Church Record Sunday: Quaker Finding Aids

Portrait of a woman in Shaker or Quaker Dress. George Eastman House Collection via Flickr the Commons

Have Quaker ancestors? Here's a few free finding aids/ research guides available online that  provide valuable resources. Even a resource that is "old" in terms of the Internet,  can include valuable history and methodologies.


Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Genealogical & Historical Records Research Guide by Earl H Peirce for the Utah Valley Regional Family History Center Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library includes an historical overview, glossary, Quaker repositories and records.

Researching Yorkshire Quaker history. A guide to sources. Complied by Helen E Roberts for the Yorkshire Quaker Heritage Project. Published by The University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library is specific to Yorkshire ancestors and includes records in the Archives of the Society of Friends and others, a bibliography and additional finding aids.

An online research guide with links to sources entitled Quaker Studies can be found on Tripod. This online guide has a printable version.

Church Record Sunday: American Memory's The Church in the Southern Black Community

I'm a big fan of the Library of Congress website American Memory. If you aren't exploring this collection of digitized historical content, you are missing out. No, really.

According to the American Memory About page:

"American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning."

American Memory features all kind of content that is beneficial to your research. Today for Church Record Sunday we explore just one of those collections.

The Church in the Southern Black Community is searchable by keyword as well as browsable by Subject, Author and Title. Materials from this collection come from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can read an introduction to the collection on their website.

In this collection are texts that cover a variety of topics including sermons, songs, abolition, segregation and missionary work.

Scroll down the homepage under the heading Understanding the Collection and click on Related Resources to see links to other collections that may be of interest to your research.

Join Me At SLIG 2014 For Some Social History

**Gena's note: The following is an announcement from the Utah Genealogical Association. I hope you will consider joining me at SLIG in January 2014. To register go to http://www.infouga.org/aem.php?lv=r&eid=8.

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy is Adding a New Course!

More Information can be found at www.slig.ugagenealogy.org.

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy has added a new course: Utilizing Social History in Your Research with Gena Philibert-Ortega.

Genealogy is so much more than names and dates on a chart.  By adding information about our ancestor's everyday lives we can learn more about what their lives were like and even interest the non-genealogists in our families. When we learn more about their everyday lives we can  uncover rich resources that are unique to genealogical research. This course will look beyond the typical genealogy sources and concentrate on ways that genealogists can bring their ancestor's story to life.


The new course is an exciting addition and will include the following classes:

* Introduction to Social History  (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Finding Images to Tell Your Ancestor's Story (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Newspaper Research for the 21st Century (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Finding Social History in Digitized Books (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Social History Through the Ages: Sources for Social History from the Colonial Period to World War II (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Almanacs, Cookbooks, and Quilts: Unusual Sources for Your Genealogy (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* They Ate What?: Peacocks, Oysters and Green Jello, What Your Ancestor Ate for Dinner (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* Telling Your Ancestor's Civil War Story (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* The Secret Lives of Women: Researching Women’s Lives Using the Sources They Left Behind (Gena Philibert-Ortega)

* The Games People Played: Leisure Activities of Our Ancestors (Jean Wilcox Hibben)

* How the Music and Instruments of Your Ancestors are Relevant to Family History Research (Jean Wilcox Hibben)

* Shaking the Myth: Proving/Disproving Family Legends (Jean Wilcox Hibben)

* Turning Genealogy into Family History: Creating Stories from Stats (Jean Wilcox Hibben)

* Arriving in the New World: How Our Immigrant Ancestors Coped in their New Home (Jean Wilcox Hibben)

* Treasures of the Family History Library - How to Find Hidden Gems to Connect Your Family Dots (Luana Darby)

* Archives and Their Collections - Adding Community History to Your Family (Luana Darby)

* The Experiences of Migration: The Adventures, the Troubles and the New Beginnings (Beverly Rice)

* Women’s Lives: Constrained by Society and Laws (Beverly Rice)

* Exploring the Library of Congress Online or Onsite (Pamela Boyer Sayre)

Get the Official Gena and Jean Genealogy Journey App Now!

Want to know more about the Gena and Jean speaking tour? Want access to special offers from our sponsors?  There's an app for that!

The official Gena and Jean Genealogy Journey app is here! Available right now from Infinite Monkey and Google Play, it will also soon be available through  iTunes.

To be one of the first to get the free app click here.

The Gena and Jean Tour

Jean Wilcox Hibben and I are leaving our families behind (someone has to feed the dogs) and hitting the trail! Speaking throughout California we will be presenting on genealogy as we make our way north. Follow our journey on our blog, Gena and Jean's Genealogy Journey. We will be posting photos, tips, and links from our presentations. And for those who are going to be in our audience, we have special offers from our sponsors.

See you there!

Church Record Sunday: Presbyterian Church in America Historical Center

screenshot of http://www.pcahistory.org/ from 14 July 2013

According to the PCA Historical Center website:

"The Historical Center of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a ministry of the PCA Stated Clerk’s Office, with facilities located in St. Louis, Missouri on the campus of Covenant Theological Seminary. Our mission is to document the story of the conservative Presbyterian movement of the 20th & 21st centuries.

The Historical Center serves as the official archives of the Presbyterian Church in America, housing the records of the PCA and its agencies. The Center also serves as the repository of record for four other Presbyterian denominations. In addition, the Center houses the manuscript collections of over 100 people connected with those denominations, plus history materials for some 700 congregations. A modest research library of about 5,000 titles, covering all aspects of American Presbyterianism, augments the Center’s archival collections."

By clicking on the Collection link you can view the Collection Index and learn more about the archive's holdings. Their collections are varied and include the papers of key individuals, periodicals, and even interviews. You can conduct a search for the keyword "genealogy" on the website for a small list of available genealogies.

One of my favorite parts of this website is found under the Local Church Historians link. Here you will find resources for church historians including how to write a church history. This is a great guide for even those of other religious faiths and what better way to do genealogy then by preserving our own history? This page also provides a year by year summary of church histories that they have received and archived.

Church Record Sunday: Cyndi's List

For most family historians, one of the first websites you may be directed to as you begin your research is Cyndi's List. It's a good place to refer back to for links to resources that can help your search. Consult her page on Religion & Churches for links to religious records.

http://www.cyndislist.com/religion. Accessed 7 July 2013

Check out what links Cyndi's List has to help in your research.

While you are on the website, click on the donate button. Cyndi has been a leader in the genealogy community, helping all of us with our research. She deserves our support.

Happy 4th of July!

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

May you and your family have a fun and safe 4th of July!