Looking Forward to Another Successful Year with YOUR Help, Please!

What a roller coaster ride we all have been on for the past few years, but St. Louis Genealogical Society has survived and thrived, and we are looking ahead to another exciting year of genealogy, with your help. We have managed to weather the storm of pandemic and rising costs because of our wonderful, loyal members and friends, and as this year comes to a close, we are asking you, once again to remember the society in your year-end giving plans. We have managed to accomplish a great deal this past year, due to your support and generosity, and we are excited about what is in the future for the society. 

Like many of you, we watched the St. Louis County Library Headquarters building come down a few weeks ago, leading to the loss of our regular monthly and Special Interest Group meeting space, but we have worked with the library to begin holding meetings at alternate locations. We have opened our office again, welcomed back many of our faithful volunteers (and several new ones), and have begun to hold many of our meetings as hybrid, which allows so many more of you to attend. We continue to be very proud of what our society has and will accomplish!

We have been incredibly fortunate to have a dedicated and talented group of volunteers on our technology team. During 2022, our website has continued to be top priority, and we have added: 

• Baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, and other information from numerous congregations in the St. Louis area.
• New information on St. Louis orphanages from the 1950 census
• Dynamic maps for cemeteries and congregations throughout St. Louis City and County
• Recordings of monthly meetings that remain online for three months. Currently, you can see the September meeting, "What Should I Do with My Stuff?" as well as the October meeting, "Finding Friends: Researching Your Quaker Ancestors," and the November meeting, "Families of Florissant." These recordings are available on the "Monthly Meeting" page on our website.
• Five new classes, which have been digitally recorded and are now available on the "Classes" page on our website, free for members to view. There are more than a dozen classes for you to watch at your leisure and more on the way!
• Recordings of several of the German, Irish, and Jewish Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings that were presented either as hybrid meetings or virtually this year. Many of the recordings remain online. Learn more by clicking the links below:
• German SIG: Two recordings available
• Irish SIG: Two recordings available
• Jewish SIG: Three recordings available
• Family bible information from Webster Groves (and some tax lists will go up soon.) Click here for links to new data added to the website. 

We have continued to publish our Quarterly journal, maintained our Ask Louie research service, and published this weekly blog. Our Facebook group has grown by leaps and bounds, now including almost 4,000 genealogists who regularly post questions and help each other with answers. Our Facebook News and Events page has the latest meeting information and is well-used, and our Twitter account remains active as well.

Upcoming for 2023

The Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) has a matching grant program that we are hoping will allow us to digitize more than 200 rolls of microfilm, currently sitting in file cabinets and largely inaccessible because microfilm readers are becoming obsolete. These films contain cemetery, funeral home, and congregation records, many of which have never been published. If we are able to obtain the grant, we will index all of the records and upload images of actual records, for which we have permission, on our website.

Meanwhile, all of our 2023 schedule is in place thanks to the hard work of our programs committee, and we couldn't be more excited to share it with you. Go to the Calendar of Events page on our website to download a flyer and to see what is on offer for the first part of the new year.

We will have a hybrid Family History Conference in early May featuring one of our favorite presenters, Judy Russell,  our annual research trip to Salt Lake City is booked for the middle of October, and we are hoping to welcome you back to the office at an Open House in November. Three new classes are on the Classes page on the website and registration is now open for members. Other events may be added as the year progresses.

How can you help?

There are so many ways you can pitch in! Although the pandemic has slowed down, we, like all of you, are feeling the effect of inflation on everything we do. Our costs for printing, postage, office supplies, and, most of all, upkeep on our office computer network and website continue to increase. In spite of the limits placed on our fund-raising activities during the past few years, we have carried on, providing you with the excellent quality you expect. 

• Any amount you can send will be much appreciated. Please visit our website to donate today in our secure store.
• Recently, StLGS members received a letter from our president, and we are hoping members will use the envelope provided to send in a check or credit card donation. All gifts to StLGS are tax deductible to the extent allowed by current law. 
• You can also help by keeping us updated when you move. More than twenty of those letters to members came back to us with old addresses on them, meaning that we paid for the postage and printing, but the letters never got to where they needed to go. To update your address, phone number, and/or email address, just send a note to membership@stlgs.org. (Please note that if you make any changes to your online account on our website, we do not see those changes!)

Matching Donations and Amazon Smile

Because StLGS is a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) organization, we qualify for matching donation funds from companies that offer them. In the past, we have received matching funds from AT&T, MasterCard, and Boeing. Does your employer support matching donations? If so, please think of earmarking your donation to StLGS that way.

For the past eight years, we have been a member of the Amazon Smile donation program. If you are planning to shop online this holiday season, please log on to https://smile.amazon.com and choose St. Louis Genealogical Society as the recipient of your donation. It costs you nothing, and Amazon will donate a portion of every one of your purchases to the society.

These donation channels are open to everyone. If you have friends or relatives who would like to join you in supporting the society, please encourage them to do so.

Your membership and support are vital to the future of the society! We are so very grateful for whatever you can do to help us keep StLGS strong and healthy in these very difficult times.

And a very happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the society!