| March 2008 Newsletter |
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| Written by Audrey Cannady Massingill | |
| Wednesday, 12 March 2008 | |
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THE AMARILLO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER MARCH 2008
APRIL MEETING Monday, April 7, 2008 Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. upstairs at the Amarillo Central Library downtown. Visitors are always welcome.
OUR PROGRAM WILL BE
USING THE INTERNET TO HELP RESEARCH YOUR ANCESTORS by Aric Brown
Aric Brown, a member of the Amarillo Genealogical Society, has using the internet since 1990. That is also the year he began researching his family history. Aric said, "My mother said I have always been a collector of things. . . and I just moved into collecting ancestors."
Aric has two children, a twelve-year-old girl and a ten-year-old boy. He is currently attending Amarillo College working toward a degree in Forensic Science.
"When I first started researching my family history there was no information online," Aric said, "and since I am a computer person, I always wished that I could do research online. In the past five or so years, the Internet has become a wonderful place to use to help find your ancestors. But just like the Microfilm reader, the Internet is only a tool."
Everyone is encouraged to attend and bring guests to this meeting. Since Aric Brown is a genealogist, in addition to being a computer guru, his program will be even more useful to our group than the ones given by Eric Spellmann several years ago. Also at the April meeting, Pattie Easterday will present a slate of officers for the coming two years. It’s not too late to call Pattie at 806-358-4712 to volunteer for one of the openings: President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, and Historian, and Parliamentarian.
LAST MEETING Mary Jarvis, Head of Reference Services, at the Cornette Library, gave us an overview of the records held there and showed us how to access them.
The Cornette Library is on the WT campus in Canyon, and you can find their current hours of operation at: http://www.wtamu.edu/library/. Since parking is a major problem, Mary suggested we go to the WT Police Dispatch Office, which is across the street from McDonalds. The Police Dispatch Office will give you a parking permit and a map showing where to park. Most of the materials at the library are on microfiche or microfilm which must be used at the library. However, there are some items that can be checked out. In order to check out materials from the Cornette Library you need to get a "tech share" card from the reference desk at the Amarillo Public Library downtown. Or, you can request materials from Cornette Library through interlibrary loan from any of the Amarillo public libraries. To access the genealogy section of the library go to: http://www.wtamu.edu/library/genealogy. The web site is organized by subject: 1 – Reference Books (Pick a subject from A-Z.) 2 – Periodicals (Electronic databases, magazines and journals, and newspapers.) 3 – Online Resources (You can access the Cornette online catalog, and various online databases.) 4 – Specials Collections (Pick a subject. The collection includes the Draper Papers and Presidential papers of 14 presidents, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Jeffersonian Americana Collection, and much more) 5 – Government Documents (Military registers, Indian records, Union and Confederacy war records, etc.) Mary warned us that some of these records, such as the Draper Papers, are difficult to use, but the information they contain are worth the work. If you want to use the Cornette Library and have any questions, Mary Jarvis can be reached at W.T. at 806-651-2212. Mary also mentioned that the Panhandle-Plains Museum in Canyon has an archives section with many documents pertaining to Texas.
Thanks to Joe Brown for his e-mail on Monday afternoon. Due to the weather many people were uncertain if the meeting would still be held and probably would not have come if he had not told us that the meeting was "still on."
MONEY, MONEY, MONEYDues are past due, so if you haven’t paid for this year, please send your check to Myrtle Jones, Treasurer, P.O. Box 2171, Amarillo, Texas, 79189. The cost is $15.00 for individuals and families and $25.00 for a contributing membership. All donations, other than dues, to the society are fully tax deductible.
COFFEE AND COOKIES DEPARTMENT Carole Monroe and Donna Otto supplied the cookies and coffee with a bright, green St. Patrick’s Day theme.
ANNOUNCEMENTS Although it is somewhat early, you might want to start making plans to attend the Amarillo Genealogical Society’s Fall Conference, which will be early in October. Barbara and Jimmy West are working to secure the speaker and place, etc.
Another happening this October is the 48th Annual Conference of the Texas State Genealogical Society, which will be held in Abilene this year. You can go to the web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/tsgs2008conference.html for complete details. Aric Brown suggested that the society plan an Activity Day for sometime this summer. We will go out and map some of the local cemeteries. A committee was formed to work out the details: Aric Brown, chairman, Donna Otto and Mary Jarvis. If you would be interested in joining the committee, please contact Aric at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Also, if you know of any small, obscure cemeteries in our area, please let one of the committee members know about it.
GENEALOGY WEB SITES YOU CAN USE; Most everyone uses www.RootsWeb.com, but it has grown so large that searching it is sometimes difficult. There is a special search engine that works within the RootsWeb pages, called Search Thingy, that solves this problem. To find Search Thingy, go to the RootsWeb page, locate the "Search Engines and Databases" heading and click on the "Index of All Search Engines and Databases" link. Click on "Search Thingy," and a question box will come up. Type in your surname, locality, subject, etc. and it will bring up all the web pages within the RootsWeb complex that pertain to your question.If anyone has their family traced back as far as England, in the time of William the Conqueror, here is a neat web site: The Doomsday Book Online: www.domesdaybook.co.uk
Board for Certification of Genealogists Brigham Young University Brigham Young University Digital Collections BYU Family Historian (Academic Online Journal) www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/spc/famhistorian BYU Family History Library BYU Harold B. Lee Library BYU Independent Study—Family History http://ce.byu.edu/is/genealogy
BYU Independent Study—Free Online Lessons http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm
BYU Idaho Special Collections & Family History http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/index.cfm British: Gazetteer of British Place Names British: UK Place Name Finder www.digital-documents.co.uk/archi/placename.htm British: A Vision of Britain through Time www.visionofbritain.org.uk/index.jsp Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records
IN THE MONTHS TO COME May 5, 2008: How to Care for Photos and What to do with Old Photos – Cindy Eastland, Hertner’s Camera Store. _________________________________________________________________________ BIOGRAPHY OF MARGARET COLEMAN TRAVOUS I was born about a mile from Donover (Ireland) - about two miles from Duleek about 4 or 5 miles from Drogheda, about a mile from the Boyne river in the neighborhood of the Staline mountains. Was born in June 1828. Left there when I was about 20 years old. Had worked out at Cluskey’s before coming here. Left behind me a mother and an uncle. My father had come to this country when I was about four years old in company with one of my uncles. Father’s name was Patrick Coleman - the uncle who came with him was named John Mullen. They were never heard of in this country. Mother’s name was Mary Coleman. I’ve never heard of her since I came to this country. I had a younger sister who died of cholera in Manchester, England when she had been married but three months & left no family. I landed in N. Orleans came to St. Louis then to O’Fallon (Illinois). There met William Travous and married him. Was married in St. Louis at St. Mary’s church by Father Wheeler. Think I have relatives in Boston. Think I have an uncle in N.York state in Houseville. Mother’s name before marriage was Mary Mullen. I came over in a vessel called the "American Girl." Was in Ills. (Illinois) nearly two years before I was married.
Dictated by my great-great-grandmother, Margaret Coleman Travous, to her oldest son, Charles Norton Travous, shortly before her death in 1897. The original document is part of the collection of The Madison County (Illinois) Historical Society. Submitted by Audrey Cannady Massingill. |
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