Fifteen Years of Google Street View

(Many thanks to StLGS publicity and social media director, Laura Mackinson, for writing this week's blog. All images from Google Street View.)

Go back in time with this interesting Google Maps feature!

By now, most everyone has heard of Google Maps, but perhaps you haven't heard of Google Street View. Essentially, Google sends vehicles with 360-degree cameras mounted on top to drive up and down streets taking panoramic photographs. These images are then uploaded to Google Maps and linked to the corresponding locations on the map. Google Street View began in 2007, and the past images were made available beginning in 2014.

Obsolete Occupations: Factors and Commission Merchants

Perhaps, as you have been researching your male ancestors, you have come across some that were factors or commission merchants. Have you wondered what these people did for a living? Are there modern equivalents for these jobs? We will take a look at this obscure occupation in this week’s post.

Farewell to Our "Guardian Angel" and Recovering Photos from Flood Damage

We lost a very special StLGS member this week, Mary Berthold, whom we frequently called our "guardian angel" because of her never-ending support and generosity. We say a brief farewell here but will celebrate her life more fully in a future Quarterly article. 

It feels as if it has been a week of losses. Not only did we have record-setting rainfall in St. Louis City and County, but flash floods have affected our members throughout the country. Our hearts go out to those of you whose basements and homes have been swamped by rain water and backed up sewers. We want to offer some hope for your photos and documents that have been soaked, and, more importantly, some advice about how to protect those precious keepsakes for the future.

StLGS August Meetings and More!

Most of us are sweltering this summer, but doesn't that make the idea of attending a genealogy meeting in a cool, air-conditioned location that much more appealing?  Now that the St. Louis County Library Headquarters building is closed, we have been working with our friends at the library to reserve large, comfortable meeting locations at several of the branch libraries for the remaining months of this year and all of 2023. Because our membership is so widespread, we have decided to use several venues throughout St. Louis County plus our office for our hybrid meetings, so we can accommodate everyone, regardless of where you live. You will not have to reserve space if you are attending in person, but do pay attention to meeting locations from now on. We will have Google map links to each branch library on our website as meetings open for registration. We have several interesting meetings coming up in August that should fill the bill for staying cool and learning at the same time, so check these out!

Looking for an Ethnic St. Louis Newspaper?

As you probably know by now, the old headquarters building of St. Louis County Library is closed and the demolition process has begun; a new structure will take its place in a year or so. As the History & Genealogy Department prepared for its move to temporary quarters at the Daniel Boone branch, they had to reassess their holdings and make some decisions on what to keep and what to discard. Accordingly, since many of their newspapers were already digitized and online, they offered StLGS a variety of newspaper microfilms.

Shot Towers: A Strange but Necessary Bit of History

If you lived in the United States in the nineteenth century, the need for hunting and defending yourself and your family from predators meant that you required a ready supply of ammunition for your guns and rifles. The forests and the prairies were your grocery stores. If you had the materials, skills, space, and time, you could make enough bullets for your personal use, but there was also ongoing conflict between indigenous people and sprawling American settlers, and there were wars and other military skirmishes creating continuous demand for gun shot. There was, however, an inherent problem with the way gun shot was created.

July StLGS Meetings, Events, and More!

Happy Fourth of July! We hope you have had a good holiday weekend, have stayed cool and dry, and celebrated the birth of our country safely and happily. Now that the holiday is over and summer is in full swing, we also hope you will make some time for attending some upcoming genealogy meetings. Our monthly meeting will be hybrid; you can attend in person at our office or via Zoom. However, the Irish Special Interest Group meeting this month will be via Zoom only. We are also announcing the Fall Speaker Series, now open for registration, and a new membership category for young people. Read on for more!