Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 7 pm via Zoom.  The zoom room will be open by 6:45 pm if you wish to connect early.

Our guest will be Courtney Appell from Atlas Preservation, a Southington monument and building restoration supply company” . The company sells preservation, restoration, & repair products from all over the world. Courtney will share information about the cleaning of gravestone monuments and the work of her family’s business in this area. 

The following handouts will be provided prior to the meeting:

• Atlas supply list – cleaning sheet
• D/2 cleaning card – postcard w/ instructions and tips & tricks on how to clean with D/2
• D/2 facts, YouTube links, and cleaning kits offered by Atlas
• Atlas Preservation 2021 D/2 cleaning contest winning transformations

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86343741645?pwd=dGkxQXZNUU5jYUJKdDVMOTBTL1FxZz09

May 26: joint meeting with Southington Public Library, Marian Wood, “Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past.” Zoom or in person at the library.

Genealogy Basics: Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past (Online)
Tuesday, May 24th, at 6:30 p.m.
Marian Burk Wood will show you how to: organize and store your family history collection; determine what is important to keep and what you can consider giving away; write a “genealogical will” to safeguard your collection’s future; and share your family’s history now—before joining your ancestors.

https://tockify.com/southingtonlib/detail/1317/1653431400000

About this webinar

You’ve researched facts; you’re ready to write. How do you imagine ancestors’ lives? Family histories are dull and boring if they reflect only the factual information found in historical documents. Historical fiction and social history can provide context and enhance your writing.

Beth A. Stahr, CG is a recently retired academic librarian and college instructor with over forty years of genealogical research experience. She is a past trustee, treasurer and president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. She was born near Chicago, and has lived in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana, and now in Tennessee. She was first certified by the Board for Certification of Genealogists in 1990, is an alumnus of National Institute of Genealogical Research (NIGR), now the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed), and the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research and Excelsior College’s Genetic Genealogy class. She has lectured for local, state and national genealogical societies, and published in academic and genealogical journals. Her personal research includes her paternal Polish ancestry and her maternal Southern and Native American ancestry.

This program will be online on April 26 at 7 pm. Email the society, southingtongenealogicalsociety@gmail.com for the meeting link.

Program offered with permission from the speaker and from Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Get Ready for the 1950 US Census! by Marian Wood – Live Virtual presentation.

GET READY FOR THE 1950 US CENSUS! If your parents, grandparents, siblings, or other family members were counted in the 1950 US Census, you’ll want to be ready to look for them when these records are made public on April 1. Learn about the treasure trove of genealogical information in this mid-century Census and about important quirks and assumptions built into the enumeration process. See, step by step, how to plan ahead so you can try the US National Archive’s basic search and also prepare to browse Enumeration Districts (EDs) to find ancestors prior to full indexing.

Contact southingtongenealogicalsociety@gmail.com for the meeting link.

Marian Burk Wood is the author of the best-selling genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past. An experienced speaker and a long-time genealogy blogger (at https://ClimbingMyFamilyTree.blogspot.com), she earned an MBA from Long Island University and a BA from the City University of New York. Based in Southbury, Marian has been researching her family tree for 24 years, with special emphasis on preserving family history for future generations.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, Feb 22 at 7 pm. We will be meeting virtually using webex. Email the society if you need the webex link.

Pre-recorded Webinar “Finding the Elusive Maiden Name” by Ann G Lawthers

About the webinar: 

Searching for the maiden name of our ancestress can be frustrating. This webinar presents a hierarchy of search strategies for tracing the maiden name. Begin by trying to locate a marriage record, keeping in mind the record will vary by time period and geographic location. If a marriage record search proves fruitless, a second tier of sources is recommended including children’s death records, the women’s death record, census and other sources. Finally, the webinar presents strategies specific to the maiden name search such as following the husband and learning about history where the couple lived.

About the speaker:

Ann G. Lawthers, Sc.D. is a Genealogist with the Brue Family Learning Center at the New England Historic Genealogical Society – American Ancestors. When at the Boston Research Center, she works with patrons to help them explore and expand their family history. She lectures regularly on behalf of American Ancestors at conferences, workshops and meetings. At American Ancestors she collaborates to prepare multi-week online courses, single day online conferences, and single session webinars. Ann focuses on New England and Mid-Atlantic research, and migration patterns. Secondary interests include the Southern Colonies and Atlantic Canada. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard School of Public Health with degrees in Health Policy.

Presented with permission from FamilyTreeWebinars and Ann G Lawthers.

The regular 4th Tuesday society meetings will be held virtually until further notice. January and February will be pre-recorded webinars.

For March, we will be hosting Marian Burk Wood for a live online lecture about the 1950 census.

If you want to attend our online meetings and are not a member, just email the society to request the meeting link.

The Society invites all to an online webinar program on the Godfrey Memorial Library Resources presented by Carol Ansel at 7 pm, November 23.

The Godfrey Memorial Library was founded in 1947 by Fremont Rider, retired Head librarian at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut who had a keen interest in genealogy. He started out by donating his own personal collection of material, which amounted to
over 800 books. The collection expanded and grew from there, today comprising over 40,000 works.

In addition to genealogies and biographies, the library offers vital records, local town and county histories, city directories, military muster rolls, family Bible records, and unique collections like the Laput Cemetery Collection, with its data and photos for gravestones in 1,030 Connecticut cemeteries (and counting).

We will introduce you to “The Scholar,” the online research element of the library, and show you how to search it effectively, with an emphasis on the collections which are unique to us.

Non-members can email southingtongenealogicalsociety@gmail.com to request the meeting link.

Let’s get together at the Southington Historical Society on August 24 at 7pm and share stories of our ancestors.

We’ve just enjoyed two wonderful programs on making our family histories come alive – in June Marion Wood Burke’s in person “Bitesize Projects” and July’s live webinar “Adding Historical Context to Your Genealogy Research: A Hands-on Approach” by Kate Eakman. Syllabi for both are available in case you missed the presentations.

Now it’s time to put those lessons into practice! Using Marion and Kate’s ideas, prepare the story of one or more of your ancestors to present to our group. Each participant will have no more than 10 minutes to tell their stories. Pictures and props are encouraged. If time allows, attendees may be able to share a second story if they wish.

Remember – don’t just recite names and dates – let’s try to bring our folks and their times back to life.

Meeting location: Southington Historical Center, 239 Main Street, Southington CT

The Society will be hosting an in person meeting on June 22 7 pm at the Southington Historical Society, 239 Main Street, Southington CT.

Bring Family History Alive in Bite-Sized Projects – How to create practical, bite-sized projects that can be shared and repurposed to bring your family’s history to life today and tomorrow. Each project takes a short time and gives you flexibility to be creative in spotlighting a particular aspect of family history, such as one ancestor or couple, one special occasion, one heirloom, one special photo, or one special place. Includes step-by-step demonstration of bite-sized projects such as brief ancestor bios and booklets, heirloom stories, ancestor coloring books, photo books, and video-based family history.

Marian Burk Wood is an experienced genealogy speaker, an active genealogy blogger, and the author of the Amazon best-selling genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past. Marian has been researching and documenting her family’s history for more than two decades, with special emphasis on sharing ancestral knowledge more widely. Since 2008, she has been blogging about genealogy methodology and developments at https://ClimbingMyFamilyTree.blogspot.com.

The next meeting of the SGS is next Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 7 pm. 
We will be showing a pre-recorded webinar by Kate Eakman. Email the southingtongenealogicalsociety@gmail.com if you need the meeting link.

How to Connect with Your Pilgrim Ancestors to Join the Mayflower Society

If you know or suspect you are descended from one of the original Pilgrims who arrived in Massachusetts on 9 November 1620 there is still time to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (more commonly known as the Mayflower Society) before the November 2020 celebration of the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. Proving your connection to a Mayflower passenger can be challenging. Tracing your ancestry back four hundred years means researching 20 or more generations to provide the necessary documentation to verify the birth, marriage, and death of each generation. This presentation will provide steps to assist you in your quest to become a member of the Mayflower Society. In addition, we will discuss how you can use DNA to become a member of the Mayflower Society.

Speaker: Kate Eakman

Kate Eakman holds an M.A in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has more than 20 years of genealogical experience as well as traditional historical research and writing. Today, Kate is a Senior Researcher and General Research Team Lead for Legacy Tree Genealogists. Her genealogical specialties include Civil War era, African-American, Native American, and general U.S. genealogy as well as Irish, Scottish, English, Canadian, and Italian genealogy. Kate loves the challenge of brick walls and excels at outside-the-box thinking for breaking them down. Kate lives with her husband and his horse in Portland, Oregon.