Why Not Honor a St. Louisan for the Holidays?

 StLGS’s St. Louis City/County Biographies Project

A few years ago, StLGS began a project that has become an integral part of our website. Initially conceived to help celebrate the 200th birthday of Missouri, the St. Louis City/County Biographies Project now hosts almost 270 biographies of St. Louisans of all descriptions. To encourage more people to write and to keep the biographies a fairly reasonable length, we set a limit of 500 words and will accept one or two copyright-free photographs to accompany each biography. 

Gingerbread History for the Holidays

We thought this week, as we approach Christmas weekend, we’d share some fun facts about one of our beloved holiday foods, gingerbread. Perhaps you baked and decorated some gingerbread men or built a house with some of the young people in your family to celebrate the holiday. Many of us now just use kits or mixes for our gingerbread, but what we create really bears little resemblance to the gingerbread our ancestors knew.

Gingerbread was popular throughout Europe for centuries. Ginger root came from China, where it was used for its medicinal properties, especially for indigestion. A form of gingerbread appeared in both Greek and Egyptian early history. As trade increased between East and West, ginger was more available, and by the Middle Ages, its strong flavor was used to disguise the taste of meat that might not have been very fresh. (Image from Wikimedia Commons; public domain)

We Owe You So Many Thanks! AND Schnucks eScrip News

March 2022 will make two years since we had to shut our doors to visitors due to the COVID pandemic. We definitely thought that by now we would be back to “normal,” but, like everyone else, we are dealing with the reality of “new normal.” Throughout the past two years, we have strived to keep going in the best ways possible given that so many of our office volunteers are seniors dealing with chronic health conditions. We are rolling with the ups and downs of not knowing where and when we will have in-person meetings and how best to conduct them. We have mastered Zoom and are now in the process of learning how to do hybrid meetings so that we will be ready to invite you back to our office as soon as it is safe. (If you aren't sure what we mean by hybrid, be sure to take a look at our blog from 26 July 2021 on Zoom webinars.)

Lost and Found Photos on the StLGS Website

Genealogists’ hearts ache when we see old photos discarded at estate sales, antique stores, or flea markets. We lament the unidentified photos in our own relatives’ albums and long to reunite photos we find far away from home with the families that lost them. Alas, that is not always easy.

Finding a family of origin of a photo with no identification is truly the old needle in a haystack cliché. We very often have people send photos to St. Louis Genealogical Society with nothing more than the name of a photographer and his address on the back, but there is little to no chance of ever discovering the subject's identity. There are people who collect photos from certain photographers, so that’s always a possibility, but ascertaining a family or descendants is virtually impossible, as there is no way to search for an unnamed person on a photo.

2021 Genealogy Gift Guide for the Holidays and Another Farewell

Please join us in saying farewell to another of our StLGS family. It's always hard to lose a friend or family member and especially so at this time of the year.

Please Help StLGS Move Forward in 2022!

Once again, as we approach the end of our second Pandemic Year, St. Louis Genealogical Society is encouraging all our wonderful, loyal members and friends to remember us in year-end giving plans. As we look back on where we have been and where we are going, it is obvious that only through your support, donations, and participation has our society been able to weather this long storm. 

We are so proud of how much we have learned during these past two years. Having mastered the basics of remote learning in 2020, we spent 2021 perfecting our ability to reach you via Zoom and planning for how to emerge from the pandemic in 2022, once it is completely safe to welcome you back in person. 

Dealing with Nicknames in Our Genealogy

We are used to nicknames; we see them all the time. We all know that Bill is short for William and Susie is most often Susan or Susannah. Our ancestors frequently had nicknames; they are nothing new. But sometimes we are confronted with nicknames that are confusing and need a bit of interpreting. This week, we will look at some.

StLGS Genealogy News

This week, we have a few short items to share that feature StLGS and its members. First, we would like to thank those of you who took a few minutes to visit our website and vote. You may recall that this year's election for society officers was for treasurer and vice president for programs. Voting ended on the first of November, and we would like to congratulate Michelle Pearce and Kay Weber for winning unanimously.

November Genealogy Events and News

Finally, it feels like fall! Halloween is behind us, Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, and Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa will be here before we know it. Our genealogy year is winding down, but we have an interesting monthly meeting planned for November, and, if you missed the livestreaming of our Fall Speaker Series, "Mapping Our Ancestors," you can still register to watch the digital recordings. Our friends in St. Clair County, Illinois, have an upcoming meeting that may be helpful to you, and we want to share an honor recently bestowed on a historic African American cemetery in St. Louis County. Read on for all the details.

Did Our Ancestors Trick or Treat?

Whether your neighborhood will be teeming with children asking for treats on Halloween night or not, it is likely most of us will be unable to resist those large packages of bite-sized candies lurking in every store. Is your downfall Reese’s peanut butter cups, Skittles, or sweet, sticky candy corn? Maybe Almond Joy minis or KitKat bars? Candy companies have super-sized Halloween during the past few decades and earned billions of dollars for their hard work. But where did the whole Halloween trick or treating idea come from? Did our ancestors walk door to door with little carved pumpkins asking for goodies from their neighbors? Let’s explore the origins of trick or treating.

Understanding QR Codes

Perhaps you have noticed the recent proliferation of those QR code squares that are popping up on your TV screen? They used to be restricted to print but now they seem to be showing up on televisions and billboards too. Are you confused by what they are or how to use them? Are you a bit concerned that maybe they aren’t safe or whether you should even bother with them? Well, here’s the scoop on QR codes so you don’t have to wonder any longer.

StLGS October/November Upcoming Genealogy Events

As 2021 rolls into its last few months, we encourage you to continue to stay in touch with us and to take advantage of the remaining programs we have scheduled for the fall. Register for the Fall Speaker Series, featuring a full day of lectures on "Mapping Our Ancestors" in America, enjoy the last Irish SIG meeting of the year, and join us for the November monthly meeting. Behind the scenes, the StLGS programs committee is working hard and almost ready to announce our exciting schedule for 2022. Read on for what's coming up and watch for announcements about next year! 

Mapping Rural and Urban Ancestors

As we bring our series of posts on prominent maps and mapping websites to a close, we want to mention two more important resources for genealogists. The first is a subscription website that may help you as you begin to collect more information on the locations in which your ancestors settled, especially if they were first landowners. Historygeo.com is a website that specializes in linking first landowners to maps so that you don’t have to do the plotting and linking yourself. It contains information on more than twelve million landowners in the thirty public land states, all linked to an interactive map, and, when you subscribe, you can personalize lists and add markers, migration routes, and other details of interest to you.

The site also contains a large collection of antique maps. You can browse the collection of all of the United States and some foreign countries, or you can search for exactly what you are looking for. 

The search function of the website is free and you may want to plug in some of your names to see if they show up. You will get a list of states and then, if you click a link, a list of counties where the names appear. The website also contains two lengthy tutorials (YouTube recordings) that you may want to watch to see if the collections are of relevance to you. There is currently no free trial, but you can subscribe for three months for $20, making it fairly easy to try the site out. In addition, some libraries, like St. Louis County Library, offer free access, so you should check with your local library.

As American cities grew in a rather topsy-turvy fashion during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fires became more of a hazard, and many building owners relied on fire insurance to save them from financial disaster. Fire insurance companies needed detailed maps of the areas they were protecting so they knew how to assign payments. For many years, the insurance companies sent people to inspect every property and to assess its risk for fire, but with the rapid growth in cities, that became impractical. The need for a better system inspired Daniel Alfred Sanborn to create the Sanborn Map Company in 1866 and within fifty years, it became the largest of the companies producing fire insurance maps.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Saint Louis, Independent City, Missouri. Sanborn Map Company, Jul, 1907. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04858_003/.

What is special about these maps is their incredible detail of urban areas throughout the United States. The maps were produced in full color and included all outbuildings, homes, businesses, and public building, all done to scale. If you are researching urban ancestors between 1866 and the mid-twentieth century, the Sanborn maps will provide you with a captivating look at the neighborhoods in which they lived. You can see the places where they shopped, worshipped, went to school, and enjoyed a bit of recreation, all in relation to their homes.

“HistoryGeo.com and Sanborn Maps: Rural and Urban Map Research” in the StLGS Fall Speaker Series

Sanborn maps are widely available online and StLGS Systems Director, Bob Goode, will explain how you can access them as well as how you can make the most of the HistoryGeo.com website in the last of the four lectures in the StLGS Fall Speaker Series, “Mapping Our Ancestors,” which will take place live via Zoom on Saturday, 16 October 2021. Bob will help you discover how these two resources can enhance your knowledge of your ancestors.

Three additional presentations round out our Speaker Series on maps: an introduction to the earliest American migration trails, an overview of federal land records, plat maps, and plat books, and a detailed look at the map collections on the Library of Congress website. The Fall Speaker Series is coming soon, and you won't want to miss it. You can register for this exciting day of lectures now on the StLGS website!

Mining the Maps in the Library of Congress

Genealogists love libraries! And our country’s biggest, best library is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. This incredible national treasure acquires and catalogs our nation’s publications, administers the nation’s copyright program, and organizes and preserves archival material. It maintains a massive website to help researchers access its collections as well as a beautiful building where researchers can work if they are in the nation’s capital.

Migrating Westward: Federal Land

Many of our ancestors depended on the land for their livelihoods. Land provided food, shelter, and wealth. In the early days of the United States, land was used as payment for military service and as an inducement for westward migration. The land seemed limitless, and its resources lured settlers, explorers, and speculators ever onward through hazards and hardship.

Traveling in the U.S. via the Rivers

Migration has been part of this country’s history since its inception, and for the next few weeks, we will explore some ways you can learn more about your ancestors’ travels across North America, wherever and however they went. 

Perhaps you had ancestors who used the rivers to travel or to earn a living? If so, you will want to know about the Waterways Journal, 134 years old and “America’s oldest continuously published inland waterways trade magazine.” The Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library, located in the Mercantile Library on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has an extensive collection of these journals and related materials and has recently added even more. The publisher of the Waterways Journal has donated its research library and photo morgue to the library.

Does a Surname in Your Family Reflect an Ancestor’s Days of Labor? and Another Goodbye

This holiday weekend, meant to honor those who work, is a good time to think about where some of the surnames in our genealogy might have originated. Most genealogists know that early people had only given names. When communities were small, there likely was just one John and he lived near the church on a hill or one Mary, and she was little. However, by the time of the Middle Ages, villages had become more populated, and calling someone just John or Mary now became problematic. As a result, names became more specific so one person could be separated from another. Now, John’s name may have transitioned into John Churchill and Mary might have become Mary Little, to distinguish them from the John near the mouth of two rivers (John Rivers) or the Mary who had long white hair (Mary Whitehead). This didn’t just happen to English names, of course. You will see the same thing occurring in most other languages.

StLGS September Genealogy Meetings and Events

Although we were hoping that we could begin meeting in person again in September, with the increase in COVID-19 cases in our area, the very safest thing to do is to complete our 2021 schedule online. We hope you will join us for these exciting family history events.

In addition to our monthly meeting, German SIG meeting, and an online class, we are pleased to announce our Fall Speaker Series, featuring a full day of lectures on "Mapping Our Ancestors" in America. Read on for details! 

Preparing for the 1950 Federal Census

During the past few weeks, the federal census has been back in the news for a variety of reasons. As genealogists, we know that the United States conducts a census of its citizens every ten years. The first federal census began after the Revolutionary War, in 1790, and, with the exception of the 1890 census, which was largely destroyed because of fire damage and neglect, we have a fairly complete set of records covering about 230 years. Genealogists also know how valuable the censuses are in compiling our family histories. Questions on family origin, immigration and naturalization, education, wealth, property, and relationships often reveal a surprising amount of information and help us solve innumerable problems.

The Final Word on Zoom

This is our third and final post on Zoom meetings and webinars. If you missed either of the previous two posts and you are a subscriber to this blog, you can use the links at the bottom of your MailChimp email to catch up. If you don't currently subscribe (and we welcome you to do so by clicking on the "Subscribe" link on the right of the Blogspot window) click on these: Zoom part one and Zoom part two. We’ll conclude our tutorial with some miscellaneous Zoom terms that will be useful for you to know. Then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy all of the upcoming virtual meetings that we at St. Louis Genealogical Society have planned for you on our fall and winter schedule!

How Safe is the Data in Your Online Family Tree?

For most of the past few decades, genealogists have been posting their family trees online at various websites. Doing so has enabled many researchers to meet new relatives, make friends with other online researchers, and enlarge their knowledge of their families’ histories. Experienced genealogists have agonized over the lack of thorough research in many online trees and bemoaned the proliferation of inaccurate information, but the vast majority of researchers have still enjoyed the convenience of being able to attach documents as they find them and pursue “hints” or suggestions. Many of the major genealogy sites have spent years encouraging people to keep their trees online and millions have done so, but at what cost?

StLGS August Genealogy Meetings and Events

We hope you were able to join us for our exciting Summer Speaker Series, "Navigating DNA Testing Websites," with Diahan Southard and representatives of four of the largest testing companies, but if you missed the livestreaming, you can now watch the digital recordings. Read on for everything you need to know about how to access them. We are continuing to hold our StLGS events virtually, but we hope that later this year, we can offer some events as hybrid, meaning that some people will be able to meet with us in person while we also connect via Zoom with other attendees. We'll keep you posted on progress, but meanwhile, here is what is coming up in August.

Mastering Zoom, Part II: Joining a Webinar

Taking a genealogy class via Zoom is a bit different than attending a Zoom meeting. Last week, we talked about meetings and this week, we will concentrate on Zoom webinars. For directions on downloading the Zoom app and logging into a meeting or a webinar, you will want to look at last week's post before reading on.

Mastering Zoom: Part One: Joining a Meeting

Probably you heard about videoconferencing long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but chances are you never really had a good reason to discover more about it, unless it was required for your job, or your family wanted to use it. Then most of us spent more than a year at home, and all of a sudden, videoconferencing became a way to connect with the world, and Zoom became the most popular way to do it.

Zoom in its basic form is free and it allows us to not just interact with our families but to continue learning more about topics we find interesting, like genealogy! Many of us now are using it on a regular basis but there may be parts of the software that we still haven’t conquered. During a series of posts, we will try to help you make your Zoom experiences more useful. We’ll start this week with some of the basics about Zoom meetings (sometimes also called videoconferences) that are helpful to know as you get started.

StLGS Introduces New Genealogical Records from Webster Groves Historical Society

In our blog from 24 May 2021, we wrote about an area of our StLGS website that had helped one of our members break through a genealogical brick wall. This week, we’d like to showcase another set of records on our website that might be helpful to those of you with St. Louis ancestors, our “Neighborhoods” section. 

The first heading under the Research tab at the top of the home screen is “Community,” and there you will find a link for “Neighborhoods.” (Or go directly to the page here.) The page contains a list of helpful books and a box on the right side containing links to several St. Louis neighborhoods for which we have genealogical records. (See graphic below.) The newest entry on that list is for Webster Groves, and we are very excited to be unveiling the first of dozens of new resources for that historical community in the near southwest of St. Louis County.

A bit of background . . .

Webster Groves was not incorporated until 1896, but it was populated long before then. By the time the Civil War ended, there were enough people in Webster to sustain four churches; many inhabitants had arrived because of the growth of the Pacific Railroad, which stopped in the community. Over the years, as the city grew, many of the oldest parts were being lost, and the Webster Groves Historical Society (WGHS) incorporated in 1965, first to save the historic Hawken House and then to collect and preserve important parts of the city’s history. Over the years, WGHS amassed a huge amount of archival material that required preserving. Luckily, they learned about StLGS, through the efforts of our publicity director, Laura Mackinson, and volunteers from the two organizations began making plans to digitize and index as much of the fragile material as possible.

During the pandemic, some members of the StLGS board, led by our Projects Director Carol Whitton, met via Zoom with Shawn Greene, president of WGHS, and a few of that society’s volunteers to discuss the contents of their collection and how best to share it with members of both societies and the general public. After Laura and Carol visited the collection on site to determine where to start, the joint project began in earnest. Books of vital records, family bibles, and business ledgers were chosen for the first phase of this ongoing project. Real estate tax books, which are too large for our current scanning equipment, will have to wait. 

Webster Groves, Missouri, Historical Records

Now on our website (see below) are scanned images and indexes for lists of births and deaths, some family bibles, some business ledgers, and a Webster Groves/Kirkwood telephone book. Names in the indexes are linked to scanned register pages with valuable family information.

• Because the state of Missouri did not require birth or death registration prior to 1910, the births and deaths from Webster Groves, dated 1903–1909, fill an important gap.
• Genealogical information from two family bibles goes back into the 1700s for birth, marriage, and death. 
• Business ledgers contain names, dates, and accounts, providing an interesting glimpse into the lives of Webster Groves residents in the first part of the twentieth century.
 
• Ledgers from Holekamp Lumber and the White Rose Service Station might seem unimportant, but they invite speculation on whether your ancestors owned a motor vehicle or were in the process of doing some sort of construction on their homes or outbuildings. 
• A third unidentified ledger appears to be an organization that met fairly regularly in the community and may serve as a “Who’s Who?” particularly of young adult residents during the two years (1896–1898) that it covers. 

Waiting in the wings are more family bibles, tax lists, and town water records. Once they are scanned and indexed, you will be able to use the StLGS website to access these important records as well. Working in conjunction with WGHS, StLGS is making these historical records accessible to all. There are no restrictions on who may view them on our website.

You can see in these photos that the materials are quite fragile but contain precious information.

(Photos by Ilene Murray; used with permission)

Even if you don't have Webster Groves ancestors, you might be interested in viewing these records to see the kinds of information that can be added to your ancestors' life stories.

We are grateful to WGHS for sharing the records with us. To learn more about the society, be sure to visit their website.

Do you or the neighborhood in which your ancestors lived or worked have similar records that need preserving? StLGS would be delighted to scan and index more genealogical community records and make them available on our website. Contact Projects Director, Carol Whitton, at projects@stlgs.org, if you know of similar records available for preservation.

Some July 4th History and Goodbye to Another StLGS Volunteer

Because the 4th of July fell on Sunday this year, we have an extra day to enjoy all of the fun things we associate with the holiday. If you had ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, this July 4th weekend was a perfect time to think of them and remember their courage and the hardships they endured while creating our country. But, it’s also a great opportunity to reflect on the traditions and history behind this most beloved day.

StLGS July Genealogy Meetings and Special Events

Summer is finally here and life is resuming more and more of its normal routine after our very challenging "Year of the Pandemic!" Be sure to get our July dates into your calendar so you will have plenty to do when it gets too hot to go outside! All of July's events are virtual. Pour yourself something cool to drink and stay comfortable in your shorts and flip flops as you watch our monthly meeting on the rich and lengthy history of St. Charles, Missouri. Move on to our two-day Speaker Series focusing on DNA testing, and then, join the Irish SIG for a casual chat session on Irish research.

Juneteenth for Genealogists

How exciting it is to finally have Juneteenth declared a national holiday! Celebrating the strength and courage of our ancestors is what we genealogists are all about, and being able to recognize those who preceded us as they fought for freedom and equality is part of so many family stories. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, and it also opens the door to remembering all of our ancestors who were caught up in the system from the earliest days of the colonies, to the end of the Civil War, and then through decades of blatant discrimination that followed.

Why Sources and Citations are Important in Your Family History Research

(Thanks to StLGS treasurer, Viki Fagyal, for writing this week's blog.)

Sometimes it is good to get back to the basics of Genealogy 101. I remember my first genealogy teacher saying over and over, “You have to document where you found it.” That piece of advice has stuck with me for more than forty years. Good source citation not only helps you remember where you found a piece of information, it is helps someone who picks up your work five, ten, or thirty years from now determine where that information came from. A good citation also helps to ascertain if the source you used was strong enough evidence to prove each name, date, or place. And if you have two different pieces of evidence for the same event, evaluating the source can help determine which one to trust.

Register for the StLGS Virtual Summer Speaker Series on DNA Testing for Genealogy

Join us for a weekend exploring one of the hottest topics in genealogy: DNA! Millions of people have tested their DNA and sent their samples to one of the DNA testing companies to learn new details on their family history. However, not all DNA tests are created equal, and very often people are confused by the results or disappointed to learn they are trying to prove things for which the test they used was not intended. Sorting out the different DNA tests and choosing a testing company to suit your particular needs can be a daunting experience, but StLGS is here to help!

StLGS June Genealogy Meetings, Classes, and Special Events

Happy Memorial Day! Summer is on its way in spite of its chilly start. Our June calendar starts with our monthly meeting in which we learn about the role that women played in defending our country during World War II. That will be followed later in the month by a German Special Interest Group meeting and a class on reading German handwriting. Finally, we are excited to offer you a fabulous Summer Speaker Series scheduled for mid-July, in which you can learn about different DNA tests and websites. Keep going for more!

Hidden Genealogy Treasures on the StLGS Website

(Thanks to StLGS member, Marsha Clark, for writing the beginning of this week’s post.)

Marsha writes . . . Doing a little digging last night, I thought I'd try one more time—after many years of having just put it aside as a lost cause—to find my father's mysterious uncle who was adopted at a young age by a family in St. Louis. He was in rural Illinois as a child, and he and his siblings needed to find homes to live in when their last surviving parent, their father, died. Supposedly this youngest son died as a boy due to an accident; that's how I remembered hearing the story.  As it turned out, however, this uncle did not die young after all. 

Share Your Stories with StLGS Quarterly Readers

(Thanks to Jane Theissen, StLGS Quarterly co-editor, for writing this week's post.)

One of the reasons we love to research our ancestors is to discover their stories. Every genealogist has uncovered at least one anecdote about their family that they did not expect to find or proven (or disproven) an old family story that’s seemingly been told for ages. Maybe you finally bashed through that brick wall you’ve been chipping away at for years. Someone might learn from how you did it. Genealogists love stories and they love to hear other genealogists’ stories, too! You can share your family history trials and triumphs through the StLGS Quarterly, and it's easier than you think.

May Brings Both Good and Sad News to StLGS

As with life in general, this week brings us some very pleasant, some bittersweet, and some very sad news to report to you. St. Louis Genealogical Society is the recipient of a lovely honor and an award from the National Genealogical Society (NGS). We will be featured in a special segment of the NGS's virtual annual family history conference coming up this month. In addition, we recently celebrated the accomplishments and the retirement of one of our dedicated and hard-working office volunteers, and, sadly, we have to report the deaths of two of our colleagues.

StLGS May Genealogy Meetings, Classes, and Special Events

Yes, it will eventually be warm enough to call it spring! Or, for those of you in the St. Louis area, it is quite likely that we will skip spring entirely and just jump into the hot, humid puddle we know as summer. As you enjoy the cool temperatures and abundance of rain in the Midwest (or whatever is happening in "your neck of the woods"), think about filling your leisure time with virtual learning. Our 2021 virtual schedule is expanding, as we continue to add new family history meetings, classes, and events. We are currently in the planning stages for a wonderful Summer Speaker Series, and are looking forward to new monthly meetings and classes. Read on for details!

Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part II

In our last post, we talked about the importance of understanding some of the rituals and traditions surrounding funerals. We looked at coffins, caskets, and common practices that many associate with burying our loved ones. This week, we'll explore floriography, the symbolic meaning of plants and trees, so we can better understand some of what we see at funerals and cemeteries.

Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part I

Perhaps you were among the millions of people who watched the touching but COVID-restricted funeral of England’s Prince Philip on Saturday, 17 April, as it was broadcast on live television. If you did, you couldn’t help but notice how the entire procession was steeped in tradition and symbolism. Of course, unless our family is royal or quite prominent, we are not going to be surrounded by hundreds of military troops nor are we likely to warrant television coverage of our last moments above ground, but most of us will certainly be affected by symbolism and tradition as we deal with the loss of our loved ones. And knowing more about what preceded our ancestors into their final resting places helps us understand them better as well.

Put Meat on the Bones of Your Family History!

You have undoubtedly heard many genealogists talking about “putting the meat on the bones” when it comes to their family history. Just how do you do that and what does it mean? We learn when we start working on our genealogy that it’s vital to capture names, dates, and places for everyone in our family tree. Of course, it is absolutely necessary to find documentation of basic facts and we need specific information to do that. But if we want to understand our ancestors as living, breathing human beings instead of just statistics, we need to know much more. We want to learn about their personalities, their occupations, their leisure activities, and their interactions in their communities. The more “meat” we put on those bare-bones dates and numbers, the more those people who preceded us become real.

Now You Know Your "A, B, C's," Part II

Who hasn’t seen sentimental signs for “Ye Olde Corner Shop” or “Ye Olde House on the Hill” or something similar? Or maybe you have seen the word “ye” in an old document? Are you guilty of pronouncing it as “yee”? If so, it’s because you may not know that once there was a letter called “eth” that was pronounced as “th.” It looked like a small “d” with a line through the stem. Over time, it changed shape and began to look more like our “y” does today. "Eth" is long gone from our alphabet, but it has left us with the commonly seen "ye" that looks like it should be pronounced with a “y” sound but is really “the.” This is just another example of letters that have disappeared from our alphabet. Here are some more . . . 

April 2021 Genealogy Meetings, Classes, and Events

Spring is here! We know the temptation is to get outside, but on those days when it's cloudy, cool, and rainy, or even if it's a sunny day but you just want to continue your genealogy journey, we have you covered! Our 2021 virtual schedule continues, with more interesting online webinars and classes, and, of course, the excitement is building for our annual Family History Conference, which also will be online again this year. Get out your calendars and be sure you have these April (and early May) dates jotted down!

"Now You Know Your A, B, C's," Or Do You?

One of the first songs we learn as children is the “Alphabet Song,” and even though we don’t really understand what “ellamenopee” means, most of us somehow get the sequence of twenty-six English letters down pat by the time we are ready to read. We know, of course, that our language is always changing. Think of all the new words added to our vocabulary just in the past decade. But when you are working with documents generated by previous generations or those created in countries from which your ancestors arrived in America, you may not realize how much alphabets change, and how those changes can affect your family history research.

Free Genealogy Webinars are Just a Click Away!

Twelve months of mostly being at home has given many of us the chance to explore new ways of learning using our computers or tablets. Have you discovered the benefits of free webinars yet? Did you know you can watch thousands of digital recordings without any fees at all? Yes, sometimes there are advertisements, but they are relatively unobtrusive and easily passed over. By now, many of us also know that there are instructions online for just about anything we want to do. In fact, just last week, like magic, a two-minute YouTube video saved this writer a trip to the store and the price of a new pneumatic door closer when just a few squeezes of a piece of metal with a strong pair of pliers was all it needed. OK, that was fixer-upper stuff—what about our favorite hobby? Are there free webinars available on genealogy? Indeed there are, and here are some places you can start to look for them.

Locating Records for Sisters of St. Joseph at the Carondelet Consolidated Archive

(Thanks to StLGS office manager, Margie Giblin, for presenting the idea and some information for this week's blog.)

March has been designated Women’s History Month, and there are numerous websites, articles, and exhibits everywhere this month honoring women who have served in their communities in many capacities. We often discover that finding our female ancestors can be difficult for a variety of reasons, and so we sometimes stop trying because we’ve run out of ideas on where to look next. What if one of your ancestors was a Catholic nun? Are there records you can search to find out more about her? Well, if she was part of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the answer is a surprising “Yes!” and many of those records are right here in St. Louis where the motherhouse is located.

March 2021 StLGS Genealogy Meetings, Classes, and Events

Just a few more weeks, and spring will arrive, at last! As we are moving into 2021, it's become clear that Zoom meetings are here to stay and that we can continue to learn and share with each other via technology. We are so excited about engaging those of you who reside outside the St. Louis area or who cannot travel to an in-person meeting. We miss you and look forward to the day when we can meet again in person, but in the meantime, we are continuing to plan for many interesting and exciting programs for the rest of this year as webinars. Here is what is coming up in March and a bit beyond, like our annual Family History Conference!

Doing Genealogy? Don't Forget History and Geography Too!

If you have been researching your family for a while, you have undoubtedly encountered tragedy. We often speak of the “good old days,” but the reality was that life was difficult and harsh, especially for pioneer families throughout the nineteenth century. It is especially important for genealogists to understand the conditions in which our ancestors lived, and to do so, we need to work not only with names, dates, and places, but with an understanding of history and geography.

"All Roads Lead to Missouri" at the StLGS Annual Family History Conference, Virtual for 2021

For the second year (but the forty-ninth conference!), the StLGS Annual Family History Conference will be virtual. Since we are still unable to safely gather together in large groups, we are offering this year's conference as a two-day online event, just as we did last year. "All Roads Lead to Missouri" for Saturday and Sunday, May 1st and 2nd, as we present research librarian and teacher, Patti Hobbs, CG, and other local speakers in eight lectures covering migration, military, and immigration in the early years of our state's history. Whether your ancestors were early settlers or just passed through Missouri on the way to another location, you will find helpful hints and lots of unique resources for your research when you join us for these interesting webinars. Read on for more details!

StLGS Congregations Project News and Farewell to Another Volunteer

(Thanks to Carol Whitton, StLGS Projects Director, for contributing the first part of this week's post.)

As you may know, St. Louis Genealogical Society (StLGS) is currently working on a project to identify, index, digitize, and preserve all St. Louis City and County congregational records. We hope all congregations will choose to participate and allow StLGS to put indexes and images of their historical records on our website. Records we are scanning, digitizing, and indexing include baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, and, in some cases, member lists. During the past ten years, we’ve identified about 1,700 congregations, both historical and existing, in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. To date, we’ve completed only a tiny fraction, 112 congregations, with more than thirty more underway. Our goal is to help preserve as many records as we can and make them more readily available to family historians. To do this, however, we need more congregations to share their records, and for that, we need your help!

February 2021 Upcoming StLGS Meetings and In Memoriam for Three Long-time Volunteers

As we enter the heart of winter, we hope that wherever you are located, whether it's snowing, raining, or mild and sunshiny, you can brighten up your February by attending some of the upcoming StLGS meetings we have scheduled. In addition, we hope those of you who are society members will take advantage of our free classes for members coming up in March and April.

StLGS Introduces New Registration Process for Meetings

We know that many of you have been thoroughly enjoying the chance to attend St. Louis Genealogical Society monthly meetings, Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings, and other events and classes online this past year via Zoom. As with many other groups learning to navigate this valuable digital platform, we started slowly and have been able to learn from the bumps in the road as we’ve gained more experience. One of the features of Zoom that we postponed trying is the ability to have participants register through the Zoom website; however, we are now able to offer that convenience to registrants for our free meetings and we think you will like the ease and simplicity it offers.

Locating Your Ancestor's Land on Modern Maps

If you have been working with land records as part of your family history research, you know that it is not always easy to discover the exact location of the land your family owned. First, you have to know how “chunks” of land were divided and where your family’s part fits in. Then, you have to understand the terminology: sections, townships, and ranges. A further problem is situating the property on a modern map as opposed to what the countryside looked like a hundred or so years ago. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a website that allowed you to see where your ancestor's property was in a modern setting?

Use City and County Directories in Your Genealogy Research

Long before the popularity of telephones and telephone books, urban communities listed their residents in city directories and rural communities often had county directories as well. For many areas, publication began in the early to mid-1800s and continued well into the twentieth century. City directories are especially helpful in tracking city dwellers, who often did not own property and may have changed residences more frequently than those who lived in the country. Like phone books, both city and county directories have multiple sections in which you can find listings of people, non-profit organizations and businesses, and many interesting paid advertisements. Best of all, directories were often issued yearly, so they can help fill in the gaps between censuses.

January 2021 Genealogy Meetings and Classes

Well, we made it! Finally, 2020 is over and there is a glimmer of hope for a much happier, healthier new year. Now that the holidays are behind us and it's feeling like winter outside, it's time to get back to genealogy! We enter an especially important year in Missouri as we celebrate the state's 200th birthday! Look for special focus in our meetings, extra events, and our Quarterly journal on early Missouri history. Because it is still not safe to meet in person, we are continuing our virtual meeting schedule for the foreseeable future. We have had such positive feedback from so many of you, we can't wait until you see some of the exciting plans we have for 2021. Here's a start—stay tuned for a lot more!