Registration Open for the 2023 StLGS Annual Family History Conference!

 51st Annual Family History Conference!

Explore Unique Pathways to Smash Brick Walls!

Saturday, 6 May 2023

Featuring Judy Russell, JD, The Legal Genealogist®

Also: Jen Baldwin, John Dougan, Greg Hilton, and Christina Miller

Maryland Heights Community Center, 2300 McKelvey Road, St. Louis, MO 63043

This will be held as a hybrid event. Join us for a full day of lectures, exhibitors, and a chance to chat over morning coffee or lunch. If you can't attend in person, join us via Zoom. All the lectures will be recorded, and everyone will have access to all eight lectures after the conference. For those coming to the Maryland Heights Community Center, a box lunch can be purchased for an optional fee.

Saturday's Program (All times are Central Time Zone)

9:30 a.m.: Doors open

9:50 a.m.: Opening Remarks 

10:00 a.m.: "Through the Golden Door: Immigration After the Civil War," by Judy Russell

AND "Documents to Databases: Using the Missouri State Archives' Newest Resource," by John Dougan

11:15 a.m.: "Advertising the Law: The Gems in the Legal Notices," by Judy Russell 

AND "Documents to Databases: Using the Missouri State Archives' Land and Judicial Databases" by Christina Miller

1:15 p.m.: "Of Delinquents and Common Scolds: Women, Children, and Criminal Justice," 

by Judy Russell AND "Findmypast: Your Source for British and Irish Research," by Jen Baldwin

2:30 p.m.: "After the Courthouse Burns: Rekindling Family History Through DNA," by

Judy Russell AND "Why You Should Care Where Your Family Bible Is," by Greg Hilton

Complete details of each lecture and speaker bios are on our website. When you go to the conference page, be sure to click on the links to the Lectures and Speakers pages. (Those links are in the upper right-hand corner of the page.)

Registration for the Conference

Registration for the 2023 Family History Conference is now open. The cost is $60 for StLGS members and $70 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 conference.) Those attending in person will receive a paper syllabus. Everyone will have access to the syllabus as a downloadable PDF from a link on our website as well as all eight digital recordings.

Questions? Send an email to programs@stlgs.org and the vice-president for programs will get back to you. 

We can't wait to help you "Explore Unique Pathways to Smash Brick Walls!"

StLGS Trading Post Offers Atlases and Maps for Genealogists

Do you know where your family lived in relation to other family members or to the people who signed as witnesses on baptisms, deeds, wills or other documents? Maps help provide answers to where a family lived. And historic maps may include the names of landowners in a place and time. These maps may even help you locate the exact plot of ground where your family lived, so you can stand at their old homestead or even find a family burial ground.

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.)

Honoring Ancestors of Color in our Genealogy Research

While we cannot change or erase the stormy history of our country, this day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a good time to reflect on what we can do to right some of the wrongs of the past and to learn more about members of minority groups that have been long overlooked. To that end, we want to share some stories and websites that might help you learn a bit more about our ancestors of color.

New! Early St. Louis Catholic Baptism and Marriage Records Added to the StLGS Website!

If your ancestors were in St. Louis during its earliest years, there is a good chance they were Catholic, French, Native American, and/or Black, and, if so, they were baptized or married in one of the three oldest of St. Louis’s Catholic churches: the Basilica of St. Louis IX, King of France (otherwise known as the Old Cathedral), Saints Mary and Joseph Church in what is now the Carondelet neighborhood in South St. Louis City, or St. Ferdinand de Florissant in today's North St. Louis County. If you think you had ancestors who might have been here during the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, we have another treat for you on our website! You will find revised pages for the Old Cathedral and Sts. Mary and Joseph and a brand-new page for St. Ferdinand on which you can find a multitude of additional baptisms and marriages. Read on for details!

January 2023 StLGS Genealogy Meetings and Classes

Happy 2023! We hope you have had a peaceful and healthy holiday season and are now ready to start the new year with some exciting genealogy events. We continue to offer our meetings as hybrid when possible so that those of you who are unable to attend in person can still participate in society offerings. We start the year with what has become a tradition, our popular "Ask Louie" Q & A meeting, which, because of the unpredictable weather in mid-January, will be via Zoom only. We follow that with three SIG meetings and a new list of classes, so get ready for a full year of learning! Read on for more . . .