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.)

Volunteers Needed!

Like many others in the business world, St. Louis Genealogical Society rode out the storm of the "pandemic years" with a skeleton crew of hard-core workers. This was an amazing feat, considering that our society has no paid staff. Everything we accomplish is because of our volunteers. Elected officers, members of the board of directors, and office "regulars" all pitched in to keep the society moving along during those months of uncertainty. As it became safer to work together at the office, volunteers relied on each other to follow safety protocols, and we were able to pick up the pace. However, although many of our volunteers have returned to work, there is currently more to do than there are people to do it!

Conference Wrap-up, Digital Recordings, and Three New Publications

The challenges of holding our 50th annual—and first hybrid—Family History Conference on Saturday, 14 May 2022 were enormous, but thanks to the non-stop efforts of many people, it was a huge success. It was not without some glitches, however, but all were overcome in the end. Kudos to StLGS vice-president of programs, Kay Weber, who spent countless hours emailing, calling, and organizing while setting up the speakers and topics, and to StLGS president, Karen Goode, who oversaw the Zoom team, coordinated the kitchen, and sorted the dozens of miscellaneous bits and pieces of the day. Kay and Karen’s conference planning team met regularly so that registration, signage, the syllabus and handouts, the sales area, technology, and all the other areas that needed coverage were, indeed, covered.

Surprises Wait in Courthouse Records!

Our ancestors interacted with government officials on a regular basis at their county courthouses. Not just for recording births, marriages, and deaths, the courthouse was also for paying taxes, settling disputes, filing wills and probates, and obtaining business licenses and a wide variety of permits. The county courthouse was the center of the legal life of the community, and many of them still contain thousands of unique documents that can help us with our research.

Library Resources, German Brick Walls, and Irish Research on Tap for March Genealogy

Snow, sleet, and ice may have been falling in February, but we know that spring is on the horizon. The recording of our February monthly meeting featuring archivist Mike Everman on probate records is now on the Monthly Meetings page and our Ask Louie January panel discussion will remain up until the end of March. Coming up next, via Zoom, is the March monthly meeting on using the St. Louis County Library History and Genealogy Department for your research. Plus, we have a German Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting planned for you, and it's not too late to register for the Irish research class coming up this weekend.

StLGS Introduces New Registration Process for Meetings

We know that many of you have been thoroughly enjoying the chance to attend St. Louis Genealogical Society monthly meetings, Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings, and other events and classes online this past year via Zoom. As with many other groups learning to navigate this valuable digital platform, we started slowly and have been able to learn from the bumps in the road as we’ve gained more experience. One of the features of Zoom that we postponed trying is the ability to have participants register through the Zoom website; however, we are now able to offer that convenience to registrants for our free meetings and we think you will like the ease and simplicity it offers.

June StLGS Meetings and Special Events

For several years, the first News Flash blog of each month has been about upcoming StLGS and other genealogy events. In March of this year, however, we went into quarantine, and all aspects of our lives began to change. Now, thanks to so much hard work on the part of many people, we can, at last, bring you a revised schedule for June featuring a variety of exciting events, all of which will take place online. No matter what the weather or where you are, you can grab a cup of your favorite beverage, get comfy in your tee shirt, shorts, and flip flops in front of your computer or tablet, and enjoy learning from some of our most experienced genealogy lecturers throughout the month. Here is what is coming up:

Join StLGS For Our 1st Virtual Family History Conference!

(Thanks to Karen Goode, StLGS's vice-president for programs, for contributing to this week's blog post.)

St. Louis Genealogical Society has broken through our own brick wall––making virtual presentations! We have been in the planning stages for bringing meetings, classes, and other programs to our members for a couple of years. However, we were moving slowly and never actually got around to it. Well, that is all in the past because we finally have done it! A bit of silver lining in the current health crisis is that it has jolted us into action, and now, you will have the opportunity to see and hear Judy Russell’s presentations from the comfort of your home, no matter where you live. Plus, you will have access to all ten lectures online as digital recordings.

Presenting St. Louis Genealogical Society’s First

Virtual Family History Conference

Featuring Judy Russell, "the Legal Genealogist"

(Sponsored by George “Butch” and Carol Hilbert Welsch)

The conference will have two parts. First, you will have the opportunity to attend four live virtual presentations from Judy Russell! If you have heard any of Judy’s lectures, you know she is truly a gifted speaker.

Saturday, 18 April 2020
1:00 p.m. (Central Time): The Discriminating Genealogist: Telling Good Evidence From Bad
3:00 p.m. (Central Time): Living with Legal Lingo

Sunday, 19 April 2020
1:00 p.m. (Central Time): “Death by Undue Means"––Coroners’ Records
3:00 p.m. (Central Time): “Don’t Forget the Ladies”––A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law

Each of these live presentations will include a question and answer time at the end. The presentations, along with the Q and A, will be recorded, so if you want to watch a presentation again, you can.

We are using Zoom, an internet platform, to host the live presentations and digital recordings. Zoom has a limit of 100 participants for each live talk and those spots will go to the first 100 registrants who sign in for each lecture. If you cannot attend the live session, you will still be able to watch all of Judy's lectures on the Zoom website afterwards. Recordings will remain active for ninety days, so you may watch them at leisure.

In addition to Judy Russell, the virtual Family History Conference will include recordings of all the  lectures that would have been part of our original conference. Unfortunately, because of the present quarantine due to COVID-19, some of our other speakers will not be able to provide their presentations at this time, but they will record them at a later date. We will post those recordings online when they are ready and give registrants ninety days to view them. We will keep you updated as we add their virtual presentations to the Zoom site.

Registration for the Conference

Registration for the live Judy Russell webinars AND all ten of the digital recordings is now open. The cost is the same as it was for the in-person conference: $55 for StLGS members and $65 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 live webinars.) Copies of the complete syllabus including all the handouts will be available to you as downloadable PDFs. Our volunteer staff has been hard at work making the process easy and user friendly.

If you have already registered for the conference, you do NOT need to register again. We have contacted all registrants via email, asking how you want to proceed. If you have not replied, please send a note to treasurer@stlgs.org indicating whether you want to attend the virtual conference and access the recordings or if you want a refund. We will not automatically refund registration fees without a request from the registrant.

Questions? Send an email to programs@stlgs.org and the vice-president for programs will get back to you. No one is currently in our office, so please do not call.