The year was 1950. Harry Truman was President of the US. The average annual income in the US was just a little over $3,000 and the average cost of a new home was $8,450. The US Census that had been taken every 10 years starting in 1790 was conducted for the 17th time.
The 1950 Census is particularly important in helping provide context to families’ narratives because it was a time of many transitional events:
• It was the first US census following World War II.
• The growth in automobile use and the road system helped create modern suburbs and allowed more movement for employment.
• It was the initial stages of the baby boom.
Focusing on a large sample of Illinois 1950 census data, we will paint a picture of what life was like in the state during this transitional time. We will also look at how Chicago life differed from the mostly rural remainder of the state.
Scott Norrick’s passion is connecting people to their past. While providing a list of names, dates and places for ancestors is a start, Scott enjoys helping others discover the stories of triumphs and tribulations that defined our ancestors’ lives. He does this by assisting clients with breaking down their genealogical brick walls and by helping them document the rich stories of their family history.
His areas of expertise include research in the American Midwest along with the immigration to the Midwest from Britain, Ireland, and Germanic countries. He also does significant research into Civil War records.
He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and a graduate degree from Northwestern University. With over 30 years of family history research experience, he is familiar with all the latest and time-tested genealogical tools. Through his company Ancestral Past, he welcomes the opportunity to assist others on their genealogy journey. He has presented to dozens of genealogical societies, history centers, and libraries. He is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
The Webinar will be recorded and available on the CGS website in the members only section for 90 days.
Registration is required via the Chicago Genealogical Society website under Events. Registration will close 1 hour prior to the event. The meet-up will take place virtually via ZOOM. All people registered will receive an email the morning of the event with log-in instructions and a link. This information is not to be shared.
Note: This webinar is FREE for CGS members. Non-Members can register for the event for $10. No refunds.
While most countries base citizenship on place of birth, parentage, and marriage, some countries also offer citizenship by descent—meaning if you have ancestors who were citizens of that country two, three, or even four generations back, you might qualify for dual citizenship! Two well-known examples are Italy and Ireland. In this webinar, we will go over the requirements involved for these two countries, gathering documentation, applying—and waiting—for dual citizenship.
Rhonda R. McClure, Senior Genealogist, is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer. Before joining American Ancestors/NEHGS in 2006, she ran her own genealogical business for 18 years. She was a contributing editor for Heritage Quest Magazine, Biography magazine and was a contributor to The History Channel Magazine and American History Magazine. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of twelve books including the award-winning The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Genealogy, Finding your Famous and Infamous Ancestors, and Digitizing Your Family History. She is also the editor of the recently released 6th edition of the Genealogist’s Handbook for New England Research. Her areas of expertise include: immigration and naturalization, Late 19th and early 20th Century urban research, New England, Mid-West, Southern, German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and New Brunswick research.
The Webinar will be recorded and available on the CGS website in the members only section.
The talk explores ways in which visualizing the locations of households of particular surnames in Catholic records, valuations, census records and records of births, marriages and deaths can help with genealogy and local history, providing vivid examples of just how local some names are and how impossibly widespread others can be. All the records covered are free online and form part the basis of almost all nineteenth-century Irish research.
In addition, some of the focus will be on maps of the geographic areas used to collect the records. The talk will give some of the technical background involved in creating the maps, but will mostly focus on their use and on how they shed light on the surnames and the families.
Our speaker, John Grenham, was Project Manager with the Irish Genealogical Project from 1991 to 1995 and later went on to develop and market his own genealogical software, 'Grenham’s Irish Recordfinder'. In 2005, he was the first Genealogist-in-Residence at Dublin City Library. He was awarded a fellowship of The Irish Genealogical Research Society in 2007 and of the Genealogical Society of Ireland in 2010 and Accredited Genealogists Ireland (AGI) in 2021. He is the author of Tracing your Irish Ancestors (5th ed. Dublin, Baltimore MD, 2019) the standard reference guide for Irish genealogy, The Atlantic Coast of Ireland (2014), Clans and Families of Ireland (1995), and An Illustrated History of Ireland (1997), among other works. He wrote the "Irish Roots" column in The Irish Times from 2009 to 2016, has developed heritage databases with Dublin City Library and Archive and the National Archives of Ireland, and ran the Irish Ancestors website in conjunction with The Irish Times until 2016. In partnership with his son Eoin, he now runs the successor website at www.johngrenham.com.
He was an external member of the National Library of Ireland Genealogy and Heraldry Committee from 2011 to 2021. He has been a member of the full NLI board since 2021 and also chairs the Genealogy and Heraldry Committee.
Open Mic Meet-Up - CGS Members Only Event
Join us to share your discovery or watch and listen to others share their successes. You have a research problem? Come and ask the group. Maybe someone will have a suggestion to further your research. A great opportunity to learn!
This meet-up will have a host to run the Zoom and to give the opportunity for everyone to share as time permits. If you plan to share a discovery or problem, please keep it to 5 minutes or less to allows others to also share.
**This Meet-Up is not recorded"
Picture from Library of Congress
You’ve seen them on the news - genetic genealogists, sometimes called “DNA Search Angels” are identifying remains, solving crimes, helping adoptees to identify their biological parents and family medical history, clearing up family stories, identifying the surnames of ancestors whose last name was always “____” in your tree, and breaking down brick walls that withstood traditional genealogical methods.
Join Kate Penney Howard, as she gives a brief overview of how genetic genealogy works, and she’ll share some highlights from adoption and brick wall cases. Attendees will also receive a reference guide explaining how YOU can apply these techniques to your own genealogical research.
Our speaker, Kate Penney Howard, former resident of Hyde Park, is a genetic genealogist, specializing in brick wall work, HighRoH, and endogamy.
She has presented at Rootstech, East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference, Illinois Genealogical Society, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, NAAP/RTK’s Untangling Our Roots, and the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Future speaking engagements include Rootstech 2025 and Ohio Genealogical Society 2025, as well as local library & genealogical society presentations.
Kate studied vocal music and earned a Master of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis in 2011, and has been pastor of North Christian Church since her ordination in 2012.
Swedish American Museum Tour: We are America
A one hour guided private tour for the Chicago Genealogical Society of the Museum's new core exhibit, We Are America. (second floor). We Are America tells the story of Swedish immigration to Chicago. Attendees will encounter environmental displays, artifacts, images, interactives, and kid-friendly elements. They will learn about the lives Swedish immigrants built in the U.S., from employment to recreation to religion to home life, and even about Swedish-American businesses and clubs that still form an integral part of Chicago today. We Are America also invites the group to compare the Swedish immigration story with others from Chicago, and to reflect on their own histories and experiences. The tour also includes the Brunk Children's Museum of Immigration (3rd floor).
Registered attendees will meet at the Swedish American Museum, 5211 North Foster (Clark and Foster), Chicago, IL, at the main entrance @ 11:00am. Parking and transportation options can be found on the Museum website under visit/hours and admission.
Both CGS members and non-members are welcome.
Cost: Free CGS members $5.00 non-members
Registration closes on March 19, 2025, at 11:00am. No refund after March 19, 2025, at 11:00am. The online payment service fee of $1.50 will be deducted from refunds.
Everyone has heard of Ancestry, but there are some other big databases for genealogy research. They all share search capabilities as well as have their own unique merits. Learn “the good, the bad and the ugly” about the Big Four – Ancestry, FamilySearch, FindMyPast and MyHeritage. Learning about these databases will help you target your research. All of them have Library editions (free access) in addition to their subscriptions.
Our speaker, Caron Primas Brennan, loves history, biography, puzzles, and a good mystery, which makes her perfectly suited to genealogy research! She belongs to several local and regional genealogy groups as well as being a member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild and a Professional Member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She is currently the Registrar for the Anan Harmon Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the Revolution (DAR). Caron has been teaching at the Newberry Library in Chicago and speaking at local libraries and genealogical societies for over ten years with consistently excellent feedback.
Anna Elisabeth Mohrmann immigrated from Germany to Ohio in 1864 and quickly married. But her husband was not the man she had intended to marry. For years her origins in Germany and her parentage were a mystery. Learn how one record broke through her brick wall pointing to where she was born. Careful analysis then led to learning the names of her parents and grandparents.
Our speaker, Pamela Guye Holland, lives in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and has been researching family roots found in Ireland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Germany for over twenty years. Pam works for Research Services at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and as the US-based genealogist in the Green Room at https://youririshheritage.com/. Her research specialties are Irish and Genetic Genealogy. Her website is www.GenealogyByPamHolland.com.
Business owners, land speculators, and communities wishing to grow all turned to various forms of advertising to entice people to migrate to the Midwestern territories and states. This presentation examines how newspaper advertising, pamphlets, gazetteers, and books were aimed at prospective migrants from the eastern parts of the U.S. and prospective immigrants from Europe to get them to come and work, buy land, and settle in the Midwest. We'll look at what kinds of messages these ads used in order to make hard work and pioneer living seem attractive and how to find messages your migrating ancestors might have seen.
Annette Burke Lyttle, CG® owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the international, national, state, and local levels and loves helping people uncover and share their family stories. Annette is a course coordinator for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the British Institute. She is a published writer whose research interests include Quaker ancestors and ancestral migrations in the US. She is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and editor of The Florida Genealogist.
**Note this is our Annual Members Meeting**
Chicago Genealogical Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Address: PO Box 1160, Chicago, IL 60690-1160
