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!