July 2011 Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society Newsletter

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Claire Smith

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Jul 8, 2011, 10:24:52 AM7/8/11
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July 8, 2011  

The new Weekend Warriors SIG will be meeting again on Saturday July 9 from 9:30 until 11:30 AM upstairs at the Bainbridge Library. We'll have a recap of the "big" meeting as well as this month's topic, Early American Migration Routes. Members will share how migration factors into their family histories. We will have handouts covering migrations routes from colonial times to the push westward and what social, economic, and envinromental factors influenced the moves. All are welcome to attend!

The Poulsbo Family History Center is looking for volunteers to staff the center. You may have noticed that their hours have been decreasing. As a volunteer, you can even do your research while you're working there. Volunteers do not have to be church members. If you're interested in finding out more, contact Anita McGehee.

Don't forget that BIGS scholarships are available. Any member in good standing can apply to the Priscilla Greenlees Scholarship Fund for funds to take a genealogy related class. Individual awards are in the $25 to $50 range and there's a maximum of one scholarship per membership each year. Funds may be used for transportation, class materials and class fees. You can submit your application by email or in person to Betty or Claire.

Outreach at the Madison Avenue Retirement Center, a program where BIGS members meet with residents to discuss genealogy, is continuing on Tuesday September 27 at 2:30 PM. Mary is looking for a few volunteers to do research and bring printouts to the meeting to pass on what they've found. Research needs include the Gillespy family from NY, OR and WA; and a Smith family from Arkansas and Ireland. Please contact Mary if you are interested in helping.

Check the BIGS Facebook page between meetings to find out what's going on with BIGS or genealogy in general. This is a place to share research tips, new websites, breakthroughs or to just ask questions. Just click on the Facebook link on our website and become a "friend" of BIGS.

If something in this newsletter is underlined, that means it's a link and you can click on it to find out more.

Meetings

  • Our next BIGS Board Meeting will be held on July 14 from 2:00 until 4:00 PM, in the Viking Bank conference room. Contact any board member if you would like to attend.

  • The July 15 meeting, from 10:00 AM until noon at the Bainbridge Library, features guest speaker Betty Kay Anderson talking about How to Maximize Your Effectiveness in Cemetery Research. Betty is a fabulous speaker and full of good information. If you can't come to to come to the meeting, you can get a recap at the following Weekend Warriors SIG.

  • Our August 19 meeting, from 10:00 AM until noon at the Bainbridge Library, will be a collaborative problem solving workshop. Come and share your challenges and successes. We will be having a Basics Session (moving past Ancestry) too. Please let Betty know if you'd like to reserve a space.

  • The complete meeting schedule is on our website.

  • To get a copy of a handout from one of our guest speaker presentations, contact our historian, Rebecca Pratt.

        Special Interest Groups

        Feel like trying something new? Come and try a SIG. All BIGs member are welcome to attend any and all SIGs.

        Computing

        Weekend Warriors
        • Leader: Anna DuPen
        • Next meetings:  July 9, 9:30 - 11:30 AM & August 13, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM (earlier time this month), at the Bainbridge Library, upstairs conference room
        • Group email: bigs-w...@googlegroups.com

        Northeast and Mid-Atlantic (formerly New England)
        • Leader: Amy Braswell for Mary Ferm
        • Next meeting: Friday July 22, 10:00 AM - Noon, at the Bainbridge Library, downstairs conference room. (The library will be closed ring the buzzer at the back door to get in.) 
        • Group email: BIGS-New...@googlegroups.com

        Scottish and Irish

        Evening Discussion (EDG)
        Southern States

        • Are you interested in starting a new SIG to discuss other areas of research? Would you like to meet with a mentor and get some fresh ideas on your research? Contact Mary or Claire.

        • Members can try out any of our SIGs by coming to a meeting or signing up at our Email page. SIGs are open to all BIGS members.  

        What's New

        BIGS Website

        • See our events page for a complete list of upcoming genealogy events in the Puget Sound area.

        • Websites for genealogy research are listed on our links page. Here are this month's new links. All new entries are tagged with a * on our website so it's easy to go to the page and see what's new.

          • We have a new Journals section on the Links page this month. The first entry is for JSTOR, an online collection of journal articles from many sources. Some of those with genealogical interest include the William and Mary Quarterly and The Journal of Southern History. Although you have to pay for articles if you're not accessing JSTOR through an institution with a subscription, University of Washington students can access it for free. You can also use if for free at one of three Olympic College campuses or at the UW Library. Keep in mind that different institutions subscribe to different levels of content.

          This month, we've also added new links for Montana since some of our members are researching there.

          • Great Falls Genealogy Society in Montana is a new website with birth records (through 1933), marriage records (1910 to 1919), death records, cemetery records and local histories. New records are constantly being added so check back often.

          • Lewis & Clark County Genealogical Society in Montana has online indexes to births, deaths, divorces, naturalization records, probate records, an obituary index, census indexes and cemetery records.

          • Missoula Internment Listing is a searchable list of people buried at the Missoula Cemetery in Montana, with death dates, age at time of death and grave locations.

          • The Montana State Genealogical Society has death indexes (pre-1954), Eastern Montana Marriage Records Index, Eastern Montana Naturalization Records and 1930 Census Index for Montana.

          Since we now have a Southern SIG, we're adding a lot of links for research in the Southern States. You'll see a new section "The South" in the United States section, for general southern sites. We've also added lots of new links for Georgia, one for Alabama, one for South Carolina and one for Virginia. Expect more new links for North Carolina and South Carolina in the coming months.

          Check out our members page to find out what other BIGS members are researching.

          If you'd like to borrow a book or CD from a BIGS member, see our library page.

          Please email me if you'd like to add or update your interests and the surnames you're researching on our members page or if you'd like to list books or CDs you're willing to share with other members on our library page.

        Ideas, suggestions and tips from members are always welcome. BIGS is your group so let us know what you'd like to see!

        Claire


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