Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting – August 9, 2018
The August 2018 meeting of the Madison County
Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday,
August 9, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net, about a gift membership.
August
Meeting
On August 9, 2018, Tom Pearson
presented a program titled Guided
Tour of Fold3.com.
INTRODUCTION
Fold3 is a reference database that provides convenient
access to many US (and a lesser number of UK) military records, including the
stories, photos, and personal documents of many men and women who served.
Original records at Fold3 help you discover and share
stories about these everyday heroes, forgotten soldiers, and the families that
supported them. On Fold3, subscribers can combine records found on the site
with what they have in their own albums and shoeboxes to create an online
memorial for someone who served. Today Fold3.com continues to grow and bring to
life history that was once hidden.
Fold3.com offers subscriptions to individuals and
institutions. Fold3.com Library Edition (F3LE) includes access to all the
records in Fold3.com, but does not allow use of all the interactive features
that are available to individual subscribers.
GETTING STARTED
F3LE offers a video tutorial on its landing page on
use of Search and Browse. You can also access the Fold3 Training Center and
Ancestry Academy via the landing page. Library staff can also instruct you in
the use of F3LE. Clicking Help also links you to the Fold3 Training Center,
plus provides answers if you encounter any technical issues while attempting to
use Fold3.
SEARCH
A Basic Search in Fold3.com is quite simple: first and
last name are input into boxes provided for that purpose. F3LE also offers
Advanced Search. This allows you to add these delimiters: Keyword; Place; and Year Range. You can also specify that you only want to
see records recently added to F3LE (options include 1 month; 3 months; 6
months; or 1 year). It is also possible to do a Wild Card search in Advanced
Search. For instance: Hans*n will retrieve instances of Hanson and Hansen.
BROWSE
F3LE divides its record sets into categories in order
to allow users to easily browse those record sets. Categories include:
· Revolutionary War
· War of 1812
· Mexican-American
and Early Indian Wars
· Civil War
· Spanish
American War
· World War I
· World War II
· Korean War
· Vietnam War
· Recent Wars
· Commonwealth
· Non-Military
Records
Military records available can include a variety of
types of records/documents, including:
· Casualty lists and burial registers
· Compiled
military service records and indexes
· Lists of
winners of medals and decorations
· Maps
· Orders and
correspondence
· Pension records
and indexes
· Photos
· Rosters and
muster rolls
· Etc.
Commonwealth records include various military records
(mostly rosters and casualty lists) of member countries of the British
Commonwealth (UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for the most part).
Non-military records cover a variety of
records/documents, which may include:
· Account books
· Census records
· City
directories
· Correspondence
· Homestead
records (Nebraska only)
· Naturalization
records and indexes
· Newspapers
· Passport
applications
· Photos
· Postcards
· Town records
· UFO
investigations
· Vital records
Available records vary widely by locality. Clicking on
Site Map at the bottom of the Fold3 landing page allows you to browse via
several Popular Categories including:
· Military Records
· U.S. Historical
Records
· Genealogy
Records
· U.S. State
Collections
U.S. MEMORIALS
Users with Fold3 accounts can create Memorial pages
for veteran ancestors. Users can upload photos, historical documents, and
stories to add to Memorial Pages. Fold3.com itself has created Memorial Pages
for many veterans using historical documents in its collection, so you should
search a veteran's name before creating a page for him or her. If the veteran's
name is found, you can then add your photos, historical documents, and stories
to the already existing page.
YOUR GALLERY
Users with Fold3 accounts can gather and organize
images you have uploaded to or discovered on Fold3. Once an image is added to your
gallery, you can edit their names, add descriptions, and connect them to other
images. Images can be grouped around a theme using the Collections feature of
Your Gallery.
VIEWER
Being able to explore an image or document in close
detail is important to researchers and history buffs alike. The Fold3 viewer is
a powerful tool that lets you explore, annotate, print, and save/download
documents and images. Here are some of the Viewer's key capabilities:
· Previous Page
· Next Page
· Show Filmstrip
· Open Info Pane
· Bookmark
· Annotate
· Save to
Ancestry
· Zoom In
· Zoom Out
· Fit to Page
· Brightness/Contrast
· Rotate Image
· Fullscreen
BLOG
The Fold3 blog highlights record sets, documents, and
photo collections in Fold3. It also provides tips for using Fold3, and provides
advance notice of occasions when Fold3 offers free access to its collections
(generally speaking around holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day).
Fold3.com Blog:
http://blog.fold3.com/
About the Speaker
Tom Pearson is a Subject Specialist in the Genealogy Room
at the St. Louis Public Library. He can be reached at tpearson@slpl.org.
This presentation was very well received and
provoked many questions and comments.