Join us this Saturday, June 1st for our next program at the Newberry Library at 1:30pm
Adoption Searches Past and Present. Our speaker will be Matt Rutherford. Having an adopted ancestor can often be one of the most frustrating and challenging aspects of genealogy research. In times past, records of adoptions weren't as well kept as they are today, making searching for the link between birthparents and adoptees difficult. And, in modern times, adoption searches are often hindered by legal barriers. We'll discuss techniques & tips for researching American adoptions in all time periods.
Matt Rutherford, MLIS, is Curator of Genealogy and Local History at the Newberry Library will be our speaker.
Note - we will start our program with our annual meeting and voting of the 2019-2020 officers.
Did you miss the opportunity to watch the The Eastland Disaster: An Unparalleded Tragedy webinar last Sunday?
You are in luck if you are a Chicago Genealogical Society member. The recording has been posted in the members only section for you to watch on your own schedule. Not a Chicago Genealogical Society member? Join today and view this great webinar.
The Eastland Disaster Historical Society wants to make sure every CGS member has the opportunity to learn more about the Eastland Disaster. So, they have graciously offered to do a webinar to complement the in-person presentation that was done on May 4 for those members that were not able to attend. The webinar is scheduled for May 19, 2019, at 4:00pm CDT. Registration required using link below.
Early on the morning of Saturday, July 24, 1915, a light rain fell yet the air was filled with anticipation and excitement. Thousands gathered along the Chicago River for Western Electric's fifth annual employee picnic. More than 7,000 tickets had been purchased for the day‐long festivities. But the day quickly turned tragic, resulting in Chicago's greatest loss‐of-life tragedy. Find out what happened during a presentation given by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.
Come learn the answers to the following questions: Why was the picnic so highly anticipated? What happened? How did it happen? What was the impact? What was the response? Was it avoidable? Who was held accountable? What damages were awarded? What amount of relief funds were raised? Discover more about the Eastland Disaster Historical Society at http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/
Please register for CGS Webinar #4 The Eastland Disaster on May 19, 2019 4:00 PM CDT at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7231917182789123597
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
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Early on the morning of Saturday, July 24, 1915, a light rain fell yet the air was filled with anticipation and excitement. Thousands gathered along the Chicago River for Western Electric's fifth annual employee picnic. More than 7,000 tickets had been purchased for the day‐long festivities. But the day quickly turned tragic, resulting in Chicago's greatest loss‐of-life tragedy. Find out what happened during a presentation given by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society. This free program will be on May 4th, 1:30pm, at the Newberry Library.
We are excited to launch our new website. There has been a lot of planning, customizing, reviewing and hard work by the committee to make this happen. We have our features from the old website included with an updated look and several new features. Check out what is new:
New Home Page with Current News and Upcoming Events
You will find a list of upcoming events and current society news. There is also the current Facebook page post.
Members Only Section
The Chicago Genealogist – All volumnes full title index with volumnes 1-39 CARLI link and volumnes 40 to current on our website.
Vital Records from Chicago Newspapers 1833 – 1848 index and members can look up the article by year.
Past CGS Newsletters – 2006 to current
CGS Cemetery Book Publications
Chicago recorded webinars that members can watch as many times as they want.
We have many more items to add to the members only section, so stay tuned.
Member Profile
As a current member, you will be receiving an email soon to set-up your member profile to be able to access the members only section. We will be loading up your membership information. You will be able to set-up your privacy settings and add your surname data to share with other members if you like.
Purple Hearts Reunited Special Event: Experience a Return Ceremony + Honor our Researchers + Receive our Brick Wall Research Tips.
Join us and the Genealogy Interest Group of the St. Andrew Society of Illinois (GIG-SASIL) on March 2nd for a special program featuring the charitable foundation, Purple Hearts Reunited (PHR), whose mission is "to return lost or stolen military medals of valor to veterans or their families, in order to honor their sacrifice to the nation." Since 2016, twenty research volunteers from our and GIG-SASIL's groups have been identifying the veterans of now over 100 lost purple hearts, writing the veterans' biographies and finding either the veteran or their living next of kin so PHR can return these lost medals. Come to this moving program to experience a PHR Return Ceremony where a local family will welcome their hero's lost purple heart back home where it belongs. Help PHR honor our 20 research volunteers. And receive advice on how these volunteers used some interesting research techniques to get past some pretty incredible genealogical brick walls.
This special event is free and will be at the Newberry Library on March 2, at 1:30pm.
Learn how to use yearbooks as sources for genealogical information, for insights into personalities, and for historical and social context.
Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG® is a full-time professional researcher with over fifteen (15) years of experience. She specializes in forensic genealogy, problem solving, multi-generational family histories, Chicago and Cook County research. Jeanne researched the Chicago ancestry for many episodes of the television series, Who Do You Think You Are? andappeared in the Jason Sudeikis and Julie Bowen episodes.
Jeanne lectures frequently at conferences, workshops, and institutes and writes articles for scholarly journals and society publications.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts [History] from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a second-year certificate from the University of Chicago's publishing program. She is a trustee and a former president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists.
Please register for CGS Webinar # Using Yearbooks for Genealogy on Feb 10, 2019 4:00 PM CST at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8887874052022313986
Join the Chicago Genealogical Society for our next program on Saturday, February 2, 2019, at the Newberry Library. Our speaker will be Barry Love. As genealogists we strive to feel connected with our ancestors. By piecing together clues about their lives, we try to build a story about who they were and how they lived. Those clues may mention a specific place where an ancestor lived or worked.
We can use research methods familiar to genealogists to add enriching details about those places and companies to our family narratives. These seemingly tangential stories add context, create a better sense of time and place, and can make our family narratives far more complete and compelling.
Digging into the history of the century-old Eversharp mechanical pencil factory in Roscoe Village uncovered surprising links to key people and events in Chicago, the nation, and the world. Come learn about this research journey, and see some of the documents and artifacts discovered along the way.
Barry Love serves on the boards of the Chicago Genealogical Society, Roscoe Village Neighbors, and the condo association in the Pencil Factory Lofts. Barry also leads walking tours of Roscoe Village as a collaborator with the nonprofit Chicago for Chicagoans. He loves opportunities to connect his passions for genealogy and Chicago neighborhood history.
This program is free and will be at the Newberry Library at 1:30pm. Join us!
The Chicago Genealogical Society announces January Webinar “Genealogy Road Trips” on Sunday January 13 at 4:00pm CDT. There are several ways to explore your family history on a genealogy vacation. You can spend your time on a local day trip to neighborhoods where your ancestors lived and worked. Alternatively, you can visit for a few days overnight the domestic places your ancestors raised their families and immerse yourself in the culture and history of those areas. Finally, you can take a trip to your ancestors' original homeland, independently or with a genealogy tour group, even if you are not sure exactly where your ancestors were born. CGS's Julie Benson, a travel aficionado, will share with you tips on how to get the most out of your local, domestic and/or international Genealogy Road Trips.
Please register for CGS Webinar Series #2 - Genealogy Road Trips on Jan 13, 2019 4:00 PM CST at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7801168435188566530
Adding Context: Social History for Genealogists will be the Chicago Genealogical Society next program on Saturday, December 1st. Our speaker will be Ginger Frere.
Learn how to add depth and greater human interest to your family stories by including the social settings in which your ancestors lived. We will discuss the value of adding social context to family stories, review samples of narratives where context is provided, and look at some published social histories to determine where and how to find materials of interest to genealogists.
Ginger Frere, MLIS, MBA, is a professional researcher who provides a variety of research services to authors, professional historians, film makers and individuals interested in genealogy. Her primary research interests include Chicago history and the creation of online tools for genealogists. She was one of the driving forces behind the development of ChicagoAncestors.org.
In addition to researching, Ginger is a frequent speaker in the Chicago-land area and a regular instructor in Chicago’s Newberry Library Adult Education seminar program. She is also a Newberry Scholar-in-Residence.
This free program will be at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, at 1:30pm
Chicago Genealogical Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Address: PO Box 1160, Chicago, IL 60690-1160
