goings on at the genealogy center
brenda kellow
august 31, 2014
The Plano library hours are from 9-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9-6 p.m. on Friday; and 10-6 p.m. on Saturday; Sunday 1-5 p.m., including the Genealogy Center. Consult the user friendly Genealogy Center online site, www.plano.gov/907/Genealogy-Center, for different holiday closings including: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s; Martin Luther King; Easter Sunday; Memorial Day; Independence Day; Labor Day; Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The Genealogy Center also offers the following classes at no charge:
September 17, 9:30-11 a.m., Where in the World Is My Ancestor, How to find your immigrant family.
September 23; October 28; and November 25, 1:30-5 p.m. (come and go), Join the Legacy Users Group for Information sharing, research tips, webinars and one-on-one help.
October 17, 9:30-11 p.m., Genealogy Lock-in. Webinars featuring libraries from across Texas, one-on-one assistance, genealogy and history groups and much more. (Come and go). No charge.
November 5, 9:30-11 a.m., Scouting for Military Records, Learn what databases, books and other sources are available to locate your ancestors.
Free Genealogy Friends of the Plano Libraries Saturday Seminars in the Program Room of Haggard Library Speaker Change:
September 20, 10:30-12:30 p.m., How to Start Your Genealogy Journey, presented by Barbara Coakley. The room opens at 10 and the talk begins at 10:30. It is held in the Program Room of Haggard Library. Afterwards, you are invited to join the group for lunch at TGI-Friday’s on Preston just north of 15th Street.
October 25, 9-3:30 p.m., Genealogy Friends of the Plano Libraries All-day Workshop, Homeland Research, at Plano Bible Chapel, 1900 Shiloh Rd, Plano, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. For fees and registration go to www.genealogyfriends.org. Bring a brown bag lunch.
November 15, 10:30-12:30 p.m., TBA
December 20, 2014, 10:30-12:30 p.m., Annual Show and Tell. Everyone’s favorite. Come show what you have done over the year.
HANCOCK COUNTY, GEORGIA COURTHOUSE DESTROYED: The historic courthouse in Sparta, Georgia, was gutted in the early morning hours of August 11 causing a $5.5 million loss. The courthouse, completed in 1883, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was under renovation. The insurance office dismissed arson as the cause of the fire. Some of the older county records dating to late 1700s are safely online but not all the twentieth century records had been digitized. This is a terrible loss for the county as well as historians and genealogists.
THE BRITISH PALS BATTALIONS: This term was new to me so I thought some of you might want to be aware of it also. The pals battalions began in World War I as a military plan to get more volunteers. The thought was that more would sign up if knew their friends and neighbors would serve together. This proved to be true because in August 1914 over 1600 men signed up to serve in just one week. The definition is on Wikipedia and a complete listing of these is online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pals_battalions.
FREE LABOR DAY SEARCHES: Get your To Do lists ready to search free over the Labor Day holiday. Each year many of the subscription sites open their databases to the public for searching ancestors. Sometimes it is military databases, but they also offer other topics and categories. If you are searching females, be certain to check in military files for pension records, widows’ certificates, battalion pension files, deeds, wills, diaries, journals, letters, vital records and affidavits, draft records and newspaper files. Be ready when the search begins!
CONFEDERATE AND UNION PAPERS AND PHOTOS ONLINE: Fold3.com just put online the Civil War Subversion Investigations, Confederate Amnesty Papers, Confederate Citizens File, and Union Citizens File, as well as the World War II Air Force Photos, various Civil War photo collections and the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Vietnam War photos.
EARLY OREGON DATABASE INDEXES ONLINE: The Early Oregon Search site of 100,000 people in the state before 1860 includes Native American Indian land grants and Catholic marriage records is online and free at https://secure.sos.state.or.us/prs/personProfileSearch.do?earlyOregonian=true&searchReset=true, but Ancestry requires a subscription to search the site.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: bbkellow@verizon.net.
The Genealogy Center also offers the following classes at no charge:
September 17, 9:30-11 a.m., Where in the World Is My Ancestor, How to find your immigrant family.
September 23; October 28; and November 25, 1:30-5 p.m. (come and go), Join the Legacy Users Group for Information sharing, research tips, webinars and one-on-one help.
October 17, 9:30-11 p.m., Genealogy Lock-in. Webinars featuring libraries from across Texas, one-on-one assistance, genealogy and history groups and much more. (Come and go). No charge.
November 5, 9:30-11 a.m., Scouting for Military Records, Learn what databases, books and other sources are available to locate your ancestors.
Free Genealogy Friends of the Plano Libraries Saturday Seminars in the Program Room of Haggard Library Speaker Change:
September 20, 10:30-12:30 p.m., How to Start Your Genealogy Journey, presented by Barbara Coakley. The room opens at 10 and the talk begins at 10:30. It is held in the Program Room of Haggard Library. Afterwards, you are invited to join the group for lunch at TGI-Friday’s on Preston just north of 15th Street.
October 25, 9-3:30 p.m., Genealogy Friends of the Plano Libraries All-day Workshop, Homeland Research, at Plano Bible Chapel, 1900 Shiloh Rd, Plano, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. For fees and registration go to www.genealogyfriends.org. Bring a brown bag lunch.
November 15, 10:30-12:30 p.m., TBA
December 20, 2014, 10:30-12:30 p.m., Annual Show and Tell. Everyone’s favorite. Come show what you have done over the year.
HANCOCK COUNTY, GEORGIA COURTHOUSE DESTROYED: The historic courthouse in Sparta, Georgia, was gutted in the early morning hours of August 11 causing a $5.5 million loss. The courthouse, completed in 1883, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was under renovation. The insurance office dismissed arson as the cause of the fire. Some of the older county records dating to late 1700s are safely online but not all the twentieth century records had been digitized. This is a terrible loss for the county as well as historians and genealogists.
THE BRITISH PALS BATTALIONS: This term was new to me so I thought some of you might want to be aware of it also. The pals battalions began in World War I as a military plan to get more volunteers. The thought was that more would sign up if knew their friends and neighbors would serve together. This proved to be true because in August 1914 over 1600 men signed up to serve in just one week. The definition is on Wikipedia and a complete listing of these is online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pals_battalions.
FREE LABOR DAY SEARCHES: Get your To Do lists ready to search free over the Labor Day holiday. Each year many of the subscription sites open their databases to the public for searching ancestors. Sometimes it is military databases, but they also offer other topics and categories. If you are searching females, be certain to check in military files for pension records, widows’ certificates, battalion pension files, deeds, wills, diaries, journals, letters, vital records and affidavits, draft records and newspaper files. Be ready when the search begins!
CONFEDERATE AND UNION PAPERS AND PHOTOS ONLINE: Fold3.com just put online the Civil War Subversion Investigations, Confederate Amnesty Papers, Confederate Citizens File, and Union Citizens File, as well as the World War II Air Force Photos, various Civil War photo collections and the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Vietnam War photos.
EARLY OREGON DATABASE INDEXES ONLINE: The Early Oregon Search site of 100,000 people in the state before 1860 includes Native American Indian land grants and Catholic marriage records is online and free at https://secure.sos.state.or.us/prs/personProfileSearch.do?earlyOregonian=true&searchReset=true, but Ancestry requires a subscription to search the site.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: bbkellow@verizon.net.
