The Georgia Archives and the Georgia Genealogical Society will co-sponsor a Summer Genealogy Picnic June 4 at the Georgia Archives in Morrow. The all-day event begins at 9 a.m., and is free and open to the public.
Genealogical activities that can take place during the summer will be the focus of the speakers. Special emphasis will be placed on encouraging young family historians to get started in genealogy.
Speakers will include this columnist on how to find descendants or heirs of people buried in cemeteries, and Judy Russell on her Ask Granny program, and how it can be used to encourage groups to get involved in genealogy.
Valerie Frey, author of “Preserving Family Recipes,” will speak about heirloom recipes for the genealogist and how to preserve your family’s memories of such. College student Hunter Gentry will talk about what inspired him to begin family history research and how to get more young people interested in genealogy.
A picnic-style lunch will be available for a donation, and other activities will include exhibits by historical and lineage societies and a book sale. For more information, check georgiaarchives.org or gagensociety.org.
Home movie preservation
Maureen Taylor, noted photograph preservationist, writes in the May-June issue of Family Tree Magazine about the importance of home movies to genealogists and gives tips on preserving them.
In “Reeling in the Clues,” she suggests looking for dates in your home movie collection, noting the format, preserving the footage (she suggests places to contact), clues you can glean from old movies, and how to share with relatives.
That issue is at newsstands now and is available at familytreemagazine.com.
Census research tips
Census research is a must for genealogists, and often we have trouble finding certain people. The May-June issue of Family Tree Magazine also has a good article about census research tips and suggests people check Stephen Morse's One-Click Census Search at stevenmorse.org. Go to Census Search by Name and pick a census year.
The advantage is you can add more searchable data there. Morse is a master at consolidating search efforts, so check this out for the census, as well as his links to Ellis Island records and other areas.
