Just Like Spring, Our March is "Busting Out All Over"!

It's coming! Spring is in the air, and the month of March for St. Louis Genealogical Society is overflowing with meetings and special events. If you missed our February monthly meeting, "Living on the Frontier: A Look into Missouri and Illinois," featuring St. Louis County Parks museum educator Jeffrey Edison, you can still watch the digital recording on our Monthly Meeting page. You can continue learning about St. Louis history at our March monthly meeting too. Come visit us on Saturday, March 7th for our annual Open House, come play with us at our newly revived Trivia Night on Saturday, March 21st, and attend the German SIG meeting on Saturday, March 28th. Registration for our annual Family History Conference in April is now open as well. We've got so much to share with you! Read on for the details . . . 

Missouri Death Certificates Update AND Volunteer Opportunities!

With all the snow, ice, and frigid temperatures during the past few weeks, it’s been the perfect opportunity to stay home and work on genealogy projects. One result of having genealogists with leisure time this month is the lightning speed with which volunteers have been able to index the newest Missouri death certificates eligible for posting online, and we have some great news to share with you about that project. Also, if you are looking for other ways to stay busy, we have some suggestions for you. Please read on for details!

Preview of June Meetings, a Few Reminders, and a Chart-Making Treat!

Because of our annual Family History Conference that took place on Saturday, 3 May, there are no other scheduled events for this month. However, we have some great meetings coming up as well as a class, and we don't want you to miss the deadlines for registering for our Salt Lake City Research Trip or watching the digital recordings of the Family History Conference. We also have a fun link to share for those of you who are planning to print large family charts. Here's what you need to know. . . 

Fond Farewells and a New Atlas on our Website

In this season of rebirth and awakening, it is with a heavy heart that we share sorrowful news. During the past few weeks our society and the St. Louis genealogy community have lost three of our longtime members and volunteers. Please join us in remembering Judy Doyle, Carol Kohnen, and Bob Moody, all of whom shared their knowledge, friendship, and dedication to many of us. Then, as a special treat, we hope you will enjoy another new atlas recently uploaded to our website.

Visiting an Ancestral Town in France

As anyone who lives either in St. Louis or New Orleans knows, the beginning of March is the time for all of us to dig deep to find some French roots as Mardi Gras approaches. (Or we can just enjoy celebrating, no matter what our ethnicity!) Regardless of where your ancestors are from, we hope you will enjoy a bit of a travelogue this week, as one of our members, Joan Koechig, who does have roots in France, shares an interesting research experience in the land of her ancestors. Thanks, Joan, for writing this week's post! Perhaps Joan's experience in France will motivate you to travel to your own ancestral cities! Joan writes . . .

Can You Help Us Return Photos to This Family?

OK, genealogy detectives, we have another mystery for you to solve. You may remember that in early December, we posted some military documents from a soldier named James Ronald that needed to be returned to his family. We got several responses with suggestions of things for us to do, but, luckily, one of our members, Norm Miller, recognized the surname. He made some phone calls, and, amazingly, discovered that a relative of the Ronald family was related to his own family. Several more phone calls later, and the documents were on their way to Arnold, Missouri, where they will be forwarded to the Texas family who has been eagerly awaiting their return. Kudos and many thanks to Norm for reaching out and making the contact!

November/December Genealogy Meetings and a Reminder to Vote for StLGS Officers

Happy Halloween! We are coming to the end of another busy year of genealogy meetings, classes, and special events, and our StLGS volunteers have been hard at work planning next year's exciting calendar of events for you. Since the beautiful Clark Family Branch of the St. Louis County Library opened this summer, we have been welcomed by our friends in the Emerson History and Genealogy Center to a comfortable meeting room in the new building. Our November monthly meeting will be in our main floor meeting space but will also be livestreamed for those who can't attend in person. We have our last Jewish SIG meeting in early December, and one more class remains on the fall schedule. Also, StLGS members, Thursday, 31 October, is the last day to vote in our annual election of officers! More information about everything is below.

First of Many Cemetery Maps Added to the StLGS Website AND StLGS Members: Please Vote on Amended Bylaws!

Although we have had data on many St. Louis-area cemeteries on our website for more than a decade, we have not had the ability to add maps to the pages until our resident map guru, Jim Bellenger, turned that task into his own pet project. For the past year, Jim has hunted down whatever maps exist for as many cemeteries as he could find and has used his talents to superimpose the old maps onto new Google maps and georeference them so that exact locations of even long-gone cemeteries are now visible. Jim has worked with dozens of people in St. Louis City and County and beyond to obtain the maps, get permission to use them, and link them in several ways to the cemetery pages on our site. Because this is so time-consuming, only the first batch of completed maps is now on the website, but lots more are coming!

Last Chance for Some Group Photos: Can You Help?

We've talked often about how sad it is when lost photos can't find a home. At the StLGS office, we've been custodians of three group photos for several years, and no one has come forth to claim them. After a trip to the Missouri Historical Society's Library and Research Center, the photos have come back to us; the Historical Society can't keep them, since they don't know who took them and can't obtain copyright permission to make them part of their collections. So, before these lovely images are forever lost, we thought we'd try one more time to see if anyone recognizes a relative or has a connection with a group and wants one of the photos. 

If Only Geographic Borders Didn't Change!

It certainly makes it easier to do genealogy if your family lived in the same place for hundreds of years, doesn’t it? Well, maybe. The reality is that over time, borders are always changing. As America became more settled by non-native people, the borders of cities, counties, colonies, and then states were forever shifting. In Europe, centuries of disputes over who ruled what and where meant that stability was the exception and not the norm. What do movable boundaries mean for those of us trying to research our families?

St. Louis Through the Ages: Exploring the City of Your Ancestors

Many of us have deep roots in St. Louis. Even if you don’t have ancestors who lived here, if you have lived in St. Louis for a good part of your life, you likely feel very close to the city’s history. For those reasons, we invite you to attend “St. Louis Through the Ages: Exploring the City of Your Ancestors,” our annual Fall Speaker Series, featuring Emily Jaycox and Dennis Northcott from the Missouri History Museum’s Library and Research Center. Emily and Dennis will present four lectures on Saturday, 16 September 2023, from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. (Central) at the StLGS office, 4 Sunnen Drive, Suite 140, Maplewood, MO 63143.

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.

StLGS September Genealogy Meetings and Events

As we continue to bring you our meetings and classes in an online format, we are delighted to hear that so many of you have been enjoying the experience. It's been a difficult time for everyone, which makes us even more excited that we can offer you an ongoing program of lectures and classes that are interesting, appeal to all skill levels, and viewable no matter where you live. In addition, registration for our virtual Fall Speaker Series is underway and we hope that you will be able to join us for this four-part series of lectures from the comfort and safety of your home. Read on for all the details.

Honor Your Ancestors: First Families of St. Louis

Have you heard of the St. Louis Genealogical Society's First Families program? Most genealogists are familiar with lineage organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Mayflower Society, but what if your ancestors arrived in America after the Revolutionary War? What if your people were among the hardy pioneers that migrated west during the days of the Louisiana Purchase or the War of 1812? What if they came to St. Louis during the Irish potato famine, the European wars of the mid-nineteenth century, or the American Civil War? How do we honor those brave and daring settlers to our region?

The First Families program of the St. Louis Genealogical Society offers you the opportunity to identify, recognize, and archive the lineage of your early St. Louis ancestors. If you descend from one of these families, the First Families program is a way to preserve and honor your family's longevity and the intrepid spirit of those who explored and settled this vibrant city.


The First Families program is open to members of the St. Louis Genealogical Society whose ancestors arrived in St. Louis between these dates:

• Founding Families, between 1765 to 1804
• Pioneer Families, between 1805 to 1821
• Immigrant Families, between 1822 and 1865

To qualify for the First Families program, you need to provide appropriate documentation that proves your family's descent from a founding, pioneer, or immigrant ancestor.

Ready to find out more? Information about the program (including a PDF of the informational booklet), the documentation required, and a step-by-step guide through the application process is
on the StLGS website.

Questions? Send a note to firstfamilies@stlgs.org or call the StLGS office at 314-647-8547 during our regular business hours (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 9 a.m. until noon, Central Time) and ask for Diane.

(Thanks to Diane Broniec and Viki Fagyal for their help in writing today's blog.)