David Rencher, Irish Research Specialist, to Speak at October Irish SIG Meeting!

For anyone doing Irish research, knowing where to look and what is available, especially in Europe, can be confusing. What records are there? Where are they located? How does a researcher access them? The October meeting of the StLGS Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) will feature all the answers to these questions presented by one of the foremost authorities in the U.S. on Irish research, David Rencher. Best of all, this meeting will be open to everyone and will be absolutely free! Read on for all the details.

Ready to Visit the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City? Come With Us This Fall!

If you attended (or plan to watch the recordings of) this year's Family History Conference, you were lucky enough to hear FamilySearch's Chief Genealogical Officer, David Rencher, talk about the exciting changes the library has undergone in the past few years. Perhaps you didn't realize that the FamilySearch library in Salt Lake City has so much to offer: five floors of books, computers, microfilms, maps, and more. Or maybe you didn't know that St. Louis Genealogical Society leads a group tour there every autumn, and it's time to register for this year's trip! Here are all the details . . .

The 2024 Livestreamed FHC is Over, but Digital Recordings are Now Available!

Thanks to everyone who made our 2024 Family History Conference such a resounding success! We are so grateful to the many volunteers who worked behind the scenes to organize the program and to those who worked all day at the conference. Many thanks go also to the archivists and librarians from local repositories who came to share information with registrants, and, of course, to our members and friends who attended both in person and via Zoom. From the early hours of the morning to late afternoon when people with smiling faces headed to their cars, tired but happy, the day was filled with great conversations, an incredible amount of new information, arms full of items purchased from the StLGS sales tables, and many promises to get online and start practicing new skills! Did you miss it? Well, here is some good news . . .

May's StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Classes; Last Chance to Register for the Family History Conference!

Because of the annual Family History Conference (FHC) scheduled for Saturday, 4 May 2024, there is no regular monthly meeting. We hope you will join us in June, and we'll tell you more about that meeting later on in this post. It's not too late to register for the FHC! You can still attend in person or watch the livestreaming next Saturday. Plus, everyone who registers will have access to all eight of the recordings, which will be available for ninety days after they are posted. You won't want to miss this chance to hear David Rencher, chief genealogical officer of FamilySearch, plus four other outstanding regional speakers! Here is what is coming up this month.

Missouri, St. Louis, and Irish Offerings at our Family History Conference, Saturday, 4 May 2024

Last week, we told you about the FamilySearch part of the program for our annual Family History Conference, Successfully Navigating Websites for Your Genealogy, coming up on Saturday, 4 May 2024. (Did you miss last week’s post? You can read it here.) But, in addition to the three lectures that our featured speaker, Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch David Rencher is presenting on the library and its catalogs, we have five more exciting talks scheduled for the big day. You can learn more about important resources at the State Historical Society of Missouri, the brand-new Clark Family Branch library here in St. Louis County, our own StLGS website, and fantastic sources for online Irish research. PLUS, all participants will have access to the full slate of eight lectures and an electronic version of the syllabus via our website for three months after the conference. Excited? Read on for more information . . .

Learn More About FamilySearch.org

Many newcomers to genealogy have yet to discover the powerful website run by the FamilySearch organization in Salt Lake City, Utah. And many who have been doing genealogy research for years may not realize how this powerhouse website has grown, especially if it's been a while since you looked at it. You probably know the Family History Library (now the FamilySearch library) is the world's largest genealogy library and that for the past few decades they have been digitizing, indexing, and uploading their millions of microfilms to their website.

April StLGS Genealogy Meetings AND Don't Forget to Register for our 52nd Annual Family History Conference!

Our Open House on Saturday, 23 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. Last month, we announced that registration is open for our 52nd annual Family History Conference featuring noted genealogist David Rencher. Remember that early registration ends on 16 April. By registering before that date, you save some money and help us plan more efficiently as well. We are also pleased to let you know about some new classes and our April meetings. Read on for more!

Another Goodbye to a Friend, Some More Upcoming Events, and an Update to the Photo Scanning Day

In Memoriam: Jim Bresnahan, Former StLGS Webmaster

As many of you know, the StLGS website is one of our society’s most valuable assets. Developing and maintaining the site has taken thousands of volunteer hours and an incredible amount of expertise. We have been very lucky to have knowledgeable people design and create our website pages over the years, and this week we lost one of them. James “Jim” Bresnahan was our webmaster for almost twenty years, and it is with great sadness that we announce his passing on 26 January 2024 after a long illness.