StLGS News! Open House, Trivia Night, and a Recording We Hope You'll Watch on KMOV-TV

Thanks to everyone who attended our Open House this weekend (Saturday, 7 March 2026) and made it such a success! Our office was glowing with smiles and warmth in spite of the drizzly, cold weather outside, as our volunteers greeted dozens of members and visitors who came to spend a few hours learning about what we do and how we can help with your genealogy questions. We'll share a few photos here and hope to entice you to join us again in a few weeks for a fun night of trivia on Saturday, 21 March. We also want to share a beautifully moving recording that started as a telephone inquiry and ended as a feature segment on local television. Read on for more!

Just Like Spring, Our March is "Busting Out All Over"!

It's coming! Spring is in the air, and the month of March for St. Louis Genealogical Society is overflowing with meetings and special events. If you missed our February monthly meeting, "Living on the Frontier: A Look into Missouri and Illinois," featuring St. Louis County Parks museum educator Jeffrey Edison, you can still watch the digital recording on our Monthly Meeting page. You can continue learning about St. Louis history at our March monthly meeting too. Come visit us on Saturday, March 7th for our annual Open House, come play with us at our newly revived Trivia Night on Saturday, March 21st, and attend the German SIG meeting on Saturday, March 28th. Registration for our annual Family History Conference in April is now open as well. We've got so much to share with you! Read on for the details . . . 

Please Join us on Saturday, March 7th for Our Annual Open House!

Last March, St. Louis Genealogical Society revived our annual Open House after a hiatus of several years, and it was a great success. And now it's time to do it again! Our Open House offers an opportunity to meet old and new friends, take a tour of our spacious office, learn more about upcoming meetings and events, and get answers to your genealogical questions. With the hint of spring finally in the air, we are excited to welcome you once more to this year's Open House. Read on for all the details!

February Genealogy Meetings and Class AND Information on Special Upcoming Events!

As we dig out from the massive snow and ice storm this past weekend, we want to remind you that if you missed any of our January genealogy meetings, you can snuggle up on the couch and enjoy some of the recordings posted on our website. Then, you can plan ahead to join us in February. Our annual "Ask Louie at Your Service" meeting started the new year with many interesting questions, and the recording is available on our Monthly Meeting page. The German Special Interest Group (G-SIG) hosted Timo Kracke, a German genealogist, who spoke on databases hosted by German genealogical societies. That recording and Mr. Kracke's handout are available on the G-SIG page. The Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) hosted a Zoom presentation featuring Susan McKee, who provided helpful tips on "Organizing Your Genealogy: Getting Your Research Year Off to a Good Start." The recording of the meeting and Ms. McKee's handout are posted on our Irish SIG page. We hope to see you at our February meetings and our first class for 2026. Read on for details. 

You are Invited to Our Annual Open House!

Last March, St. Louis Genealogical Society revived our annual Open House after a hiatus of several years, and it was a great success. Moved from Sunday to Saturday afternoon so more people could attend, the Open House allowed our volunteers to meet old and new friends, show off our newly painted and re-carpeted office, and answer lots of questions from interested attendees. Now that spring is finally in the air, we are excited to welcome you once again to this year's Open House. Read on for all the details!

StLGS March Genealogy Meetings and Events

We've had a little taste of spring in St. Louis this week, and we are looking forward to our March meetings and events. If you missed the February meeting on "Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Genealogy," featuring our co-webmaster Jim Ross, you can still watch the digital recording on our Monthly Meeting page and get some great ideas for how you can incorporate this new technology in your own family history research. You can dive deeper into AI at our upcoming Family History Conference! Later this month, the German SIG has a meeting, and we are excited to welcome you to our annual Open House on Saturday, March 22nd. Read on for more information. 

February Genealogy Meeting and Class AND Information on Special Upcoming Events!

Our genealogical year got off to a great start with several very well-attended meetings. Our January "Ask Louie at Your Service" meeting, as always, generated a host of interesting questions, and we've added a handout covering the websites mentioned during the meeting to our Monthly Meeting page along with the digital recording of the meeting. The Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) hosted a Zoom presentation featuring the noted author, John Grenham. The recording of the meeting and Mr. Grenham's handout are posted on our Irish SIG page. The German and Jewish SIGs also met this past month, but neither meeting was recorded. We hope to see you at our February monthly meeting and our first class for 2025. Read on for details. 

Open House Brings Out a Crowd!

For the first time in many years, St. Louis Genealogical Society hosted an open house on Saturday, 23 March 2024, and it was a great success! It was wonderful to see so many new faces as well as some old friends who stopped by to chat. Our hardworking volunteers provided coffee, cookies, and soft pretzel bites to munch on and were available all morning to greet visitors, give tours of the office, answer a myriad of questions, and encourage people to explore our website, attend our meetings, and be part of the exciting genealogical community in St. Louis.

Updated Congregations Maps Added to the StLGS Website!

Suppose you had a female ancestor who lived in St. Louis in the 1860s, but you couldn’t discover her birth date. There are no statewide birth records in Missouri prior to 1910, and, although the City of St. Louis kept a birth register, compliance was not compulsory; hence, it is incomplete. Religious records would be very helpful, as births, baptisms, confirmations, and other life events were usually recorded by religious leaders and kept on site. You know where your ancestor lived and what religion her family practiced, but how do you know what congregations were active at the time she was born? A new set of congregations maps is now live on our website, and an exciting feature of the maps is the ability to see exactly which churches and synagogues were open in the city and county at any given time. Let’s take a look!

March 2024 StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Events AND Family History Conference Registration Opens!

Spring is in the air early this year, and we are looking forward to welcoming you to an enticing array of genealogy events. We will, of course, continue to offer you the option of attending remotely, but we hope with the warm weather, you will return to attending in person. It's always so good to see all of you! We want to remind you about our Open House on Saturday, 23 March, and we are also excited to announce our 52nd annual Family History Conference featuring noted genealogist David Rencher. Here is the upcoming schedule.

Open House is Back! Come Visit on Saturday, 23 March 2024!

During the early 2000s, St. Louis Genealogical Society hosted an Open House at our office in Maplewood. It was held on a Sunday afternoon and always attracted an enthusiastic crowd. We enjoyed showing off our home base, greeting old and new friends, and sharing progress on our many projects. As time passed, however, and we got busy with many other events, Open House slipped under the radar and faded away. Then, of course, the pandemic shut us down, and even more years passed by without a way to celebrate our society. This year, we are reviving this fun way to spend a morning. We're changing it to a Saturday so more people can attend, and we can't wait to welcome you to our office!

Another Goodbye to a Friend, Some More Upcoming Events, and an Update to the Photo Scanning Day

In Memoriam: Jim Bresnahan, Former StLGS Webmaster

As many of you know, the StLGS website is one of our society’s most valuable assets. Developing and maintaining the site has taken thousands of volunteer hours and an incredible amount of expertise. We have been very lucky to have knowledgeable people design and create our website pages over the years, and this week we lost one of them. James “Jim” Bresnahan was our webmaster for almost twenty years, and it is with great sadness that we announce his passing on 26 January 2024 after a long illness.