Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Last Classes of Year are Now FREE!!!

BECAUSE WE ARE COMMITTED TO CONTINUED FREE THINGS DURING FAMILY HISTORY MONTH, OUR TWO UPCOMING DAY-LONG SEMINARS - EVEN THOUGH IN NOVEMBER - ARE NOW FREE!
Saturday, Nov. 2, 9:30 AM, Eric Johnson presents a workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m which will feature plenty of hands-on activities to help you Research Your War of 1812 Ancestors!
Saturday, Nov. 9, 9:30 AM, Margaret Cheney presents a different type of workshop called From Your Heart with Your Hands. The holidays will soon be here, and many craft and photo projects will be covered. Scrapbook enthusiasts are welcome!
For both classes, merely call the library 419-886-1903 or email tneel@ogs.org to let us know that you want to participate!. It's FREE! Cannot beat that!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

October is Family History Month!

 
THE OGS LIBRARY HAS FREE ADMITTANCE DURING FAMILY HISTORY MONTH (October)! We are open 9 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday for your research pleasure!

Monday, September 30, 2013

OGS Conference Vendor & Sponsor Information

OGS is getting ready for the OGS Conference at Kalahari Resorts in Sandusky, Ohio, on 30 Apr - 3 May 2014, with an Invitation to Exhibit & Sponsor - use this link:
issuu.com/genex2014/docs/2014_ogs_exhibit_application?e=9448707/5025305
This brochure contains some good information on Kalahari with hotel room reservation information. The $144 double room price includes daily parking and Wi-Fi this year for all your roommates PLUS four water-park passes (just in case you have family that would suddenly become interested in genealogy!).

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

FGS CONFERENCE IN FORT WAYNE

The Ohio Genealogical Society sales table at the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference in Fort Wayne IN is ready for visitors! If you are in the Fort Wayne area this weekend, stop by the Grand Wayne Convention Center. The exhibit area is open to the public on Thursday, Aug 22, from 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM (long day!), on Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and again on Saturday from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Besides OGS, vendors include Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com, Maia's Books, the Ohio Historical Society, National Institute for Genealogical Studies, Family Tree Magazine, USGenWeb, FamilySearch, Roots Magic, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Genealogical Society, Germanic Genealogical Society, Fold3, Genealogical.com, Fun Stuff for Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, Association of Professional Genealogists, Bureau of Land Management, Board for Certification of Genealogists, Archives.com, and much, much more! It's just a 3-hour drive from our home base in Ohio - or less. The conference is always a great opportunity for deals and to speak with the producers of genealogical products.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Genealogy Librarians' Seminar

The OGS Library will be the site of the 10th Annual Genealogy Librarians' Seminar on Friday, October 4th, 2013, with the theme "The Changing Technology in Library Collections". This is an educational gathering for professionals who work in the genealogical and local history field in Ohio's Libraries. The fee is just $15 or $25 if you would like a box lunch. Form available or payment through www.ogs.org

9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcome by Tom Neel, OGS Library Director; Sunda Peters, OGS President; Bvenitta Williams, GenLib Seminar Chair
9:45 Russ Pollitt of Columbus Metropolitan Library speaks on What Happens After you Receive a Colllection?
11:00 Jim Mainger of Cincinnati Public Library speaks on Changing Technology and Genealogical Collection Development: Practices for the Contemporary Information Landscape.
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Pamela Schaffner, the Sixth Circuit US Courts Librarian, speaks on Finding Ancestry in Federal Court Records
2:00 Option A, Tom Neel of OGS will do a PowerPoint Visit to the OGS Archives; or Bvenitta Williams of OGS will give a Tour of the OGS Library (for first time attendees)
2:30 Wally Huskonen, OGS Trustee, speaks on Where's Otto? Using the Power of the Internet to Find a Long-Lost Relative (case study on helping patrons find immigrant ancestors)

This seminar is primarily for librarians in local history libraries and for volunteers who handle our chapter libraries, but anyone interested in these topics can certainly attend. Reservations should be in by September 30th so that we can place the lunch order and make the proper number of handouts and free goodie bags.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Learning at the Library

The programs continue at the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the Ohio Genealogical Society, 611 SR 97 W, Bellville OH just past Der Dutchman restaurant at Exit 165 on I-71.
July 19 - Carla Cegielski returns to talk about Genealogical Treasures in the Internet Archive - FREE at 10 AM (Carla is the OGS webmaster).
July 20 - Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, a nationally recognized conference speaker (who happens to live the next exit up) will speak on Township Records. Learn where to find them and the treasures they hold - FREE at 10 AM.
August 3 - Margaret Cheney (OGS VP) presents a different workshop called From Your Heart with Your Hands. The holidays will soon be here and many craft and photo projects will be covered. Fee $25 (includes supplies). Begins at 10 AM.
August 12 - Deborah Abbott, PhD (OGS Trustee) presents Finding Missing Ancestors. This session deals with methodology and learning to use alternative sources to find your relatives. FREE at 10 AM.
August 17 - Lee Martin presents a program on Civil War Pension Records. Where do you find them and what's in them? Lee will give you the answers. FREE at 10 AM.
Please send an email (tneel@ogs.org) or call the library (419-886-1903) to leave your name and the class you are attending. We can then be certain to have enough seats, the proper number of handouts, etc. Class attendees also get to use the OGS Library FREE for the day.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Internet Still Growing!

Trumbull County, Ohio Court Records 1795-2010 and the Cleveland Trinity Lutheran Church Records 1853-2013 have been added to FamilySearch.org
Findagrave.com has reached the 100 million graves landmark.
Yes, indeed, the Internet aka World Wide Web is still growing!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

New OGS Banner





Sue Zacharias has designed a new banner display for OGS conferences and seminars. Check it out at the next OGS library session or workshop or stop by our booth at the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne in August. It's beautiful!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Successful OGS Conference Draws to a Closef

Nearly 700 attendees at the OGS Conference in Cincinnati Ohio are heading home after a successful event. John Cook of North Fairfield was announced the winner of the Ohio-made car raffle. Missy Derrenberger and Kenny Burck graciously accepted Fellows awards, the Society's highest honor. Bob McKown received the President's Award from OGS President Sunda Peters. A great time was had by all. The people of Cincinnati are to be commended for a great conference site and volunteer crew.


Thursday, April 18, 2013

OHIO NATURALIZATIONS

Ohio Southern District Naturalization Records for 1852 to 1991 were added to the FamilySearch.org databases on April 16th. They also expanded the Ohio Probate files a bit. This makes a great addition to naturalizations already posted from other areas of Ohio.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Classes at OGS Library


It's time again for the summer classes at the OGS Library, 611 SR 97 W, Bellville, exit 165 off I-71:

Fri Apr 5 - 10 AM - Using Manuscript Collections in Genealogical Research by Dr. Deborah Abbott

Sat Apr 13 - 10 AM - Family History for Kids with Margaret Cheney

Sat May 4 - 10 AM - Lineage Workshop with the OGS lineage society and Richland Co Chapter chairs - small fee

Fri May 17 - 10 AM - Using Social Media in Family History by Stephanie Fishman

Fri May 31 - 10 AM - Genealogy and Technology with Stephanie Fishman

All classes are FREE unless noted, but we would appreciate students contacted us to register for each class at 419-886-1903 or tneel@ogs.org

Thursday, March 28, 2013

POSSIBLE ADOPTION RECORD OPENING

House Bill 61 is out of committee and will be taken up in early April. It repeals the 1964 cutoff for adoption file viewing and changes it to an age 18 cutoff and opens up viewing of the older files to "lineal descendants" of adoptees. Senate Bill 23 is the sister version. We will watch how they progress through the Ohio General Assembly. The bill analysis is below and government junkies may follow it on the Ohio General Assembly web site: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/



Ohio Legislative Service Commission - Bill Analysis - Aida S. Montano
H.B. 61
130th General Assembly

(As Reported by H. Judiciary)

Representatives Sponsoring:
Pelanda and Antonio, Blair, Terhar, Stinziano, Young, Foley, Pillich, Slesnick, Mallory, Phillips, Stebelton, R. Hagan, Hackett, Green, Becker, Gerberry, Driehaus, Hill, Maag, Kunze, Strahorn, Wachtmann, Sprague, Ashford, Lundy, Ruhl, Butler, Celebrezze, Conditt, Letson, Slaby, tautberg, Winburn

BILL SUMMARY
Outright repeals the laws that permit post-1963 adoptees who became available or potentially available for adoption prior to September 18, 1996 to file a petition in probate court to obtain information about the adoptee's biological family.

Replaces those repealed laws with a procedure in which adopted persons described in the preceding dot point who are at least 18 years of age may submit a written request to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) for ODH to provide the adopted person with a copy of the contents of the person's adoption file.

Permits a lineal descendant, who is at least 18 years of age, of an adopted person to submit a written request to ODH for ODH to provide the lineal descendant with a copy of the contents of the adopted person's adoption file.

Prescribes the requirements for a written request described in the preceding two dot points.

Requires ODH to prescribe a contact preference form for biological parents, provides the requirements for and the contents of the form, and requires ODH, if it accepts a completed form, to place it in the adoption file of the adopted person to whom it pertains.

Requires the contact preference form to include a component in which the biological parent indicates that the parent:(1) welcomes a person who receives a copy of the adoption file contents to contact the parent directly, (2) prefers that the person contact the parent through an intermediary, or (3) prefers that the person not contact the parent directly or through an intermediary.

Requires ODH to attach a social and medical history form to each contact preference form it makes available to biological parents, to review each completed social and medical history form it receives and remove any identifying information or inaccurate information, and to file the form with the court that decreed the adoption.

Expands current law to permit only the adoptive parents, during the minority of an adopted person, or only an adopted person upon reaching majority, to inspect the social and medical history forms described in the preceding dot point.

Permits an adopted person to request ODH that it disclose to the person which court entered the interlocutory order or final decree of adoption if the adopted person seeks to inspect a social and medical history form of the biological parent or submit a request for notification of a correction or expansion of the social or medical history.

Modifies existing law pertaining to the adoption file maintained by ODH to specifically prohibit ODH from opening an adoption file or making its contents available except, in addition to the exceptions under current law: (1) to determine the court involved in the adoption, (2) to make the file contents available to an adopted person or the person's lineal descendant in accordance with the bill, or (3) to file a contact preference form and remove any previously filed contact preference form.

Relocates certain provisions pertaining to the birth record of adoptees currently contained in one section to six new sections and applies the bill's provisions in those sections.

Changes section references and makes other changes in existing law to conform to the bill's provisions.

Provides that the R.C. sections as amended, enacted, or repealed by the bill take effect one year after the act's effective date

Note:
I love this definition under 3107.38 ORC :]
(6) "Lineal descendant of an adopted person" means a person who by reason of blood, marriage, or adoption is a lineal descendant of an adopted person.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Last of 2012 Round of Newspapers added to Chronicling America

This item came in today from Jenni at the Ohio Historical Society:
I am happy to announce that the rest of the content we digitized under the 2010-2012 grant cycle is now online at Chronicling America! This includes the following papers:


Press releases for these papers will be sent out to you and media outlets around the state soon.

I am also pleased to announce that the first Chronicling America Search Strategy Video (screencast) is now available on the Ohio Historical Society’s YouTube Channel: http://youtu.be/U9AlMLyLMNU.  The short video utilizes search examples about the S.S. Sultana disaster to demonstrate why and how to use the “any,” “all” and “phrase” advanced search options. More information about the videos is available through the Ohio Digital Newspaper Portal on the Chronicling America Search Strategy Videos page. Links to all screencasts will be added to this page as the videos are released. Please spread the word about this exciting new research tool! Feel free to link people to the post that was written for the OHS Collections Blog that discusses the S.S. Sultana and the video: http://tinyurl.com/buemyru.  

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Jenni Salamon
Project Coordinator
National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Counting Down to Cincinnati






2013 OGS Conference Registrations are rolling in because the price increases after March 15th. We go by post mark date. Get your reservation in tomorrow - post office, fax to 419-886-0092, or email image of form to ogs@ogs.org  We are going to have FUN! Don't miss out! Join us next month in Cincinnati!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Income Tax Check-Off Box

The Ohio Historical Society just announced the winners of the History Fund grants from that Ohio income tax form history check-off box.
Clark County Historical Society - $15,000 for digital cataloging work
Cleveland Museum of Natural History - $12,873 for documentation of prehistoric Native American sites in Lake Erie basin
Cleveland Restoration Society - $15,000 for raising awareness of endangered historic sites in Cleveland's African American community
Dennison Rail Road Depot - $15,000 to alleviate crowded artifact storage conditions
Eden Valley Enterprises - $15,000 for support of a PBS documentary about Emma Gatewood, a pioneer of the Appalachian Trail
Friends of Whitewater Shaker Village - $15,000 to build ADA-compliant restrooms
Granville Historical Society - $6,041 for re-enactment of first Anti-Slavery Convention at Granville in 1836
John & Annie Glenn Museum Foundation - $6,600 to construct display cases
MidPointe Library System - $2,160 for digitization of four historic Butler County atlases
Pioneer Historical Society of Muskingum County - $8,000 to repair roof of Stone Academy
Union County Historical Society - $3,300 to digitize 1938 color movie film footage showing small town life, Ohio State Fair, and an Ohio State football game
Let's see some OGS chapters on this list next year! Information may be found at www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund

Saturday, February 9, 2013

More Ohio Digitized Newspapers on the Way!

We just got word of the final approval of the National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio selections for this third round. They are listed as follows. There still could be technical issues that force changes, and don't get too antsy as it will take up to a year or more for the digitization process. They will then join the many other Ohio newspapers already available free of charge on the Chronicling America web site. The time period this year was 1835 to the Civil War period. The German paper was included because the OCR process is now good enough to handle the German type fonts. Hopefully, Ohio will be accepted for a 4th grant cycle.



German Tägliches Cincinnatier Volksblatt 1914-1918
The Kalida Venture 1845-1854
Maumee Express 1837-1840
Napoleon Northwest 1881-1897
Ashland Union 1852-1871
Fremont Freeman 1849-1853
Plymouth Advertiser 1853-1855
Wyandot Pioneer 1845-1873
Medina Sentinel 1914-1921
Wellington Enterprise 1879-1899
Ravenna Democratic Press 1868-1895
Portage County Democrat 1859-1864
Portage Sentinel 1845-1862
Ravenna Western Courier 1837-1837
Ravenna Ohio Star 1852-1854
Cadiz Sentinel 1844-1868
Carroll Free Press 1835-1858
New Philadelphia Ohio Democrat 1839-1845,1863-1863
Steubenville True American 1855-1858
Delaware Gazette 1858-1871
Lancaster Gazette 1847-1870
Somerset Press 1873-1882
Eaton Democrat 1854-1877
Greenville Journal 1907-1918
Cincinnati Star 1875-1880
Georgetown Democratic Standard 1840-1845
Organ of the Temperance Reform 1852-1854
Jackson Standard 1853-1888
Meigs County Telegraph 1851-1866
The Portsmouth Inquirer 1850-1855
Ironton Spirit of the Times 1853-1856
Woodsfield Spirit of Democracy 1844-1886

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Cleveland Cemeteries on FamilySearch!

CLEVELAND CITY INTERMENT RECORDS

Cleveland City Interment Records is a new image database on FamilySearch.org and covers burials between 1824 and 2001. Placed online 6 Feb 2013 (today), and courtesy of our own East Cuyahoga Co Chapter OGS, the images are of ledgers produced by the City of Cleveland, Department of Parks and Public Property, Cemetery Division. It is fully searchable. The information provided may include name, address, age, race, nativity (usually a country or "city"), cause of death, section-lot-tier-grave numbers, if transferred to another cemetery, if a veteran, and undertaker name. Not every burial has every column filled out. What a wonderful new tool for those with Ohio ancestry and cemetery enthusiasts!
(PS - It doesn't include tombstone pictures and the one pictured here isn't even a Cuyahoga County stone - just needed an image!)

Saturday, February 2, 2013

OGS Publication Back Issues Online!

Have you checked out the OGS web site recently? Go to the Publications tab and choose one of our periodicals - Ohio Records and Pioneer Families, The Report, or the OGS Quarterly. Although we are still scanning and uploading a few of the earlier issues, 90% of them are now online and they are searchable. The issues date as early as 1960. OGS members may now use the Civil War Center and our back issues of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal 1997-2012 are located in that section. And I guess you have checked out the Ohio Genealogical Society web site recently if you are reading this! Isn't it great that we can do so much family history research now from our easy chair at home!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

More Ohio Births Online

FamilySearch has posted additions to the Ohio County Births image database today so perhaps it will be another late night on the computer! They all do not seem to be indexed but users can get to them through the browse feature. The previous omissions in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Jefferson, and Morrow county seem to have been addressed. They also have images of the Delayed Birth registrations for 1941 through 1965 in many, but not all of the Ohio counties, also to be utilized through Browse. Also noted is the addition of a very short run from the Scioto County Recorder's Office. Won't that be great when all the county deeds go online? Computer genealogy is wonderful! Although the county births database title now suggests that the births go into the 2000s, they do not have Health Dept births 1908 onward nor an index. Researchers still need to check with the county health departments for those indexes or use the limited Ohio birth indexes on the OGS web site and Ancestry.com