Happy Memorial Weekend

While you're hopefully enjoying good food, good friends and family this weekend, be sure to take the time to remember and honor all those military men and women who have giving everything so we can be free.



From the American Revolution through our current wars, our young men and women have protected our Country. Though they deserve more than just one day a year, at least, we can use this day to thank them and their families.





Also, be sure to mark your calendar for our morning meeting on June 7, 2011. We'll be meeting at the Gail Borden Public Library at 270 N Grove, Elgin, Illinois at 9:30 am. Ted Bartlett will be presenting Before You Croak: Saving Your Genealogical Collection for Posterity. This is a topic of great interest to the new as well as the seasoned family historian. You've given so much time and effort to your research, now learn how to protect it in the future.

May 2011 Evening Meeting

Join us for an evening of hospitality and sharing - Thursday, May 19, 2011, 7:00 pm at Gail Borden Public Library, 270 N. Grove, Elgin, Illinois.


Our evening program chair, Tom Cheetam, will guide us in using the EGS web page "Surname" information sheet to fill in our parental ancestor's surnames. 


Then we will use the information learned about "writing" in the last meeting to write a paragraph about one of the surnames on the sheet.  Don't worry, even if you weren't at the last meeting, you still benefit from this program:)


Any member who has not submitted the form for EGS to publish on our web site may do so at the end of the meeting.

Yale University Opens Online Images to Public

As posted by the Genealogy In Time Newsletter of May 14, 2011:


US – Yale University has decided to convert its vast collection of online images to “open access”. This means that Yale University has moved its cultural heritage collection of images (those that would be of interest to genealogists) into the public domain. These images are now openly and freely available to all. According to the university, “Yale is the first Ivy League university to make its collection accessible in this fashion”. Already, the open access collection numbers over 250,000 images and the collection is expected to grow into the millions. In addition to many images of historic Americans, the collection also has images of less famous Americans, historic maps, street scenes, etc. The site has a full search function. Access is free. [Historic Images from Yale University]

Nine Powerful Search Features in the FamilySearch Search Engine | FamilySearch.org

Nine Powerful Search Features in the FamilySearch Search Engine | FamilySearch.org

As promised in the meeting this morning. Here is the link to the blog post giving special search options available on the new family search website. Click the first link at the top to go directly to the blog post.