PERMISSION TO FORWARD AND CROSSPOST Here are a dozen opportunities to learn more about how to find your ancestors. All meetings are open to anyone interested in attending. Most are free. All are worth driving a little for. Most are in the Pittsburgh area. Two are in Ohio. All should be placed on your calendar as important dates. ************************************************************************* **************************** Saturday, January 12, 2002, 10:00 AM, Western PA Genealogical Society meeting at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Gettysburg Room, 4141 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 "From the Revolution to WWI--What the Military Records Tell Us" By Diane Ragan, CGRS This very special program takes place in a very unique museum. We will go to the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall to hear Diane speak about Military records from 10 a.m. until noon. You are then invited to use the library with its military histories, GAR post records, diaries, and other records from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. The lecture and library usage are free for the day, however if you would like to tour the museum an admission fee of $4 ($3 for seniors and veterans) will be charged. Parking is available in a garage under the Hall. Diane Ragan, CGRS Certified Genealogical Records Specialist Diane Ragan is one of nine certified associates in Pennsylvania, having received her CGRS designation from the Board for Certification of Genealogists in Washington, DC in 1999. She has been working on her own genealogy since 1980, and professionally for clients for the past 5 years. Diane serves as Education Chair for the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, and is the military research specialist at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum in Oakland, PA. She is an author, lecturer, and teacher, and specializes in military records. Her interest in genealogy began when she discovered an old photograph of a Confederate Civil War soldier amongst her mother’s pictures. Her mother was born in Virginia—her father in Pennsylvania, and she wondered if she could have had ancestors who actually fought against each other! Thus began her passion for Civil War history. She jokes that while most young mothers were perusing Better Homes and Gardens, she subscribed to Civil War Times Illustrated. She has found the answer as to whether her ancestors fought each other—Yes—at Gettysburg. Prior to her work as a professional genealogist, Diane was the co-founder and Vice President of Administration for a local environmental consulting company. She is the mother of two children, a married daughter, and a son attending graduate school in Idaho. She resides in Washington County, PA with her husband and two cats. ************************************************************************* ************************* Tuesday January 15, 2002, 7 PM, North Hills Genealogists at the Northland Public Library, 300 Cumberland Road, Pittsburgh pa 15237-5455 “Genealogy Forward: Your Past, Your Present, Their Future.” Passing on the story of you and your family to your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren by Jay Speyerer. What if your great-grandparents had written you a letter, telling you of their thoughts and feelings and accomplishments? Even a typical day in their life would be a treasure! Your children and grandchildren can receive the same treasure from you. Jay Speyerer will show us how to put our world into words for our coming generations. The result will be more than a personal history, more than a journal. It will enable us to send our past into the future. Mr. Speyerer is the owner of Legacy Road, a writer, educator, and member of the National Speakers Association. He has been an educator for more than 20 years, successfully helping people reach their writing goals. He has written essays, short stories, and screenplays, and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. NHG in a nutshell: 7:00 p.m. every 3rd Tuesday except December at Northland Public Library Meetings are FREE and open to the public. Newsletter $12 /year* for ten issues (*Please provide: Address, 9-digit Zip, Phone, & Email address) Join our Email meeting notice list at pioneerbook@Juno.com And ..… North Hills Genealogists is home of the archival book, “Pioneer Cemeteries of Hampton Township, Allegheny County, PA”, 200 hardbound pages of detailed gravestone readings from the three pioneer-era cemeteries in Hampton Township. ************************************************************************* ***************************** Saturday, January 19, 2002 at 10 a.m. at the Cranberry Genealogy Society at the Cranberry Township (Butler County, PA) Municipal Building on Rochester Road off Rt. 19. Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS will be presenting "The Research Cycle: Don't Peddle Backwards." This small but powerful group has been reading all the tombstones in Cranberry Township, Butler County, PA. You can see their website at www.cobweb.net/~sharwill ************************************************************************* ****************************** TWO COLLEGES HOLDING GENEALOGY CLASSES The Butler County Community College, Cranberry Campus will have a 5-week beginning Genealogy class taught by Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS starting on Saturday, January 26, 2002 from 9 a.m. to noon. Please call (724) 772-5520 for more information and to register. Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS will be teaching three classes at the Community College of Allegheny County, North Campus on Rt. 19. The 5-week beginning Genealogy class will be held on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. commencing on Feb. 20. This includes a field trip for hands-on research. The Genealogy On-Line and Computer Usage class will have two 4-week sessions, both on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. One session will begin Feb. 17 and the other will start April 7. Please contact CCAC at (412) 237-2670 for more information or to register. ************************************************************************* ******************************* Tuesday February 19, 7 PM at Northland Public Library, North Hills Genealogists (of Pittsburgh) “Merry Old Middlesex (Township).” by Carol Jo Henderson, author of the book "Merry Old Middlesex" will talk about the research and production of her book. Free and open to the public. For more information contact pioneerbook@juno.com ************************************************************************* ******************************* INGRAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S CENTENNIAL GENEALOGICAL WORKSHOP This workshop will be held at the Ingram Borough Building, 40 West Prospect St., Ingram, PA on Saturday, March 2, 2002 beginning at 9 a.m. (doors open at 8:15) until 3:30 p.m. A buffet lunch is included in the registration fee of $25 pre-registration and $30 at the door. Five lectures will be given: “Early History of Western Pennsylvania” by John Fairman, “Beginning Your Family Research” by Sharen Williams, “Using and Understanding Newspapers as a Genealogical Resource” by Lu Ann Eisler, “How Did My Pennsylvania Ancestor Get Here?: Migration Trails out of the Keystone State” by Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS, and “Sailing into the Sunset: Tips for Finding your Ancestors on Passenger Lists” by Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS. For more information email sharwill@ccia.com or visit www.rootsweb.com/~paihs ************************************************************************* ******************************* Saturday, March 9, 2002, 10:00 AM, Western PA Genealogical Society, at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213 TWO Lectures Presented by Amy Johnson Crow, CG: “Ten Years is a Long Time: Census Substitutes for the In-between Years” will give the audience more ideas on places to find information between census years. This just might be the key you are looking for! AND "Using Land Records Effectively" will discuss how the recording of all instruments concerned with land can help trace that elusive migratory ancestor and give familial relationships. We are honored to have Amy Johnson Crow, CGSM of Reynoldsburg, Ohio present two lectures at this special Saturday program. Aside from client work, Amy is heavily involved in the Ohio Genealogical Society and its projects. She has served two terms as the Recording Secretary and is now a Trustee of OGS. She is chairperson of their First Families of Ohio program, which is a lineage society for descendants of ancestors who resided in Ohio by the end of 1820. Amy headed the Ohio effort for the Civil War Soldiers System, in which volunteers entered more than 464,000 entries for Ohio soldiers. This nationwide database, which contains both Union and Confederate soldiers, is available at www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/. Amy’s has had articles published in Ancestry, Genealogical Computing, Heritage Quest, and an on-going column in the OGS Newsletter. She is also a Trustee for the Association for Professional Genealogists and has a column in its Quarterly. She is working on a book “Abstracts of the Ohio School for Deaf Admission Records.” You can visit her website at www.AmyJohnsonCrow.com to learn more and to read her genealogy tip of the month. ************************************************************************* ****************************** Saturday, March 16, 9:30 AM at the Hudson Library, Hudson, Ohio in the Simon Reading Room. "Messages From the Grave: Listening to Your Ancestor's Tombstone" will be presented by Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS. This colorful 35mm slide show will discuss how to find cemeteries and once found, how to read the tombstones and the symbolism used. For more information contact jackbowers2002@yahoo.com ************************************************************************* ****************************** Tuesday, March 19, 7 PM at Northland Public Library, North Hills Genealogists meeting: “Documenting and Organizing the Family Narrative: I have 20 years of stuff, now what do I do?” by Richard Hayden. Free and open to the public. For more information contact pioneerbook@juno.com ************************************************************************* ******************************* Saturday, March 23, Slippery Rock Heritage Association annual workshop. Several speakers will give presentations of interest to all levels of genealogical skill. Vendors will have displays of genealogical and other materials. Please save this date. More information is available from http://www.geniespeak.com/ ************************************************************************* ******************************** WPGS SPRING SEMINAR Saturday April 13, 2002 at 9 a.m. at the Wyndham (formerly Marriott) Pittsburgh Airport, Parkway West, Montour Run Exit, 777 Aten Road, Coraopolis, PA 15108 will be the annual Spring Seminar and presentation of First Family of Western Pennsylvania awards. Rhonda McClure of St. Cloud, Florida will be presenting four lecture topics during the day-long seminar which includes a buffet lunch. You may visit Rhonda’s website at www.TheGenealogist.com and read about Rhonda’s research articles and published works (including "The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Genealogy"). Complete registration details will be coming but please mark your calendar today! Everyone is welcome to attend! www.WPGS.org "Pitfalls in New England Research" offers a look at the various main record types of New England and some of the problems to be aware of when researching with lots of examples of the main record types that researchers would be using and the peculiarities of the individual states in regard to those records. "I Found It Online: Separating Fact from Fiction" shows researchers how to evaluate the Web sites found to determine how reliable the information is. Just because it’s in print doesn’t necessarily make it so! "Effective Searching on the 'Net" shows how the different search engines and databases work with your information and how to finesse it to get the results you are hoping for. "Organize, Organize, Organize" offers an in depth look at how to avoid the "paper trap" with filing in conjunction with various genealogy programs which can help keep track of where your research stands, what you plan to research next, and how peripheral programs can keep your database more accurate. ************************************************************************* ******************************* Tuesday, April 16 at 7 PM at Northland Public Library, the North Hills Genealogists will have “The Other Federal Census: Non-Population and Special Schedules 1810-1935.” presented by nationally known author and lecturer Sandra MacLean Clunies, Certified Genealogist. For more information contact pioneerbook@juno.com. ************************************************************************* ********************************* Thursday, April 18 through Saturday, April 20 The annual Ohio Genealogical Society Conference to be held in Toledo, OH, now bigger and better this year with seven (7!) different lectures each hour to choose from. Featuring Cyndi Howells, Paul Milner, and Tony Burroughs and many other nationally known speakers. Special Thursday night workshop choices include "Effective Searching on the Net,"The Family Photograph COllection: Identification, Presentation, and Use in Our Family Histories," and "To Be or Not to Be: The Who, What, Why & How of Becoming a Certified Genealogist." Please see www.ogs.org for more information and the registration brochure. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! 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