Wake County Genealogical Society Blog

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Wake County Genealogical Society Meetings for 2021 - Virtual

Next WCGS Meeting:

This virtual meeting and presentation is open to all, but registration is required.

July 27 @ 6:30pm

Topic: Searching the Foreign Records Collection at State Archives

Speaker: Vann Evans, Audiovisual Materials Archivist

The State Archives at North Carolina is more than a repository for private documents and official records originating within the state. Join us as Vann Evans introduces participants to genealogical and historical resources from their Foreign Records Collection. He will also speak on the state's long-standing effort to collect colonial records from overseas and will provide an introduction into what the different records include, how to search in the catalog, and a few examples (including what's now online versus what's not.

This virtual meeting and presentation is open to all, but registration is required.

Register at this link.

Upcoming Meetings:

August 24 @ 6:30pm

Topic: Research and Resources at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Speaker: Dr. Lee Arnold

Registration - TBA

September 28 @ 6:30pm

Topic: Establishing a Big-Y Research Group
Speaker: Janine Cloud

Registration - TBA

**WCGS will meet virtually through November 2021**

Visit the Wakecogen Events page for more details.

Friday, June 18, 2021

Olivia Raney Library update as of June 17

WCGS member, Barbara McGeachy, just shared this information with us on ORL's opening status.

From Barbara:

I just called the Olivia Raney Local History Library and talked with Ann.
The library is now fully open. They have new hours:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Closed Saturday and Sunday.

No reservation is required.
They are a FamilySearch affiliate library. They have 4 public PCs that allow access to this.
They have 2 microfilm readers.

They encourage only genealogy and history research patrons. If a patron just wants to print a document, they ask that the patron go to the Richard B. Harrison Library.

If you have a genealogical question, you can email lib.orl.researchquestions@wakegov.com
If you are planning to do research, send them a list of books or materials you plan to use and they will have them ready for you. Use the same email.

This is wonderful news. Thanks to Barbara for sharing with WCGS.

Thursday, June 17, 2021

There is still plenty of time to sign up for our upcoming summer events!

To sign up for our June 22 virtual meeting (topic - Finding Your Family on Ship Manifests with speaker, Mark Arslan) and to sign up for the next virtual GenHelp session on July 1, visit our Registration page.

Members, if you are interested in exploring your German Genes and heritage, you will want to sign up for the latest WCGS Special Interest Group , "German Genes." The inaugural meeting will be this Saturday, June 19, 10:30 - Noon. Contact coordinator, Sue Olmstead.

If you are not yet a member and want to join to participate visit our Join page through the link below. Willkommen!

Test 6/16

This should hit the new follow.it feed for all subscribers.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

WCGS Blog Email Subscribers - The subscription change over will happen sometime this week

Subscribers, your blog posts from WCGS will still hit your inboxes in a timely manner (maybe even better). They will arrive under a different header. I want you to be aware of what to look for so you can check your junk mail boxes and add us back to your allowed emails if there is an interruption in service.

The new service is called follow.it. When you receive a blog update to your inbox, it will look a little different. The sender will be follow.it and the subject line will read something like "Wake County Genealogical Society Blog - new message." It will look something like this --

or this--

When you open the message, you will see the content that you expect from WCGS, in a slightly new format.

Click to view original size

Notice the green "Continue Reading" text just under the post. This will take you directly to the online blog for a better reading experience of if you wish to enlarge the pictures to get a better look. There is also a large green "Manage your feeds" button below the post. Clicking here allows you to change your feed frequency.

We average about 2 post a week, so the standard "email per post" should not be intrusive. You will receive each post within 6 hours of its creation. If you prefer, you can receive a "24 hour digest" of posts that you can access thru the manage link.

Once the transition happens, you may receive an email from follow.it directly to confirm your subscription. You should answer yes and follow the steps to continue receiving WCGS posts without interuption.

After the transition happens, I will send out one event announcement and two test posts in close timing to each other. If you have not received these posts by Sunday, June 20, you should check your spam folder. If there is nothing there, you should go to the WCGS blog page and sign up again. Look for the new sign up box at the top of the right hand column.

I hope I have covered all the bases for you and that the transition is smooth and barely noticible for you. This was a huge learning curve for me and I am thankful to have found an alternative so that you can still receive WCGS updates in a timely manner.

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Newest Wake County Gen Society Special Interest Group will explore German Roots

The newest SIG under the WCGS umbrella will have its inaugural meeting Saturday, June 19 at 10:30am. The group will meet via Zoom. The SIG is open to WCGS members and registration is required. Contact Sue Olmsted via email - GermanGenesSIG@gmail.com

From Sue Olmsted, SIG Facilitator:

There are many of us in the WCGS who have German roots that we would like to explore, but may feel out of our depth. For the past year I have been working on my maternal line, almost entirely German, and have picked up some information that we can use to start the discussion.
I think a Special Interest Group will be a vehicle for us to share what we have discovered in our own research and to learn from each other. Like our other SIGs, I hope everyone will contribute, as this is not meant to be a class.
The first thing I would like to share will be to tell you about an upcoming international German Genealogy Conference , July 17-24, 2021, for which I have registered. . If you want to learn more, I hope you drop by Saturday the 19th or check out this teaser of some of the speakers : https://iggc.info/ or you can drop by the SIG kick-off meeting on June 19, 2021. The SIG meeting will be a Zoom session running from 10:30 to about noon and is open to any WCGS member.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Sue

Sunday, June 6, 2021

WCGS GenHelp - Events for 2021 - Free Help for Genealogists - July thru September sign up

More virtual help sessions are planned for 2021. The next session is July 1 at 6:30pm EDT. See additional dates below.

The goal of the monthly virtual sessions continues to be to provide free genealogy assistance to hobbyists. Mark your calendars for the first Thursday of the month at 6:30pm ET.

It is not necessary to be a member of WCGS to participate and there is no cost. You will have an opportunity to ask questions and share knowledge during the 90-minute session. The session will be moderated. Please note this program will not include research requests or queries; all assistance will be given only within the time constraints of the monthly virtual session.

Dates: Thursday, July 1, 2021 @ 6:30pm

Thursday, August 5, 2021 @ 6:30pm

Thursday, September 2, 2021 @ 6:30pm

Time: 6:30pm ET (this is an open session; you may enter the Zoom at any time during the 90-minute session or drop once your question is answered)

Please submit your queries in advance. It gives the panelists a chance to mull and ponder and come up with better suggestions for you. Submissions should be sent to jhawkgenealogy@gmail.com

Please note this program will not include research requests or queries; all assistance will be given only within the time constraints of the monthly virtual session.

Click here to register to for GenHelp. Scroll down to the GenHelp registration section.

Test 1

new post

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Pardon my dust as we make some changes...

This post is specifically directed to our readers who receive WCGS blog posts via email. There are changes coming.

Blogger and Google have decided to do away with the service that currently delivers your blog post to you. The Feedburner service is ending "sometime this month." Yes, the devil is in the details. I am working to find another service that I hope can seamlessly pick up where feedburner service leaves off.

I am doing some testing right now which requires me to make a few posts (including this one) that will give me information on how the new service handles the emails, what they will look like to you and how timely they will be delivered. I hope this will only require a few posts over a day or two. You may find posts marked "Test" with not much in them. That is me working out a change on a system that is WAY above my expertise and paygrade!

As soon as I know that all is in order, I will post what I know so you can make any changes necessary to continue receiving by email. All this pain on me is to hopefully make the transition seamless for you. I will update as soon as I have all the issues worked out. In the meantime, if you feel like you are missing posts that you should be seeing, visit the blog directly at https://wakecogen.blogspot.com/

Thank you for sticking with us! Without you, there is no Society.

Sunday, May 30, 2021

We have an opening date for Olivia Raney Library

Word is that Olivia Raney Local History Library is expected to open on June 7. Contact the library for info on scheduling appointments. Subject to change. Watch their webpage.

When you visit, look for this delightful photo of the children's reading room from the original ORL location. You will find it in the new reading room!

Friday, May 28, 2021

Upchurch and Allied Families Newsletter - May 2021

For those of you following along click this link for the latest newsletter.

UAFA - May 2021

Monday, May 17, 2021

Reminder to sign up for the May 25 WCGS meeting and the June 3 GenHelp Session

The links to register are here. Be sure to scroll down to the second section if you are looking for the GenHelp session.

See you there!

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