Showing posts with label Ohio Genealogical Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio Genealogical Society. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Just Got Back from the 2012 Ohio Genealogical Annual Conference!

















A short time ago, I returned home from the three day Ohio Genealogical Society Annual Conference which was subtitled "History and Genealogy: Finding Clues to Ancestral Lives." Two library co-workers and I were privileged to hear many speakers whose topics covered genealogical strategies, using technology, finding military records, unique census records, and how understanding events in history can enhance our family history research, and of course, much more! Thank goodness we have access to the outlines from each presentation, so we can brush up on all that we learned!

I was able to meet two GeneaBloggers whose blogs I follow, Harold Henderson from Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog and Shelley from A Sense of Family. My co-worker Ron snapped this picture of Shelley and I at the conference.











In the Exhibit Hall, I was able to pick up literature from several different Ohio libraries and Local Chapters of the Ohio Genealogical Society. We even found out that local author Leslie Korenko has published a third book covering Kelleys Island history!

The conference was held at the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel, on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic. We were comfortable throughout the entire conference, both while in sessions, and while relaxing in our lovely rooms. Cleveland has a wide variety of restaurants, and while the food in the International Café of the Cleveland Clinic was fabulous, we also thoroughly enjoyed visiting a restaurant and two bakeries in Little Italy, and the mile-high deli sandwiches at the nearly Chicago Deli. Now I need to go unpack, and then learn more Lisa Loise Cooke's awesome Genealogy Gems Podcasts!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Ohio Genealogical Society's 2010 Fall Seminar


















On October 2, 2010, I had the pleasure of attending the OGS's 2010 Fall Seminar, held at the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the Ohio Genealogical Society in Bellville, Ohio. The library just opened in July of 2010. Curt Witcher, Genealogy Center Manager and Senior Manager of Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was the speaker for four separate presentations.

In "The Road Not Taken," Mr. Witcher suggested searching online by geographic location, ethnicity, occupation, and religion, as well as by the surname of a particular family. He pointed out several bibliographic databases to consult: The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC for short); The Archival Research Catalog of the National Archives; The Access to Archival Databases at the National Archives; The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications; and Worldcat. While these sources may not lead to direct genealogical information for researchers, the search results retrieved may lead us to other sources that do have important genealogical data.

In the session on "Doing Effective Research in Libraries," Curt Witcher suggested always visiting a library virtually, before actually making a trip to the library. State Libraries, State Archives, and Special Focus Libraries often have specialized collections that can aid in research within a specific state or area.











In the session entitled "Fingerprinting Our Families," Mr. Witcher stressed how understanding what was happening in both the home country as well as the new new homeland of our immigrant ancestors, can help us gain deeper insight into the reasons that our ancestors left one country to migrate to another.









The last session of the Fall Seminar was "Using Periodical Literature and PERSI in Genealogical Research." Curt Witcher stated that we could be missing significant sources of genealogical information if we don't look in periodical sources. He told us about using the * as a wild card, and ? for an unknown letter within a word, when conducting PERSI searches at Heritage Quest Online. The day in Bellville was well spent, and I look forward to returning to the Samuel D. Isaly Library to do more research!

Note: The Dutch Heritage Restaurant, located very near the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the O.G.S. is a very delightful place to have a meal, following a busy day of genealogical research.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Samuel D. Isaly Library of the Ohio Genealogical Society is Now Open


















A recent news article from WMFD News in Mansfield reported tha tmore than 300 people attended a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday for the grand opening of the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the Ohio Genealogical Society. The new facility is located at 611 State Route 97 West in Bellville, Ohio and was named after Samuel D. Isaly in honor of his generous donation to the Ohio Genealogical Society Building Fund.

The library has much more room than the previous facility, and features individual study carrels, and a computer lab.



















While I did not make the ribbon cutting ceremony held on July 23, 2010, when I stopped by the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the OGS today, I was still able to obtain a program and blue ribbon from the Grand Opening ceremony.























Pictured below are some books pertaining to Erie County, Ohio, in the stacks of the new library.

















Now I can hardly wait till I have a free day to devote to several hours of research at this outstanding new facility!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ohio Genealogy: OGS Databases






While there are many databases available at the website of the Ohio Genealogical Society, I am going to highlight a few that I find to be especially useful.

Ohio Cemetery Locations


This database provides exact locations of Ohio cemeteries. For example, when the cemetery name of Venice is placed in the search box, the results are:














A free version of the Ohio Cemetery Locations database is also available.


The Ohio Birth Index covers the years 1940 through 1988. A search of my maiden name,Orshoski, turned up 36 hits. My three grown up children are included in the listings, as well as several cousins, nieces, and nephews. The databases picks up maiden names as well as surnames.

The Ohio Marriage Index covers the timeframe of January 1, 1970 to December 31, 1990, with a few exceptions. The years 1972, 1974 and 1975 are incomplete while 1971 is missing. Using my maiden name again as the search term, 25 hits were retrieved.

The Ohio Divorce Index contains over one million divorce records in Ohio from 1962 though 1996. My maiden name as the search term retrieved ten records, but since one was a duplicate, it was really nine.

I encourage you to consider joining the Ohio Genealogical Society if you have ancestors with Ohio roots. The databases offered by the OGS are very helpful in genealogical research.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

See the Construction of the Ohio Genealogical Society's new building!

Follow this link to see recently posted photos of the construction being done on the Ohio Genealogical Society's new library.

Groundbreaking for the project took place on May 29, 2009. You can read about the capital campaign here. Graveyard Rabbits throughout Ohio look forward to this new facility!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My Favorite Genealogical Society: OGS














While I belong to the Erie County and Huron County Chapters of the Ohio Genealogical Society, there are some definite benefits to belonging to the Ohio Genealogical Society. The Ohio Genealogical Society is the largest state genealogical society in the United States.Its mission is: to meet the educational needs of its members and the general public through the acquisition, preservation, and dissemination of genealogical and historical information.


There are a variety of databases available from the Ohio Genealogical Society, some accesible only to members. First Families of Ohio is a lineage society open to OGS members who prove their decent from an ancestor who lived in Ohio by the end of 1820. Over 17,000 names appear in this database.

The searchable Ohio Civil War Roster allows "fuzzy" and "soundex" searches, which is a very versatile tool if you are unsure of the exact spelling of a first or last name.

African Americans Migrating to Ohio lists the names of African Americans who moved to Ohio in the 1860's. This very specific database can be very helpful if you have African American ancestors who moved to Ohio in this early decade.

There are many, many more databases at the website of the Ohio Genealogical Society! The library of the OGS is in Mansfield, Ohio, but a new facility is being built near Interstate 71, just south of Mansfield.

Whether you are a Graveyard Rabbit, genealogist, or you just want to know more about your Ohio ancestors, pay a visit to the Ohio Genealogical Society's site, and see what it has to offer.