How To Preserve Old Photos - A Practical Guide

Thanks to Chris Cummins for an instructional article about preserving old photos. She covers topics such as scanning options, what software to use, cloud storage services, and more.

If preserving photos is as issue for you (I'm sure it is for most of us), check it out at:  How To Preserve Old Photos - A Practical Guide:

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PGS Events for the Week of 28 June to 4 July

Only one class this week...enjoy the fireworks.

Monday, 29-Jun-2015 at 6:00 PM--Facebook--How to use this very popular social networking site for genealogy. Summers, Local History Room, Largo Library.

Tips for Searching the SSDI

Lisa Louise Cooke in her Genealogy Gems Blog gives us seven tips for searching the Social Security Death Index. Although most of the information in the SSDI dates from 1962, you can find ealier dated entries as well.

Lisa also gives five links to where you can find the SSDI online.

By the way, Lisa Louise Cooke is scheduled to be our seminar speaker in February of 2017. You may want to sign up for her free Email Newsletter while you are on the landing page linked below. You can become familiar with her body of work and breadth of knowledge in genealogy as we approach 25 February 2017.

Search the SSDI for Your Family History - Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems:

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Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Offers Obituary Indexes Online

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Spiegel Grove, Ohio gives us access to an index of over 3 million obituaries, death notices, and marriage notices from Ohio dating from the 1810's to the present. If you find a index record of use, you can order it online from one of the over sixty partner libraries.

Check it out at:  RB Hayes Obituary Index:

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Bethel College, Kansas Offers Mennonite Indexes Online

The Mennonite Archives and Library (MLA) of Bethel College in Kansas offers many online indexes to obituaries, yearbooks, and censuses. There is even and index to the registration of German aliens of 1918.

In addition to the indexes offered by the MLA are independent projects consisting of even more obituary indexes.

If you have Mennonite ancestors, this may be valuable source for you.

Indexes - Bethel College, KS:

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PGS Events for the Week of 21-27 June 2015

Tuesday, 23-Jun-2015 at 6:00 PM--Ancestry.com—The ancestry.com website has a new look and some new features. This class will demonstrate the use of the website and some search techniques for getting the most from this huge collection of databases. Bryan, Local History Room, Largo Library.

Saturday, 27-Jun-2015 at 10:00 AM--RootsMagic User Group--Questions and answers and demonstrations of how to use the RootsMagic genealogy database software program. Summers, Local History Room, Largo Library.

Historical African American Newspapers Online

We all know the value of historical newspapers for revealing not only historical information, but also personal information about specific individuals. Often the newspapers were very pointed in the readership they appealed to. Obvious of this are those printed in American and in a foreign language, such as German or Italian.

African American newspapers appealed to a specific market also, but have even wider appeal because they are easy to read and can provide historical insight applicable to all people. The link below take you to a collection on online African American newspapers. From the landing page, click on the alphabetical tabs for the geographical region of interest. The hits list is by newspaper title, and clicking on a title will take you to the paper. The collection comes from a variety of sources, including the Library of Congress.

Check it out at:

Home - Historical African American Newspapers Available Online - LibGuides at Marist College:

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U.S. Railroad Retirement Board Offers Genealogical Help

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board offers research assistance for those who have ancestors associated with the federal retirement benefit program covering the nation's railroad workers. They will provide information on deceased persons, but not those living without the written consent of that person.

There is a fee associated with each request. The specifics of the cost, and the information needed for a successful search is found at the link below.

Genealogy Research:

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The Turner Bungalow Restoration Project

Heritage Village has a restoration project that is representative of local history and may be of interest to researchers who have ancestors from the Pinellas County area. It is the Turner Bungalow Restoration Project, and I have borrowed shamelessly from the Heritage Village website as follows:

The Turner bungalow was moved from 801 S. Fort Harrison in downtown Clearwater to Heritage Village in January 2014. The historic structure was the home of Alfred Cleveland and Amber Clark Turner and remained in the family throughout its history. The 1915 home is of the distinct Florida vernacular bungalow style of that time period. Heritage Village is seeking donations to restore and preserve the historic value of the structure, providing visitors the opportunity to enjoy and learn from this important piece of Clearwater’s history and the history of Florida vernacular architecture.

To find out more, see this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QdwYAu2kDg&feature=youtu.be  
(If the hot link does not work, copy and paste the address to your browser.)

Free Images From GenealogyInTime Magazine

Do you need some hassle-free images for one of your genealogy projects? The GenealogyInTime Magazine has some for you. They are grouped into categories, some of which are: Brick Walls, Classic Cars, Pioneers, Horses, Blacksmith, and more.

Check them out at:  Free Images:

Walter Schlomann Featured at Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay

JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF TAMPA BAY
JUNE 14, 2015 MEETING NOTICE

"At Our Fingertips" - Creating a Family Video Biography
by Walter Schlomann

     The next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay will take place this coming Sunday June 14, 2015.  Our own member and award winning video producer, Walter Schlomann, is the featured speaker, and his presentation is certain be of interest to all.

Date:           Sunday, June 14, 2015

Time:          1:30PM   Refreshments, Schmooze & Library Access
                    2:00PM   Program

Where:        Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services
                    14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, FL

Program:    “At Our Fingertips” – Creating a Family Video Biography
                    Presented by Walter Schlomann

     Award winning filmmaker Walter Schlomann will share his expertise on how to create a family video biography at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay meeting, Sunday, June 14 at 2 PM at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, Florida.  A social with refreshments and library access begins at 1:30 PM, and the featured program starts at 2:00 PM.

PGS Events for the Week of 8-13 June 2015

Monday, 8-Jun-15 at 10:00 AM--Familysearch.org—the class will demonstrate how to search the vast databases available on this rapidly-expanding site made available from the LDS (Mormon) genealogy collection. Bryan. Local History Room, Largo Library.

Early Plainfield, NJ Newspapers Available Online

The Plainfield, New Jersey Public Library has a great collection of digitized local historic newspapers that may be of interest if you have ancestors from that area.

The titles available are:
Central New Jersey Times
The Constitutionalist
The Plainfield Courier
Daily Press
Evening News
Plainfield Record
Plainfield Union.

The dates for each paper vary, but range from the mid-1800's to the early 1900's.

Check it out at:
Early Plainfield Newspapers - Plainfield Public Library:

Suncoast Genealogy Society focuses meeting on German Research

The monthly meeting of the Suncoast Genealogy Society's monthly meeting on 27 June will feature John Mangun speaking on "Maps of the Formation of the German Empire 1547-1824.

The meeting starts at 2 pm at the Palm Harbor Public Library in Palm Harbor, Florida.

The meeting is preceded at 1 pm by the Roots Magic Users Group.

Scottish Emigration Database Available From the University of Aberdeen

From the site description: The database seeks to identify patterns of movement from Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960 using information transferred digitally from the passenger manifests of the Board of Trade’s Statistical Department (BT 27) held at The National Archives in Kew, London. It contains the records of 21,090 passengers and adds a unique quantitative dimension to the scholarship of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.


The database can be search by name, gender, occupation, location (district/village/town/city/island/country), date ranges, destination port and country. If an organized group sponsored the emigrant, it is selectable from a drop-down list. A list of ships is also available to select from.


Scottish Emigration Database introductory page

Site Dedicated to Digital Genealogy Books

Check out Genealogy Gophers, a relatively new site whose goal is to be the go-to site for digitized genealogy books. At present is boasts 40,000.

Check it out at:  Genealogy Gophers