Iowa Genealogical Society

Transcription

1 N OVEMBER 2018 Iowa Genealogical Society When I think of family gettogethers, I think of food. One of the things we often had is INSIDE THIS ISSUE: President s Message 2 German Interest Group 3 Fall Conference photos 4 FamilySearch 5 FamilySearch 10 Easy Tasks Fun Stuff 7 IGS Calendar 8 Membership 9 IGS Events 10 6 my mom s potato salad. She always brings it in the same mixing bowl. Even if someone else brought potato salad we still only ate moms. It was only a few years ago that I discovered that mom s famous potato salad recipe came off the back of the Miracle Whip jar. When I was in high school my mom brought home a recipe for Special K bars. Someone had given her the recipe and she thought it sounded good. Just a few ingredients, Special K cereal, sugar, Karo syrup, peanut butter, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. They are fantastic. So fantastic that you can only make them if you are immediately going to take them somewhere to share them. Otherwise you will eat them all. My daughters still make the recipe but they know you can t keep them at home. One time I was visiting my mom and she had one left in a 9 x 13 pan. I asked her if she had made them for something. No, I just wanted them she said. She ate them all herself. I know I could eat the whole pan in a day. Continued on page 3 IOWA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY 628 E Grand Ave Des Moines IA Phone: (515) igs@iowagenealogy.org Website: LIBRARY HOURS Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. 4 p.m. Tuesday & Thursday 10 a.m. 9 p.m.

2 2 IGS staff IGS EXECUTIVE BOARD Librarian President Billie Murano Tasha Jackson Administrative Assistant President Debra 1st Vice Lori Chase Meyer 2nd Assistant Vice President Librarians Sondra White Car- Brenda nahan Debra Secretary Debbie Jorgenson IGS Library Hours Treasurer Ellen Landers Monday, Wednesday, Friday IGS & STAFF Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Administrative Assistant Debi Tuesday Iseminger & Thursday Chase 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Librarian Debi Iseminger Chase Assistant Librarian Susan Claman Assistant Librarian Diane Green Assistant Librarian Karen Voss IGS EDITORIAL STAFF Hawkeye Heritage Susan Claman IGS Newsletter Debi Iseminger Chase PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Hello Everyone! If you ve been to our library sometime during the past several years, chances are you ve probably seen me. I ve been serving as 2 nd Vice President, as well as Cataloging Librarian, for the past three years, and have been volunteering regularly at IGS since My family is from many different parts of Iowa, and I grew up in the Des Moines area. I started formal genealogy research during my second semester of college. My paternal line is young each generation is about 20 years apart by coincidence, and it has given me a really unique perspective in life. As I grew up, I realized that many of my friends had never even been able to meet their great-grandparents, let alone have years to be able to develop a meaningful relationship with them. I concluded that if I started writing down the things I had learned from mine, I might be able to preserve them for future generations, and share them with my future children. My daughter, Ivy, is now 15, and is also a frequent volunteer at IGS. My last great-grandparent passed away just three years ago, at the age of 91. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I believe there is a reason I was meant to be involved in this organization, and I am here to find out what it is. The more I learn about my heritage, the more I can connect to the world around me I ve uncovered distant cousin relationships to both Hazel Demirjean and Myrt Van Dyke, long-time IGS members, through my research of my Loomis ancestors from Connecticut. When I met my future husband, Curt, we became friends through our mutual interest in genealogy. We ve now been married for seven and a half years, and he serves on the board as the representative for Region 4. I recently discovered that a lifelong friend, whom I grew up with, has actually been my 4 th cousin this whole time. The world is full of these little mysteries and surprises, and my only conclusion is that there must be a method to the madness. When I m not working my day job, or volunteering at IGS, I also help the Des Moines European Heritage Association plan their Christkindlmarket Des Moines event. Christkindlmarket Des Moines is held the first weekend of December each year at Cowles Commons (the former Nollen Plaza) in downtown Des Moines, and is a European-style celebration of the holiday season, incorporating traditions and highlights from many different European countries. I m excited to be able to work with you all, and help make IGS a place that people want to keep coming to a place that you, our members, are proud to support. I want people to support us financially because they want to because they believe in our mission and the steps we re taking to get there not because they have to, because we can t survive otherwise. Being a nonprofit organization, funding is likely always going to be an issue for us. My hope is that we can improve our financial situation by presenting a clear picture of what we re doing as it s happening. If you have questions, ask. If you have suggestions, tell us. We can t serve you, our community, effectively unless you tell us: What s working well? What s missing? What could we improve? As President, one of the first things I did was read through your evaluations of our Fall Conference,

3 and we will be using your comments and suggestions to make improvements for future conferences. I want to thank both our outgoing board members, and those incoming, for being willing to contribute to our cause every volunteer makes a difference, no matter how much time they invest! I am so excited to be your new President, and can t wait to see what we can accomplish together over the next two years! Thank you! -Tasha Jackson Continued from page 1 Homemade lemonade makes me think of my grandmother and when I see the plain glasses with the gold rings around them she always used I think of her too. Some great food holidays are coming up. Take the time to take pictures of the food and the people that make it. Then write down the stories. Whose recipe was it first? Where did the recipe come from? Why is it a favorite? Is it the taste, the look, or the memories that come when that favorite food appears? Put the recipes and the stories in your genealogy and in the memories section of FamilySearch. IGS GERMAN INTEREST GROUP November 5th. German interest group members who attended the recent IGS Fall Conference will do a Show 'n' Tell of tips and finds they learned or found from our speaker, Lisa Louise Cook; then tour The IGS library and West Wing with Tony Cupp, IGS member and archivist to learn about underused resources for your genealogy quest. December 3rd Annual Holiday Party and potluck Special time 5:30 p.m. Social hour 6:30 p.m. - potluck and entertainment To be held in the IGS west wing November 2018 Iowa Genealogical Society 3

4 Fun at the IGS Fall Conference 4 Iowa Genealogical Society November 2018

5 FAMILYSEARCH IGS recently held a FamilySearch open house. We had an excellent turnout and everyone that I have talked to said that they learned something new. I know that a lot of you were not able to attend but I m pretty sure we will do this again. But since the weather is getting colder it will probably not be till next year. We ve also talked about the possibility of a FamilySearch interest group. Contact IGS if this is something you would be interested in. Also we would need a couple people to lead it. If you would be interested in leading the group let us know that too. We re just trying to find out if there is a need. I mentioned at the open house that there is a beta FamilySearch family tree site. The engineers at FamilySearch use it to try out new things for the tree. That way the real tree doesn t experience any of those oops moments so popular with web sites. The great thing about it is you can use it too. So if you don t know what you're doing yet, it s ok. Every 6 months or so they throw it out and just take another copy of the real FamilySearch family tree and start playing with that one. As long as you are on the beta family tree if you have an oops moment. It s just a great safe place to play and learn new skills. Give it a try at beta.familysearch.org Just make sure it s the beta site your using not the real one. Fall is here. Yeah! Just for fun I thought I would show you the beautiful flowers that are in front of IGS. These grew from seeds from last years plants. Isn t nature wonderful? Which do you prefer? The plant that grew in dirt? Or The plant that grew in a crack on the sidewalk? I look forward to seeing them each morning when I come to work. November 2018 Iowa Genealogical Society 5

6 10 Easy Tasks to Enhance Your FamilySearch.org Experience From Maegan Kasteler From the Rootstech.org blog Oct 10, 2018 During the 2018 RootsTech conference, presenter Devin Ashby discussed 10 easy tasks to help you get started in FamilySearch. Devin currently works for FamilySearch helping to make family history easier for people in Latin America. Here are Devin's 10 quick start tasks for FamilySearch: Task 1: Create an Account Task 2: Add a Name Task 3: Download Your Fan Chart Task 4: Find a Record or Hint Task 5: Index a Batch Task 6: Download the Mobile App Task 7: Upload a Photo Task 8: Add a Story Task 9: Upload a Document Task 10: Record Audio To read the full blog post go to If you want to watch Devin s presentation 6 Iowa Genealogical Society November 2018

7 Fun Stuff Displaying County Lines on Google Maps SoftwareGoogle Maps doesn t show county boundaries, so Randy Majors created a tool to display them. The tool is simple to use. Simply enter a place name and then click GO. The normal Google Map commands of Plus (+) and MINUS (-) can be used to zoom in and out on the displayed map Don t Forget to Check Out What s New at FamilySearch and Ancestry These are FamilySearch databases that were just updated on October 30, Some are brand new and some have updates. The number after the title is how many images are in the collection. Ancestry tells you similar info on their new collections. Check in periodically and see what is new. You might find a database to help you break down your brick wall. Chile, Civil Registration, ,362,879 Simple, easy, and very effective. That s the kind of tool that I appreciate. You can access County Lines on Google Maps at countygmap.html. Detailed instructions may be found at: you-cant-see-us-county-boundaries-in.html Also, are you Looking for HISTORICAL county boundaries on Google Maps? If so, take a look at Randy Majors OTHER project: Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps at maps.html. Dick Eastman September 5, 2018 from Dick Eastman s blog United States Census, ,867,560 BillionGraves Index 26,434,648 Maine, State Archives, World War I (WWI) Grave Cards, ,893 Iowa, Death Records, ,310 United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, ,168,489 Ohio, Crawford County Obituaries, ,231,389 November 2018 Iowa Genealogical Society 7

8 IGS CALENDAR All programs & activities take place at the IGS Library, 628 E Grand Ave, Des Moines IA unless otherwise noted. NOVEMBER 2018 Sunday, November 4 World War I & Iowa: 100 Years Later 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Instructor-Tasha Jackson & Leo Landis from SHSI Saturday, November 10 Beginning Genealogy 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Instructor - Kevin Spire Cost: FREE Find out how easy it is to get started in this popular and fascinating pursuit. Your family has a story to tell. Online Military Records 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Instructor - Theresa Liewer Preregistration required. Cost: $5 IGS members/$15 non-members. Monday, November 12 Treasures in IGS Vertical Files 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Instructor - Tasha Jackson Preregistration required. Cost: $5 IGS members/$15 non-members. Saturday, November 17 Vital Records 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Instructor - Kevin Spire Preregistration required. Cost: $5 IGS members/ $15 non-members. Census Records 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Instructor: Theresa Liewer $5 IGS members/$15 non-members. Beginning Genealogy 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Preregistration required. Cost: FREE DECEMBER 2018 Classes subject to change IGS Holiday Closings Nov 22, 23 and 24 for Thanksgiving & December 24th through Jan 1 The IGS library will open again on January 2 at 10 a.m. IGS Ring in the New Year Slumber Party Dec 31st, 2018 For more information about IGS programs and activities, or to register for classes, contact IGS: ; igs@iowagenealogy.org, or visit the IGS website: 8 Iowa Genealogical Society November 2018

9 Iowa Genealogical Society Membership Application Membership Benefits: Free access to IGS research library Bimonthly Newsletter Admission discounts to all IGS classes & events Discounted hourly research rate Individual: $35 Family: $45 New membership Renewal I would like to make a tax deductible gift of $. My company has a matching gift program. Company name: My gift is in Memory/Honor (circle one) of My gift may be best utilized for: Building Fund $ General Fund $ Name(s): Mailing Address: City, State, Zip: Day phone: Check enclosed. IOWA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER November 2018 The Iowa Genealogical Society Newsletter is a publication of the Iowa Genealogical Society. Members receive the newsletter as part of their membership. Individual members, member chapters, regional representatives and the public are invited to submit articles, reviews, chapter news and program information for publication. Contact IGS for more information or to submit your article: Iowa Genealogical Society 628 E Grand Ave Des Moines IA igs@iowagenealogy.org Please charge my credit card in the amount of $ (+ $2.50 credit card handling fee) Visa MasterCard Discover Account No. Expiration Date: Signature: Mail to: Iowa Genealogical Society, 628 E Grand Ave, Des Moines IA NOTE: Please check the mailing label for your membership expiration date. November 2018 Iowa Genealogical Society 9

10 IGS EVENTS IGS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS All groups meet at the IGS Library, 628 E Grand Ave, Des Moines: German Interest Group meets on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. Irish Interest Group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. Norwegian Interest Group meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month (except December) at 7 p.m. Legacy User Group meets the third Thursday of the month, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. RootsMagic Interest Group meets the fourth Saturday of the month, from 10 a.m. to noon. Ancestry.com Interest Group meets the second Sunday of the month, from 1:30 p.m. DNA Interest Groups meets the first Tuesday of the month, at 1:30 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. INTEREST GROUP CHANGES German group December pot luck see page 3 for more info Legacy will not meet in December Norwegian group will not meet in December RootsMagic will not meet in November or December. Next meeting will be January 26, 2019 There are 328,174,115 people in the U.S. How many have your name? For the newbies that haven t seen this I have no idea how accurate it is. My numbers have changed since the last time I used it. It tells me that there are 61,772 people in the U.S. with the last name Chase. Statistically the 606th most popular last name. If I look up my maiden name, no first name, I get this. There are 573 people in the U.S. with the last name Iseminger. Statistically the 43232nd most popular last name. Give it a try at PRESERVING THE PAST & ENRICHING THE FUTURE 10 Iowa Genealogical Society November 2018