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

Next meeting: Saturday, July 26th at 2 p.m. Refreshments at 1:30 p.m.

Speaker: J. D. Weeks, author, historian and genealogist

Program Topic: Genealogical Research on the Freeman Family

Details: www.birminghamgenealogy.org or BPL-Southern History Dept. at (205) 226-3665

Local genealogist, historian and author J.D. Weeks of Gardendale will discuss Genealogical Research on the Freeman Family. An avid postcard collector, Mr. Weeks has published Birmingham: A Postcard Tour (1999) and Birmingham: Then and Now (2007).

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

Next meeting: Saturday, June 28th at 2 p.m. Refreshments at 1:30 p.m.

Speaker: Kelsey Bates, Assistant Archivist, Birmingham Public Library

Program Topic: Old School Scrapbooking

Details: www.birminghamgenealogy.org or BPL-Southern History Dept. at (205) 226-3665

From Victorian era school girls to a county coroner with an interest in grisly murders, Birminghamians often saved mementos in scrapbooks. Many of these late 19th and early 20th-century scrapbooks are preserved in the Birmingham Public Library Archives. This talk explores scrapbook keeping and keepsakes–visiting cards, photographs, letters, poems, theater programs, paper dolls, newspaper clippings–that people treasured and saved.

Also check out the Birmingham Public Library’s Digital Archives online.

From the Ancestry’s 24/7 Family History Circle Blog:

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Ancestry has added 20 million images to its Historical Newspaper Collection—doubling the collection in size! And to celebrate, they’re offering free access to the entire collection through 19 June 2008. Click here to start searching now.

More information on this huge launch is also available on the Ancestry blog.

Tina Sansome, BellaOnline’s Genealogy Editor, has posted a links and several titles to read if you are researching the military service history of your African American ancestor. Read her article and resources here.

NBC13 will air a story on Union HIll Cemetery today (11 June 2008) on Union Hill Cemetery. There is also a news story on the website here.

Link to a Tuscaloosa News article on the 2008 archaeological dig at Tannehill State Park. Photos and video are included.

Tannehill Article

Link to last year’s blog post and news article can be found here.

When I became a member of the Birmingham Genealogical Society (BGS) a few years ago, one of the first people I met was current BGS President, Mildred Kent. Mildred always made it a point to speak to me each meeting. This I appreciated because I really did not know anyone in the Society at that time. I am sure others could tell the same story. She has been a long standing and active member of BGS as well as the Alabama Genealogical Society and many other historical and genealogical organizations. Today it is my sad duty to report to you all that Mildred Thomas Kent passed away on Thursday, June 5, 2008.

Her obituary can be viewed here. Please take a moment and sign the guestbook as well. I can say without pause, Mildred will be missed by all who knew her.

Laurel Baty shared the following information with the Jefferson County Rootsweb E-mail List. She was kind to grant permission to me to share on the blog.

An index to “Memorial Sketches of the Lives and Labors of the deceased Members of the North Alabama Conference, 1870 -1912″ by W. T. Andrews can be found on the webpage of Birmingham Southern College Library, under Special Collections:

Index to Memorial Sketches of the Lives and Labors of the deceased Members of the NAC

There is also an index to Memorials of Methodist Ministers who died in the North AL Conference from 1870 - 2003:

Index to Memorials of Methodist Ministers who died in the NAC from 1870-2003

There is an inventory of Methodist Church records held at Birmingham Southern:

Inventory of Methodist Church Records Held at Birmingham Southern

Visit the Special Collections, North Alabama Conference UMC Archives page for links to all resources:

North Alabama Conference UMC Archives page

From the Press Release:

Free Public Access on Ancestry.com
To commemorate the NARA-Ancestry.com agreement on the eve of Memorial Day, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Military Collection — the largest online collection of American military records — available for free to the public. From May 20 through May 31, people can log on to http://www.ancestry.com/military to view more than 100 million names and 700 titles and databases of military records, the majority of which come from NARA, from all 50 U.S. states.

The Alabama Department of Archives & History has updated the 1867 Voter Registration database online.