Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - November 10, 2011
The November 2011 meeting of the
Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library
on Thursday, November 10, 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, Barbara Hitch, at racerbarb@aol.com,
about a gift membership.
November
Meeting
On November 10, 2011, the Madison County Genealogical Society held its regular
meeting at the Edwardsville Public Library. A program titled New Ways to Find Find Old Stuff— Researching Ancestors Online was
presented by Mary Westerhold, Archival Research
Manager at the Madison County Historical Society Archival Library. She
attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference in
Springfield, Illinois, and presented some of the things she learned.
Mary discussed many web sites that have been
updated and improved in their use to genealogists. She told about her efforts
to find information about one of her ancestors and the sites she used to obtain
that information.
The following list contains those websites:
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Free Genealogy Web Sites |
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U.S. Government |
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National Archives and
Records Administration |
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U.S. Soldiers and Sailors System |
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U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records |
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Ellis Island |
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State Governments |
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Illinois |
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Illinois Secretary of State |
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Illinois State Archives Searchable Databases |
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html |
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Missouri |
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Missouri Secretary of State -State Archives - Digital Heritage |
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Death Certificate Search |
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Non-Government Web Sites |
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Family search |
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Rootsweb |
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USGenWeb |
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Cyndi's List |
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Building Genealogy Web Sites |
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Genealogy Web Sites - NOT FREE - but useful |
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Ancestry (some free records) |
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Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com - Some free records) |
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Distant Cousins (free) |
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This presentation was well received and generated
quite a few questions.