Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting - February 13, 2014

The February 2014 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, February 13, 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 $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net, about a gift membership.

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February Meeting

On February 13, 2014, Tom Pearson, Subject Specialist in the Genealogy Room of the St. Louis public Library, presented a program titled "The Price is Right: The Genealogist's Guide to Free Stuff on the Internet." Tom described 91 web sites where one can obtain "free stuff" in sixteen different categories most of which pertains to genealogy in some way. Since the list is copyrighted, I will not reproduce it in its entirety here. I will, however, give some examples in each of the sixteen categories.

GENERAL

• Cyndi's List-Ancestry.com Free Databases: http://www.cyndislist.com/ancestry/free-databases/
• What's Free on Fold3.com: http://www.fold3.com/free.php/

APPLICATIONS

• 100 Top Free Phone Apps-PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356415,00.asp
• Gizmo's Best Freeware--Best Free Genealogy or Family Tree Software: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-genealogy-family-tree-software.htm

AUDIO

• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Oral History Project: http://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/library/collections/oralhistory/Pages/default.aspx
• Librivox-Free Public Domain Audio Books: http://librivox.org/
• Missouri Digital Heritage-Sound Recordings: http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/browse.asp?id=12.11
• Project Gutenberg-Audio Books Project http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project

BLOGS

• Weebly.com: http://www.weebly.com/

BOOKS

• Allen County Indiana Public Library Digitized Books: https://archive.org/details/allen_county
• Free Kindle Reading Apps: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771
• Illinois Harvest: http://illinoisharvest.grainger.uiuc.edu/
• Missouri Digital Heritage: http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/
• Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/

FORMS & CHARTS

• Free Genealogy Forms & Charts: http://www.genealogysearch.org/free/forms.html

IMAGES & PHOTOGRAPHS

• Illinois Digital Archives: http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/
• Library of Congress-Prints & Photographs Collection: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
• Missouri Digital Heritage-Photographs: http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/browse.asp?id=12.9
• St. Louis Globe-Democrat Collection: http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=mercic

MAPS

• Charting North America: Digital Maps from the NYPL Collection: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=149
• Library of Congress-Map Collection: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Maps

MUSIC

• Amazon,com-Free MP3 Music: http://www.amazon.com/Free-Songs-Music/b?ie=UTF8&node=334897011

NEWSPAPERS

• Library of Congress-Chronicling America: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

PERIODICALS

• Google Books: http://books.google.com/books

POWERPOINT TEMPLATES

• Microsoft.com-Free Powerpoint Templates: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/?CTT=97

TRANSLATIONS

• Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/

VIDEO

• Edison Companies-Motion Pictures & Sound Recordings: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edhome.html
• Fifty years of Coca-Cola Advertising: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colahome.html

WEBSITES

• Google Sites: http://sites.google.com/

I

f you send Mr. Pearson an e-mail at tpearson@slpl.org and request a copy of his list of free genealogical stuff on the internet, I am sure he will send you a PDF copy of the list with active links to all the sites he discussed.

This presentation was very well attended, very well received, and produced several questions from the audience..

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