"Tracing Our Roots" Newsletter Archive (A monthly genealogy newsletter written by the late Brenda Kellow, dec'd, for the Plano Star Courier newspaper. We've included all the ones we could recover.)
The announcement that GENTECH will become a division of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) is a win-win proposition for everyone involved. You may remember that it began here when a group of volunteers wanted to promote the vast technological developments in the field of genealogy. These developments grew and multiplied at a rate that taxed the dedicated volunteers handling its management.
NGS proposed to shelter GENTECH by making it a division within the society by handling the administrative functions. The GENTECH web site says that NGS will “form a GENTECH Division Advisory Council consisting of the current GENTECH Board of Directors, and NGS staffers, and an NGS director. GENTECH conferences will continue to take place as the conference for Technology and Genealogy.” The website goes on to say, “the next step is to preserve the gains achieved by this small group of dedicated volunteers by moving its activities under a larger umbrella—NGS. All of the current board will continue to support the GENTECH mission as it grows in NGS.” GENTECH will continue to have the annual conferences. Read the entire story at www.gentech.org. The GENTECH 2003 Conference will be held January 17-18, 2003 in Phoenix, Arizona.
ONLINE: Some good tips for photographing gravestones is at http://genealogy.about.com/cs/cemeterypictures/. I found it had some good tips.
A site that features an archive of old, published books that have been reproduced on CDs is
www.archivecdbooks.org.
1850 census donation: Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc. donated 387 rolls of microfilm to the Gladys Harrington Library, Genealogy Section on Wednesday of last week. This donation, valued at more than $13,000, nearly completes the 1850 U.S. Census collection at the library, which was among the first objectives of Genealogy Friends when they formed in 1997. Previous donations included the complete US census records from 1790-1830, and the Southern states of the 1840 census. The 1850 census is important because it is the first census to provide the name and age of every individual in a household, plus the state or country of birth. States not yet purchased but on the agenda are New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. The census should be available for viewing in the near future. The group also purchased the 1930 census for the entire state of Texas. It will not be available until after April 1st.
NEW GENEALOGICAL ATLAS OF IRELAND: Finding Irish ancestors is not an easy task because of the effort involved in finding church records that hold vital information, and of correctly identifying clues to the appropriate parochial and civil administrative divisions to which all major Irish record sources are connected.
Brian Mitchell has solved these problems with his new book, A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, second edition. It is full of maps, four or five for each county. Each map has significance. The first map is of the civil and Church of Ireland parishes. The second shows all the baronies and Church of Ireland dioceses. The poor law unions and parishes are on the third map. The last two maps show the Roman Catholic parishes and dioceses and the Presbyterian congregations for the nine counties of Northern Ireland. In addition, the map collection contains the area covered by each county, diocese, and probate district. Until Mitchell published this book, it was difficult to uncover the corresponding Catholic parish or Presbyterian congregation.
Available from Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 for $20 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. Or you may call toll free, 1-900-296-6687 or from www.genealogical.com. The item number is 3853.
REVIEW: Tony Matthews has a second book out on designing your own family tree. CreativeTree: Design Ideas for Family Trees offers tips to create your own family tree designs containing personality. $12.95 from Genealogical Publishing Company. Order information listed above.
Brenda Kellow, dec'd, Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Instructor, had a Bachelor’s Degree in history and taught genealogy courses at the local Community College and computer genealogy at the University.
