Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society Spring 1999 Program Schedule Saturday, March 13, 1999, at the Historical Society of Western PA, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh for a Research day. Last year the overwhelming interest in visiting this library warrants another look. For those of you who have been meaning to visit, mark this day on your calendar! To facilitate the two tours that will be given by the librarians, please adhere to the following schedule and RSVP at (412) 687-6811. If you are Historical Society member (meaning that you can enter the building for free) please take your tour at 10 a.m. in the Historical Society Library on the 6th floor. If you are not a Historical Society member, please come to the History Center lobby at 11 a.m. to pay your reduced fee of $4.25 to a WPGS representative. Do NOT pay at the desk as the fees must be collected and paid in one lump sum to receive the discount. No matter which tour you come to, please RSVP to the WPGS 24 hr. answering machine and give your name, phone number and which tour you plan on attending. You will have free access of the entire building for the entire day and are welcome to visit all the exhibits, including the Points in Time, showing the historical periods of life in western Pennsylvania. ------------------------------------------------------ The following meeting is free and open to the public at the Carnegie Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. For more information call 412-687-6811 or visit the WPGS website: www.clpgh.org/clp/Pennsylvania/wpgs.html Saturday, April 10, 1999, at 10 a.m. This informative day of how to best utilize the information from cemeteries, funeral homes and gravestones will be the last regular meeting of the fiscal year of the Western PA Genealogical Society. 10 a.m. Welcome and announcements 10:15 a.m. Documenting Cemeteries. Jeff and Diane Nesmeyer are members of the Prince William County Genealogical Society (Virginia) Cemetery Committee. Documenting cemeteries is a two-year old project for PWCGS. Many of the hundreds of cemeteries in Prince William County are small, family cemeteries that have all but disappeared in the encroaching forests when the land was abandoned, or were bulldozed to make way for the on-going development of this Washington Suburb. The Nesmeyers have assisted the co-chairs in locating many of these 'lost' cemeteries and documenting what has been found. The committee used the recommended forms for documentation from the Association of Gravestone Studies, a non-profit organization headquartered in Massachusetts. As the local project has progressed additional documentation techniques and forms have been developed for the types of cemeteries found in Prince William County. Diane and Jeff would like to share the forms, techniques, trial and errors, and experience in documenting cemeteries. The processes that they use can be adapted to many types of cemeteries found in rural and urban settings. They will also incorporate the use of videotaping, photography and digital imaging into their talk. 11:15 a.m. The Cemetery and Its Archives: A Genealogical Treasure. Marilyn Evert has worked at Homewood Cemetery for 10 years and is the assistant treasurer there. She began studies as a graduate student in Anthropology with examinations of material culture. From these studies she wrote the book "Discovering Pittsburgh Sculpture." She is a member of the Association of Gravestone Studies and a contributor to "The Homewood Chronicle," the biannual publication of the education arm of The Homewood Cemetery Historical Fund, a Charitable Trust. noon - Lunch break; brown bag lunch room with vending machines available 1 p.m. So You Belong to the Dead People's Society?: Genealogical Sources that Arise From an Ancestor's Demise. Many genealogists, beginner and experienced alike, do not take that extra step and go beyond the basic death record, tombstone, and will. This lecture concentrates on everything from a simple death certificate to mortality schedules, funeral home records, coroners inquests, land partitions, quit claim deeds, the exact contents of an estate packet, obituary sources, hair (not heir) books, inventory and vendue list analyzation, social security records, insurance forms, and more. Samples of each document type is shown and explained. Tom Neel is the office manager of the Ohio Genealogical Society in Mansfield, OH, where he has been a member since 1976. He has authored several books including the "Ohio County Courthouse Guide," and "The Ancestors and Descendants of Daniel White and Sarah Ford." 2 p.m. Messages From the Grave. Tombstones are the last monuments to our lives on this earth. They can speak of the lifestyle of the deceased or the attitude of death of the loved ones left behind. There are signs that show where abandoned cemeteries lie and ways to read "illegible" stones that may be the last time a person may hear the tombstone "speak." This slide lecture illustrates these techniques. Learn how the dead can still speak to us & how we can all preserve their memories. Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS, past president of WPGS, is the Cemetery Chairperson for the Allegheny County Cemetery Location project. ---------------------------------------------------- May 12 to 15, 1999, National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond, VA. Come and meet other WPGS members in Virginia and see the Western PA Genealogical Society Booth! ----------------------------------------------------- Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26, 1999. Sheraton, Station Square, Pittsburgh, PA. WPGS 25th anniversary conference with Henry Z Jones, Jr. as the keynote speaker. Cyndi Howells of (www.CyndisList.com) and John Humphrey and 17 others will also be speaking. Riverboat banquet honoring our charter members of the First Families of Western Pennsylvania lineage program. WPGS members have a conference brochure in their February JOTS newsletter. Non-members can send a SASE for more information to WPGS, 25th Anniversary Conference, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. A downloadable registration form and more detailed information on the speakers and lectures is available at www.clpgh.org/clp/Pennsylvania/wpgs25th.html