BGS Meeting — February 25, 2012 — Compiling Your Family History for Publication

The Birmingham Genealogical Society meets the fourth Saturday of each month (ex. Nov. & Dec.) at the Downtown Birmingham Public Library. Guests are always welcome!

Next meeting: Saturday, February 25th at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:15 p.m.

Meeting Room: Arrington Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Linn-Henley Building

Speaker:  Mary Taylor, Past-President of BGS

Program Topic: Compiling Your Family History for Publication

Whether you have researched your family tree for 1 month or 10 years, we all face the same challenge: what to do with all the information we have collected.  Mary’s rich background experience in genealogical research will enable her to share valuable tips on how to organize and publish all the work you have gathered.

NOTE:  Please note with this month’s meeting, we resume meeting in the Arrington Auditorium.

Save the SSDI – Sign the Stop ID Theft NOW! Petition

From our friends at the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS):

Call to Action – Help Save the
Social Security Death Index

Your help is needed in our Stop ID Theft NOW! campaign and our efforts to preserve the Social Security Death Index as an accessible record set for genealogists and family historians.

What you can do:

1. Learn more at the SSDI FAQ here.
2. Sign the We The People petition at http://wh.gov/khE.
3. Spread the word , especially to your genealogy society members and colleagues. Forward this email to them or send them the SSDI petition press release – download it here.

Our goal is to get as many signatures, as quickly as possible, so that the solutions to fraudulent tax refund claims based upon identity theft from recently deceased infants & adults can be taken seriously and implemented immediately. Doing so will help us ensure that the SSDI is available to not just genealogists, but all researchers and information professionals who rely upon its contents.

Thank you!

Note: click here for step-by-step instructions on using the We The People site to sign the petition. Some users have reported issues with creating an account and signing the petition.

Do not let technical difficulties keep you from signing! Contact petition@fgs.org if you encounter problems – we’re here to help!
Follow all the latest SSDI and other records access news
at the RPAC blog at .

Genealogy Database Heritage Quest Discontinued as Countywide Library Service

JCLC donations to retain the Heritage Quest databases fell drastically short of the dollars needed to renew the subscription.

We understand from the JCLC that the libraries in Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover and Homewood have renewed their local licenses and Jefferson County library cardholders will be able to access HQ at these physical locations. Remote access will be limited to cardholders who live in these cities. For cardholders in the city of Birmingham, the Birmingham Public Library will continue to offer Ancestry.com Library Edition on-site as well.

Read the full article posted today on the Birmingham Public Library blog:

http://bplolinenews.blogspot.com/2012/02/genealogy-database-heritage-quest.html

Hoover Public Library discussion series “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War”

The Hoover Public Library is hosting a reading and discussion series, titled “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War”. The next event is January 31st:

Topic: Book Discussion – Choosing Sides (selections from America’s War anthology)

Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 – 7 pm

Location: Theatre level meeting rooms, Hoover Public Library

Scholar: John Mayfield PhD, Department of History, Samford University

Registration is required. Call 444-7840 to register.

The series continues through April. See the Hoover Public Library website for upcoming event details.

February 11, 2012 — BAAGSG Bi-Annual Genealogy Exposition — Discovering Our African American Heritage: The Alabama Connection

The Birmingham African American Genealogy Study Group (BAAGSG), a special interest group of the Birmingham Genealogical Society, regularly meets the second Sunday of each month (ex. May and November) in the Arrington Auditorium at the Downtown Birmingham Public Library. Guests are welcome!

Next meeting: Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Program Theme: Discovering our African American Heritage:  The Alabama Connection

Guest Speakers:  Mrs. Carol McKinstry, 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor, and Dr. Robert Davis, Director of Genealogy Department, Wallace State Community College

Additional Information: Wanda Looney, Tel: 205-317-7557 / e-mail  or Chester Summerville, Tel:  205-821-3358 / email

The Expo is FREE and open to the public.  Come join us for food, fun and family history!

Recent Additions at FamilySearch.org

While we were all busy celebrating the holidays with family and friends, the folks at Familysearch.org were busy posting new collections of data.  You can see all the recent collections here:

Genealogy Blog

One that will be of interest of most viewing this blog are the “Alabama, County Estate Records…” — not every county is represented at this time, but there are enough to allow you to spend days downloading and viewing estate records. The records in this collection seem to be from the microfilm of the “Loose Records Project” completed in all counties just a few years ago.  The records are not fully searchable, but are organized by County and Last Name.  I have noticed in more than one county that the papers imaged under a particular name, may not always be for that individual.  Of course, there are the “mixing” of same names, but I have also seen a Robinson estate mixed in with the estate of a Williams.  Additionally, check for records filmed under the name of the administrator/executor or even under the heirs.

Alabama, County Estate Records

Good luck and happy searching!

BGS Meeting — January 28, 2012 — Today’s DAR Including Research Resources and Membership Information

The Birmingham Genealogical Society meets the fourth Saturday of each month (ex. Nov. & Dec.) at the Downtown Birmingham Public Library. Guests are always welcome!

Next meeting: Saturday, January 28th at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Meeting Room: Youth Department (Story Castle), 2nd Floor, Main Library building

Speaker:  Connie Grund

Program Topic: Today’s DAR Including Research Resources and Membership Information

Come join us and learn about the Daughter’s of the American Revolution (DAR) lineage society.  Connie will share resources available to both member and non-members of DAR and provide information on how to join the society.  She will be available after her program to discuss membership information one-on-one.

About the Speaker:  Connie Haynsworth Grund was born in Birmingham, baptized at the Cathedral Church of the Advent and spent most of her growing up years in Westchester County, New York.

Connie is a full time volunteer serving currently as the Vice Regent of the Alabama Society Daughters of the American Revolution and Vice Chairman of the KDS DAR School, Board of Trustees in Grant, AL. Connie serves the National Society DAR as National Chairman of Constitution Week. She is also a member of 18 other lineage groups and serves on the board of several.

Connie’s ancestor David Owen brought his family down the Tennessee River on a flatboat, disembarked in Guntersville and went by wagon to Jefferson County. That was back in 1816 and makes Connie the 8th generation of her family to live in Jefferson County. The Owen farm house, built in 1833 is still in Jefferson County owned by the West Jefferson County Historical Society and Connie serves on the Board of Director’s.

Connie has six other family lines that were in Alabama before statehood including Jefferson County pioneers Mortimer Jordan, John Smith and William Rose Sadler, Needham Lee of Shelby County and William Patton and John Brahan of Huntsville. William Patton’s son Robert went on to become the 20th governor of Alabama.

NOTE:  Please note the location change from our “regular” meeting room in the Arrington Auditorium to the meeting room located in the Youth Department.  We will resume meeting in the Arrington Auditorium in February.