Genealogy Club - January 4, 2020

New Year's Resolution - Get Organized!

Saturday, January 4, 2020
9:30 - 11:00 am

Resolve to start 2020 off right by getting your genealogy in order. This is a Work & Share session. If you have a great system for organizing your paper or digital files, share it with the rest of us! After the group discussion, you can spend time actually organizing your stuff. Bring that pile of disorganized papers, folders, and binders, and get to work clearing the clutter. Bring your laptop loaded with a genealogy software program, and start using it to full advantage to organize your digital files.

Free to Godfrey Premium members. $10 per session for all others. Open to the general public. Attendees will have time after the meeting to do research at the library.

CORRECTION - 2019 Holiday Schedule

 

CORRECTION - Here is our updated schedule for the 2019 holiday season. Please note that the library will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the next two weeks. We will be closing early on Friday, December 20. THE LIBRARY WILL BE CLOSED, SATURDAY DECEMBER 21.

 Happy Holidays!  Happy New Year!

Genealogy Club - December 7, 2019

Genealogy Club

Saturday, December 7, 2019

9:30 - 11:00 am

 “Hidden Discoveries about Your Civil War Kin” with Clay Feeter, of Find Your Civil War Ancestor

 "Your Civil War ancestors' stories are always much deeper than the few lines about them that you might—or might not!—find in your family genealogy book," says researcher Clay Feeter, who will give an informative talk and visual presentation on the subject.

Even if all your genealogy book says is "Killed in the War of the Rebellion," you will learn how to use those sometimes dry and hard-to-understand facts to bring your soldier-ancestor’s story to life.

Learn about the challenges and hardships of the Civil War.  Not only did our Civil War soldier-ancestors suffer during that great conflict, but their families at home had it just as hard … running the farm and taking care of the kids, canning food or making socks to send to the boys on the front line.

Before attending the talk, you will want to research your family history.  Most Civil War-age men were born between1815-1847. Try to find out where they fought, marched, were wounded, captured, and even where they died.  Many of our kin may have fought at the same famous battles, or maybe even side by side in the same regiment! This is all valuable information to pass on to the next generations, so bring a pen and notepad.

Open Thanksgiving Week 2019

Genealogy Club - November 2, 2019

Genealogy Club 

Date: Saturday, November 02, 2019
Time: 9:30 - 11:00 am
Where: Godfrey Memorial Library, 134 Newfield Street
Topic: “Doing Genealogy Research at the Mystic Seaport Museum”
Speaker: Paul O’Pecko, V.P. of Research Collections & Library Dir., Mystic Seaport Museum

Paul O’Pecko will be joining us to talk to us about the museum’s resources of interest to genealogists and family historians, and how and when to access them. The museum’s Collections Research Center (CRC) is the nation’s leading maritime research facility. Located across the street from Mystic Seaport, the former J. Rossie Velvet Company houses the museum’s collections and offers safe and easy access to maritime researchers and scholars.

Artifacts at the CRC include more than two million examples of maritime art, tools, buildings, imprints and other documents, photographs, ship registers (1,000), audiotaped oral history interviews (600), videotaped interviews (200), and historic and contemporary maritime-related video footage (1.5 million feet). Don’t miss this great opportunity to learn more about one of Connecticut’s premier research facilities and how it can help genealogists and family historians.

 Open to the public. Free to Godfrey Premium Members. $10 per session for all others. Attendees will have time after the presentation to do research at the library.

For more information, call (860) 346-4375

GML Genealogy Club - Saturday, October 5, 2019

GENEALOGY CLUB

October 05, Sat               9:30 - 11:00 am

“Using the Connecticut State Library’s Website for Genealogy”

with Bryna O’Sullivan

Sponsored by Wadsworth Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution

The Connecticut State Library (231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT) has an extensive online collection of materials useful to genealogists and family historians.  Bryna O’Sullivan will discuss how to navigate the website and search its digital resources, including newspapers, genealogy indexes (e.g., probate records), vital records indexes (e.g., marriages, deaths), databases (e.g., Fold3), aerial photos, court records, legislative histories, portraits, and so much more.                                                                                         

Free to Godfrey Premium members.  $10 per session for all others.  Open to the general public.  Attendees will have time after the presentation to do research at the library.

Welcome! You've arrived at the rejuvenated "What's New" part of the Godfrey website where we will be posting news, announcements and happenings, both here at Godfrey and in the larger genealogical community. We will continue to send out announcements via email (Constant Contact) as well. You can find us on Facebook, too, as well as Instagram. We look forward to sharing the news and having you join the conversation!

Join us for a presentation by 

Nora Galvin, C.G. 

DNA: You Took the Test, Now What?

Saturday, May 4

9:30-10:30

So you’ve swabbed or spit in the tube, and the results are in. You now “know” you’re 35% fill-in-the-nationality, and you have a thousand new cousins. Okay … but how do you make sense of it all? How does it jive with your existing tree? Wasn’t it supposed to instantly knock down all your genealogical “brick walls?” Would that it were that easy, but … Nora to the rescue!

With the help of clear illustrations and handouts, Nora will provide the steps to move forward and make the best use of this latest bit of evidence. This will be the first time we’ve hosted Nora at the Godfrey, and we’re very excited to have her--prepare to be Galvinized! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Nora Galvin is a Board-certified professional genealogist with her own business, Aunt Lizzie’s Trunk. In an earlier life she was a research scientist and high school biology teacher, so this woman knows her genes! Name any genealogical professional group in Connecticut and you’ll likely find Nora is an active member if not also on their Board.

The talk is open to the public, and is free for Godfrey Genealogy Club members and Premium Godfrey Scholar members, $10 for all others. Limited parking available behind the library, so carpool if you can.

Closed Saturday, April 20th

The library will be closed on Saturday, April 20th (Easter weekend).

It's That Irish-y Time of Year

Kathy Gallagher will be at the Godfrey tomorrow morning (Saturday, March 16) to share her expertise on researching Irish ancestors. We hope you can make it. 9:30-10:30.
Also, if you or anyone you know has been hesitating about doing a DNA test because of the cost, two of the major test-providing companies are currently offering  special pricing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

March coming in like a lion

Egad, another snow day! We have had to reschedule the Irish genealogy program we had planned for March 3rd. Luckily for us, Kathy Gallagher is available on Saturday, March 16th to present her popular program. I'll be right there with you, taking notes--I sorely need some hints as to how to make headway on my "John Plant" brick wall. Hope to see you there!--Carol

WEATHER ALERT -- Tomorrow, Wednesday February 20th, we will be closing at 4:00 and the BU Genealogy group will not meet as originally scheduled. Curse these wintry mixes!

Link to a post about Photos of Ancestors

If you have a subscription to Genealogy Bank, you may have received their recent newsletter. Here is a link to a piece by Gena Philibert-Ortega about three free websites where you can look for ancestor photos. I had heard of "Dead Fred" (I love the name!) but was not familiar with "Ancient Faces." Has anyone had any luck with either of them? If so, let us know below. (It seems like a long shot, but stranger things have happened, right?)

 Case in point: Here is a photo of my great-Uncle Ray (a sweet, painfully shy man and life-long bachelor) with a young woman named Edna Simpson. I stumbled upon this photo on Family Search and contacted the man who posted it. It turns out Edna was his grandmother. Apparently Raymond was her beau, but a year or two later she was married to another man. Edna's grandson also told me that he has a heart-shaped locket that had belonged to her, and inside is a picture of my Uncle Ray! The details of the story, we are left to imagine.