3 lectures

I'll be speaking at the Lake County (Illinois) Genealogical Society's 19th annual workshop November 5 -- check it out if you're within range!

New England landscapes

Genealogists seeking historical context and information about New England's 19th- and 20th-century landscapes may want to check out a new book with 20 chapters from 20 different authors, A Landscape History of New England, edited by Blake Harrison and Richard W. Judd, geographer and historian. The transformation of essentially the same physical landscape from "failed farms" to a mecca for leaf-peepers is alone worth the price of admission.

Fall 2011 Ohio Genealogy News and NARA M850!

There's always more than you expect in Ohio Genealogy News. The current issue has a lead article by Dan Reigle explaining the Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933, National Archives microfilm publication M850. A collaboration between the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne and Internet Archive has digitized these cards. They are browseable, not searchable, but there is a finding aid posted on the Warren County, Ohio, GenWeb project. If you've read this far, you need to join the Ohio Genealogical Society, get a copy of OGN, and peruse Dan's detailed case study of how to use this underpublicized on-line resource.

If you've been on the fence . . .

This might be a good time to jump-start your genealogy education in Salt Lake City and start blogging as well! The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy is having a blogging contest -- say why you want to attend in January of 2012 and get a chance to win tuition!

Attention All Midwesterners from New York

Many of our Midwestern ancestors came from, or through, New York state. In the fall 2011 issue of the New York Researcher, co-editors Laura Murphy DeGrazia, CG, and Karen Mauer Green, CG, of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record invite article submissions for the nation's second-oldest genealogical journal:

You need not be an experienced writer to submit your manuscript for consideration. If your work contains the basic building blocks -- thorough research, precise documentation, sound methodology, and carefully formulated arguments -- the editorial team will help you develop the material. . . . Not every submission is accepted for publication, of course, but articles are never returned without some suggestions for improvement.

New York research offers (how shall I say this?) unique challenges. There is no better way to find out how solid your research is than to write it up and get feedback from knowledgeable people.

And how better to memorialize your New York family than to publish its story in a prestigious, lasting, and easily located form? More details at the above link.

Every township, every county, every state

No excuses for not knowing which township in Defiance County backs up on which township in Williams County! Free PDF format uncopyrighted maps from our own Census Bureau for Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Look up the others yourself ;-)