Cini Gage, our newspaper research expert, shared this opportunity with me today. This is a great chance to try out this newspaper service. I hope to get a chance to check it out myself. From NewsArchive - Greetings, Our world has changed. We understand that many of us are home working, researching, protecting and respecting others health and our own safety during these difficult times. NewspaperArchive® is a product that is health safe, family friendly, interesting and rewarding to use; as you know. As a thank you to anyone who has been a loyal patron of NewspaperArchive, we are offering a 30-day free coupon as a gift. Instructions to begin: To activate your 30-day free trial, go to https://newspaperarchive.com/ and click Subscribe. Or sign into your previous account and click Restart Membership. Select your desired subscription option and enter your account and billing information. Then enter the coupon code listed below and select Enter and a confirmation message will a...

I received the following message from Donna Shackle, our journal editor today. With our in person transcription sessions cancelled for the forseeable future, her suggestions make perfect sense. Message from Donna - Do you find yourself with a little more time on your hands lately?  Have you thought about volunteering?  Currently the journal is looking for volunteers to transcribe original documents for the purpose of publication in  Wake Treasures , the Wake County Genealogical Society’s journal.  Current projects include the 1897 Raleigh school census, the Soldiers Home Register, and the City of Raleigh Death Returns.  We provide templates and you can transcribe from the comfort of home while ensuring that these records are published for all to use.  Whether you have time to transcribe a page or a series of pages, your contribution is greatly appreciated.  All skill levels are welcome! Please contact  journal@wakecogen.org  or Jessica C...

If you are missing having access to the Government & Heritage Library at NC Archives, you may wish to take advantage of their online chat service.  They also accept email questions. Links and email addy are in this post that appeared in my Facebook newsfeed today. Check it out! Return to the WakeCoGen Website

My Heritage US Census records are free to view  from March 29th until April 5th, 2020 .   Read the details from the blog post here . Happy hunting... Return to the WakeCoGen Website

WCGS member, Jen Gunther, sends us this update from Senior Tech Ed in Raleigh. They have started offering some of their classes on Zoom in view of the restrictions on public gatherings. This provides a unique opportunity to use some of our (now copious) downtime for some learning. Think of it as a "staycation" where the classes come to you. From Jen - We will be offering a limited selection of seminars during April using the Zoom video conferencing app. Most of the seminars being hosted in April are genealogy-based. Henry Spencer will host his entire Ancestry.com series via Zoom starting on Friday, April 3.  Instructions as to how to register for these classes are on the STE website ( https://www. raleighseniorteched.org/ ).  After registering, the instructor will contact all registered students with instructions as to how to get on Zoom, will share the access link for the seminar, and will forward the Handout  What could be easier?  And it gives us all someth...

I had a great time last night listening to the WCGS online presentation in lieu of a face to face meeting. I hope many of our members took advantage of this experimental project. David McCorkle showed us many sources for historical maps and many new technologies to bring these maps to life.  One of the maps early in David's presentation was a map of the very early city of Raleigh. I found this map captivating.  This is one of the wonderful maps in the UNC North Carolina Maps Collection.  In addition to the handrawn roughness and aged patina of this map, the maker had taken the time to draw the houses and shops in their respective locations. Zoom in enough, and you can take a stroll down old Raleigh streets in your mind. Here is your ticket to time travel -   Plan of the City of Raleigh with all the improvements & all the Numbers july 1th, 1797 .  source PS - if any of you had trouble logging into the presentation last night, please let us know. Ema...

WCGS has cancelled our general meeting of March 24 at the Cameron Village Regional Library in Raleigh, NC due to public health concerns. The library, as part of the Wake County system, has supsended gatherings through April 15 and as this is an evolving situation, email is really the best way to keep informed. WCGS members should look for email updates on future changes. If you are not a yet a member and want to be updated, you should join our mailing list for non-members at this link -  http://eepurl.com/dljeyz . We will reschedule the presentation by George Thomas the near future. Stay tuned. Keep researching. If you get bored and want to do some remote volunteering, contact our Journal team for instructions to get you started transcribing Wake County historical records from home. We are working on Soldiers Home records and the Wake School Census among others. It is always fun to see familiar names and places in these records. For me, it reinforces my connections to W...

The Spring 2020 Issue (Vol.3 Issue 3)  of our award winning newsletter, Wake Genealogy Watch, is now available online for reading or download. You can visit the WCGS website or access through this link - Wake Genealogy Watch, Spring 2020 This issue contains the following topics: • Facebook for Genealogy - a survey of the many groups found within the walls of Facebook relating to all topics of research, historic context, techniques and even genetic genealogy. Harness the power of Facebook for your research. • Cynthia Gage shares a very useful tip about tracing newspaper articles to their original location for the most complete coverage and details. • Reunion planning guides and tips. • A heads up on an upcoming workshop featuring Thomas Jones. It is close enough for a road trip. You may want to mark your calendar. • A query request from one of our readers. • Another very full calendar of events.  As always we welcome your articles, comments, or ...

Just wanted to remind everyone who was active on Rootsweb Lists that they will cease to be active on March 2nd, in 7 days. There after they will be accessible as read only content. Return to the WakeCoGen Website

The schedule for RootsTech2020 is posted now online at their website. I was pleasantly surprised that many of the presentations have PDF files of their syllabi posted in the descriptions. It may be entertaining and worth your while to take a look. RootsTech2020 Presentation Schedule Return to the WakeCoGen Website