Please Join Us in 2018

(a little late).

We hope you are sticking to your New Year's Resolutions, and we hope one of them is organizing and working on your family history.

Next thing I need to let you know: Following more than 3 months of Rootsweb problems and no access to our web site, we have moved our web site from Rootsweb to a new domain. You can now find our web site at http://iroquoiscountygenealogy.org. Most of the pages are active, including PayPal pages and resources. We think our new web address will be much easier to remember, too.

We have a busy year planned. Save these dates. Hope you can join us. Remember for more information, you can email us at iroqgene@yahoo.com or call us at 815-432-3730. Watch our Facebook  page or this blog for more details.

February 19 – Our first Kid’s Day – Start your Genealogy on school holiday. Grades 5 and older, with adult or responsible sibling. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

March 10 – Conference: DuPage CountyGenealogical Society in Naperville, IL.

March 24 – Program: DNA presentation, 9:30 a.m. coffee, 10:00 a.m. program. Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

Infamous and Notorious of Iroquois County

  April 15 – Program: Infamous and Notorious of Iroquois County, 2:00 p.m. at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

  May 7-11 – One-on-One Week, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Genealogy Archives at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

May 2-5 – National Genealogical Society Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, MI.

June 24 – Program: Terry Lynch and Histories For Kids “Happy IL Bicentennial Birthday Bash!”, 2:00 p.m. Courthouse grounds and Courtroom at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL. #Illinoisproud

July 13 – Friday the 13^th Superstitions Supper, 4-7 p.m. at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

July 18-22 – Iroquois County Fair, Crescent City, IL. See us in the Commercial Building.

Come see us at the Iroquois County Fair!

August 6-10 – Program: One-on-One Week. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Genealogy Archives at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

August 11 – Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society 50^th anniversary. 4th floor of Kankakee Public Library, Kankakee, IL.

August 5 – Dog Days of Summer 5K and Dog Run, date tentative, beginning at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

August 22-25 – Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, Fort Wayne, IN.

Cemetery Walk: Sugar Creek Chapel Cemetery

September 9 – Program: Cemetery Walk, location TBD. We will start voting on the cemetery soon from our Facebook page.

Pumpkin Contest 2017

 October 6-7 – Harvest Daze, Ham & Beans Dinner, Pumpkin Contest at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

 November 3 – General Meeting at Old Courthouse Museum in Watseka, IL.

December 19 – Volunteer Luncheon - location TBD.

Looks like lots of FUN! See you in 2018!

Genealogy Help, German Research and Coroner's Reports

Lots of information for you in this post!

This week is our 3rd week of One-on-One sessions, and we are off to a great start. There is still time to sign up for your FREE help session. We can help with family research or just exploring the many online resources available for family historians. Come in to the ICGS archives in the Old Courthouse Museum, 103 West Cherry Street, Watseka, IL, and our volunteers will do whatever we can to further your research efforts.

Ginny Lee helping Trisha Seigmiller

This is a free service to help you in your family history journey. All we ask is that you call the ICGS office at 815-432-3730 or email us at iroqgene@yahoo.com to register. We are offering sessions in two-hour blocks of time (you may extend, if needed).

See more information in our previous post One-on-One Training Is Here.


Do you have German ancestry? Don't forget to sign up for the Lin Strong seminar day, Saturday, November 7, 2015. Space is limited, and it is filling up. Call at 815-432-3730 or email iroqgene@yahoo.com to sign up or for more information.

Lin Strong (left) and ICGS President, Mary Buhr

Lin Strong, President of the Ostfriensen Genealogical Society of America will present a seminar on German and related research. Part of the day will be spent in the ICGS library using the OGSA publications and other resources available here. This promises to be a fabulous day of learning and fun.

One more calendar item: our Annual Meeting will be held Saturday, December 5, 2015. We'll have coffee at 6:00 p.m. with meeting at 7:00 p.m. Our program will be given by Bill Cheatum, Iroquois County Coroner. Bill will discuss ways to use coroner's reports in genealogy research.

We hope to see many ICGS members and guests for this interesting evening!

See you at the Iroquois County Fair!

Believe it or not - fair time is here! We hope to see you at the Iroquois County 4-H and Agricultural Fair. The Iroquois County Genealogical Society will have a booth in the Commercial Building at the fair.

As always, we want to wish ALL the exhibitors, young and old, the best of luck! It's great to win, but it's great to have fun and learn, too. The county fairs do that for everyone involved, even us!

It is a little chilly today, but next week is forecast to be in the 80's. You may need one of our popular freebies: a genuine "I'm a Genealogy Fan!" fan, unique and completely handmade. I know, I cut out 200 fans over the last two days!

We have information on records held in the archives of ICGS, genealogy forms and ideas for the taking. You can even get a piece of candy to give you energy to get through the building.

Speaking of getting through the building - how about something for the kids who get dragged through the commercial displays! Play our "Prize Every Time - Pick a Duck" game, always a winner. Yes, you can be just a kid at heart to play our game.

Our faithful volunteer, Ashley will not be able to join us in our booth this year. Ashley has spent many summers volunteering in the ICGS office and organizing and working in our booth at the fair. She graduated from college this spring, and now she has a REAL job, making money! Congratulations, Ashley. We will miss you, and we'll try to make our booth as much fun as you always have.

This year we have FOUR FREE chance bundles. You can enter for one or all four.

• Census bundle - full set of our U.S. Census index books for Iroquois County for the years 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900 and the 1890 Tax List - $60 value
• Birth bundle - 6 index books to Iroquois County births for 1916, A-Z - $43 value
• Death bundle - index books to Iroquois County Death Records 1902-1948, Cemetery Histories and Locations of Iroquois County, Iroquois County Burial Permits and Onarga (IL) Funeral Home Records - $32 value
• Miscellaneous bundle - Iroquois County Poor Farm Records 1857-1964 and 4 booklets of miscellaneous records which include such items as 1850 and 1860 Mortality Schedules on U.S. Census, index to WW I Iroquois County Soldier records, Iroquois County Farm Name Applications 1915-1927 and Iroquois Hospital Admittance Book 1916-1918 - $48 value

 

Of course, if you do not feel lucky each of the books in these chance bundles will be available for sale. In addition, we will have for sale our very popular volumes of Iroquois County interest, including

• Aerial Farm Photos of Iroquois County 1955 (we can help you find your farm picture),
• 1880 History of Iroquois County by Beckwith, with our added every name index,
• Combined Atlas of Iroquois County: 1885, 1904 and 1921,
• Portrait and Biographical Record 1893,
• 1907 Past & Present of Iroquois County and
• Original Land Purchases 1831-1882.

We have name index books for all cemeteries in Iroquois County and Catholic church record collections. As much as possible, we will have copies of these publications at our booth for you to purchase at the fair. You can see our complete publications price list on our web site at this link. (Prices subject to change.)

 

The Iroquois County Historical Society will be sharing the booth space with us. You can learn about the activities of the Historical Society and find additional information about the Old Courthouse Museum.

The Iroquois County Fairgrounds is located north of Crescent City, IL on Illinois Route 49. Follow this link for more about how to get to the fairgrounds and the activities for this week.

 

We hope the weather is great and everyone has a fabulous time!

Yes, I do want some help with online genealogy sites!

Wow! I bet you thought I was never coming back. Here I am!

First, I want to mention that May 2015 was the 1-year anniversary of the Searching Genealogy...In Iroquois County, Illinois blog. I hope you have gained some knowledge about your genealogy search and how we can help you. My goal in Year 2 is to try to post more frequently, maybe twice a month. You will have to visit often to check up on me. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think or how I can help.

Are you getting your money's worth from your online genealogy searches? Should you really spend that money to subscribe to one of the premium subscription sites?

I hope you already know this, but just in case: Iroquois County Genealogical Society is having another  ONE-ON-ONE WEEK at the ICGS archives in the Old Courthouse Museum, 103 West Cherry Street, Watseka, IL. During the week of June 22-26, 2015, volunteers are ready to help you gain some insight and experience in your online quest.

Bring your research questions and your curiosity. We'll sit down with you to see what we can all learn.

There are many FREE sites and FREE resources on subscription sites. The FamilySearch web site is completely free, including all searches and building your family tree. There are also a lot of free resources on Ancestry.com, Accessible-Archives and FindMyPast.

Ancestry.com

If you already subscribe to a premium site, bring your log in information and we can work from information you already have found.


A variety of premium sites can be explored:
Ancestry.com,
Fold3.com,
NewspaperArchive.com,
FindMyPast.com,
Genealogy.com, LivesOfTheFirstWorldWar.org,
Accessible-Archives.com, and
a German immigration database site.

If you are interested in membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, we can help you get started with the application process.

FindMyPast

Fold3

This is a FREE service to help you in your family history journey. All we ask is that you call the ICGS office at 815-432-3730 or email us at iroqgene@yahoo.com to register.






We are offering sessions in two-hour blocks of time (you may extend, if needed). Monday, June 22 through Friday, June 26, 2015, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. See you soon!!

Accessible Archives

One-On-One Training is Here! March 9-14, 2015

Have you ever wondered, do you really want to spend your hard-earned money on a premium online site to continue your family history search? Maybe you have a personal account on one of those sites, but you don't really know how to use it very well. Are there some free sites that may help you in your journey?

ancestry.com

Iroquois County Genealogical Society volunteers are ready to help you gain some insight and experience in your online quest. Next week, March 9-14, 2015, we are having ONE-ON-ONE WEEK at the ICGS archives in the Old Courthouse Museum, 103 West Cherry Street, Watseka, IL. Bring your research questions and your curiosity. We'll sit down with you to see what we can all learn. If you already subscribe to a premium site, bring your login information and we can work from information you already have found. Either way, we are waiting to help.

www.fold3.com

A variety of premium sites can be explored: Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, NewspaperArchive.com, FindMyPast.com, Genealogy.com, LivesOfTheFirstWorldWar.org, Accessible-Archives.com, a German immigration database site and Daughters of the American Revolution. We can also help with the free FamilySearch.org web site. (Oh, and we will have a sale on our print books for participants.)

www.accessible-archives.com/

findmypast.com

This is a free service to help you in your family history journey. All we ask is that you call the ICGS office at 815-432-3730 or email us at iroqgene@yahoo.com to register. We are offering these in two-hour blocks of time (you may extend, if needed).

March 9-14, 2015
Monday through Saturday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm.

See you soon!!

Mark your 2015 calendars!

The ICGS Board has set dates for some of our 2015 activities. Expect 2015 to be a great year! Add these to your calendars now, so you don't miss a chance to participate, and check back for more details and reminders in future posts and in our newsletter, The Stalker.

Have you ever wanted to test run an online subscription site without having to sign up for it? Do you wish you knew more about how to get around a site that you are already paying for? Are those free online sites worth your time?

In a new event this year, we are going to try to answer those questions with you. The week of March 9-14, 2015, the Iroquois County Genealogical Society board and volunteers are hosting One-on-One training sessions to help you explore many online genealogy sites. The sessions are free, but registration is required. Sessions will be scheduled in 2-hour blocks of time. We are still working on the specifics, but some sites we are considering include Ancestry, Family Search,  Fold3, GenesReunited, Archives, Newspaper Archive, World Vital Records, Find My Past, Accessible Archives, and OGSA (Ostfriensen) Database.

Our 3rd Annual Cemetery Walk is scheduled for Sunday, September 13, 2015. We are planning to hold this event at the Flesher Cemetery, north of Crescent City, Iroquois County, Illinois. There will be much more to come on this interesting and enjoyable event. See this post about our 2014 Cemetery Walk.

Last October, we had a visit from Lin Strong, President of the Ostfriensen Genealogical Society of America.

Lin Strong (left) and ICGS President, Mary Buhr

At that time, we talked about having Lin come to Watseka to present a seminar. She will be here on Saturday, November 14, 2015. Part of the day will be spent in the ICGS library using the OGSA publications and other resources available here. Her topics are still being decided upon, but this promises to be a fabulous day of learning and fun.







IHSA (Illinois) Class 2A Watseka Regional Girls Basketball tourney runs from February 9-12. Watch for our ad in the printed program.

One last item to note: As you may know, you can purchase our publications from our web site using Paypal. When you visit our office, you now can use Paypal for in-person purchases, copies or donations. Just another reason to stop by to see us!