Sharing the Results of the Genealogical Hunt!

We love tracking down our ancestors through online databases, in courthouses, and at county clerks’ offices and can easily spend hours and hours in the pursuit. In the process we uncover the details of our forebears’ lives—birth and death dates that tie them to a place, marriage records that tell us who some of their closest friends or family were, and census records that show us the makeup of their families. Digging a little deeper, we can also discover fascinating details about their occupations, their brushes with the law, whether they left their homeland to start over in a new location, and much more. DNA has taken genealogical research to a whole new level and provides another tool to break through those brick walls we all seem to have. We learn so much as we are pursuing our ancestors, it's wonderful to pay it forward to others. Jane Theissen, our StLGS Quarterly editor, hopes to inspire you to take the plunge into writing for our journal. Jane writes . . .

Luck, Serendipity, and the Kindness of Strangers Work Together to Save Family Artifacts

Longtime readers of both this blog and our StLGS Quarterly journal know that people frequently contact StLGS after discovering photographs, diaries, or other family memorabilia. Although we try very hard to reunite objects with their families if there is identifying information, we aren’t always able to find matches. Recently, however, we have had some heartwarming success that we wanted to share with you as a way to encourage you to identify your photographs, write down and publish those all-important family stories, and reach out to help others when possible. Ironically, both of our success stories start with a woman called Bobbi(e)!

Policeman's Diary Reveals a Slice of Late 19th-Century Life in St. Louis

Charles Henry Richter was a police officer in the Sixth District of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in the mid-1890s. We know this about him because he kept a diary from September 1893 until August 1896 that was preserved and cared for by the residents of Breeze Park Lutheran Senior Services in St. Charles, Missouri. The story of the diary and how it came to St. Louis Genealogical Society is the subject of an article in the fall 2021 St. Louis Genealogical Society Quarterly, recently published by the society. The contents of Officer Richter's diary have been digitized, indexed, and posted on our website. Read on to learn more. . . .

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.