Please come by and see us in the Exhibit Hall (East Exhibit Hall at the BJCC). You do not have to be a registered conference participant to access the Exhibit Hall. The vendors and societies participating are numerous… and LOTS of special “conference only” deals from the vendors (book vendors, software vendors, genealogical websites). This is the last day of FGS 2012 and the Exhibit Hall will be open until 3pm.
Hope to see you there!
Billy Gamble (center) greeting Birmingham’s final Honor Flight, June 2012
Photo from the Birmingham News, al.com
Article accompanying above photo can be found online here.
Mr. Billy Thomas Gamble passed away Friday, August 24, 2012. His obituary is in the Sunday edition (26 August 2012) of the Birmingham News. Mr. Gamble and his wife, Stella, have been long-time active members of BGS. Mr. Gamble was a veteran of World War II and had the opportunity to participate in an “Honor Flight” to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Services will be held Monday the 27th at Currie-Jefferson Funeral Home in Hoover with burial in the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo following.
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, August 25th at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:15 p.m.
Meeting Room: Arrington Auditorium, 4th Floor, Linn-Henley Building
Speaker: Joe Holley, Industrial League Baseball enthusiast and historian
Program Topic: Baseball and Steel: Industrial League Baseball
Joe Holley is a native of Walker County and retired after a lengthy career with the Alabama Department of Transportation. While in college, Mr. Holley took a history course on techniques of research including conducting oral histories. Because of longtime family involvement, he chose local industrial league baseball as the subject of his research project. He initially interviewed old timers who dated back to the turn of the 20th Century. In the intervening years, he has continued his research and has become an “expert” on the local industrial league teams and players.
Stockham Baseball Team, Late 1930′s
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, July 28th at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:15 p.m.
Meeting Room: Arrington Auditorium, 4th Floor, Linn-Henley Building
Speaker: Karen Utz, Curator/Historian at the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark
Program Topic: Goin’ North, the African-American Women of Sloss Quarters
Karen Utz is the Curator/Historian at the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. Goin’ North: The African American Women of Sloss Quarters will focus on the traditions
and customs the mothers, wives and daughters of ex-sharecroppers brought with them to the urban industrial landscape of Sloss Furnaces and its company housing, Sloss Quarters. A 30 page monograph (plus 10 pages of citations) will be provided to those in attendance.
The Birmingham Family History Center will have a Family History Fair on Saturday, July 21st from 9am to 3pm. The event is free, but pre-registration is encouraged. Check-in begins at 9am. The classes are from 10am until 3pm, changing each hour, so you can attend up to 5 classes. Lunch will be available between 11am and 1pm.
If you plan to register for the conference, and have not done so… you should do so today. The is the last day of Early Bird Registration and the price for Early Bird is $195.00. After today the registration fee will go up to $245.00 for the conference.
The conference is scheduled for August 29 to September 1, 2012. Take advantage of the Early Registration Discount by registering at fgs.org/2012conference/registration.
FGS conferences provides a great opportunity to associate with others who are interested not only in genealogy and family history, but those with common interests in the same geographic or ethnic groups that interest you. NETWORKING is a valuable outcome of every conference and you will want to make as many new friends as possible. Numerous meal functions will give you an added opportunity to make new acquaintances.
The nation’s genealogical vendors will bring their goods and services to an overflowing free exhibit hall and you will be able to browse, network and learn from a variety of experts in their field of specialty.
Have you ever heard of Clayton’s Cove? What about Ayres? Or Taylor? According to an article in the Trussville Tribune, these names are all associated with a once thriving town in east Jefferson County. This area is now part of Clay.
Read about this place and the historic Mt. Cavalry Presbyterian cemetery in the online article here.
From our friends at the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
Don’t miss the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ 2012 annual conference, which will be making its first appearance in Birmingham, Alabama! At FGS 2012, attendees will enjoy four terrific days of learning new tips and tricks to further their genealogy and family history. Genealogists and those interested in discovering more about their family history from across the nation are all welcome.
The Conference
The conference is scheduled for August 29 to September 1, 2012. Take advantage of the Early Registration Discount, which ends July 1, 2012, by registering at fgs.org/2012conference/.
FGS conferences provides a great opportunity to associate with others who are interested not only in genealogy and family history, but those with common interests in the same geographic or ethnic groups that interest you. NETWORKING is a valuable outcome of every conference and you will want to make as many new friends as possible. Numerous meal functions will give you an added opportunity to make new acquaintances.
The nation’s genealogical vendors will bring their goods and services to an overflowing free exhibit hall and you will be able to browse, network and learn from a variety of experts in their field of specialty.
For more information, or to take advantage of the Early Registration Discount today, visit fgs.org/2012conference/.
See you in there!
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, June 23rd at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:15 p.m.
Meeting Room: Arrington Auditorium, 4th Floor, Linn-Henley Building
Speaker: Robert Scott Davis, Director of the Genealogy Department at Wallace State Community College – Hanceville
Program Topic: In Your Backyard: Secrets to Wallace State’s Famed Genealogy Collection
Robert Scott Davis is the director of the Genealogy Program of Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, Alabama. His duties include organizing field trips for his classes to libraries throughout the country; helping to build one of the South’s most extensive genealogical collections; operating a microfilming facility; and teaching genealogy in one of the first colleges to offer genealogy as a college level course.
In 2006, this program that he built received the Award for Outstanding Leadership in History from the American Association for State and Local History. Professor Davis also teaches survey courses in geography and history. In Alabama and Georgia, Bob has worked to raise public awareness on saving local government records and has been a member of the Alabama governor’s historical records commission. He has been the guest speaker at hundreds of meetings of civic, genealogical, and historical organizations.
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, May 26th at 2 p.m.; Board Meeting at 1:15 p.m.
Meeting Room: Arrington Auditorium, 4th Floor, Linn-Henley Building
Speaker: Michael A. Flannery, Associate Director of Historical Collections at UAB
Program Topic: The Era of Patent Medicines
It is hard for most of us to imagine a world without the Food & Drug Administration, no knowledge of bacteria and germs, and lack of qualified medical practitioners, but that was the case 100-150 years ago. Mr. Flannery will discuss both the myths and the facts of the era of patent medicines in the United States.
Michael Flannery is the author of 8 books, most recently Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life (2011). Most of his research and published work has been in the history of pharmacy. In 2007 he edited and reissued Nicholas Culpeper’s English Physician, which he published with the University of Alabama Press. He is professor and Associate Director for Historical Collections at UAB. Although a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, since 1999 he has been happy to call Alabama his home, where he lives with his wife and three mischievous cats in Shelby County.
