My two live genealogy presentations this week

Paula Stuart-Warren  Webinars  Leave a comment

This week I am doing two presentations. For the first one we all must get dressed, drive to the venue, and be ready to network. For the second one, no one will know what any of us is wearing or where you are sitting.

 

Tuesday, 19 May 2015,  7:00 CDT

Stearns History Museum, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA

Your Anytime Library: Success in the Virtual Stacks
Rather research than count sheep or peruse books at any hour without breaking into the library? County, town, and family histories, record abstracts, and more await. Digitized, photocopied, excerpted, abstracted, and indexed books provide a strong likelihood of success via your computer. Add newspapers, documents, family trees, pension records, periodicals, and more to the accessible items and you might be housebound for days (months?). Finding books online might be as simple as typing the title in your favorite search engine and enclosing it in quotation marks. Your search engine is your best friend. The majority of the material listed in the handout for this lecture are links to FREE sites.

For more details and a map: http://stearns-museum.org/genealogy-org

 

Wednesday, 20 May 2015, 6:00 p.m. PDT, 7 MDT, 8 CDT, 9 EDT

FREE WEBINAR from Southern California Genealogical Society
 
Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA
“The WPA Era: What It Created for Genealogists”
ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

1930s and 1940s government programs put many to work. The Works Progress Administration workers created record transcriptions, abstracts, indexes plus courthouse, cemetery, church, & manuscript inventories. Much is now online.

HANDOUT
A handout will be available shortly before the presentation. A link will be included in a reminder that will be sent the day before the session.

ABOUT THE SCGS JAMBOREE WEBINAR SERIES
A goal of the Southern California Genealogical Society is to offer educational opportunities to genealogists and family history enthusiasts everywhere. The Jamboree Extension Webinar Series helps delivers those opportunities.

COST
The initial webcast of each session is offered to the public free of charge. Webinars are archived and available only to SCGS members as a benefit of membership in the society. The webinar archive can be found at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/archive-index.html.

 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

View System Requirements

It they wrote it, why don’t all genealogists read it? Helping ourselves.

Paula Stuart-Warren  Books, Repositories, Research  5 Comments

IBooks love it when a author updates a genealogy “how to” book. That author knows that we can’t sit still and ignore all the changes going on in the world of family history research. Yet, some of the guides that have been around for a while are still vital. [See a selected list later in this post.]

Daily questions and comments on message boards, Facebook pages, and other places show that many people have not yet discovered the print materials that could help solve their research problems. I love all the online indexes, databases, and digitized records. I love all the digitized and searchable newspapers. I even love many of the online family trees for their clues to more research. Then there is much of my own family.

Yes, they appear in many of these online resources. Yes, they still need to be researched in records and indexes not yet online. Yes, they still draw me to libraries, archives, courthouses, and other places for zillions of records not yet online. How do I know that all these other places and records exist? That’s an easy answer.

I read and attend. Sounds simple? It actually is. (more…)

Germanic Genealogy guide fantastic celebration sale

Paula Stuart-Warren  Germanic Research  2 Comments

I am a long-time member of the Germanic Genealogy Society. This year is its 35th Anniversary and the organization has a special offer for members! GGS has members from all over the world and I joined GGS when it was just a few years old.

For the first time, the GGS publication, Germanic Genealogy, A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Book cover, Germanic GenealogyMigration Patterns 3rd Edition, is on sale for GGS members!  During the month of May, members may purchase this publication for only $35 plus $6 shipping for U.S. addresses.  That is a $17.00 savings for GGS members. I have had all the versions of this guide and highly recommend it.  Check the Table of Contents here.

GGS also has great meetings and major events. Attend either of the two-day events  in May (15-16 & 29-30 ) and pick up your copy at the sale price and save the shipping cost.

Visit the GGS website to learn more about membership, events, and to purchase the guide. Membership is only $15.00.

Early bird registration deadline for GRIP is May 15

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences, Conferences/Institutes, Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, GRIP  Leave a comment

A week of genealogy in a beautiful green campus setting. Interaction with other genealogists, classmates, and instructors. You never know who you will end up sitting next to in the classroom or in the cafeteria. I have seen friendships develop and even some ancestral matches made.

The Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh is all that and more. It takes place in Pittsburgh but covers all kinds of research, methodology, localities, questions, conundrums, and gets us all invigorated. Even the instructors leave GRIP with a renewed energy.

GRIP has become so popular that in 2015 it takes place in two different weeks with an excellent array of courses. Not all the courses are the same each week, but the website lists those for each week. A few seats are still open in some courses.

The dates? June 28-July 3 or July 19-24.

A vital date: May 15 is the last day to register and save $25 on the full cost. www.gripitt.org

If you are already registered for my second week course, Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper , watch your email in a couple weeks for a special way to participate and the chance to have one of your genealogical conundrums evaluated and perhaps solved! I will even share some packing tips for those coming from out of town. Not registered for this one? A few seats are left but hurry so you receive the special email.

Minnesota websites for genealogical and historical research: Part 3

Paula Stuart-Warren  Historical Societies, Libraries, Minnesota  Leave a comment

This is Part 3 of an ongoing  series of posts about great online resources from historical societies and libraries around Minnesota. Don’t forget to check the websites of these organizations for lists, catalogs, and finding aids that tell you about the other extensive research resources that need to be used in person.

Hennepin County Library, Central Library, Minneapolis, MN
The Minneapolis Collection manuscripts collection, located in Special Collections at Minneapolis Central Library, has a list and descriptions of these:
Personal papers https://apps.hclib.org/collections/personalarchives.cfm
Clubs & Organizations Annotated Index https://goo.gl/AI2yXI

Otter Tail County Historical Society, Fergus Falls, MN
Multi index search http://otchs.org/ot_search.php
Cemetery search www.otchs.org/ot_search_cem.php

St. Cloud State University, Central Minnesota Historical Center, St. Cloud, MN
Guide to manuscripts and other materials held in the center  http://goo.gl/5VWbb8

Carver County Historical Society, Waconia, MN
Newspaper/Resource Search http://goo.gl/0UBTsh

July 8th: a special Irish genealogy gift for my birthday this year

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  Leave a comment

Today’s press release from Ireland stated that on July 8th I will receive a special birthday gift! Well, those aren’t the exact words of the press release. However, I know that it was scheduled for that day just for my birthday!

As the press release stated:

“National Library of Ireland Announces Launch Date for New Online Genealogy Resource
– Almost 400,000 images of Catholic parish register microfilms to be available online for free from 8th July 2015 –
The entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) will be made available online – for free – from 8th July 2015 onwards. On that date, a dedicated website will go live, with over 390,000 digital images of the microfilm reels on which the parish registers are recorded.”
Ireland map

Read the full press release on the National Library of Ireland’s website.

I am already making my list of what I will be looking for in those parish records. Let’s see, the counties I know for sure are Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Cavan, Leitrim, and Donegal. Cork is a maybe. Now to list all the individual surnames, Bowler, Cauley, Cook, Fee, Fitzgerald, Green, Griffin, Hanley, Keegan, Laughlin, O’Donnell, McAndrew, Moriarty, Ryan, Rowan, Walsh, Welch, and others to be discovered.

Genealogists: You could win a scholarship to SLIG 2016

Paula Stuart-Warren  Family History Library, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, SLIG  Leave a comment

Would you like to win a scholarship that covers the tuition cost to attend the 11-15 January 2016 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG)? The 2016 edition offers 13 courses. The scholarship enables you to choose any one of the courses. SLIG takes place a couple blocks from the Family History Library. Talk about convenient! I am the coordinator of the Resources and Strategies for Intermediate U.S. Research course at SLIG.

From SLIG:

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, sponsored by the Utah Genealogical Association, is pleased to announce that essay entries for the Jimmy B. Parker Essay Scholarship are now being accepted.

The scholarship recipient will receive full tuition to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2016. The scholarship will be awarded to the individual whose essay and application reflect a commitment to genealogical excellence and (more…)

Official census enumeration dates: the law and Minnesota

Paula Stuart-Warren  census, Minnesota, Native American  2 Comments

It’s important to check the official date of each census year. If the official date of the census was to be 1 June, then a person that died on May 15 should not be included. Nor should a child born on 5 June. Seasoned researchers know that no matter the laws, guidelines, rules, or whatever for any record, there are often non-compliant entries.

Researchers with Minnesota families are fortunate in that once it became a state, several state enumerations were put into place by the state legislature. (There are earlier territorial level censuses.) These are wonderful for filling in the time period between the federal censuses and help to fill the void of most of the 1890 federal census. The official dates of the Minnesota state censuses were:

  • 1865: 1 June
  • 1875: 1 May
  • 1885: 1 May
  • 1895: 1 June
  • 1905: 1 June

 

The laws for each year made it clear about the when, who, and how of the enumeration.

For example, read the 1875 act here (Chapter 137, pages 161-162) for free on the website of the Minnesota Office of (more…)

Columbia Heights and Hilltop, Minnesota: once in a county that is no more

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota  Leave a comment

I love to learn about and/or visit ghost towns, counties that no longer exist, and the majestic buildings (or former sites) that were demolished for “progress.”

Minnesota has a former county that was home to several towns. Sarah Given will explore the history of Columbia Heights and Hilltop, Minnesota, at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Columbia Heights Public Library, 820 40th Av. NE. I wish I could attend, but I will be lecturing in New York on that day.

Why do I wish I could attend?

Once upon a time, there was Manomin County, Minnesota. It was situated between Hennepin and Anoka counties. It didn’t last long and a timeline of the changes is too long to post today. According to a recent article “Too small to survive on its own, that little dog tail of land that is now Columbia Heights, Hilltop, Fridley and Spring Lake Park (more…)

Umlautgate. What is the “ö” in Lindström?

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota  2 Comments

Yes, cousin Dave is correct. He reminded me in a comment on my earlier post that it wasn’t an umlaut. The “ö ” in Lindström, Minnesota is not really an umlaut. It actually has no name. It’s a special letter.

The media headlines needed something to call it. Maybe drafting a German term to fill that position was a mistake. The news of the umlaut being restored to the sign for Lindstrom, Minnesota spread around the world.

Today, Minnesota Public Radio agreed with Dave: “Postscript: Um, it’s not an umlaut” and you may read the story here on MPR’s website.

Maybe I should give my previous post a new title “Lindstrom has the two dots back.”

I bow to Dave. After all, I respect my elders and he is my elder. Yes, by only six weeks, but he gotz mor educashun. He has family pictures I don’t have. Love you, cuz!