Regular Meeting of East Texas Genealogical Society, Tyler, TX Saturday, April 14, 2007 Tyler Public Library - Taylor Auditorium 2:00 p.m. Speaker: Michael J. Vaughn Program: "'Til Death Do Us Part - Not: Divorce Records as a Source of Genealogical Information." An often overlooked source of genealogical information is the record accompanying the dissolution of a family through divorce. Although certainly not a phenomenon of the 20th century, divorce was certainly much more difficult in the colonial and early statehood periods. Generally speaking each colony and then state went through stages in its divorce process: from no divorce to liberal divorce laws, from legislative divorces to judicial divorces. Each stage in the development of the procedure gave rise to different kinds of records that are found in different research venues. This program is designed not only to help the researcher understand what kind of information can be found in early divorce records, but more importantly to understand how divorces were granted and where the records of those proceedings may be found. A brief summary of divorce procedures followed in the original colonies and states, and in all the Southern states, will be provided, along with a general bibliography of source materials for finding divorce records. Mike is a retired attorney who specialized in real estate transactions and commercial law matters. He has been actively involved in genealogical research since 1955. His family has lived in East Texas since 1834. In addition to being an ETGS board member, he is a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and the Jamestown Society, as well as other lineage societies. He has published several books and received a first place writing award for family histories from the Texas State Genealogical Society. He has a well earned reputation as an outstanding speaker. The Computer Interest Group of the East Texas Genealogical Society will not meet. After Mike's presentation, ETGS will hold a special reception in honor of our 30th anniversary and will recognize all past presidents. Information on upcoming programs can be found at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs/meetings.html ETGS will be the local host this year for the Texas State Genealogical Society's annual conference on November 9 and 10, 2007. More information can be found at our web-site at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs/Meetings/2007/tsgs_2007_flyer.pdf East Texas Genealogical Society represent six counties which are Anderson, Gregg, Henderson, Panola, Rusk and Smith counties. ETGS publishes the "East Texas Family Records" four times a year which features articles and records concerning our six counties and a monthly newsletter "The Bulletin" which features information about our society, things of interest to our members and information about our six counties. ETGS has began a First Families of East Texas covering our six counties. To find out about this program go to following link: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs/FirstFamilies/firstfam.html For more information, you may contact me at scottfitzgerald@tyler.net or go to: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs/ Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald, 1st Vice-President.