StLGS September Genealogy Meetings and Events

Although we were hoping that we could begin meeting in person again in September, with the increase in COVID-19 cases in our area, the very safest thing to do is to complete our 2021 schedule online. We hope you will join us for these exciting family history events.

In addition to our monthly meeting, German SIG meeting, and an online class, we are pleased to announce our Fall Speaker Series, featuring a full day of lectures on "Mapping Our Ancestors" in America. Read on for details! 

The Final Word on Zoom

This is our third and final post on Zoom meetings and webinars. If you missed either of the previous two posts and you are a subscriber to this blog, you can use the links at the bottom of your MailChimp email to catch up. If you don't currently subscribe (and we welcome you to do so by clicking on the "Subscribe" link on the right of the Blogspot window) click on these: Zoom part one and Zoom part two. We’ll conclude our tutorial with some miscellaneous Zoom terms that will be useful for you to know. Then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy all of the upcoming virtual meetings that we at St. Louis Genealogical Society have planned for you on our fall and winter schedule!

Put Meat on the Bones of Your Family History!

You have undoubtedly heard many genealogists talking about “putting the meat on the bones” when it comes to their family history. Just how do you do that and what does it mean? We learn when we start working on our genealogy that it’s vital to capture names, dates, and places for everyone in our family tree. Of course, it is absolutely necessary to find documentation of basic facts and we need specific information to do that. But if we want to understand our ancestors as living, breathing human beings instead of just statistics, we need to know much more. We want to learn about their personalities, their occupations, their leisure activities, and their interactions in their communities. The more “meat” we put on those bare-bones dates and numbers, the more those people who preceded us become real.

"All Roads Lead to Missouri" at the StLGS Annual Family History Conference, Virtual for 2021

For the second year (but the forty-ninth conference!), the StLGS Annual Family History Conference will be virtual. Since we are still unable to safely gather together in large groups, we are offering this year's conference as a two-day online event, just as we did last year. "All Roads Lead to Missouri" for Saturday and Sunday, May 1st and 2nd, as we present research librarian and teacher, Patti Hobbs, CG, and other local speakers in eight lectures covering migration, military, and immigration in the early years of our state's history. Whether your ancestors were early settlers or just passed through Missouri on the way to another location, you will find helpful hints and lots of unique resources for your research when you join us for these interesting webinars. Read on for more details!

February 2021 Upcoming StLGS Meetings and In Memoriam for Three Long-time Volunteers

As we enter the heart of winter, we hope that wherever you are located, whether it's snowing, raining, or mild and sunshiny, you can brighten up your February by attending some of the upcoming StLGS meetings we have scheduled. In addition, we hope those of you who are society members will take advantage of our free classes for members coming up in March and April.

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.

Announcing the StLGS 2020 Fall Speaker Series!

Because so many people have been enjoying our online programs, we are especially excited to offer our new, virtual Fall Speaker Series! We are focused on bringing you unique webinars that will enhance your research skills, and this lineup of speakers and topics is sure to hit that sweet spot! We hope you will join us for the livestreamed event, but even if you can't, you will have access to the digitally recorded talks and can watch them at your leisure for three months! Here's what you need to know to register:

StLGS August Genealogy Meetings and Events

As we continue our months of quarantine, we hope you are staying healthy and productive. Behind the scenes, the volunteers at St. Louis Genealogical Society are working actively to provide our members and guests with as much as we can, given the public health crisis. We have been delighted with how well our online events, meetings, and classes are going and truly appreciate the positive feedback we have received. Here is our revised schedule for August featuring more exciting online events, information about ongoing opportunities, and (cue the trumpets!) an announcement about our upcoming Fall Speaker Series, which will be open for registration very soon.

Interview with Judy Russell & Final Instructions for Registration for the FHC

Last week, we announced our first-ever virtual Family History Conference (FHC), featuring nationally known genealogist and legal expert, Judy Russell, "The Legal Genealogist," and the excitement is mounting as we approach the dates for live-streaming her lectures. On Saturday, 18 April, and Sunday, 19 April, we will present Judy's four talks live, including time for questions and answers at the end. Have you registered yet? If you would like to participate in the live-streaming, time is of the essence. We need time to contact you prior to the broadcast, so registration for the live-stream presentations will end on Wednesday, 15 April at 10:00 p.m. (Central Daylight Time).

If you register but 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.

The remaining conference lectures, six digital recordings, will be added as soon as possible and registrants will be notified as soon as those recordings are posted. These will also remain available for viewing for ninety days from the date they are posted.

Registration Process

1. 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.

2. FOR ALL REGISTRANTS: You will receive an email with instructions a few days after you register. On Thursday, 16 April, you will receive an invitation, sent to the email address you provided at registration, to each of the four lectures. Please check your email inbox and/or your spam/junk mailbox to retrieve the messages.

3. LINKS TO SYLLABUS AND PRESENTATIONS: The email with instructions will also include a link to a page on the StLGS website that contains the complete syllabus, in two large files, including all of the handouts. These will be available as downloadable PDFs. You will need both files for all four of Judy's lectures: the morning file for Saturday and the afternoon file for Sunday.

4.  It is your choice as to whether you watch the lectures live or view the recordings. If you choose to watch live, remember that only the first 100 who sign into the Zoom website will be admitted. Use the link and password provided in the invitations to attend the webinars. If you choose to watch later, use the link on the instruction email to access the recordings.

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.

Q &A with Judy Russell

(Thanks to Laura Mackinson, our social media chairperson, for interviewing our featured speaker, Judy Russell in preparation for the FHC.)

Laura: When did you first realize you wanted to explore your family history?

Judy: When my oldest cousin's husband died, and I realized that not only had I lost my grandparents and my parents, but even my own generation was starting to fade. I'd been playing at genealogy before then, but at that point it became really important to me to do what I could to see that the stories weren't lost.

Laura: What's the best "Aha-moment" story you most love to tell?

Judy: Oh, there are so many . . . Choosing just one is hard! I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the moment I realized that there weren't two men by the same name in 19th century Texas—my perfectly law-abiding, tax-paying, child-rearing second great grandfather and a thorough-going rascal by the same name. Nope, same guy. He's my favorite ancestor—and a total scoundrel.

Laura: When did you first see the important connection between understanding the intersection of historical laws and family history research?

Judy: From the first moment I looked at a court minute book from Burke County, North Carolina, and realized that even with my law degree I had no idea what the clerk was recording with certain abbreviations. There is almost no record we can think of that doesn't exist because of the law, or contain information required by the law, or that makes no sense at all unless we know the law. That intersection is critical all the way across the board.

Laura: What's the most frequent question (or topic) that people ask on your "Ask The Legal Genealogist" website?

Judy: It's pretty much a tie between copyright issues and DNA ethics. And that makes sense to me because they really stem from the same basic notion of doing what's right with respect to things (work products on one hand, DNA results on the other) that belong to other people.

Laura: What are you looking forward to at the StLGS Family History Conference?

Judy: This will sound corny but . . . getting to visit with old friends and meet new ones is the biggest reason why I do genealogical speaking. It makes it all fun.