25 Sept 1999. This just in from Deborah Atchley.
Mary Weldon Dulaney and Marjorie Orr created another fun and interesting workshop this year. The Trails of Our Ancestors Held September 25, 1999 in Eddyville, KY Mary Weldon Dulaney and Majorie Orr created ANOTHER worthwhile workshop. First speaker was Gail Jackson Miller, a professional genealogist and a staff member of the Family History Center in Bowling Green, KY. Key points from her VERY interesting lecture: Two categories of materials - previously written and original documents. She discussed the things that are available at the Family History Centers: Access to databases also from http://www.familysearch.com Microfiche of books Microfilm of original records Access to photocopies of indices of books that can't be copied. Resources on computer at the Family History Center: Ancestral File (also on internet) Began in late 70's; started with church member's group sheets. Always check original records to prove Ancestral File entries Name of person who submitted information is available Always look at the history of changes to a record. Code in AF number will show date of submission. IGI (also online) Names of deceased people submitted by church members for some ceremony in the temple. Only minimal information was needed for submission. Also available on microfiche. To figure out when the information was submitted, use the TOOLS menu, then the LDS options, then the Ordinance Index to see the screens with the dates of submission. Social Security Death Benefit Index Not a church created index Most people listed died in 1962 or more recently. Not everyone who had a social security number is listed. Death date and place listed. US Military Index Contains only Korean and Viet Nam war casualties. Scottish Church Records For ALL counties Contains christening and marriages. Sorted by surname and given name, because some records are pre-surname. Pre 1854 records. Also on microfiche Family History Library Catalog This is the catalog of the holdings of the main library in Salt Lake City Not just U.S. records Update yearly. Arranged by locality, instead of being arranged by author and title. If you need a book that's not photocopied, you can still get a photocopy of the index of the book. Non-Computer Records in the FHC Accelerated Indexes census index complete through 1850 for all states. some complete after that date. Periodical Index Index of all genealogical publications carried by the Ft Wayne Library, by location and surname. Article indices. US Microfiche reference collection: US Gazeteer (to find where towns used to be) and other microfiche. Some centers collect land grants and vital stats for their geography. Second Speaker was Ron Bryant, Director of the Library Reading Room for the KY Historical Society. Ron told the story of Mrs Morton who brought the KY Historical Society (which had been founded in 1836) back to life. KY History Center is considered one of the nicest in the world. Contains 100,000 volumes of state and local information. Contains the Military Arsenal Collection. Contains 200,000 photographic images. Contains 5,000 rare books. Contains the 1899 Quarterly Publication on Genealogy. Contains 1000's of hours of oral family histories. Contains the largest collection in the Southern US of family files - over 10,000. Files date back to 1896. The reading room seats 110. Have many computer terminals. The stacks remain open. They plan to remain helful to genealogists. High security in the building - no bags. They have lockers. They have some things the Library of Congress doesn't have. They have MANY original records of Kentucky. The center is open 6 days a week: 8-4 M, T, W and Saturday. Thursday's hours are 8-8. They may begin Sunday afternoon hours soon. The new center opened April 10, 1999. 60,000 people have visited since the April opening. In August of this year, there were 4,000 visiting just the library. There is a 5,000 foot changing display gallery. They have about 12,000 reels of microfilm which include several hundred with genealogies. They have a large newspaper collection (The University of KY has the largest collection). They have the VA Gazette from the early 1700's on microfilm. They have over 10 reader/printers for microfilm. They have the KY Gazette. They have many out of state records, including Maryland Wills since the 1630's. They have church files sorted by county and denomination. They have some bible records; some over 200 years old. Their new address is: 100 West Broadway in Frankfort, KY 40601. Web site is: http://www.kyhistory.org They have 6 new photocopies and have the vendicard system for payment. They invite YOU to submit your family history. There was a Panel in the afternoon. The panel was moderated by Pat Oliver. Panel members were: Don Simmons, Better Sellers and Debbie Atchley Questions asked and information discussed on the following: The best web sites for genealogy. (panel was partial to western KY GENWEB sites!!) Sites for VA research (try the VA Library Site). Mailing lists. American Local History Network: http://www.usroots.com/~kyseeker/trigg/triggalhn.html Copyright and look-up issues on books. Tax lists: Personal propery; Land Tax and Tithe lists. Who appears in the tax lists and who was exempt: White males over 21 Ministers often exempt. Women often exempt. Men over 55 often exempt. (so don't assume the person died if they disappear from the tax rolls) Exemptions often granted by county courts Remember poll tax (also remember that women couldn't vote) Listings of Jr/Sr on census or tax rolls did NOT always mean father and son. Records were often confusing with stepson listed for a son-in-law; multiple \ listings of the same family in the same census Don't assume the male in the household is the husband. A long discussion was held on deeds, land grants and the locations of those records. Court order books are underutilized. Tax records can substitute for the missing 1890 census. Some loose packets of records may be filed under the adminstrators name, rather than the person you're looking for. Don't rely on the index of county court records. Look through ALL the page. Original Christian county records are being copied to preserve them. Deed books contain more than deeds. A deed is not always just land; could be slaves, birth reords, powers of attorney or wills. You may find deeds in other books. Work with your local historical societies to preserve records in all areas of your community (some groups are destroying records to save space). Doors prizes were awarded. If you did not attend you missed a GREAT TIME. Plan now to attend NEXT YEAR.
Rose Hill, the Lyon County museum, will officially open for the season 15 May and the annual Open House will be Saturday, 16 May 1998, 1-5 p.m.
Tours are given through the museum 15 May - 15 Oct (Wednesday - Sunday) from 1 - 4 p.m.
Topical exhibits relating to events of special or historical significance to Lyon County and its people are presented throughout the season.
To get to the museum, follow the green museum signs on all approaching roads to the site on Ky. Highway 730 near the Kentucky State Prison.
24 May 1997.
Local Researcher, Author and Publisher Receives Certification Brenda Joyce Jerome has received notification from the Board of Certification in Washington, DC that she now a Certified Genealogical Record Specialist. Brenda is publisher of the Western Kentucky Journal, owner of a very active genealogical publishing company, speaker, author and genealogist. Let us all join in congratulating her!!
13 April 1997. This just in from Deborah Atchley.
Lyon County Genealogy Workshop
I attended the genealogy workshop held in Eddyville Saturday April 12th. It was my FIRST genealogy workshop, and I'm so glad I waited to attend one in the geographic area in which my research is centered. This location gave me access to all those great vendors displaying collections, indexes and histories for THAT geographic area. I got carried away and bought SIX books. I found marriage, census and birth collections for MY counties. I was sooo excited!! Guess I'll have to save up to attend another one. (I think there's one coming up in Hopkinsville later in the month!!? - I'll have to check, but I think it's the 19th in Christian County at the 1st Methodist Church - South Main and 12th Street - $12 preregistration and $15 at the door)
The Title of the workshop was:
RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS
(AND HOW TO USE THEM)
Mary Weldon Dulaney and Marjorie Orr (among others) put together the workshop held Saturday April 12th in Eddyville.
1. Index cards with the names of attendees, counties of research interest, and surnames of research interest were collected. These will be forwarded to Pat Oliver for inclusion in the surname index on the Lyon County web page. I think there were about 150 people in attendance!!
2. There were MANY vendors in attendance, displaying and selling indexes, collections and histories of surnames, counties etc. The vendors are researchers and obviously active participants in genealogy, so they also added to the discussions during the day too.
3. John Byron spoke on "Computer Resources for Genealogists". He gave pointers about on-line services, available CD's for research, web sites and general research on-line. He also had a handout on genealogy software that uses GEDCOM, and showed us the output of some deed boundary plotting software.
4. Ron Bryant from the Kentucky Historical Society spoke on "Research in the Kentucky Historical Society". Ron talked about the NEW Kentucky Historical Center that will be opening next year. He gave us the statistics on their collections, and went over some of their best known collections, and some of the not-so-well known acquisitions. He gave us pointers on using the collections, and told us which ones not to miss. If you're going there to look for something specific, you probably need to check witht them, as during this coming year, some collections will be closing to ready them for shipment to the new site. Some of the things he covered:
Surname Files. They have the largest collection of surname files in the state (over 12,000),
Newspapers files,
Family histories,
War Records,
Church Records (some denominations did better than others in keeping these!),
Land grants from Secretary of State's Office - INDEXED and in bound volumes! (Hint on these from him: check the BACK of the land grant document for assignment of the land information.),
Bible records,
Biographies,
Microfilm,
Journals of Kentucky Governors,
Acts of Legislature - Journals of house and senat - did you know that divorces had to go through the legislature (not just handled locally) from 1792 through 1849?,
Draper Manuscripts - a MUST for any Kentucky researcher - these are interviews with old Kentucky pioneers,
Map collections,
Photos,
Periodicals - after KY, the next largest periodical collection they have is Virginia, then Pennsylvania, then Maryland,
Migration routes,
Percy Index,
Swimms Index (I may have mispelled this one),
Old acts of Virginia from 1619,
Records of the London Company and KY descendants,
Census records,
Some Cherokee Records; Miller and Dawes Rolls,
Fincastle County Records from VA and KY on microfilm.
The KY Historical Center is in Frankfort, and is open M-F 8-to-4, and Sat 9-4 except on holidays. They have ELDER Weekends (for seniors) periodically, and stay open extra hours during those days.
Other places to do Kentucky research:
In Frankfort - Military Research Library; and KY Archives,
West KY University Library,
Murray University Library,
West KY Univ Library,
Other KY Universities were discussed too,
University of Chicago has the Rubin T Durrett Collection. This is the second largest collection of KY related material. It covers presettlement, 1740, 1750, to post civil war. Durrett founded the Filson Club.,
Filson Club in Louisville. 50,000 volumes of state and family info; One of the largest collection of manuscripts in the nation. A lot of Jefferson County material.
Ron Bryant was a very engaging speaker.
4. Steven A. Birchfield, 3201 Hardmoney Road, Paducah, KY 42003
Mr. Birchfield spoke about the Jackson Purchase WWII Project to collect informational biographies on ALL World War II Vets.5. Brenda Joyce Jerome spoke on: "The Goodies in the Courthouse". She talked about the importance of the County Clerk's Office for:
Marriage and Land Records, Wills, and and she pointed out that "the courthouse is a place to hold, in your own hands, something that your ancestor held in his hands;
Marriage records: She discussed the process in most counties i. e. posting of a bond, issuance of license, minister fills out license, and then the entry in the marriage register. She talked about the consent note for those under 21. She said that generally the marriage took place in the home county of the bride. The participants could make a bond in one county and be married in another. If there was no record of the license being returned, you should check surrounding counties for a marriage.
The Will process: The will was produced at first county session after death, as some of the property was perishable (crops, livestock etc.) She noted that Caldwell has ORIGINAL wills. She discussed types of wills - I won't write all my notes on this, but it was VERY informative. I learned a lot.
Other records available in the County Court Clerk's Office include: Deed books, Commissioner's Deed Book, Bond Books, County Court Minutes, Guardian Bond Books, Military Discharge Books, Road Order Books, Physician Register, Indentures of Apprenticeship, Stray Books - stray cattle etc.
She also discussed the Circuit Clerks Office which contains records of Commonwealth cases, Will contests, Divorces, Murder and other felony cases.
It was ALL GREAT. And on top of all this, the lunch was GREAT. If you missed this one, you need to go next year. I plan on being there. It was a day WELL SPENT.
Deb Atchley
Deborah Atchley has provided the following item:
Subject: Old Eddyville Museum "I visited the Old Eddyville Museum yesterday. It was VERY enjoyable. My tour was led by Julian Beatty (a heavy pursuer of genealogy too). The Rose Hill home (partially built in the 1830's) has been (and is still being) restored. Many items of interest on the Lyons, the old iron works, the penitentiary, old farming techniques and lifestyles, pictures of old Eddyville, pictures from the flood (1930's?), pre and post Lake Barkley information, furniture from the period of the homes beginning... and MUCH more. They ask for a $2.00 donation. The Museum is open from 1-4 PM, Wed thru Sunday, from May 15 - Oct 15. It is located next to the prison, I can give more detailed directions for those coming from elsewhere. I had walked by this home from the early 50's, and had never been in before. A must for anyone who had every been to Old Eddyville before it was flooded."