was that host and (more…)

Saint Paul, Minnesota city directories 1856-1922 digitized and free online!

Paula Stuart-Warren  City directories, Libraries, Minnesota, Saint Paul, St. Paul  3 Comments

It has finally happened! Saint Paul city directories have been digitized by the Saint Paul Public Library with the aid of a Heritage Preservation Grant. The years digitized are 1846-1922. Why not later years? The answer is simple, the later years are still under copyright.

Last week, I tried to find an easy way to access these on the library’s website, but that hasn’t worked. A newsletter from the Minnesota Historical Society today helped me locate a link.

I like that we have a collection of these in one place and for free! There are other online collections that have some or all of the directories. No other website that I know about has this comprehensive collection for free.

Checking these city directories needs to be done from cover to cover to see all the information. Among the details to be found in the front and back of city directories are: city government departments and officials, history of the city, churches, schools, railroads, organizations, associations, institutions, hospitals, business directory by type, late (more…)

Time to improve genealogy research knowledge and resources? Here’s one excellent way!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences/Institutes, Consultations, Genealogy, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy  , ,  3 Comments

January.  In the U.S. this means the middle of winter. Snow some places, shorter daylight time, and no green tree leaves or wildly blooming flowers. What should you be doing then? Why learning more about family history of course. The annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) takes place 21-26 January 2018. The winter in the Salt Lake City valley area is not that bad. I often walk around without my coat buttoned! SLIG takes place indoors, so that we really needn’t pay attention to the weather.

2018 marks my 22nd year of teaching in various SLIG courses and my 21st year of coordinating my  course. That tells you it’s a worthwhile course. The course is titled “Taking Your Research to the Next Level.”

  • Helping me with the course and consultations are instructors Luana Darby, MLIS, AG; Cyndi Ingle; and Debra Mieszala, CG
  • Some sessions are lecture style and others are more interactive with hands-on work
  • It’s not a course for those just starting out on the family history journey. It builds on what you know, what you have researched, and provides more in-depth info on resources online and off. Some suggested prerequisites are on the page linked below.
  • Be prepared to think, analyze, share, and grow in expertise and knowledge
  • This course has a lengthy and useful syllabus and with an online edition, the links to websites are live!
  • Students often find out they know more than they give themselves credit for!
  • Bring along a laptop computer or tablet to get online for some direct work during the week
  • Individual consultations with one of the instructors directs you to resources targeted to your own brick walls
  • Leave the week with a new understanding of records, repositories, how to find out more, and with a whole passel of new genealogy friends

Join the four of us for a great week! Click here for full details on SLIG, this course, and others. Online registration is easy.

Open hours for consultations in the next couple weeks

Paula Stuart-Warren  Consultations, Minnesota Historical Society, Professional Genealogists  Leave a comment

As has happened before, I finished some projects and now have some open hours for genealogical consultations in the next couple of weeks.  A consultation can be done in-person, by email, regular mail, or by Skype or Google Hangout. You don’t have to live in the St. Paul and Minneapolis metropolitan area.

  • Need some side-by-side assistance at the Minnesota Historical Society to help learn the ropes there and to find records you may not know about? This includes State Archives material and manuscripts, too.
  • New to genealogy? I can give a two-hour (or more if you wish) private or group class to get you started on the correct path.
  • It’s a good way to have another set of eyes help you plan further research, figure out ways to solve a research problem, or to get some professional advice that you are going along the right path.
  • Maybe you don’t know where to find specific records or that they even exist at all. Perhaps you are having difficulty figuring out Great Grandma Annie’s maiden name. I can direct you toward the answers.
  • Do you need advice and assistance on organizing your work space or the piles that need to be filed?
  • I also provide advice on organizing, becoming a professional genealogist or lecturer, and even just listen to frustrations in name changes.

You get to say how the two-hour consultation is framed. We can even do a bit of online searching and help plan your trips to various libraries, archives, and historical societies. I have access to a wide variety of databases and online newspapers. These consultations are for U.S. and Canadian research.

Email me at PaulaStuartWarren at gmail dot com if you wish details on these consultations. You may also leave me a note as a comment to this blog post and I will contact you directly.

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More PERSI content added on findmypast

Paula Stuart-Warren  periodicals, PERSI  Leave a comment

If you attended the inaugural International German Genealogical Partnership Conference last week, you may have heard me promoting PERSI which is found on Findmypast.com. The two lectures in which PERSI (PERiodical Source Index) was featured were:

  • World War I Era U.S. Alien Registrations
  • German Research Gem: Back Issues of Genealogical and Historical Periodicals

This week’s update from Findmypast includes this:

“This week we’ve updated the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), adding 14,865 new articles, and uploaded 13,039 new images to seven different publications.”

You can search in PERSI at any time, but to view the growing number of digitized articles, you do need to subscribe to findmypast. PERSI is found under the Search tab and then the category of Newspapers & periodicals.

 

Paula’s genealogy presentation schedule for the balance of 2017

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  Leave a comment

In addition to the Minnesota Genealogical Society’s North Star Conference I told you about yesterday, several car rides and three plane rides are in my immediate future as I do presentations at a bunch of genealogy events throughout the rest of 2017.

October 2017 Minnesota Genealogical Society Conference

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences, Conferences/Institutes, Cyndi's List, Minnesota Genealogical Society, Uncategorized  2 Comments

Family History Crossroads
6-7 October 2017
Earle Brown
Heritage Center,
Brooklyn Center,
MN

Featuring
Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA
&
Cyndi Ingle, creator of Cyndi’s List

 Speakers

Set your compass to the Tenth Annual North Star Genealogy Conference. The two-day event features:

  • Plenary lectures by nationally acclaimed genealogy educators, Paula Stuart-Warren and Cyndi Ingle (that would be Cyndi of the amazing Cyndislist!)
  • 20 breakout presentations by leading speakers from five states
  • New Location: The Earle Brown Conference Center is brimming with Minnesota heritage – it is an historic family farm converted to a modern conference center
  • Plus, exhibitors, vendors, and door prizes add to the fun!
  • DNA pre-conference day on Thursday, October 5 (already half-full)

Learning takes top billing at North Star, but it is also your opportunity to make new friends who share your enthusiasm for family history.

Paula’s presentations:

  • What Should I Do Next? Developing Step-by-Step Research Plans
  • Research Rewards in County Courthouse and Town Hall Records
  • Deeds: Much More Than Land Descriptions*
  • Awards Banquet talk: Why Do I Descend From THESE Families?

Cyndi’s presentations:

  • Pin Your Ancestors Down With Google Maps and Google Earth
  • A Guided Tour of Cyndi’s List 2.0
  • Striking Out on Their Own: Online Migration Tools and Resources
  • How the Homestead Act Shaped My Family and Maybe Yours*

*Part of a dual two-hour session in which Paula and Cyndi will engage in a give-and-take discussion of the Homestead Act, which gave thousands of settlers a foot-hold in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and of the use of land records in family history research.

Enjoy 20 breakout sessions featuring fourteen leading genealogists from Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Colorado. View Breakout Session descriptions and Speaker Bios.

For more details and to register, click here.

 

 

Arkansas newspapers to be digitized with grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

Paula Stuart-Warren  Arkansas, Newspapers  Leave a comment

This is an exciting press release from the Arkansas State Archives. If I say please, do you think they would do Northwest Arkansas counties first? Johnson, Newton, Pope, Washington, Franklin . . . Over the last 30 years I have done much newspaper reading onsite in Arkansas, but to have them digitized and searchable on Chronicling American is wonderful.

“The Arkansas State Archives has been awarded a grant in the amount of $208,128 for the digitization of historic Arkansas newspapers through the National Endowment of the Humanities, Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst announced today. The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant will allow 100,000 (more…)

War of 1812 Pension Project to Resume!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  2 Comments

In case you haven’t seen this press release from yesterday, I am reprinting here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2017

PRESERVE THE PENSIONS ANNOUNCES RESUMPTION OF DOCUMENT

CONSERVATION AT NATIONAL ARCHIVES, DIGITIZATION SOON TO FOLLOW

Austin, Texas  – The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is pleased to announce National Archives staff have recently resumed document conservation of the War of 1812 Pension files covering surnames M(Moore)-Q. Document conservation is the essential first step in digitizing these files. Our digitization partner, Ancestry.com, has scheduled image capture of these newly conserved documents to begin the second week of September 2017. As capture resumes, new images will be added to Fold3.com on a rolling basis. The Federation and the dedicated volunteers of the Preserve the Pensions project have worked tirelessly for well over a year to negotiate a resolution to the work stoppage. This portion of the project plan is expected to be completed by third quarter 2018.

The War of 1812 pensions are among the most frequently requested set of materials within the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), yet had never been microfilmed or digitized. Through a (more…)

New and improved location coming for the Minnesota Genealogical Society!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota Genealogical Society  2 Comments

The exciting news is officially public. The Minnesota Genealogical Society library and offices are moving later this fall, at the end of October. Plan your research visit accordingly as there will be some down time.

The new location is 1385 Mendota Heights Road. It’s across the Minnesota River from the MSP international airport, but I don’t think river access is a good idea. It will have lots of room for classes, offices, and the wonderful library with books, microfilms, and internet access and FREE parking.

I am looking forward to this move and to spending some time there as a volunteer. Check the MGS website for details on the current location and hours.

For more details on the new location from President Linda Westrom, see the current MGS news.