St. Louis: Did You Know?

If you are doing Catholic research in the St. Louis Archdiocese, an invaluable tool is linked from the St. Louis County Library website, Parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This provides an interactive Google map showing the locations of open and closed churches with brief historical data. Users can search for an address and see its location relative to churches shown on the map. If you know the address where your ancestor lived, it is easy to find the churches closest to that address. You can go directly to this map by clicking here.

When you get to the map, you can enlarge it by zooming in to see the street names and find your exact address. The churches are marked with green, blue, yellow, or black stars to indicate whether the church is still operating or closed. Click on a star and it tells you (on the left side of the screen) the name of the church, the dates of operation, and a brief description of the parish. Don’t forget, the St. Louis Archdiocese extends south to Perry County, west through Franklin County, and north through Lincoln County.

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 (Thanks to StLGS Vice President of Programs, Viki Fagyal, for writing this week's blog post. If you know of an interesting website and would like to share with other genealogists, please contact us at publications@stlg.org.)

September Genealogy Events

 StLGS German SIG Meeting

The end of this month is filling up with several genealogy events. As we posted today in our Facebook group, the society's German Special Interest Group (German SIG) has a meeting on Wednesday, the 20th, featuring Dan Lilienkamp, reference librarian in St. Louis County Library's History and Genealogy Department. The meeting will take place at the Headquarters Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. Dan will speak on "Using Ortssippenbucher to Research Your Family." The meeting is free, no pre-registration required, and open to all. For more detailed information, go to the German SIG page on our website at https://stlgs.org/about-us-2/sigs-and-special-programs/german-special-interest-group-2/.

Old Jamestown Stories

The Florissant Valley Historical Society will be hosting a program featuring stories of Old Jamestown on Sunday, 24 September, at 2:00 p.m. Led by Peggy Kruse, author of Old Jamestown Across the Ages: Highlights and Stories of Old Jamestown, Missouri, this program will be presented at the historic Taille de Noyer house located on the McCluer High School grounds, 1896 South New Florissant Rd. The program is free, but due to limited seating, you do need to pre-register. Call either Pat at 314-440-2344 or Mary Kay at 314-409-9478. More information at http://florissantvalleyhs.com/event-item/old-jamestown-across-ages/.
For directions to the Taille de Noyer house (on Google maps), click here.

Illinois Ancestors? Two Choices

For those with Illinois roots, Thursday, 28 September at 7:00 p.m. presents you with two choices:

French? Join Larry Franke, reference librarian in St. Louis County Library's History and Genealogy Department for a talk on learning to research old manuscripts from eighteenth-century Kaskaskia. Called "Using the Kaskaskia Manuscripts," Larry's talk will explain the marriage contracts, wills, land records, and manumissions in French civil records from southwestern Illinois. This is a free program, held in the auditorium of the Headquarters building at 1640 South Lindbergh Boulevard. No pre-registration is required. If you have questions, contact the H&G department at genealogy@slcl.org .

German? The St. Clair County Genealogical Society in Belleville, Illinois, is hosting a special lecture on the Rhineland-Pfalz (Palatinate) given by Roland Paul, director of the Institute for Palatine History and Folklore in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Mr. Paul will be talking about a German newspaper called Pfaelzer in Amerika, published in New York from 1884 to 1917, and containing thousands of obituaries. Mr. Paul and a colleague have published the first of four volumes of these obits, from 1884 until 1897, with about 200 obituaries of residents of the Metro East. He will speak about the newspaper and its importance as a source for locating German ancestors. More information at the society's website http://www.stclair-ilgs.org/stcabout.htm/. The meeting is free with no pre-registration required. It will be held in Belleville at the St. Luke Parish Center, 226 N. Church St. Directions to the location (on Google maps), click here.

Free Webinars: This Week Only!

Genealogy software company, Legacy Family Tree, is celebrating its seventh anniversary by offering fifteen of its most popular webinars for free for seven days only! This wonderful ability to learn from some of the nation's top genealogists began yesterday, 14 September, and will continue for a week. Normally, you would need a membership to its webinar series, which contains 583 genealogy classes taught by 149 well-known genealogists, to view these lectures.

The free webinars include classes on a wide variety of subjects from "Finding Your Early 1800s Ancestors Online" taught by James Baker to "Using Evernote for Genealogy" with Lisa Louise Cooke, and lots more in between.

So how do you take advantage of this great offer? Go to http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2017/09/our-7th-anniversary-watch-the-15-most-desired-members-only-webinars-for-free.html and enjoy!

Thanks to Geoff Rasmussen and the staff at Legacy Family Tree for their anniversary gift to all of us!

Zion and Fee Fee Cemeteries Plan Special Events

 Did you have ancestors buried in Holy Ghost (also called Old Picker's) Cemetery who were moved to Zion Cemetery in 1917 when Holy Ghost closed? If so, you might wish to attend a special service on Saturday, 16 September at 10:30 a.m. at Zion Cemetery, 7401 St. Charles Rock Road, to dedicate a new memorial in honor of those whose remains were re-interred at Zion. The cemetery does not have records or names of the individuals moved there, but wishes to honor them as a group.

If you plan to attend, please let the cemetery know so they will have adequate chairs and refreshments. Send a note to marthak@zioncemeterystl.org .

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Also, on Saturday, 16 September, you are invited to take a walking tour of Fee Fee Cemetery, which opened in 1814. The tour is planned from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. and there is a fee of $5 per adult and $3 per child from four through fifteen; proceeds to benefit the Bridgeton Historical Society. Parking is limited at the cemetery, so visitors are asked to park at Fee Fee Baptist Church, 11330 St. Charles Rock Road, where there will be free shuttles to the cemetery. Please note that the ground in the cemetery is uneven and not suited for walkers or wheelchairs.

For more information, call the Bridgeton Recreation Center at 314-739-5599.

Fall Classes at StLGS About to Begin

Did you know that one of the perks for StLGS members is free classes? StLGS classes are taught at our office, 4 Sunnen Drive, Suite 140, Maplewood, MO, from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m., and the teachers are all experienced genealogists.

The first class of the fall schedule begins this Thursday, the 7th of September, when Judy Belford will teach "Learning About Lineage Societies." Then, on Sunday, 10 September and Sunday, 17 September, Ilene Murray will teach a two-part class called "Foundations of Genealogy," meant for both beginners and those who are looking for some new ideas. Carol Whitton, CG, will teach "Beginning German Research" on Saturday, 23 September.

October brings a class by Viki Fagyal called "Can't Find it on the Internet?" on Saturday, the 21st, and "Beginning Irish Genealogy," taught on the 28th by Carol Hemmersmeier and Kay Weber.

The last class of our fall cycle will be on Saturday, 4 November, when Ted Steele teaches "Beginning RootsMagic."


More detailed information about all the classes is on our website at https://stlgs.org/education/classes/. To register, please call our office at 314-647-8547 during regular business hours (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. until noon).  

All classes require pre-registration. No walk-ins, please.

Also, Please Note: Bob Goode is teaching a class on FamilySearch.org on Saturday, 16 September, but that class is filled and wait-listed. If you have signed up for Bob's class, you have a space but no new participants are being registered.