Join us in Salt Lake City for a Week at the FamilySearch Library!

Registration for the St. Louis Genealogical Society's annual genealogy research trip to the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, is now open. This year's adventure runs from Sunday, 5 October through Sunday, 12 October 2025. This is our thirty-second annual trip to the world's largest genealogical library. For one full week, you can enjoy non-stop, immersive working time in this huge genealogy playground! 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. 

Veterans Day and Genealogy

Happy Veterans Day! If you, your children, or other living family members have served in the military, we thank you so much for your service. If your parents, grandparents, or any other relatives in the past have served, this day commemorates them as well, and this holiday Monday, we are reminded of their commitment to our country and everything it stands for. Veterans Day, once called Armistice Day, is often confused with Memorial Day. The latter honors our fallen heroes, whereas Veterans Day was created as a way to say thank you and to honor living veterans. It is a fairly new holiday which began early in the twentieth century, when President Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to “remember the armistice,” signed on 11 November 1918, that ended World War I. His intention was to emphasize peace and to honor thousands of men who served in the war.

Sharing the Results of the Genealogical Hunt!

We love tracking down our ancestors through online databases, in courthouses, and at county clerks’ offices and can easily spend hours and hours in the pursuit. In the process we uncover the details of our forebears’ lives—birth and death dates that tie them to a place, marriage records that tell us who some of their closest friends or family were, and census records that show us the makeup of their families. Digging a little deeper, we can also discover fascinating details about their occupations, their brushes with the law, whether they left their homeland to start over in a new location, and much more. DNA has taken genealogical research to a whole new level and provides another tool to break through those brick walls we all seem to have. We learn so much as we are pursuing our ancestors, it's wonderful to pay it forward to others. Jane Theissen, our StLGS Quarterly editor, hopes to inspire you to take the plunge into writing for our journal. Jane writes . . .

August Genealogy Meetings and Classes

In spite of the disruption at our office caused by ongoing roof and ceiling leaks, we continue to carry on with our scheduled meetings and classes. (If you didn't read about our water woes, be sure to take a look at last week's post.) We are excited about the grand opening of the Emerson History and Genealogy Center at the new Clark Family Branch that opened on 9 July, and we have already begun to avail ourselves of the library's new meeting spaces. Our friends there came to our rescue in providing space for the Irish SIG meeting on 27 July, and our first monthly meeting will be held at the Clark Branch in August. You are invited to tour the new facility, if you haven't already done so, this coming week. Read on for more information . . .

September Genealogy Meetings, Upcoming Classes, and Fall Speaker Series

It feels like the summer has flown by, doesn't it? But fall is almost here, and we are excited about our remaining meetings, some new upcoming classes, and our hybrid Fall Speaker Series. All the details to get you started with our fall event schedule are below.

Biographies for Sale at the StLGS Trading Post and Beyond

Do you often wish someone had written a biography or family history to help move your genealogy along? Maybe someone did write an article or a book. You can use search engines to find books about your family, or you can see if someone has donated a book to the StLGS Trading Post, where we sell gently-used history and genealogy books donated to the society by members and friends.

Missouri in the War of 1812

Were your families in what is now Missouri before 1812? Did you know the War of 1812 included men from Missouri? St. Louis Genealogical Society has published a set of books, The War of 1812 in Missouri, volumes 1 and 2, that may move your research forward for those early families. These volumes are rich in the history of the pioneers and Native Americans who were in the Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys during the early nineteenth century. The editors have added maps, glossaries, bibliographies, and indexes filling both volumes with valuable information for researchers of the time period. The maps alone are a Missouri researcher's gold mine.

June Genealogy Meetings and Events

Update to St. Louis County Historian Vacancy

Thanks to StLGS member, Carol Waggoner, for letting us know that she has communicated with St. Louis County Executive, Sam Page, who told her that "Tom Ott is now the acting county historian and he [Sam Page] emailed this morning that he intends to fill the position this summer." Great news for St. Louis County!

Upcoming StLGS Meeting

StLGS Monthly Meeting
Saturday, 8 June 2019

"Migration from the Eastern U.S. to Mid-America," by Carol Whitton, CG, St. Louis County Library Headquarters Auditorium, 10:00 a.m.; free, open to all, no pre-registration needed.

More information on the StLGS website.

    
Upcoming German Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting

  Wednesday, 19 June 2019

"German Parish Records in Archion and Matricula," by Carol Whitton, CG; St. Louis County Library Headquarters Auditorium, 7:00 p.m. Free, open to all, no pre-registration needed.

 More information on the German SIG page on the StLGS website.

Other Upcoming Meetings/Events

Czech Genealogical Researchers Monthly Meeting
Saturday, 22 June 2019

"The Irish in Bohemia," by Mary Petersen, St. Louis County Library Headquarters East Room, 1:30 p.m.; free, open to all, no pre-registration needed.

More information on the group's website.

St. Louis County Library Classes
Saturday, 22 June 2019

"Digital Archiving Day at the Library" St. Louis County Library Headquarters, 2:00 p.m.; free, but pre-registration is needed and there are limited spaces.

More information on the library's website.

Thursday, 27 June 2019

"Who Were My Ancestors? Beginning Genealogical Research," St. Louis County Library Headquarters, 2:00 p.m.; free, but pre-registration is needed.

More information on the library's website.