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The Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library Family Tree
Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society
News Update August 2003


COASTAL GEORGIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY NEWS & REVIEW (AUGUST 2003)

SEPTEMBER 21ST MEETING will be held at the College Place United Methodist Church on Altama Ave. in Brunswick at 2 p.m.

JUNE 22nd 2003 MEETING was headed by Dr. Caroline Haley, one of our members. The title of discussion:  “Genealogy 101”.  She reminded us of things that we usually take for granted after years of research.  One being a research log.  Record where you went, what you looked for, and if you found anything.

I know I have gone over some things twice when I could have been looking for something else.  Another pointer is to not use initials.  Find out what they stand for if you can, and always include maiden names.  Also, there are more records than just birth, marriage, and death.  Awards, citations, heirlooms, are just a few of the obscure records that people overlook.  They may be very telling if you look a little closer.


THE STARS & STRIPES ONLINE

The Library of Congress' Serial & Government Publications Division is pleased to announce the release of a new addition to the National Digital Library - the online collection The Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919, available on the American Memory website at: <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/>.

At the direction of General John J. Pershing, The Stars and Stripes newspaper was published in France by the United States Army from February 8, 1918 to June 13, 1919. By early 1918, American forces were dispersed throughout the western front, often mixed at the unit level with British, French and Italian forces. The primary mission of The Stars and Stripes was to provide these scattered troops with a sense of unity and an understanding of their part in the overall war effort.  The eight-page weekly featured news from home, poetry, cartoons and sports news, with a staff that included journalists Alexander Woollcott, Harold Wallace Ross and Grantland Rice.  On borrowed printing presses, using a delivery network that combined trains, automobiles (including three Cadillacs) and one motorcycle, the staff produced a newspaper with a circulation that peaked at 526,000 copies. This new online collection presents the complete run - 71 weeks - of the World War I edition.

The collection also includes special presentations that discuss the newspaper's content: its illustrations and advertising, its publication of soldiers' poetry, its coverage of women. Brief biographies of editorial staff members and their later careers hint at the level of journalistic talent within The Stars and Stripes. A timeline and map place the newspaper within the greater historical and geographical context of the war.

The collection was processed with optical character recognition (OCR) software to allow users to search the full text of the newspaper for a word or phrase. This feature expands the collection's usefulness to historians and genealogists researching names and details that do not appear in the headlines. The Stars and Stripes collection served as a pilot project in the development of search and display capabilities to be utilized on future releases of historic newspapers.


THE BRICK WALL

No submissions were made for the brick well section this month.


INTERNET

<http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ga/glynn/census/1870/>  Actual images of the 1870 Glynn County, Georgia census, for FREE!

<http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ga/glynn/postcards/>  Images of Glynn County postcards.


DR. WILLIAMS' LIBRARY & ITS REGISTER
- Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot)

If you are having difficulty finding baptism records in England after roughly 1720 and up until the start of civil registration in 1837 then you need to be aware of this resource.  The register of baptisms maintained at the library for nearly one hundred years might be the only record of a nonconformist event in your family.

Dr. Daniel Williams lived from 1643 to 1716.  He was a Presbyterian minister who collected a large number of books and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to public use.  The library opened in 1729 in Red Cross Street, London; its contents, both original materials and subsequent donations, pertain principally to the subject of religious dissent.  The library remains in existence today in London, but it is not necessary to visit it to consult the register.

The General Register of Births, as the baptismal register was called, was an idea that originated with a group of Protestant dissenting ministers of what were called the Three Denominations (Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian). It began to collect details of births of dissenting children because so many ministers of nonconformist congregations failed to keep registers. Arrangements were made with the trustees of Dr. Williams' Library for the librarian to receive and record the information.  The record-keeping began 1 January 1743 (New Style).

There was a need to encourage people to submit information, and various tactics were tried.  There was, for example, no charge for the late registration of events that occurred prior to 1743, so the earliest record is for 1716.  There was a fee for registration, but use increased and many ministers deposited registers with the library; in 1837 when the records were turned over to the Registrar General, at the start of civil registration, nearly 49,000 births had been recorded.

All of these birth records have been microfilmed.  They can be consulted in London at the Family Records Centre in Islington and at the National Archives at Kew.  In addition, they are available on microfilm loan through LDS Family History Centers.  The 2nd edition of the British Vital Records Index (BVRI), which can be purchased at the FamilySearch website, includes the Dr. Williams' Library register entries in its database.

SOME USEFUL BACKGROUND
When the registers of dissenting churches were called into the office of the Registrar General in the mid-1800s, not all complied.  Those that were collected have been filmed, and the majority of these are also available through the Family History Library (FHL); these are indexed in the International Genealogical Index (IGI).

It is important to realize, however, that the contents of the IGI and the BVRI are only some of the events recorded by dissenting congregations, and probably an even smaller portion of events that actually took place.  A wise researcher will check what is held by the National Archives and what is in local repositories.  In addition, bear in mind that some registers remained in private hands and may never emerge into the light of day.

STARTING A SEARCH IN NONCONFORMIST RECORDS
Refer to the Topographical Dictionary of England (Samuel Lewis, 1831), in order to discover what nonconformist churches existed in the vicinity of your ancestors in 1831.  This publication is widely available today as a reprint, on CD-ROM and within the Ancestry.com databases (<http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=4717&key=D7170> - Editor's Note: Available to subscribers with access to the UK and Ireland Records Collection).

Next, consult the IGI and the BVRI, being careful to note what is included.  You can get good details about content within the source information options of the BVRI and, for the IGI, use the Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (C. Humphery-Smith, 2003), the Parish and Vital Records List at a Family History Center, or the batch number lists at the Hugh Wallis site:
<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Ehughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm>.

There are several other ways to check for surviving nonconformist registers. Using the National Archives website (<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk>), search their catalog, Procat; use the place as the keyword and enter "RG" in the department code box.  This tip comes from their own website; try it and check the results against what is in the FHL.  Also accessible through the National Archives website is the "Access to Archives" search facility.  It references some nonconformist registers in repositories around the country, and is definitely worth a check.  Finally, investigate the holdings of local libraries and archives.

Copyright © 1998-2003, MyFamily.com Inc “Ancestry Daily News”


UPCOMING EVENTS

15-17 August 2003 Augusta Genealogical Society’s 24th Annual Homecoming/Seminar.  All day seminars starting on Friday at the AGS library, Saturday at the Augusta State University, then Sunday back at the AGS library.  Computer workshops, genealogy how-to’s, tracing migration routes, and more.  11 speakers lined up.  Registration fees before 13 August for members of the AGS are $30, non-members $35, after 13 August $40 per person. Optional fees for Friday night’s dinner $20, for Saturday’s BBQ $11.75, includes tax & tip.  Registration form included with the postal mailing of this newsletter.  For email subscribers, please send a request for a registration form to cggsnews@hotmail.com

3-6 September 2003 - FGS Conference in Orlando II - The APG Professional Management Conference. The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) is holding its 6th Annual Professional Management Conference (PMC) in conjunction with the FGS Conference. The APG, founded in 1979, is an independent, worldwide organization of professional genealogists whose growing membership has just passed the 1,400 mark. APG’s objectives are to support professional genealogists in all phases of their work, to promote professional standards in genealogical research, writing and speaking and to educate the membership and public through publications and lectures.

The registration fee for early registration (before July 15) is $95 for APG members and $120 for non-APG members. After July 15th the fee is $135 for all.

To attend the PMC, registration for the FGS/FSGS Conference (at least for September 3) is also required.

For more information on the PMC visit the APG Conference site:
 <http://www.apgen.org/conferences/index.html> or call 303-422-9371.

To register for the Conference go to the FGS Conference website:
<http://www.fgs.org/2003conf/conf-order.asp>

1 November 2003, Saturday The Southern Genealogist's Exchange Society will hold a GENEALOGY WORKSHOP in Jacksonville, Florida. There will be two speakers, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Linda Ellwood will lead a workshop on researching in Florida 1763 - 1821, with emphases on East Florida Papers, Florida Archives, Florida Land Office. Linda Rosenblatt will conduct a workshop on military research on the southeast coast, and will include a Civil War portrayal of the widow Ann Dugger. Call or write the SGES library office for details of location of the workshop, schedule, cost and registration -  <mailto:sgesjax@juno.com>; 904-778-1000.


CUSTER BATTLEFIELD NATION MONUMENT

On 10 December 1991, President George Bush approved the renaming of this battlefield the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, to reflect the fact that two groups of Americans fought and perished here.

A monument dedicated to the members of the Indian tribes who lost their lives here, was to be erected on the 127th anniversary of the Battle at Little Big Horn.

On 29 January 1879 the site was designated as a National Cemetery.  On 22 March 1946 it was dedicated as a national monument.  And finally in 2003 we are memorializing the fact that more than just white Americans lost their lives here.

Of the tribes involved were the Crow and Arikara who guided Custer and the US Army’s 7th Cavalry, and several bands of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho.


PUBLICATIONS

“The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony” by June Hall McCash; the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia.  Extensive history and stories of the people who made Jekyll Island their home.  Starting with Gen. William Horton’s home built in 1736 (rebuilt in 1742 and still standing) and ending with Villa Mariana built in 1928.


MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

Annual membership to the CGGS is only $15 for one person or $18 for a family.  Membership extends from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2003.

Remit payment to our treasurer:

Barbara Baethke
119 Bayberry Circle
St. Simons Is. , GA 31522


Return to CGGS Page


 


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