Broken Mirrors and Spilled Salt: Some of our Ancestors' Superstitions

Some of us grew up with immigrant parents or grandparents who carried many seemingly odd rituals to this country with them. Did your ancestors toss a bit of salt over their left shoulders if they spilled the shaker or avoid walking under ladders? Did they predict seven years of bad luck if they broke a mirror? Where did all the talk about evil and devils and bad luck originate? Learning more about the origins of superstitions, customs, and traditions can give us insight to the lives of our ancestors and help to enhance our family histories.

Genealogy During the Pandemic: Digitizing Your Slides

If you are old enough to remember when photography meant cameras, film, and flash attachments, then you probably also have boxes of photos, negatives, and slides. Travel has always involved photography, but for those of us "born in the day," that meant dozens of rolls of slide film, leading to hundreds of slides each time we took a trip. Years of vacations and family reunions before digital cameras came along led to thousands of slides sitting in Kodak Carousel trays taking up a vast amount of shelf space.

10 Genealogy Webinars Now Available on StLGS Website—Many for Free!

As this very strange year begins to draw into its waning days, and with all the coming and going of Zoom meetings and digital recordings, this is a good time to remind everyone of the growing collection of recorded classes, meetings, and webinars that are now available on our website. Although our online classes are only for members, meetings that have been digitally recorded are open to everyone, and it’s still not too late to take advantage of the virtual Fall Speaker Series, "Often Overlooked St. Louis Resources," with livestreamed lectures scheduled for next weekend, October 17th and 18th. Here is what is currently available on our website and how to access everything that is there. Be aware that there are expiration dates on some of the recordings, so don’t miss your chance to watch!

Looking for Hard-to-Find Genealogy Records in St. Louis?

So many of us have ancestors who wound up in orphanage care or migrated, at least in part, via the railroads. We all have searched cemeteries, and perhaps many of us have attempted to find obscure records in library collections. What if we could spend several hours taught by local experts in the safety and comfort of our homes, learning more about what genealogy records might be available? Wouldn't that be just perfect? Well, the opportunity is here!