Genealogy During the Pandemic: Digitizing Your Slides

If you are old enough to remember when photography meant cameras, film, and flash attachments, then you probably also have boxes of photos, negatives, and slides. Travel has always involved photography, but for those of us "born in the day," that meant dozens of rolls of slide film, leading to hundreds of slides each time we took a trip. Years of vacations and family reunions before digital cameras came along led to thousands of slides sitting in Kodak Carousel trays taking up a vast amount of shelf space.

10 Genealogy Webinars Now Available on StLGS Website—Many for Free!

As this very strange year begins to draw into its waning days, and with all the coming and going of Zoom meetings and digital recordings, this is a good time to remind everyone of the growing collection of recorded classes, meetings, and webinars that are now available on our website. Although our online classes are only for members, meetings that have been digitally recorded are open to everyone, and it’s still not too late to take advantage of the virtual Fall Speaker Series, "Often Overlooked St. Louis Resources," with livestreamed lectures scheduled for next weekend, October 17th and 18th. Here is what is currently available on our website and how to access everything that is there. Be aware that there are expiration dates on some of the recordings, so don’t miss your chance to watch!

Looking for Hard-to-Find Genealogy Records in St. Louis?

So many of us have ancestors who wound up in orphanage care or migrated, at least in part, via the railroads. We all have searched cemeteries, and perhaps many of us have attempted to find obscure records in library collections. What if we could spend several hours taught by local experts in the safety and comfort of our homes, learning more about what genealogy records might be available? Wouldn't that be just perfect? Well, the opportunity is here! 

October StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Events

 

Happy autumn! In spite of all of the ups and downs of the summer, doesn't it seem to have gone by quickly? As cooler weather begins to set in and leaves start to fall, we hope you will snuggle up in front of your computer and join us for several fun and stimulating virtual genealogy events. We have classes online, free to StLGS members, as well as an exciting monthly meeting, open to all, and, of course, our virtual Fall Speaker Series, "Often Overlooked St. Louis Resources," coming up the weekend of October 17 and 18. Read on for all the details.

How to Find an Old Post and Other Social Media Search Tips

Have you ever seen a post in a Facebook group, then later couldn't find it when you went back to look for it? Social media can move fast these days, and as we have all been at our computers and using social media more and more, it's important we sharpen our search skills so we can more easily find what we want. For instance, you can search most blogs, including this one, for names, topics, places, and more. Similarly, you can search for people, surnames, and places (and more) in the St. Louis Genealogical Society's Facebook group. You can also quickly locate genealogy-specific accounts and tweets on Twitter. Here is how you can search smarter when you are using social media.

Your Ancestors' Lives in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

At the StLGS September monthly meeting this past weekend, Missouri History Museum (MHM) historian Andrew Wanko painted a vivid picture of life in St. Louis in 1875. Using the wonderful Pictorial Atlas of St. Louis, originally published by Compton and Dry, to illustrate what the city looked like, Mr. Wanko gave us a fascinating glimpse of St. Louis and St. Louisans in the mid-nineteenth century. For those unfamiliar with the Pictorial Atlas, it was a chance to learn a bit about its history and artwork. MHM speaker restrictions kept us from recording the meeting, but you can learn more about the atlas in a lively blog post from 2012, when the MHM hosted an exhibit of all of the pages of the atlas.

RootsTech 2021 Goes Virtual and NGS/FGS Complete Merger

RootsTech 2021

FamilySearch announced this week that RootsTech 2021 has been changed to a three-day online event from 25–27 February. Begun as a small conference in the late 1990s to explore the expanding role of technology in genealogy, RootsTech has grown into the world’s largest annual family history event. Since 2010, when it piggy-backed on the National Genealogical Society’s yearly conference, RootsTech, now sponsored by FamilySearch, has been held in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace. By 2019, more than 27,000 attendees from every state and forty-seven different countries attended the conference. RootsTech 2021 was to be held in early February 2021 in Salt Lake City, but the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete change of plans.