Established 1987

Village Genealogical Society Newsletter

Hot Springs Village, Arkansas 71909

http://www.hsvgs.org October 2016

Table of Contents 1 Calendar of Events 1 Ongoing VGS

Projects 2 Upcoming Events

of Interest; Transportation; VGS Officers

3 President’s Message

4 Google Tricks; Wikipedia; NARA

5 FamilySearch Record Hints

6 Local Resources

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

VGS Monthly Meetings First Thursday, 2 p.m., Coronado Center, Room 6 October 6, 2016 "Emigrant Trains and Railroads" This program will be about how to research for information about your railroader ancestor and we will also discuss Emigrant Trains and how they came to be. What brought these people to America, how did they travel, and what were their experiences along the way. If anyone has ancestor's who traveled on one of these trains please be prepared to share their story...we'd love to hear about them." Presented by Nancy Holder, VGS Assistant Editor. November 3, 2016 New England – Leaves on your Family Tree….

ONGOING VGS PROJECTS

Members Helping Members Second Thursday, 1-3 p.m. Village Church of Christ, 210 Balboa Dr., in Adult Rm. 1. The October and November Members Helping Members will be hosted by Barbara Pinkney and Kay Cantrell. If you are interested in some one-on-one help with the genealogy scrap booking/book writing. Please email Barbara Pinkney at the_pinkneys@sbcglobal.net, so see knows how many will attend. Water is allowed in the room but no food. Please enter through office door. VGS Breakfast Meetings Third Thursday, 9:00 a.m., Debra’s Restaurant October 13, 2016 Celinda Chapman will be hosting. The breakfast meetings continue each month through out the year. The topic for October is: Names.

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General Meetings First Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m., September-May, Coronado Center 150 Ponderosa Way No General Meetings June, July, and August, except Breakfast meetings Members Helping Members Second Thursday of each month at 1-3 p.m., Village Church of Christ, 210 Balboa Dr., in Adult Room 1. Breakfast Meetings Third Thursday of each month at 9:00 a.m., including summer months. (Door Prize given) Debra’s Restaurant 198 Carmona Membership Fee $20 single or family. If you can’t attend a meeting, please send a check for $20 made out to VGS to Barrie Gauthier, 11 Heraldia Lane, HSV, AR 71909. VGS Website Please visit: http://www.hsvgs.org

UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST

Arkansas Genealogical Society

2016 Fall Seminar Friday October 14 - Saturday October 15

Friday: Jeff Meek - Interviewing Veterans Saturday: J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA - Estates, Taxes, Migration, and Authentic Sources Benton Event Center 17322 I-30, North Benton, AR 72019 For more information visit: http://www.agsgenealogy.org/seminar/default.html

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Transportation to Meetings If any of our members need transportation to chapter meetings, please call Celinda Chapman at 501-545-6790. We do not want the lack of transportation to deprive us of your fellowship! Don't hesitate to make that call.

VGS BOARD MEMBERS 2016-2017

President Jeanne Meek Vice President of Programs Barbara Pinkney Asst VP of Programs Kaye Cantrell Vice President of Membership Barrie Gauthier Secretary Sue Barber Asst Secretary Susan Read Treasurer Marlene Wilson Newsletter Editor Mitzi Hunter Asst Newsletter Editor Nancy Holder Webmaster Dan Barnett Immediate Past President Celinda Chapman

VGS Membership Dues

It is time to renew your membership for 2016-2017. The cost for the year is $20 for a single or family. Please pay at a meeting, or if you can’t attend a meeting, please send a check for $20 (made out to Village Genealogical Soc.) to Barrie Gauthier, 11 Heraldia Lane, HSV, AR 71909.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Fall is here! What a nice VGS Fall Workshop we had on Sept. 17, 2016. I received many nice comments that day. With all of our advertising and marketing we had almost 100 people. One lady said to me as she left, “It was just what I wanted”. It was so great to see the 15 Lineage Societies participate. It looked like people really took advantage of time to speak with them. Special thanks to Bill Patterson for his great organizing, and to his committee of Barbara Pinkney, Marlene Wilson, Jeanette Frahm, Peggy Johnson, Joy Solomon, Mary Reid Warner, and Jill Botkin. You did an exemplary job on this. We want to

thank the Akansa Chapter NSDAR for assisting us with getting the word out, manning many of the lineage tables, and Regent Nancy Luehring who introduced our speaker’s 2nd session while in Colonial dress. Looking forward to our Thursday, October 6th general meeting, Nancy Holder will be speaking on “Immigrant Trains and Railroads”. I’m sure we’ll all learn something new. We will continue with “Genealogy Gems”. Bill Patterson and Mary Fisher are scheduled to bring some artifact that they enjoy. I will leave below something I learned for your genealogy research that you might consider trying. Jeanne Meek HSVGS President P.S. Just saw this; some might give it a try. After you’ve flushed out a good narrow search query for your ancestors on Google, go to Google Alerts. Google Alerts will take the keywords or phrase you developed and run it across the internet hourly or daily until you tell it to stop. Setting up Google Alerts is like having a genealogy assistant. Go to www.google.com/alerts. In the search bar near the top, insert your query. In the box below that, type the email address you want to have your results sent to, and click “Create Alerts” They will send you links to web pages that match your query. You can sign in and make queries for many lines of ancestors.

Workshop Committee, photo by Sandy Johansen, Village Voice, 9/27/2016, page 4D.

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Google Tricks Searching for ancestors on Google or other search engines.

Type the search name in quotes: “John Doe”. To narrow the results, add a location: “John Doe” Hot Springs, AR, or a birth date: “John Doe” 1818. Type a couple, “John Doe” “Jane Smith”. Does your ancestor have a middle name? Search with their middle name, or try a middle initial with an asterisk, “John H* Doe”. A complicated or easily misspelled surname like Stanborough? Try “William Stanb*ough”, to catch Stanbrough, or Stanborrough, etc. An Asterisk [*] will replace several letters in a search. Add a date range such as (1900..1940). Family Tree Magazine, Oct-Nov 2016.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Do you have a famous or infamous ancestor? Perhaps a Governor, U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Congressman, royalty, etc. Search their name in Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. Use capitals to get better results: John Doe. If you get results for him/her, you will find facts about them, and perhaps a picture or image of a painting. Locations: search for you ancestor’s birthplace, and/or residences, to learn about them, and perhaps see a map of the location. The site will most likely give you the name of the county of the residence.

National Archives Records & Administration Genealogy/ Personal History: Passenger Lists

Search by name or by Passenger Ship: Russians to America Passenger Data File, 1834 – 1897 Famine Irish Passenger Record Data File (FIPAS), 1/12/1846 - 12/31/1851 Germans to America Passenger Data File, 1850 – 1897 Italians to America Passenger Data File, 1855 - 1900 https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=GP44

World War II World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-description.jsp?s=644&cat=GP23&bc=,sl

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FamilySearch Adds 141 Million Family History Record Hints

The following announcement was written by the folks at FamilySearch:

Salt Lake City, Utah (29 September 2016)–You might discover new ancestors on your family tree this week at FamilySearch.org.

The nonprofit FamilySearch International, the largest genealogical organization in the world, released 141 million new hints in its online Family Tree today. The hints make use of the newest additions to FamilySearch’s massive collections of worldwide historical records made searchable online by volunteer indexers. These hints can lead to exciting new family history discoveries.

Read the rest of the Story… https://blog.eogn.com/2016/09/30/familysearch-adds-141-million-family-history-record-hints/

Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, Sept. 30, 2016 To save any of his articles, look below the article for Share

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I went looking for an ancestor I cannot find him still. He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.

He married where a courthouse burned. He mended all his fences. He avoided any man who came to take the US census.

He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame.

And every 20 years, this rascal changed his name. His parents came from Europe, they could be on some list. Of passengers to the USA, but somehow he got missed.

And no one else anywhere is searching for this man.

So I play geneasoidaire to find him if I can. I’m told he's buried in a plot, with tombstone he was blessed.

But the weather took the engraving and some vandal took the rest

He died before the county clerks decided to keep records. No family Bible has emerged in spite of all my efforts.

To top it off this ancestor, who has caused me many groans, Just to give me one more pain, betrothed a girl named JONES!

Poem read by Jeanne Meek

VGS Workshop, Sept. 17, 2016 Author Unknown

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Melting Pot Genealogical Society Library

649-B Ouachita Ave. Hot Springs, AR 71901

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday & Friday

Call 501-624-0229 to confirm that the library is open before going to visit. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~armpgs/

Family History Center

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

2765 Malvern Ave. Hot Springs, AR 501-262-2782 (during open hours)

Hours (2016): Tuesday 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thurs. 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Hot_Springs_Arkansas_Family_History_Center

Closed Holidays & Icy Weather

Family History Center Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter Day Saints 13901 Quail Run Drive Little Rock , AR 501-455-4998 (during open hours)

New Hours (10-2016): Tuesday 1:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wed. 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thurs. 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Third Saturday only, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Little_Rock_Arkansas_Family_History_Center

Closed Holidays

Saline County Library

Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library

1800 Smithers Dr. Benton, AR 72015 501-778-4766 800-476-4466

Hours: Mon., Tues., & Thurs. 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wed. & Fri. 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sat. 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. http://www.salinecountylibrary.org/web/

Visit the Genealogy Room

Arkansas Genealogical Society (AGS)

P.O. Box 17653 Little Rock, AR 72222 New web address: www.agsgenealogy.org/

Village Genealogical Society

Established in 1987

Arkansas State Archives

Formerly: Arkansas History Commission

One Capitol Mall Suite 2B215 Little Rock, AR 72201 501-682-6900

Hours: Monday through Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. www.ark-ives.com/

On your first visit you must register and obtain an admission card.

Directions: Take I-30 to I-430 north Take the I-630 east exit Take the 2B exit Turn left toward the Capitol Turn left on the 1st street At the next street turn right At bottom of hill park in the large

parking lot Enter through door on ground level.

The State Archives are on the 2nd floor.

Memphis Public Library Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library 3030 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN 38111 901-415-2700 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sun. 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Closed Holidays www.memphislibrary.org/