Free Genealogy "Lock-in" at Hudson Library, evening of 15 Feb 2008

We've just learned that the next meeting of the Hudson Genealogy Study Group will be an after library hours activity Friday February 15th from 5 to 11 p.m. Such activities often are called "lock-ins." This event will be at the Hudson Library & Historical Society, 96 Library Street, Hudson, Ohio.

Attendees will be able to do computer research and access the archives collection during this time. Mini sessions on topics such as great genealogical databases resources will be offered.

Beverages will be provided and all are asked to bring a dish to pass for a pot luck dinner.

This program is free but pre-registration is required with the archives department. For more information, please contact the Archives Department at 330-653-6658, ext. 1017.

Genealogy Seminar in Austintown, OH, on April 12

Dr. Deborah A. Abbott, professor of counseling at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio, will present a three-part genealogical seminar on April 12 at the Austintown Library, 600 S. Raccoon Road. Austintown, OH. In the seminar, which is co-sponsored by the Mahoning County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society, and the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County, she will discuss:

1) Getting Started: A Librarian Is Your Best Friend (discover how to fill out family group sheets and pedigree charts, as well as genealogy resources available at libraries).

2) A Needle in a Haystack: Slave Genealogy (find out how to do African-American research prior to 1870, with techniques applicable to all types of research).

3) Going Beyond the Basics: The Federal Census and Vital Records (learn how to get the most out of census, birth, marriage and death records).

To register, call the Austintown Branch at 330-792-6982.

Let me comment on Debbie as a genealogical speaker: she knows her stuff and her use of Powerpoint is very effective. I'm sure everybody who attends will conclude it was time well spent.

Ancestry Adds Four Ohio Databases

Ancestry.com has added several databases that may interest Ohio researchers. With the Ancestry search engine, any hits should turn up in a personal search for ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries. The databases are:

Ohio Cemetery Records
Ohio Marriages
Ohio Source Records
Ohio Valley Genealogies

The above are links to the search form from each database. Remember that Ancestry.com is a subscription database service.

The first is an online version of Ohio Cemetery Records, Extracted from The Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, with an index by Elizabeth P. Bentley. It was published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, in 1989.

The second is an online version of Ohio Marriages, Extracted from The Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, edited by Marjorie Smith. It was published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, in 1986.

The third database, Ohio Source Records, contains data extracted from The Ohio Genealogical Quarterly, published between 1937 and 1944. Genealogical Publishing published the compilation in 1986.

The fourth database, Ohio Valley Genealogies, was compiled by Charles A. Hanna, and maily concerned families from Harrison, Belmont, and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and Washington, Westmoreland, and Fayette Counties, Pennsylvania. Originally published by the author in 1900, Genealogical Publishing published a reprint in 1968 and subsequent years.

Happy searching!

NARA To Restore Evening, Weekend Hours

If you are planning a research trip to the National Archives in Washington, DC, you'll be pleased to learn that it will again be open in the evening and on weekend. Yesterday, January 31, 2008, Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, issued the following announcement:

I am pleased to inform NARA staff that we will restore the evening and weekend hours in the archival research rooms in the National Archives Building and the National Archives at College Park. Effective the week of April 14, 2008, the extended hours will be 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday. Hours on Monday and Tuesday will continue to be 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. When we restore evening hours we will provide the additional service of pulling records from the stacks at 3:30 P.M. on the three weekdays that we are open in the evening. As was the case prior to October 2006, there will be no records pulled on Saturday.

We are publishing an interim final rule in the Federal Register on February 1 to make the change to our regulations. Congress and the President provided a one-time appropriation of $1.3 million in the NARA FY 2008 budget to restore these hours. The funds will be used to hire new archival research room staff and to cover the costs of utilities, maintenance, and security during the extended hours. We set the effective date of the new hours as April 14, 2008 to allow time to hire and train the additional research room staff and to adjust the terms of the security guard contract.

Research room hours at the National Archives Building in Washington DC and at the College Park facility were reduced in October 2006 as a cost-savings measure. Since then, the National Archives has had extended hours only once a month-on Thursday and Friday evenings and on Saturdays. Prior to October 2006, the National Archives extended hours were Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The change from Tuesday to Wednesday evening late hours was implemented to make it more convenient and cost-effective for out-of-town researchers who travel to the National Archives for research.

I appreciate the efforts our research room staff have made since the beginning of FY 2007 to serve our researchers well despite the reduced hours and staffing constraints. I'm pleased that we are able to provide the additional access.