Ready to Buy Some Genealogy Books? Let the Holiday Shopping Begin!

The holidays are fast approaching, and this week, we have some great book buys for you and the genealogy/history lovers on your shopping list. The first notice is time-sensitive, but the second item we have for you is a recommended reading/book buying list for anyone wanting more information about DNA and genealogy. Here you go!

StLGS July Genealogy Meetings

Happy Almost Fourth of July! We hope you have a safe and enjoyable holiday! After you put away your barbecue supplies and polish off the last of the leftovers, be sure to pull out your calendar and make note of our upcoming genealogy meetings, all indoors and air conditioned! Please don't forget that the deadline for early registration for our Salt Lake City Research Trip is today! And remember that the deadline for watching the digital recordings of the Family History Conference is Sunday, 3 August. You can still register to see them. All the information you need is below. . . . 

A Taste of Our FHC AND Please, Don't Toss Those Yearbooks!

Our annual Family History Conference on Saturday, 3 May 2025, was a huge success, thanks to dozens of hard-working volunteers and more than one hundred curious participants, both in-person and online. For the first time since the pandemic, we had an almost-capacity live audience, and our three dynamic speakers captivated everyone with the endless possibilities that artificial intelligence and DNA analysis bring to genealogy. If you couldn't attend on Saturday, we have a treat for you—all the lectures were recorded, and they will be available for viewing for the next three months. Here's how you can access them . . .

Some Reminders AND Some Genealogy News from our St. Louis Friends

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to save money with early registration to our annual Family History Conference is this week—Thursday, 17 April 2025. You won't want to miss "Artificial Intelligence (AI) and DNA: Tools for Unlocking Your Past," featuring Steve Little, Jim Brewster, and Josiah Schmidt! It's a full day to learn more about the newest topics in genealogy. Details and registration are on the Family History Conference page on our website. We also want to remind you that registration for our Research Trip to the FamilySearch library in Salt Lake City is now open. This is a wonderful way to spend a week in October with fellow researchers at the world's largest genealogy library. All the information you need to learn about the trip and register is on our Annual Research Trip page, and we'll have more for you in a future post, so stay tuned! Now, we'd like to share some important information from some of our local St. Louis repositories.

Artificial Intelligence and DNA in Genealogy: New Tools for Your Research

For decades, those of us researching our family history have watched technology change the way we work. If you started your journey towards the end of the twentieth century, you expected to travel to a library or courthouse, sit among books, periodicals, and boxes of old papers, and read unindexed material for hours. If you were fortunate, some of what you needed was microfilmed, and you could crank faded and blurry images until your shoulders ached and your hands cramped. The first of many updates in genealogy came to microfilm readers when they became more automatic. Film could be threaded, advanced, or reversed with just a touch of a button.  But, lucky for us, technology forged onwards, and our lives became a whole lot easier.

April Genealogy Events AND Registration is Open for our Family History Conference AND Our Annual Salt Lake City Trip!

Our Open House on Saturday, 22 March, was a great success, and now we have more exciting events and meetings for you to attend, either in-person or via Zoom, coming up soon. Registration is open for our 53rd annual Family History Conference featuring Steve Little, Jim Brewster, and Josiah Schmidt. Remember that early registration ends on 17 April! By registering before that date, you save some money and help us plan more efficiently. In addition, one of the events we look forward to most each year is our annual research trip to Salt Lake City, and registration is now open for that. Read on for more!

February Genealogy Meeting and Class AND Information on Special Upcoming Events!

Our genealogical year got off to a great start with several very well-attended meetings. Our January "Ask Louie at Your Service" meeting, as always, generated a host of interesting questions, and we've added a handout covering the websites mentioned during the meeting to our Monthly Meeting page along with the digital recording of the meeting. The Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) hosted a Zoom presentation featuring the noted author, John Grenham. The recording of the meeting and Mr. Grenham's handout are posted on our Irish SIG page. The German and Jewish SIGs also met this past month, but neither meeting was recorded. We hope to see you at our February monthly meeting and our first class for 2025. Read on for details. 

September Genealogy Meetings and Classes

And just that quickly, summer is almost over! As we look forward to pumpkin spice everything, shorter days, and, hopefully, cooler evenings, we are gearing up behind the scenes for next year. We will soon have an StLGS election for officers and will be booking our featured speaker for the 2025 Family History Conference, taking our annual research trip to Salt Lake City, and finalizing next year's busy program of meetings, special events, and classes. Meanwhile, here's what's on tap for September.

August Genealogy Meetings and Classes

In spite of the disruption at our office caused by ongoing roof and ceiling leaks, we continue to carry on with our scheduled meetings and classes. (If you didn't read about our water woes, be sure to take a look at last week's post.) We are excited about the grand opening of the Emerson History and Genealogy Center at the new Clark Family Branch that opened on 9 July, and we have already begun to avail ourselves of the library's new meeting spaces. Our friends there came to our rescue in providing space for the Irish SIG meeting on 27 July, and our first monthly meeting will be held at the Clark Branch in August. You are invited to tour the new facility, if you haven't already done so, this coming week. Read on for more information . . .

July Genealogy Meetings and Classes

It's almost July 4th, which means summer has officially begun! Enjoy the upcoming holiday week, but don't forget to get out your calendar and make note of some of our upcoming programs. This month's general meeting will be our last at the Grant's View Branch of the St. Louis County Library system. With the new Clark Family Branch opening on 9 July, we will finally be able to go back to meeting at one location, now with ample room and state of the art technology! We'll have more for you on that soon; meanwhile, please read on for July's offerings. . . .

March 2024 StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Events AND Family History Conference Registration Opens!

Spring is in the air early this year, and we are looking forward to welcoming you to an enticing array of genealogy events. We will, of course, continue to offer you the option of attending remotely, but we hope with the warm weather, you will return to attending in person. It's always so good to see all of you! We want to remind you about our Open House on Saturday, 23 March, and we are also excited to announce our 52nd annual Family History Conference featuring noted genealogist David Rencher. Here is the upcoming schedule.

Registration Open for the 2023 StLGS Annual Family History Conference!

 51st Annual Family History Conference!

Explore Unique Pathways to Smash Brick Walls!

Saturday, 6 May 2023

Featuring Judy Russell, JD, The Legal Genealogist®

Also: Jen Baldwin, John Dougan, Greg Hilton, and Christina Miller

Maryland Heights Community Center, 2300 McKelvey Road, St. Louis, MO 63043

This will be held as a hybrid event. Join us for a full day of lectures, exhibitors, and a chance to chat over morning coffee or lunch. If you can't attend in person, join us via Zoom. All the lectures will be recorded, and everyone will have access to all eight lectures after the conference. For those coming to the Maryland Heights Community Center, a box lunch can be purchased for an optional fee.

Saturday's Program (All times are Central Time Zone)

9:30 a.m.: Doors open

9:50 a.m.: Opening Remarks 

10:00 a.m.: "Through the Golden Door: Immigration After the Civil War," by Judy Russell

AND "Documents to Databases: Using the Missouri State Archives' Newest Resource," by John Dougan

11:15 a.m.: "Advertising the Law: The Gems in the Legal Notices," by Judy Russell 

AND "Documents to Databases: Using the Missouri State Archives' Land and Judicial Databases" by Christina Miller

1:15 p.m.: "Of Delinquents and Common Scolds: Women, Children, and Criminal Justice," 

by Judy Russell AND "Findmypast: Your Source for British and Irish Research," by Jen Baldwin

2:30 p.m.: "After the Courthouse Burns: Rekindling Family History Through DNA," by

Judy Russell AND "Why You Should Care Where Your Family Bible Is," by Greg Hilton

Complete details of each lecture and speaker bios are on our website. When you go to the conference page, be sure to click on the links to the Lectures and Speakers pages. (Those links are in the upper right-hand corner of the page.)

Registration for the Conference

Registration for the 2023 Family History Conference is now open. The cost is $60 for StLGS members and $70 for non-members. All of the information you need to register is on our website. 

Once you have registered, you will receive an invitation to the FHC via the email address you provide. (Note: The email will come to you during the week before the conference.) Those attending in person will receive a paper syllabus. Everyone will have access to the syllabus as a downloadable PDF from a link on our website as well as all eight digital recordings.

Questions? Send an email to programs@stlgs.org and the vice-president for programs will get back to you. 

We can't wait to help you "Explore Unique Pathways to Smash Brick Walls!"

StLGS February Genealogy Meetings and Events

Our genealogy year has gotten off to a great start, and we hope yours has too. We have had excellent attendance at all of our January meetings, and now we look forward to February. Meetings will continue to be presented as hybrid when possible so those of you who are unable to attend in person can participate. If you missed the January "Ask Louie" Q & A meeting or the first German or Irish SIG meetings, all the digital recordings are posted on our website. February features a fascinating glimpse at cemetery research, a Jewish SIG meeting on Russian revision lists, and two more upcoming classes. Read on for more . . .

StLGS Launches New Registration Process for In-Person Genealogy Classes

As we begin our new year of genealogy classes at StLGS, we are striving to make things easier to attend in-person at our office by updating our online registration process and making it possible for those of you who are not members but live in St. Louis to attend in-person as well. Here are all the details you need to know about our revised registration procedure for in-person attendance. (Please note that Zoom registration for both livestreamed and recorded classes is still for StLGS members only and remains the same.)

January 2023 StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Classes

Happy 2023! We hope you have had a peaceful and healthy holiday season and are now ready to start the new year with some exciting genealogy events. We continue to offer our meetings as hybrid when possible so that those of you who are unable to attend in person can still participate in society offerings. We start the year with what has become a tradition, our popular "Ask Louie" Q & A meeting, which, because of the unpredictable weather in mid-January, will be via Zoom only. We follow that with three SIG meetings and a new list of classes, so get ready for a full year of learning! Read on for more . . .

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.

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!

Newly Revised Genealogy Publications Now Available

One of the most important goals of St. Louis Genealogical Society is to educate people about genealogy. To that end, we teach classes, hold monthly meetings, and host special genealogy events throughout the year. We also publish our Quarterly journal, some CDs, and a series of booklets and monographs. As we prepare for the upcoming National Genealogical Society's annual conference in May, we have been revising some of our publications and they are now available on our website and in our store.

Are you an StLGS member? One of your benefits of membership is free PDFs of monographs written on a variety of topics. Recently revised editions of three of our most popular monographs are just a click away. "Understanding GEDCOM and Posting Family History" answers many questions about what GEDCOM files are, why they are important to your genealogy research, and how to create them. "Genetic Genealogy and DNA Testing" is meant for those just starting out and explains some of the basics of DNA.

At the April StLGS meeting, many people were extremely interested in archivist Diane Everman's excellent suggestions on how to preserve paper documents and photos. If you are looking for more help on that topic, try "How to Protect Valuable Family Treasures: Papers, Books, and Photographs" for pages of solid advice on keeping your precious items safe.

To download your free PDF, log into the StLGS website with your member number and your password. Then, on the home page, click in the gold button that says "Member Benefits." Scroll down to the "Monographs for Members" link and check out the selection.

Not a member? You can still purchase paper copies of most of the monographs in our store, and, of course, we will have them with us at our booth at the NGS conference in a few weeks.

Monographs in the Store

• 1940 Census and Its People: $5.00
• The Diary of Theodore Proske from Silesia to St. Louis: $5.00
• How to Protect Valuable Family Treasures: Papers, Books, and Photographs: $4.00
• Understanding GEDCOM: $4.00
• Genetic Genealogy and DNA Testing: $4.00