The ongoing Civil War anniversary is a good time to learn more about your ancestors' role in it as well as educate younger family members about the conflict and how it affected their ancestors' lives.
One idea is to be sure any Civil War soldiers that have unmarked graves are marked via the free program through Veterans Affairs. Go to www.va.gov and then to Veterans Services and Burials and Memorials to find information on the process.
You also should find the service records of your ancestors and learn where they fought -- or, as I recently learned, where they were captured and incarcerated as POWs. You could then take a tour of the battlefields or make a map to share with family members.
The more creative folks could produce a family-oriented CD to share this information, with websites linked to the various sites and maps.
If you have any Civil War-era manuscripts, you ought to plan to donate them or copies of them to an appropriate archives or historical society rather than taking the chance that they could be lost in a house fire or other disaster.
You also could make sure your ancestors are honored by a memorial brick at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. See www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org and then click on Support for details.
And you could make sure an ancestor's grave is listed on the Find a Grave website at www.findagrave.com and, if not, add it. Or if it is there, provide additional material on the ancestor's life and service record.
DeKalb History Center resources
Melissa Forgey, director of the DeKalb History Center, will present the Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn lecture at noon Aug. 12. She will speak about the center's collection of local resources, including the Guy Hayes Photograph Collection, now being scanned.
To see what the center offers online, check www.dekalbhistory.org.
The lecture is free; bring your own lunch. 678-364-3730, www.georgiaarchives.org.
Carolina and Tennessee books
A. Bruce Pruitt has published a large number of books related to deeds, land grants and plats for various counties in North and South Carolina and Tennessee.
Pruitt produces no-frills, soft-cover titles. For a catalog containing a list of his nearly 200 publications, see http://abpruitt.tripod.com or write Bruce Pruitt, P.O. Box 815, Whitakers, NC 27891.
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