eNews Vol. 1 No. 10
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.