The FGS 2012 Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, is drawing closer. This year’s event will take place from August 29th to September 1st, 2012. If your society is interested in having brochures available for attendees, but you’re not planning to purchase a table in the exhibit hall, you can ship copies for display on the Societies Literature Table.
Please ship your brochures to the following address for arrival between August 1st-15th. Please mark the exterior of the boxes “FOR SOCIETY LITERATURE TABLE” to make sure your materials are delivered to the conference venue and properly displayed.
Special Collection
University Library
800 Lakeshore Drive
Birmingham, AL 35229
We look forward to having your society represented at this year’s FGS Conference!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
FGS Announces $135,000 Donation to War of 1812 Pension Project
Estate of Jon Stedman To Help Digitize Important Family History Records
June 25, 2012 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces the donation of a generous gift in the amount of $135,000 from the estate of the late Jon Stedman in memory of his mother, Ardath Stedman. The donation to the Preserve the Pensions – War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund will be used to help preserve and digitize War of 1812 Pension records.
Hollace Hervey, executrix of the estate, indicated that Jon Stedman was "always interested in preservation and bringing information to the front" so genealogists could more easily use it. Besides caring passionately for facilitating genealogists doing good research, Stedman had a deep love and affection for his mother who was a genealogist in her own right. The Preserve the Pensions project is just such a preservation and access endeavor, and FGS is honored in receiving this generous donation.
The $135,000 donation is a significant lead gift to the Preserve the Pensions project as FGS ramps up its fundraising efforts during the bicentennial of the War of 1812 which started on June 18, 2012. Members of the genealogy and family history communities as well as the general public are invited to learn more about this important record preservation project by visiting the Preserve the Pensions website at www.fgs.org/1812 and assist with honoring our nation’s heritage by preserving the records of our past.
About the Preserve the Pensions – War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is committed to projects such as Preserve the Pensions – War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund that link the genealogical community by advancing the cause of preserving records and making them more accessible to the public.
In conjunction with the National Archives & Records Administration (www.archives.gov), fold3 (www.fold3.com) and Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com). FGS is helping to digitize 180,000 pension applications representing an estimated 7.2 million pages of War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. The collection will be available for free on fold3’s website at www.fold3.com/title_761/war_of_1812_pension_files/.
The multi-year project consists of scanning the pension files at the National Archives in Washington D.C. and creating a searchable index to the digital images. FGS has targeted the War of 1812 Pension Applications as a high priority project based on the value of the content for genealogists as well as the importance of preserving the fragile records.
FGS is proud to be leading the national fundraising to support this project and is actively seeking donations from genealogical and historical societies, patriotic and military heritage societies, as well as interested corporations and individuals. Ancestry.com and fold3 are providing a dollar-for-dollar match of each donation through a provision of services. To learn more and contribute to the Preserve the Pensions project, visit www.fgs.org/1812.
About the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) was founded in 1976 and represents the members of hundreds of genealogical societies. FGS links the genealogical community by helping genealogical societies strengthen and grow through resources available online, FGS Forum magazine (filled with articles pertaining to society management and genealogical news), and Society Strategy Series papers, covering topics about effectively operating a genealogical society. FGS also links the genealogical community through its annual conference -- four days of excellent lectures, including one full day devoted to society management topics. To learn more visit http://www.fgs.org.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Nominations for FGS Youth Award Due July 15, 2012
The FGS Outreach Committee is accepting nominations for The FGS 2012 Youth Award, which honors volunteers under the age of 18 who have made a significant contribution to an FGS member society. The award will be presented during the opening sessions at the FGS Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. Award recipient will receive complimentary registration for the FGS 2012 Conference along with other prizes.
Nominees must be affiliated with an FGS member society, and be eighteen or younger as of July 15, 2012.
Nominations should be submitted via email to fgsoutreach@fgs.org by July 15, 2012 and include the following:
- The society and contact information (include the society president and/or FGS delegate)
- The youth’s name and contact information.
- A brief description of the youth’s contribution to your society
Thursday, June 21, 2012
FGS Radio: Legal and Tax Considerations for Your Genealogical Society
Click here to create a reminder to listen to FGS Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mysociety/2012/06/23/legal-and-tax-considerations-for-your-genealogical-society
Saturday, June 23, 2012
2-3pm Eastern US
1-2pm Central US
12-1pm Mountain US
11am-12pm Pacific US
Join us for the next episode of FGS Radio - My Society, an Internet radio show on Blog talk Radio presented by the Federation of Genealogical Societies.
This week’s episode hosted by Randy Whited is entitled Legal and Tax Considerations for Your Genealogy Society. Our guest will be Frederick E. Moss, JD, LL.M., advisor to the Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and former Associate Dean and Professor of Law at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. We will be discussing tax and legal challenges that may face your society as well as take your questions on air. Christy Fillerup, Director of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), will spend some time during the second segment to discuss the next institute to be held in January 2013. We will also be featuring FGS member society Otoe County Genealogical Society in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.
Tune in to FGS Radio – My Society each week to learn more about genealogy societies and join in a discussion of the issues impacting the genealogical community.
Join Us Each Saturday Afternoon at FGS Radio
Tune in to FGS Radio – My Society each week to learn more about genealogy societies and join in a discussion of the issues impacting the genealogical community.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
A War of 1812 Pension and 1940 Census Mashup!
[Editor's Note: this post originally appeared at the 1940 Census Community Project blog at https://the1940census.com/blog/]
Recently the news featured the death of one of the last remaining persons still receiving a Civil War Pension: Stella Mae Case died on June 10, 2012 at the age of 94 and was still collecting a pension based on her father John Harwood Pierce’s service. To see how many other pensions are still being paid here is a list of Veterans of U.S. Wars and Their Dependents.
Did you know that the last person receiving a War of 1812 pension was still living as late as 1946 and can be found in the 1940 census?
The Last Survivors of the War of 1812
Hiram Cronk, the last veteran of the War of 1812, died in 1905 at the age of 105 and enrolled in the United States Army at age 14. You can click below to view a video clip of his funeral which was a major event in New York City.
And the last widow of a War of 1812 veteran - Lydia Kimble Graham - died in West Virginia in 1936 at the age of 97.
Esther Hill Morgan – Last War of 1812 Pensioner – Still Living in 1946
News articles in 1946 mentioned the fact that a War of 1812 pension was still being paid:
It was 130 years ago that John Hill, private in Clark and McCumber's Companies, New York Militia, came home from the war and hung up his trusty rifle.
A daughter, Esther Ann Hill Morgan, 88, Independence, Ore., still receives a $20-a-month pension from the Federal Government, under a special congressional act, passed in 1927.
She is the only person receiving a pension on account of service of a soldier in the war of 1812.Source: Pension Still Paid for War of 1812, The Binghamton Press, Wednesday, January 16, 1946 via Fulton History.
Morgan died less than two months after the publication of the article, on March 13, 1946, in Dallas, Polk County, Oregon. See Find-A-Grave Memorial 61212052 for Esther Ann Hill Morgan, 1857 – 1946. View Esther Ann Hill Morgan in the 1940 Census here on line 35:
Click to enlarge
Source citation: 1940 U.S. census, Polk County, Oregon, Independece City, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 27-23, sheet 2A, dwelling (blank), household no. 32, Esther Ann Morgan and family; digital image, Archives.gov (http://1940census.archives.gov: accessed 20 June 2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication T627, roll 3378).
* * *
Oregon is just one of 24 states already indexed in the 1940 Census (See https://familysearch.org/1940census/ for an interactive map of states indexed and which states still need to be indexed). You can help make it easier for others to find their ancestors and family members in the 1940 Census by becoming a volunteer indexer with the 1940 US Census Community project – sign up here.
And don’t forget that the War of 1812 Pension records are a vital source for genealogy and family history research in dire need of preservation! You can do your part by making a donation of any size to the Preserve the Pensions project (http://www.fgs.org/1812) today. In fact, if you use this link to donate through the Illinois State Genealogical Society, you can have your donation matched and help digitize even more War of 1812 Pension records! These records – some are now available at Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/title_761/war_of_1812_pension_files/) – will be kept free and available to the public with your help!
Monday, June 18, 2012
War of 1812 - Today is the 200th Anniversary of the Declaration of War
Today - Monday, June 18, 2012 - marks the bicentennial of the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain in the start of the War of 1812. You can see the actual declaration of war signed by President James Madison here at the National Archives Today's Document blog.
How will you commemorate this event in American history? Did you have ancestors who fought in the War of 1812? Have you discovered everything about their service including whether or not they or their family received a pension? War of 1812 pension records are rich in information for genealogists and family historians and can help identify family members who remain nameless in those pre-1850 US census pages!
Preserve the Pensions - Your Help Needed
One way you can help is to contribute to the Preserve the Pensions campaign! The goal of this effort organized by the Federation of Genealogical Societies is to digitize 7.2 million images in 180,000 War of 1812 pension files and make them available for FREE to the general public as well as researchers. Click here to learn more about the project and how you can help. Or you can click here to donate now.
And check out the over 230,000 records digitized so far (only 3% of what will be digitized once enough money is raised) over at Fold3 (http://go.fold3.com/1812pensions/) - access is free!
Make Your Donation Go Further - ISGS $10,000 War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge
The Illinois State Genealogical Society - a member society of FGS - has just announced its ISGS $10,000 War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge which lets your donation to the Preserve the Pensions project actually digitize more of these records! Your donation - of any size - will be matched by ISGS, dollar for dollar which means your $10 becomes $20. On top of that, Ancestry.com will match the overall total contributed through this challenge which means that $20 becomes $40! ISGS has allotted $10,000 for this challenge and the campaign runs until the $10,000 goal is met or through December 31, 2012.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
FGS Radio: RPAC - Records Preservation and Access Committee
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mysociety/2012/06/09/records-preservation-and-access-committee
Saturday, June 9, 2012
2-3pm Eastern US
1-2pm Central US
12-1pm Mountain US
11am-12pm Pacific US
Join us for the next episode of FGS Radio - My Society, an Internet radio show on Blog talk Radio presented by the Federation of Genealogical Societies. This week’s episode hosted by Randy Whited is entitled Records Preservation and Access Committee. Our guest will be Teri Flack, the chair of the Texas State Genealogical Society’s Records Preservation and Access Committee and the state liaison to the national Records Preservation and Access Committee. We will be discussing the work that RPAC does as well as how your society can get involved. Our FGS 2012 Conference speaker showcase will be on Frazine Taylor, former Head of Reference for the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH). We will also be featuring FGS member society Niagara County Genealogical Society in our weekly Society Spotlight feature. Tune in to FGS Radio – My Society each week to learn more about genealogy societies and join in a discussion of the issues impacting the genealogical community.
A 6th generation Texan, Teri E. Flack has been researching her family history for over 25 years. She’s the chair of the Texas State Genealogical Society’s Records Preservation and Access Committee and the state liaison to the national Records Preservation and Access Committee. She is the treasurer of the Austin Genealogical Society, a position she’s held for 4 years. Teri formerly served on the board of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. This summer she is interning at the Texas State Library and Archives working on a project to preserve and make accessible to the public over 900 volumes of Galveston County records from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Teri retired in May, 2009 after working for the state of Texas for over 26 years – most recently as Deputy Commissioner of Higher Education and Special Advisor to the Commissioner of Higher Education. Previously, she was Director of Governmental Relations and Public Information for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and Chief Investigator for the Texas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. Teri holds a B. S. in Education with History major, an MBA, and a graduate Paralegal Certificate from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos). Teri returned to Texas State in the fall of 2010 to pursue a Master’s degree in History with a concentration in Public History. She plans to graduate in December of this year.
The Niagara County Genealogical Society is an all-volunteer organization that was organized in January 1979 for the purpose of advancing the study of genealogy among its members and the general public. We are chartered by the NY Board of Regents as a non-profit educational group.
Our research library collection, on the second floor of the Niagara County Historical Society Museum, houses approximately 2000 books including, but not limited to, cemetery records, census records, genealogies, city directories, DAR books, maps and atlases as well as eleven drawers of rapidly-expanding vertical file material.
Join Us Each Saturday Afternoon at FGS Radio
Tune in to FGS Radio – My Society each week to learn more about genealogy societies and join in a discussion of the issues impacting the genealogical community.
Monday, June 4, 2012
War of 1812 Records - Free Access via Fold3
[Editor's Note: as we come upon the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812, Fold3 has made many of its War of 1812 records available for free! Check them out and don't forget that you can help make many more of these records available - specifically the War of 1812 pension files - with your donation to the Preserve the Pensions project at FGS! Click here for more information on how you can help.]
On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain officially launching the War of 1812. In the 200 years since, it has become a forgotten war, perhaps best remembered by school children as when The Star-Spangled Banner was written. Yet, the War of 1812 was strategically important to the future of American diplomacy, a reinforced independence from Great Britain, and the country’s westward expansion.
Several events provoked President James Madison to request action from Congress to enter a war with one of the world’s most powerful nations, less than thirty years after the Revolutionary War ended. Uppermost was the unlawful impressment of American sailors into a British Navy eager to replenish its ranks during the lengthy Napoleonic Wars. Great Britain also restricted America’s right, as a neutral country, to trade with France.
On the home front, Americans were embracing the concept of “Manifest Destiny.” Migrations into the Northwest Territory provoked confrontations with Native American tribes. The British supported the rights of the Indians to maintain and defend their territories, but Americans were eager to push them westward and claim their land. The war is best remembered by Canada, a friend to both Indians and Great Britain, and on whose border many battles took place.
Fold3 observes the War of 1812 bicentennial with rich and revealing historical documents within the War of 1812 Collection. They include the War of 1812 Prize Cases from New York’s Southern District Court, Letters Received by the Adjutant General, and War of 1812 Service Records for Lake Erie and Mississippi, and, perhaps most revealing, the War of 1812 Pension Files. The pension files are digitized in color at the National Archives in Washington, DC, with funding provided by the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ Preserve the Pensions! Project. They are brought to Fold3 visitors at no charge.
Help us honor those who served in this highly important, yet overlooked event in U.S. history by exploring the War of 1812 Collection with its many stories of our fledgling nation’s second revolution.
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