Trivia Night Coming, Friday, 6 March

The sixth annual StLGS Trivia Night is one week from today, Friday, 6 March 2015. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and the fun begins at 7. This year, we are at a new, convenient, and central location: the Richmond Heights Community Center, 8001 Dale Avenue, just one block southeast of I-64/40 and Hanley Road.

This is always such a fun-filled night! In addition to thought-provoking trivia questions, there are extra games, snacks and soft drinks, and a fabulous silent auction. The Trivia Night committee has been working for weeks to create gorgeous baskets of goodies for you to bid on, and thanks to the generosity of so many people, we know you will be thrilled to see what they have assembled. Here are two of about a dozen baskets and you can see how creatively they have been composed.


Trivia Night is our primary fundraiser this year, so we hope you will join us for the evening. You are welcome to bring additional food and beverages but PLEASE, do not bring any GLASS into the facility, as they have rules against glass containers.

Registration is so easy. Just go to www.stlgs.org and click on the Trivia Night button. A table of eight is $120 but we welcome individuals at $15 each and will happily find you space at a table. Directions and a map are also on the website. Questions? Please call the office at 314-647-8547 on Saturday, Tuesday, or Thursday between 9 a.m. and noon or send a note to our Trivia Night chair at volunteers@stlgs.org/.

Fun Friday Lunch

If you are in St. Louis this Friday, the 20th of February, you might like to spend your lunch hour learning about some archaeological discoveries in the city. Our friends at Landmarks Association are hosting archaeologist Joe Harl for a brown bag luncheon lecture from noon to about 1:15 p.m. at the Landmarks office, 911 Washington Ave., Suite 170, St. Louis, MO 63101.

Mr. Harl will present an overview of some of the sites he has investigated during his long career. His talk will focus on the archaeology of St. Louis from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries and will cover diverse sites in the city, such as the nineteenth-century bordello of Eliza Haycraft, the remains of nineteenth-century tenements beneath the Cochran Gardens housing complex, the rectory of the original St. Ferdinand Church in Florissant, the second Catholic cemetery on Jefferson Avenue, and more.

Reservations are NOT required and the talk is free to all. Seating is limited, however, so come early, bring your lunch, if you like, and be prepared for an informative, interesting hour or two. More information at 314-421-6474 or www.landmarks-stl.org/.

Some Genealogy News

The St. Clair County (Illinois) Genealogical Society's February meeting will be held Thursday night, 5 February, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Luke's Parish Hall, 226 N. Church St. in Belleville. This month's topic is "Do's and Don'ts of Cemetery Preservation." Dawn Cobb, Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act Coordinator for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and Hal Hassan, an archaeologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, will discuss cemetery preservation efforts, including proper maintenance and repair of headstones and monuments. The meeting is free and open to all. More information on the SCCGS website www.stclair-ilgs.org/.

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Those of you on our Facebook page already know this interesting news, but for those of you who don't . . . Google Earth Pro is now being offered as a free download instead of a $399 application! It is available for both Mac and PC and seems to have many more features than it did before. Go to https://geoauth.google.com/gev0/free_trial.html/. You will need to fill out the boxes and then Google will send you an e-mail with the registration keys for unlocking Google Earth Pro. You can read more about the program at https://www.google.com/work/mapsearth/products/earthpro.html/. Try it and see how valuable a tool this can be for genealogy mapping.

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Anyone interested in writing book reviews for our Quarterly journal? We have a new batch of books to review and always are looking for people to read and write. There are some new QuickSheets, some books on Maryland and Delaware, Irish, German, Polish, and Jewish-related books, and even a new book on adoption and donor conception! Please contact Dan Kerckhoff, our archivist, if you are interested. You can reach him at archivist@stlgs.org/. Thank you!