GenealogyClassBlog

Last July I presented a program for the Tulsa City-County Library on organization called, “Information Overload: Organizing Your Genealogy Records.” It was very well attended. Many people struggle with the mountains of paperwork, photos, computer files, and notes that we produce as we search for our ancestors, and so the topic is a popular one.

The Tulsa Genealogical Society has asked me to present a program on organizing, with a special emphasis on the paper records. I am scheduled for their March meeting, Monday, 15 March. Janet Cottrell teaches a free beginners class beginning at 6:00, and the meeting is from 7:00 to 9:00.

The monthly meetings are held the third Monday of the month (September through May), at the TGS Library, located in the southeast corner of the Briar Village Shopping Center, in a suite of offices behind what was once a Price Mart. Meetings are free and open to the public.

The address is 9162 E. 31st St. TGS has a web site: www.tulsalibrary.org.

Berwangen, Baden, Germany

I have been teaching myself to research using German genealogy resources for a while now. I have also been trying to learn to speak a little German and have learned to read some of the old Gothic print that was used in pre-World War II records. I have located and studied parish registers for Berwangen, the small town in Baden where my great-great-grandfather, John George (or Johan Georg) Mayer was christened in 1826. The parish registers were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1978 and 1982, and so I have accessed them through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, by way of the New Haven Family History Center.

There are three Family History Centers in Tulsa now — two in churches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a new one at the Genealogy Center. While anyone can order genealogical records on microfilm for a reasonable price through any of the three, the Genealogy Center has also been collecting German resources in print which anyone can use to help locate small towns like Berwangen. The location of the records is closely tied to the place where your ancestor lived. I have learned to use both the multi-volume resource, Map Guide to German Parish Registers, a great new resource, and Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs, an important resource written in German, which was first published in 1913, and I’d like to explain the process of using both of these to anyone else who is interested.

Last spring I visited Berwangen. Although I didn’t actually do any genealogy research while in Germany, we met some wonderful people. The day that my daughter and I spent in Berwangen was the best day of our two-week trip around Europe. Before the trip, I learned to use maps on Google and while there we took pictures and video. Now that I have been there, I am anxious to learn more about the history of my ancestors in this town.

The Genealogy Center is located at 2910 S. Harvard in Tulsa. The free program will be in the Harmon Foundation Meeting Room from 2:00 – 3:30. I hope to see you there.

Bartlett-Carnegie Sapulpa Public Library Drawing by Russell Crosby

My topic will be “How To Be a Power Hitter: Improve Your Online Searching Skills,” one which is designed to help genealogists work around common problems found in indexes.

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The group meets in Frank Hall — a meeting room on the lower level of the Bartlett-Carnegie Sapulpa Public Library, 27 West Dewey Avenue, in downtown Sapulpa. Meetings begin at 10:00 a.m. and are open to the public.

I received this by e-mail yesterday from the National Genealogical Society. If you’ve been looking for a good time to visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, you might consider going for both the library and a national conference You may find that the FHL will be very busy with other convention attendees, but the library staff will also be expecting the crowds and will probably be able to accommodate the additional traffic.

Mark your Calendar for the 2010 Family History Conference, “Follow Your Ancestral Trail”, which will be held 28 April—1 May 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Whether your family helped settle the nation, migrated across the country, stayed in the same place, or recently arrived in America, this conference has much to offer. A few examples of the Family History Conference’s diverse program offerings include the International Workshops which will focus on researching the cultural records of other countries through lectures, research, and problem solving; the Evening Celebration of Family History, which will incorporate a multimedia tribute to family history, a special guest speaker, and a mini-concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; and Ask An Expert, where the Utah Genealogical Association will sponsor twenty minute family history consultations to registered attendees.
Registration for the 2010 NGS Family History Conference to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, is now open. View the online conference program at http://members.ngsgenealogy.org/Conferences/2010Program.cfm or download a PDF version. For more information visit http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/conference_info

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER TODAY If you have trouble logging on or registering, please e-mail Erin Wood at registration@ngsgenealogy.org or call her at (703) 525-0050 ext. 112.

To receive a conference brochure, please email Erin Wood.
Questions? Call (703) 525-0050 ext 221, or email Gayathri Kher

Christine Rose, CG, CGL, FASG

When a snow storm on the morning of 28 March caused the Tulsa City-County Library to close all of its locations, the genealogy workshop being held at Hardesty Library had to be cancelled after the lunch break. Christine Rose, CG, CGL, FASG had presented two of four planned lectures and those of us in attendance were sorry to have to miss the remaining two. Christine is an excellent speaker and has extensive experience with courthouses and with teaching and lecturing.

Kathy Huber, Genealogy Librarian, arranged to have Christine return this Saturday, 17 October, to present those two lectures plus two more. The day’s topics will be:

• “County Land Records”
• “Using Little-Known Sources”
• “Leaping to Erroneous Conclusions” and
• “Solving Problems in 25 Hours or Less.”

The day’s workshop begins at 9:30 am, at Hardesty Library in the Redbud Auditorium, with two morning lectures and two more after a lunch break. After time for questions, the workshop will conclude at 4:00 pm.

When she was here in March, attendees had the opportunity to purchase some of the books she has written. Possibly this will be true again on Saturday. TCCL has some in its collection, including some that may be checked out. Check the Catalog.