New Naturalization Indices Added to the StLGS Website!

Almost all of us had immigrant ancestors, although not all of them chose to become American citizens. Necessary for voting and to attain some legal status, citizenship was not a priority for those who didn't expect to buy land, weren't welcomed by the often-crowded communities in which they found themselves, or didn't especially care about electing local or national officials. Prior to September 1906, naturalization was a function of individual states and could take place in any court in the country. The number of years one had to be a resident fluctuated over time, and there were no restrictions about where you had to complete the process once you started it. And it was a process. First, an immigrant had to file a declaration of intention to become a citizen; these were often called first papers. The next step, after a certain number of years had passed, was a petition for citizenship, or final papers.

David Rencher, Irish Research Specialist, to Speak at October Irish SIG Meeting!

For anyone doing Irish research, knowing where to look and what is available, especially in Europe, can be confusing. What records are there? Where are they located? How does a researcher access them? The October meeting of the StLGS Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) will feature all the answers to these questions presented by one of the foremost authorities in the U.S. on Irish research, David Rencher. Best of all, this meeting will be open to everyone and will be absolutely free! Read on for all the details.

October Genealogy Meetings and Time to Vote for StLGS Officers

Leaves are starting to fall and it's finally feeling a bit more like autumn. As our year winds down, we hope you will continue to join us for our remaining 2024 meetings and classes. For those of you who are members of StLGS, voting is now open for the election of officers for 2025. Our recent bylaws revision provides for co-presidents to share the expanding job responsibilities of leading our very active society. Also up for election this year are vice president of membership and secretary. Luckily, we have some talented and caring volunteers running for each position, and, although they are unopposed, they would appreciate your support by voting. More information about everything is below.

Did Cousin John Go to Jail?

As we do our family history research, some of us are horrified to discover that not all of our ancestors were law-abiding citizens. We may find cattle rustlers, murderers, extortionists, bigamists, and any number of people in our family trees accused of and possibly incarcerated for their criminal activities. Our first thoughts might be to skip over those people because of their misdeeds, but the notoriety of these ancestors should alert us to record sets we might otherwise miss.

Free Genealogy Webinars in September: A Gift from Legacy Family Tree

Who doesn't love free? As we move into fall and perhaps have a bit more indoor time than we had during the summer, we have received a gift of educational webinars from the software company, Legacy Family Tree, and the genealogy website, MyHeritage. They are sponsoring a series of twenty free webinars, called "Webtember: All Genealogy. All September Long," and you can watch each lecture as a livestream or view the digital recordings at your leisure. Here are all the details. . .

St. Louis Hospitals on the StLGS Website

Medical records in almost every state are private, and it is often frustrating knowing that an ancestor may have been in a hospital but not why or where. Unfortunately, we can't solve the "why" problem for you, but if you had an ancestor hospitalized in St. Louis City or County, we have made inroads on the "where." We have long had a page on our website for St. Louis-area hospitals with a link to a list of known hospitals. On that page, you can also find a link to information about the cholera epidemic of 1849 and links to two repositories that have microfilmed registers from the old St. Louis City Hospital for a limited number of years. We are pleased to announce that our hospital list now has been greatly enhanced by webmaster Jim Bellenger, who has also used his map magic skills on a newly designed Google Maps interface, so you can see where each hospital was (or still is).

Welcome to the Digitized Georeferenced Pitzman's 1878 Atlas of St. Louis City and County!

Happy Labor Day! St. Louis Genealogical Society’s volunteers want to help you celebrate this holiday weekend with a special gift to everyone, regardless of your StLGS membership status. Our amazing map guru, Jim Bellenger, has been laboring for months on an indexed, digitized version of one of the classic and beloved resources for twentieth-century St. Louis city and county residents, the 1878 Pitzman atlas. Pitzman’s New Atlas of the City and County of Saint Louis contains pages of detailed maps showing locations of specific landowners and many of the structures on their properties, as well as other landmarks, such as schools, houses of worship, cemeteries, and some businesses. For many years, StLGS was able to reproduce this atlas in book form for sale, but we have had to discontinue that option due to skyrocketing publication costs. The atlas was digitized many years ago and offered for sale by our society as a CD (and StLGS continues to sell those CDs in our secure online store.) However, never before has anyone been able to connect you directly to the page and location of everyone mentioned in the atlas . . . until now!