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Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
June 2009 eNews Vol. 2 No. 1

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

You can review old issues on the Connecticut Ancestry blog at: http://blog.connecticutancestry.org

Upcoming Meetings:

June 20, 2009: “Skeletons in Your Closet” with professional genealogist William Stansfield at the Greenwich Public Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, beginning at 10:30am. Designed for the beginner and intermediate family history researchers, Bill will share some tricks of the trade learned while researching in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Bill is a professional genealogist who has been volunteering for many years at the Fairfield Museum and History Center, Bridgeport Library, Pequot Library, and the Fairfield Senior Center after having retired from teaching 35 years in the Fairfield Public Schools. While this lecture is free and open to the public, please RSVP with the number of attendees to the Greenwich Library at (203) 622-7948.

June 20, 2009: Lunch with Connecticut Ancestry Society. In between Bill’s lecture and our Board meeting, we will be getting together for an informal lunch at the Greenwich Public Library. Beginning at an expected 12:30pm, we will partake of the offerings at the Library cafeteria in the basement and chat about whatever is on your mind!

Board Meeting: Our next Board meeting will be on June 20, 2009, at the Greenwich Public Library, beginning at 1:30pm. All Connecticut Ancestry Society members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

Website of the month:

Run by a good friend of the Society, Brent Colley, the site is called History of Redding: http://www.historyofredding.com/

Through his personal perseverance, the site continues to expand and include lots of tidbits on the history of Redding and the surrounding towns. It is an online treasure trove of fascinating anecdotes and documentation.

Contact:

Facebook group for people interested in Fairfield County, CT genealogy: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11614504115

Facebook group where only members of Connecticut Ancestry Society may congregate: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59477982315

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
April 2009 eNews Vol. 1 No. 11

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

You can review old issues on the Connecticut Ancestry blog at: http://blog.connecticutancestry.org

Upcoming Meetings:

April 22-26, 2009: Just a few weeks away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is the largest conference in our region and held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference, please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009

May 30, 2009: Our annual meeting will be held at the Stamford Historical Society beginning at 1:30PM. Following our typically brief “business” meeting, we will be entertained by our genealogist and contributing editor, Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG, FASG, who will take us through the back pages of the land records of some Fairfield County towns. Sometimes there is more to the story. In examining the land records, many colorful characters and strange circumstances have been captured in the “back pages.” Hear some of the stories that Fred has found and learn how to recognize clues in the indexes to fill out unexpected sidebars to your own family history.

June 20, 2009: Genealogy 101 with professional genealogist William Stansfield at the Greenwich Public Library. Details forthcoming.

Board Meeting: Our next Board meeting will be in June, details to follow. All Connecticut Ancestry Society members are welcome to attend.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

Other events:

April 25, 2009: Hungarian Genealogy Seminar at the Hungarian Community Club of Wallingford, 147 Ward Street, Wallingford, CT 06492 from 9AM to 3PM. If you cannot make it up to New Hampshire for NERGC, this $35 all day seminar may be what you are looking for. The authentic Hungarian lunch is an extra $10. For further information and registration call Jay at (203) 387-7123 or Emese at (203) 283-7676. Registration is due April 11th.

Website of the month:

The Historical Collections of the Bridgeport Public Library has a wealth of information shepherded for many years by Mary Witkowski. For those unable to directly visit the library, Mary has begun developing a website entitled the Hidden History of Bridgeport at: http://hiddenhistoryofbridgeport.com. What is truly wonderful is that this site is being regularly updated. Go visit and see some of the fascinating gems that Mary has uncovered this week.

Contact:

Facebook group for people interested in Fairfield County, CT genealogy: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11614504115

Facebook group where only members of Connecticut Ancestry Society may congregate: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59477982315

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
March 2009 eNews Vol. 1 No. 10

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

You can review old issues on the Connecticut Ancestry blog at: http://blog.connecticutancestry.org

Upcoming Meetings:

March 14, 2009: Italian Family History Research Seminar: Co-sponsored with the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, this half day lecture will feature Marcia Iannizzi Melnyk and Jonathan D. Shea and, like last year, will be held at the Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Boulevard, Bridgeport, CT, from Noon to 4:00 PM. Explore both American and Italian records and see how to make sense of Italian language documents of genealogical value, even without fluency. Ample parking is available in a security monitored garage, and check in will be available beginning at 11:45 AM. While the lecture is FREE, please RSVP with the number of attendees to Robert Locke at president AT connecticutancestry.org

March 28, 2009: Ancestor Road Show at the Bridgeport Public Library. You will have 30 minutes to ask your genealogy questions of a professional genealogist from the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council. You can discuss how to start or organize your research, find out what resources are available to you in Connecticut or online or get help getting over that brick wall that has been keeping you from moving forward. Please be organized with your questions. While FREE and open to the public, appointments are REQUIRED. Call (203) 576-7417 or email mwitkowski AT bridgeportpubliclibrary.org to request a time. The Bridgeport Public Library is at 925 Broad Street (on the corner with State Street) and the event will be on the third floor next to the Historical Collections Department between 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM.

April 22-26, 2009: Just one month away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is the largest conference in our region and held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference, please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009

May, 2009: We are still finalizing the date, but our annual meeting will be held, as usual, in May and will feature our own Frederick C. Hart, Jr., CG, FASG.

Board Meeting: Our next Board meeting will be on Saturday, March 28th, at 2:00 PM at the Bridgeport Public Library following the Ancestor Road Show. All Connecticut Ancestry Society members are welcome to attend.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

Do you Facebook?

Social networking sites have become a very popular way for people to stay or get connected. As family historians, it is as much about our deceased ancestors as our living distant cousins and fellow researchers. There are many of these social sites but three seem to stand out (for the moment): MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook. My personal view of these three is that they seem to serve different purposes. MySpace began by bringing our youngest generation online giving them a place to express their own personal creativity, sometimes redefining privacy (or lack thereof) in an online world. LinkedIn has focused on the idea of introductions through connections to network within a business/personal community. That brings me to Facebook, where I found a wide mix of generations. Young parents sharing photos of the kids with grandparents, uncles/aunts, and cousins. School classes planning their reunions and creating buzz and awareness beyond that traditional mailing. People broadcasting more frequent updates on their activities to their friends supplementing that annual holiday letter. As with any online activity, there are privacy concerns, and you do want to take care with what you are willing to “share”, but it can be quite fun.

For those of you interested in using Facebook, we have set up a “Group” within that community for members of Connecticut Ancestry Society to meet each other in an online fashion. I am hopeful that this might provide a method for our remote members to communicate with each other. The group is closed, meaning that you have to be “approved” to join. We are limiting membership to only members of Connecticut Ancestry Society. You can find it at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59477982315

I have made a new friend on Facebook, Cathleen Corfey who has created an open Fairfield County, CT Genealogy group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11614504115 for anyone interested in genealogy of the region.

So, feel free to join us on Facebook as we begin to explore new benefits of membership.

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
February 2009 eNews Vol. 1 No. 9

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Please note that there was no January eNews. You can review old issues on the Connecticut Ancestry blog at: http://blog.connecticutancestry.org

Upcoming Meetings:

February 14, 2009: Explore Local Repositories: The Pequot Library Genealogy Roundtable has graciously invited us to attend their first meeting following the grand re-opening of their genealogy collection. At 10:00 am, Rod Mackenzie, Pequot Library genealogist, will introduce us to their collection followed by questions and general discussion with the roundtable. Come join the fun! Please RSVP to Rod at rmackenzie@fairfieldhs.org with the expected number of attendees. Pequot Library is located at 720 Pequot Avenue, Southport, CT.

March 14, 2009: Italian Genealogy Seminar: Co-sponsored with the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, we will again be conducting a genealogical workshop at the Housatonic Community College. Keep this date open and stay tuned to the eNews and our website as more details follow.

March 28, 2009: Ancestor Road Show at the Bridgeport Public Library. You will have 30 minutes to discuss your genealogy with a professional from the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council. You can discuss how to start or orgainze your research, find out what resources are available to you in Connecticut or online or get help getting over that brick wall that has been keeping you from moving forward. Please be organized with your questions. While free and open to the public, appointments are required. Call (203) 576-7417 or email mwitkowski@bridgeportpubliclibrary.org to request a time. The Bridgeport Public Library is at 925 Broad Street (on the corner with State Street) and the event will be on the third floor next to the Historical Collections Department between 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM.

Board Meeting: Our next (rescheduled from January) Board meeting will be on Saturday, February 14th, at 2:00 PM at the Fairfield Museum and History Center. All Connecticut Ancestry Society members are welcome to attend.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

Just a couple of months away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire, April 22-26, 2009. Early bird registration ends February 28. This is the largest conference in our region, held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference, please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

In Memoriam
Mary Ann (Campbell) Stewart
by Robert A. Locke, Jr.

On September 1, 2008, our President Emeritus, Mary Ann Stewart, departed this life peacefully and in the company of her family at the Masonic Health Care Center in Wallingford, CT. She was born February 6, 1918, in Williamsport, PA to Walter and Florence (Hunt) Campbell. On August 12, 1937, in South Salem, NY, she married David Livingston Stewart, Jr. (11 Nov 1916-1 May 1990), a cousin of my grandfather (William Henry Jones, Jr., 28 Jun 1908-29 Sep 1989). She has been interred with her husband at the Woodland Cemetery in Stamford, CT. She is survived by their two children, David L. Stewart, III, his wife Carole (Mercer), Mary Ann (Stewart) Netland, and her husband John; four grandchildren, David L. Stewart, IV, Elizabeth (Stewart) Bridge, Tricia (Netland) Wencel, and Janna (Netland) Lover; four great-grandchildren, Macie and Cloe Bridge, Campbell and Isaac Wencel; and two brothers, Walter and John Campbell. She is predeceased by her husband, David L. Stewart, Jr., and sister, Doris (Campbell) Ackerman.

Mary Ann was involved in numerous organizations as a member of the Methodist Church of Springdale, the Stamford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Angell Husted Chapter of the Daughters of the American Colonists, the National Society United States Daughters Of 1812, State of Connecticut, and President Emeritus of the Ashlar Village Association.

Of course we knew her best, most recently serving, as President Emeritus of our own Connecticut Ancestry Society. Reviewing past journals, we see her first listed as our President Emeritus in the November 1992 edition, when she moved from her home in Stamford to Ashlar Village in Wallingford, CT. She was Queries Editor for a couple of years before being elected President of our Society at the annual meeting in May of 1989, jumping in as our name was changed from Stamford Genealogical Society to Connecticut Ancestry Society that summer. She was the epitome of the objectives of this Society, as she wrote in her first Presidential column in this journal:

“The Society will be dedicated as always to the objectives stated in our by-laws: To locate, preserve and index public and private genealogical records and make such records and collections available to members and to the general public; to acquire genealogical and historical materials and contribute them to public libraries and historical or genealogical organizations; to encourage and instruct our members in the art and practice of genealogical research and compilation; and maintain and elevate genealogical standards.”

As Bob Ferry, one of our esteemed past Editors, recalls, Mary Ann was a true LADY. She held meetings at her home in North Stamford with grace and good organization. She was not only an effective leader of the Society but a constant help to all members. As editor, Bob appreciated that she was always on the lookout for Connecticut information to share through our journal.

Aunt Mary Ann loved our society and wanted all of us to become ACTIVE members and to brag about the society to our friends, so they can all share in becoming part of this wonderful organization. It was her urging that convinced me to join several years ago. I will always remember a person who shared my passion for genealogy and kept wanting to share that passion with everyone. We will all greatly miss her guidance and joy in genealogical pursuits.

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
December 2008 eNews Vol. 1 No. 8

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Upcoming Meetings:

December 7, 2008: Connecticut Ancestry Society Holiday Party: “Sunday Dinner” at 2:30PM at the Long Ridge Tavern, 2635 Long Ridge Rd., Stamford, CT. Come celebrate the holidays with your genealogical family. An opportunity for us all to break bread, just catch up on 2008, and enjoy the atmosphere of this beautiful historic tavern. There is a cost associated with this once a year event in that you will be expected to pay for the dinner and refreshments that you order, and cash does make it easier to settle the bill at the end. This event is only open to Connecticut Ancestry Society members and their spouses and/or guests. Please RSVP with the number of attendees by December 5th to ensure adequate seating to Robert Locke at president@connecticutancestry.org or (203) 778-4794.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

The November journal has gone to print and been mailed. If you have not received yours yet, keep an eye on the mailbox, and check out the Table of Contents at http://www.connecticutancestry.org/journal.html

Less than five months away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire, April 22-26, 2009. This is the largest conference in our region, held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference, please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009 If you would like to volunteer, please email our NERGC Delegate and Vice President, Joe Hoefflinger at joseph.hoefflinger@snet.net

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
November 2008 eNews Vol. 1 No. 7

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. This eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Upcoming Meetings:

November 8, 2008: Fall Research finds us exploring the Special Censuses of the U.S. with professional genealogist, Nora Galvin, at the Bridgeport Public Library, Burroughs-Saden Main Branch, 3rd Floor, 925 Broad Street, Bridgeport, CT, starting at 10:00 AM on Saturday, November 8th. The US census is a well-known tool for genealogical research. Most of us use the population schedule to locate ancestors geographically and fill in blanks in our family histories. We can learn a great deal of information from these censuses ranging from age to workplace including birthplace, immigration and literacy. In this lecture you will learn about additional schedules filled in by enumerators, primarily in the years 1850-1880. These included: Mortality, Agriculture, Industry/Manufacture and Social Statistics. Come and find out the details of your ancestor’s life in the world of work and get an overview of the towns and cities of the period. This lecture is also open to the public, but please RSVP to our host, the Historical Collections Department at the Library, with the expected number of attendees at (203) 576-7417 or via email to mwitkowski@bridgeportpubliclibrary.org

December 7, 2008: Connecticut Ancestry Society Holiday Party: “Sunday Dinner” at 2:30PM at the Long Ridge Tavern, 2635 Long Ridge Rd., Stamford, CT. Come celebrate the holidays with your genealogical family. An opportunity for us all to break bread, just catch up on 2008, and enjoy the atmosphere of this beautiful historic tavern. There is a cost
associated with this once a year event in that you will be expected to pay for the dinner and refreshments that you order, and cash does make it easier to settle the bill at the end. This event is only open to Connecticut Ancestry Society members and their spouses and/or guests. Please RSVP with the number of attendees by December 5th to ensure adequate seating to Robert Locke at president@connecticutancestry.org or (203) 778-4794.

Board Meeting: Our next Board meeting will be on Sunday, November 16th, at 2:00 PM at the home of our president, Robert Locke, in Bethel.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

Only a short six months away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire, April 22-26, 2009. This is the largest conference in our
region, held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference,
please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009 If you would like to volunteer, please email our NERGC Delegate and Vice President, Joe Hoefflinger at joseph.hoefflinger@snet.net

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
October 2008 eNews Vol. 1 No. 6

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. As announced in our February 2008 journal, this eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Upcoming Meetings:

October 26th, 2008: Our Fall Program has us going back to the Revolutionary War with renowned Loyalist expert Paul J. Bunnell, U.E. “Fairfield County Loyalist Documents and Ghostly Encounters” will be hosted at the New Canaan Historical Society, 13 Oenoke Ridge, New Canaan, CT on Sunday, October 26, beginning at 2:00 PM. Paul’s talk will be centered around the Loyalist ship, Union, and its passengers, many from Fairfield County, who fled from New York City in 1783 for Saint John, Nova Scotia (New Brunswick) and their settlement at Kingston, New Brunswick. Paul will also discuss other families from the area and the type of documents you will find during research. His encounter with his Loyalist ancestor’s ghost in 1985 and the documents, photos and psychic experiences that followed will shock you in what some research can uncover. This lecture is open to the public, but please RSVP to Connecticut Ancestry Society with the expected number of attendees at (203) 778-4794 or via email at rlocke@ralii.com.

November 8, 2008: Fall Research finds us exploring the Special Censuses of the U.S. with professional genealogist, Nora Galvin, at the Bridgeport Public Library, Burroughs-Saden Main Branch, 3rd Floor, 925 Broad Street, Bridgeport, CT, starting at 10:00 AM on Saturday, November 8th. The US census is a well-known tool for genealogical research. Most of us use the population schedule to locate ancestors geographically and fill in blanks in our family histories. We can learn a great deal of information from these censuses ranging from age to workplace including birthplace, immigration and literacy. In this lecture you will learn about additional schedules filled in by enumerators, primarily in the years 1850-1880. These included: Mortality, Agriculture, Industry/Manufacture and Social Statistics. Come and find out the details of your ancestor’s life in the world of work and get an overview of the towns and cities of the period. This lecture is also open to the public, but please RSVP to our host, the Historical Collections Department at the Library, with the expected number of attendees at (203) 576-7417 or via email to mwitkowski@bridgeportpubliclibrary.org

Board Meeting: Our next Board meeting will be on Sunday, November 16th, at 2:00 PM at the home of our president, Robert Locke, in Bethel.

Later this Winter, mark your calendars now:

December 7, 2008: Connecticut Ancestry Society Holiday Party: “Sunday Dinner” at 2:00PM in Stamford.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/calendar.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

Only a short six months away now, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference: “Discovering Family Treasures” will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire, April 22-26, 2009. This is the largest conference in our
region, held every two years. As a charter member, Connecticut Ancestry Society will be well represented. Of course, we are always looking for volunteers to help staff our exhibitor table or to just generally help out. Even if you cannot volunteer, please stop by and say hello to the many of us who will be there. To find out more about the conference,
please visit http://www.nergc.org/2009 If you would like to volunteer, please email our NERGC Delegate and Vice President, Joe Hoefflinger at joseph.hoefflinger@snet.net

Other news:

In other news, our website got a “slight” facelift. What this means is that while the homepage http://www.connecticutancestry.org remains the same, if you had bookmarked some of the other pages, they may or may not still work. In other words, some of the pages have been renamed when they were redesigned. You can, as always, get to any of the pages by following the links on our home page.

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
September 2008 eNews Vol. 1 No. 5

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. As announced in our February 2008 journal, this eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Note: We did take a month off, so there was no August eNews.

Upcoming Meetings:

September 28th, 2008: “Exploring Local Repositories” continues as we visit the Wilton History Room housed at the Wilton Public Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT. At 1:00pm, as the Library opens, curators of the collection, will take the time to introduce us to the unique attributes of this wonderful collection. This presentation is open to the public, but please RSVP to Connecticut Ancestry Society with the expected number of attendees at (203) 778-4794 or via email at rlocke@ralii.com. Following the presentation, members of the public are invited to take advantage of the resources available in the Wilton History Room. Members of Connecticut Ancestry Society are invited to do the same or to join the CAS Board in an adjoining room for our September board meeting.

Our next Board meeting will follow the presentation at the Wilton Library on September 28th, and is projected to begin at 2pm.

Later this Fall, mark your calendars now:

October 26th, 2008: “Fairfield County Loyalist Documents and Ghostly Encounters” with renowned Loyalist expert, Paul J. Bunnell, UE. Beginning at 2:00PM, at the New Canaan Historical Society, 13 Oenoke Ridge, New Canaan, CT, Paul will lecture on the ship, Union, which brought many area loyalists to New Brunswick, and the encounter with his Loyalist ghost.

November 8th, 2008: “Non-Population Schedules” with professional genealogist, Nora Galvin, at the Bridgeport Public Library. Beginning at 10:00AM, Nora will explore the use of these “other” censuses and the types of information that can be used to learn more of your family’s history.

December, 2008: Connecticut Ancestry Society Holiday Party.

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/activities.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

The August journal has gone to print and been mailed. If you have not received yours yet, keep an eye on the mailbox, and check out the Table of Contents at http://www.connecticutancestry.org/journal.html

Other News:

This following article is reprinted from UpFront with NGS, the Online Newsletter of National Genealogical Society, Volume 8 Number 7, dated 1 July 2008. by permission.

— Join the Act: Preserving the American Historical Record Act by Jan Alpert, NGS President

For the last several weeks the evening news has been full of pictures of the flooded Midwest. One can only imagine the number of historical records that have been lost just in the month of June. After Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf coast, the State Archivists began to formulate a strategy that would help state and local governments preserve their historical records.

Preserving the American Historical Record Act (PAHR) is the joint effort of three institutions: the Council of State Archivists, The Society of American Archivists, and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators. U. S. House of Representatives Bill 6056, was introduced in May 2008, sponsored by Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Chris Cannon (R-UT).

HR 6056 is requesting an additional $50 million a year for preservation and use of historical records at the state and local level, including records held by government agencies, historical societies, and libraries. Possible uses of the funds include archival finding aids, indexing, and imaging records online. It also includes money for historical preservation and disaster preparedness and recovery. The bill proposes that the National Archives will distribute the funds, using a population-based formula. There is much more information available about PAHR at http://www.archivists.org/pahr.

As a genealogist, you can help support PAHR in several ways. First, write your Congressional representative and tell him or her that you support PAHR. A sample letter is posted on the web site http://www.archivists.org/pahr as well as a list of all the Congressional Representatives with their mailing addresses and fax numbers. The web site also lists the members of the House who sit on key committees. These are the people who can help push the bill through the legislative process.

If you are an officer or board member of a genealogical society, ask your board to endorse HR 6056 “Preserving the American Historical Record Act.” The web site http://www.archivists.org/pahr includes a “draft resolution” that your genealogical organization can approve. Then have your society president or secretary forward your endorsement to Kathleen Roe, Chair, Joint Task Force on PAHR, kroe@mail.nysed.gov. If you have questions, you can email or call Kathleen Roe at 518 473-4254.

The archivists have initiated this ground-breaking legislation. With the support of the genealogical community, this bill can pass, and we can make a difference.

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If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org

Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.
July 2008 eNews Vol. 1 No. 4

Welcome to our next installment of news from Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. As announced in our February 2008 journal, this eMail will inform you of upcoming events currently scheduled. We are expecting to send these roughly once a month to help remind you of upcoming plans.

Upcoming Meetings:

July 19th, 2008: “Planting Your Family Tree Online” Workshop at Bridgeport Public Library. Starting at 10:30am, our webmaster, Robert Locke, will demonstrate how dynamic, work-in-progress, publishing of your own tree on the Internet can bring connections from around the world knocking on your “electronic door.” The workshop is open to the public, but please RSVP to the Historical Collections staff at Bridgeport Public Library at (203) 576-7417 or via email at mwitkowski@bridgeportpubliclibrary.org

Our next Board meeting is slated for September. Location and time are TBD.

September 3-6, 2008: Federation of Genealogical Societies Annual Conference will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Our president, Robert Locke, and vice president, Joe Hoefflinger, will be roaming the halls, so please come up and introduce yourself. Registration available via the FGS conference website at http://www.fgsconference.org/index.php

In the fall:
We are working on cosponsoring a workshop on historical artifacts with the Fairfield Museum and History Center, a Scandinavian-focused genealogical seminar, and probably a Genealogy 101 or 102 type workshop. Not to mention our Holiday Party coming in early December. If you have any ideas for upcoming programs of interest to you, please send us an email with your ideas!

Check out http://www.connecticutancestry.org/activities.html for upcoming activities occurring at other locations throughout the area.

News:

The summer months are quiet, but….

As a reminder, if you have yet to renew, the recent May journal is your last. Please send in your renewal soon to keep those journals coming. Renewal forms are available in the Journal or you can download the order form from our website at: http://www.connecticutancestry.org/about.html

We need your renewal well before the August Journal goes to print. It is “very” expensive for us to individually mail the journals on “late renewals”, so please get your money in soon.

If you have any ideas or comments about this “monthly” broadcast, please contact me at: webmaster@connecticutancestry.org