The Tallahassee Genealogist Volume XXXI Number 2 APRIL 2012 In This Issue: * TGS Seminar Highlights * 1940 Census Now Available * 100th Anniversary – Girl Scouting in America * Irish Potato Famine * Plus much more…… Tallahassee Genealogical Society, Inc. Post Office Box 4371 – Tallahassee, FL 32315-4371 www.talgen.org 2011-2012 BOARD MEMBERS MEETINGS: Meetings are held the fourth Sunday of each month President: Jay P. Collins (850)566-8479 except in December. [email protected] 1:30pm – Sharing time 2:00pm – Program & TGS business Vice President Amy Hutson(850)562-2323 There is no charge and visitors are always welcome. Membership : [email protected] Meetings are held in the Leon County Library, 200 W. Park Ave., Tallahassee, FL. Recording Betty Jane (B.J.) Free Secretary: (850) 385-4895 MEMBERSHIP [email protected] Annual dues: $20/year individual $25/year household Treasurer: Robert (Bob) Henderson Membership is open to anyone interested in (850) 575-6610 genealogy and family history. All membership dues are payable on July 1. A subscription to The [email protected] Tallahassee Genealogist (published quarterly) is included in your annual dues. Publications Allen DeGraw Coordinator: (850) 893-6181 SUBMISSIONS: [email protected] Articles on genealogical research, records of Leon County and the surrounding area, and other features Librarian: Donna Heald (850) 224-3940 of interest to genealogists and historians will be [email protected] considered for publication. TGS reserves the right to edit for grammar, clarity and length. Copyrighted Archivist: Mary J. LePoer (850) 521-7212 material must be accompanied by a signed release [email protected] from the author. Submit articles for consideration on paper or CD to the address above or email attachment APPOINTED POSITIONS: to [email protected]. Please put “TGS Quarterly” in the subject line. Electronic submissions must be formatted in MS Word. Quarterly Mary J. LePoer (850) 521-7212 Editor: [email protected] Queries up to 100 words are always free. Web Site Deanna Ramsey Manager: (850) 668-1418 Next Submission deadline, June 1, 2012 [email protected] Logo designed by John Lane Mims Table of Contents Vol XXXI, Number 3 APRIL 2012 2012 TGS Heritage Expo……………………………………………... 2 Review of 2012 TGS Seminar ………………………………..……. 3 Heritage Book Information …………………………………………….. 11 The Sixteenth Federal Census - 1940………….…………………… 13 New TGS Members………………………………..…..…………… 15 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting.………………………………… 16 Read All About It……………………………..………………..……….…. 19 Titanic 100th Anniversary…………………………………………… 15 Irish Potato Famine………….………………………………………. 22 Genealogy Meetings to Note……………..…………………..…….. 30 Surname Index…………………………..…………………….…… 32 Tallahassee Genealogical Society Publication for Sale……..……… 30 VOL XXXI, Number 3 The Tallahassee Genealogist Page 1 COME ONE! COME ALL! Tallahassee Genealogical Society’s Heritage Expo 2012 Share your pride and joy in all things “Family History”. Create a fascinating display, representing your research into the lives of generations gone by. Demonstrate how you put together your own family history to share with future generations. Books, bibles, toys, family trees, scrapbooks, timelines, photos and other items are all welcome for display. 1:30 pm, Sunday, May 27, 2012 Leroy Collins Leon County Public Library VOL XXXI, Number 3 The Tallahassee Genealogist Page 2 A Message from the President Thank you to everyone who attended our 2012 Spring Seminar on March 17th. The responses I have heard and the surveys I have read all indicate that everyone enjoyed the event and came away satisfied with the investment of their time. If you were not able to attend but promoted the seminar to others, Thank You. If you played any active roll in planning or carrying out the details of the event, I cannot Thank You enough. The success of the event belongs to you. As always, we strive to provide you the best opportunities we can to promote your interests in all things genealogy. Your willingness to share your thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly help us work to make your experiences better. Keep those comments coming. Hope to see you all in April! Jay P. Collins President, Tallahassee Genealogical Society _______________________________ / / ____________________________________ TGS Spring Seminar 2012 by TGS Member Robin Collins Mark Twain once said “Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” But for those of us who aren’t interested in running for public office, we get to research our own family trees. Attending a genealogical seminar can give you new tips and tricks as well as re-igniting your passion for family history research. On Saturday, March 17th the Society hosted a Seminar featuring speaker Debra S. Fleming, A.K.A The Ancestry Detective, who presented four sessions on different types of genealogy research. She has been a practicing genealogist for ten years and is a graduate of Florida State University, where she majored in Creative Writing and minored in Religion. Ms. Fleming provided information on four topics. The first, “Social Networking”, was defined as using a free searchable page with personal or work information for others with the same interests to find you. One of Ms. Fleming’s favorite sites for sharing genealogy information by Gedcom is www.geni.com. She also discussed using Facebook and other networking sites to search for “long lost” family members. During the second presentation, “Genealogy Bank: Finding Your Ancestors in the News”, seminar participants learned how to search the website Genealogy Bank using different strategies for searching the digitized pages of historical newspapers, historical books and documents. Note: Although this website is a subscription service (after a 30 day free trial), you can choose to sign up VOL XXXI, Number 3 The Tallahassee Genealogist Page 3 for free access to the up-to-date Social Security Death Index (updated weekly). www.genealogybank.com After lunch came the topic “Analyzing pre-1850 Census Records”. Ms. Fleming reminded attendees to always begin with the year closest to the death of the ancestor you are researching and work backwards. She described in detail the information available in each census from 1850 back to the first federal census in 1790. The last presentation, “Obscure Record Sources”, explained how to explore sources like school records, records of licensure, Fraternal records, symbols you may have seen on tombstones, and insurance records as well as providing a lengthy list of other record sources for cracking the ancestral code. Ms. Fleming encouraged everyone to take each source you have found and start transcribing, abstracting or extracting to see where it leads you. She also discussed deciphering old handwriting in records, and stressed that periodically you should review all prior research to see if you have overlooked any clues that would help you break through your brick wall. Several attendees received door prizes, while others won genealogy-related raffle items. Based on the smiling faces I observed, I would say the participants enjoyed themselves throughout the day. And I, myself, caught the ‘genealogy bug’ yet again! Seminar speaker Debra Fleming Seminar participants VOL XXXI, Number 3 The Tallahassee Genealogist Page 4 In case you missed the seminar, here are a few sites recommended for genealogists by our speaker, Debra Fleming: Social Networking+ Genealogy What is Social Networking? A free searchable page with personal or work information for others to find you with the same interests Geni www.geni.com -- FREE!!! Geni.com requires that you have a Gedcom of your family material to upload the tree to the site. Or you can build it yourself online. It allows for emails of family members to connect them to your tree and allows them their own personal pages to inform other family members about what is going on in their lives. The pages are private and can only be viewed by other invited family members. It allows you to have a family reunion online and benefit from other family member’s research on different lines. How: 1. Register. 2. Upload Gedcom. 3. Input emails for family members and photos to their respective pages. Facebook www.facebook.com -- FREE!!! Facebook is one of the easiest sites to use. You register upload a profile photo and input the profile information. You can allow it to search your email address book to invite people or you can search for people online. You can make your page private and viewable only by your friends and upload photo albums of events. You can become fans of people, shows or books and join events. Unsolved cases is one of the best groups and the Geneabloggers group. If you do a search of genealogy you should find millions of groups to join. You can search for people with interests of genealogy and befriend them. If you see an application on a friends page you want you can click on add to my page to add it to yours. There are ways to link to your geni family tree and use familytreebuilder or family link applications to find living relatives. Fold3 www.fold3.com -$$ Fold 3 is the old footnote.com and is a pay site....however registration is free and you can create story pages about your relative and post them for free. You can upload your own pictures and documents but need a subscription to attach fold3 documents found on the site to your memorial VOL XXXI, Number 3 The Tallahassee Genealogist Page 5 page. Emphasis is on war Family Link www.familylink.com -- Free! Family Link was once an independent site with social networking capabilities. Now, it is genealogy wise (see next page for description). However, Family Link is still a Facebook application allowing you to connect with living family members on Facebook! We Relate www.werelate.org-- FREE! A relation to Wikipedia, we relate.org has a partnership with the Allen County Public Library.