Library of Michigan’s Special Collections Manager Receives Prestigious William Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship

A tireless advocate for genealogists with Michigan ties, Lansing’s Randy Riley (pictured to the left of presenter William Forsyth, ProQuest Director of Product Management) has overseen the digitization and indexing of the 1870 Michigan Census, helped build the Library of Michigan’s family history collection into one of the premier resources of its kind in the United States, and presented hundreds of workshops and programs for librarians, genealogists, and local historians. On April 30, 2010, Riley, Manager of Special Collections for the Library of Michigan, was recognized by the National Genealogical Society with the 2010 William Filby Award and $1,000 for his significant contributions to the genealogical community.

“Librarians play such a crucial role for constituents at all stages of family history research,” said Lynda Suffridge, Vice President and Chair of the NGS Awards Committee. “Randy’s work certainly reflects the spirit of the Filby Award, which was created to honor librarians who have done the most to help us find our roots.” The Award has been sponsored by ProQuest since 2006. According to ProQuest Vice President of Publishing, Chris Cowan, “We’re pleased to sponsor the Filby Award, honoring Randy Riley from the Library of Michigan. ProQuest is committed to connecting people to information and promoting the role librarians play in advancing genealogy research. Mr. Riley’s accomplishments during his career exemplify excellence in librarianship in helping family history researchers.”

Established in 1999, the Filby Award is named for the late P. William Filby, former director of the Maryland Historical Society and author of many core genealogical reference tools that genealogists have relied on for decades. It is presented to a librarian at a public, academic, or special library whose full-time primary focus is in genealogy and local history. Recipients meet the following criteria:

• Significant contributions to patron access to information, or to the preservation of historical records.
• Development of an imaginative reference tool or similar outstanding contribution of enduring consequence that fills the gaps in existing information, accuracy, scope or usefulness of genealogical and local history materials.
• Publication of a book or body of articles that have contributed significantly to the field of genealogy or local history and that are of interpretative nature.
• Other activities that have significantly advanced genealogy and local history.
• Work that has encouraged others to be innovative in the field.

Randy Riley's many accomplishments include overseeing the integration of online and paper version of the Cemetery Source Books for the State of Michigan; creation of a genealogical database on the statewide Michigan eLibrary system; and supervision of the digitization, indexing, and publishing of some 1 million death certificates for the Seeking Michigan web site. He is editor of the Michigan Genealogist newsletter and serves as advisor to the Michigan Genealogical Council.

Nominations for the 2011 Filby Award are being accepted now through January 31, 2011. Please visit NGS’s guidelines page for details.

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, VA-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists. Please visit the NGS web site for further information on member benefits.

NGS 2010 Family History Conference Was a Huge Success!

The National Genealogical Society 2010 Family History Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, achieved record attendance of more than 2,700. The NGS officers and board of directors want to thank all the conference registrants, speakers, vendors, sponsors and volunteers who made the conference a success. We also want to thank the Utah Genealogical Association, the local host society, and our major sponsors FamilySearch, Ancestry.com and ProQuest. The conference included many people just beginning their family history research and first time attendees to a national conference. NGS President, Janet A. Alpert, attributed the record attendance to increased interest in genealogy as a result of the two new television shows “Faces of America” on PBS and “Who Do You Think You Are?” on NBC.

The conference included almost 200 lectures and workshops, an expanded exhibit area featuring the latest in genealogical technology (GenTech), and a kids camp on Saturday. Many of the lectures were recorded and will be available to purchase on CD-ROM in a couple of weeks. Notice will be posted on the NGS blog when they are available.

The keynote speaker was Jay Verkler, CEO of FamilySearch, providing an inside look at the granite mountain where FamilySearch stores a secure copy of records from all over the world. The highlight of the week was “A Celebration of Family History” featuring David McCullough and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Highlights can be seen at http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/-a-celebration-of-family-history-delights-thousands-of-genealogy-enthusiasts. On Friday night a large group viewed the final session of “Who Do You Think You Are” and heard Ancestry.com describe the research process for the various celebrities.

Many participants remarked that there was more to see, hear, and do at this year’s conference, including research at the Family History Library until 11:00 pm in the evening.

A number of awards were presented at the NGS 2010 Family History Conference. The NGS President’s Citation is given in recognition of outstanding, continuing or unusual contributions to the Society or to the field of genealogy. The following people received this award at the NGS Banquet:

Peter Broadbent was awarded the President’s Citation in appreciation of his two terms on the NGS Board of Directors, assisting with the sale of Glebe House, for his work on Amending and Restating the Articles of Incorporation and ByLaws, and for his wise counsel on numerous issues which came before the board. Peter served on the NGS Board of Directors for 7 years. His other accomplishments include Who’s Who in America, 2008-2010; former Chairman of the Library of Virginia Board; former President, Virginia Genealogical Society; former Governor, Virginia Society of Colonial Wars; President, 2004 Virginia Electoral College; former Chairman, Virginia State Bar’s Business Law Section, and of its Public Information Committee; member, Virginia War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.

Connie Lenzen, CG, (pictured to the right of NGS President Jan Alpert) who has served two terms on the NGS Board, was presented the President's Citation for her leadership as Chair of the Education Committee. Under Connie's direction the Home Study Course was rewritten in html format and distributed on CD-ROM. Connie has spent hundreds of hours each year keeping the links to the Home Study Course up to date and answering students' questions about the Home Study Course and other NGS online courses. She authored the NGS Research in the States: Research in Oregon. She has written articles for the NGS Quarterly, the NGS Magazine, Heritage Quest, Ancestry, and the Genealogical Forum of the Oregon Bulletin. She served as a columnist for the Vancouver Columbian newspaper for seven years. Connie earned the 1995 NGS Quarterly Award of Excellence. She was the local arrangements co-chair for the 2001 NGS Conference. She is certified by the Board for Certification of Genealogists and is past president of that organization (2005–2008). She was the winner of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors Excellence-in-Writing competition in 2003 and 2004.

Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, (pictured to the left of NGS President Jan Alpert) received the President's Citation for her ongoing promotion of genealogical events and broad support of the genealogical community as a whole. Powell is a Trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists and often serves as their Exhibits Booth Coordinator for major conferences. She is the course coordinator for the Professional Genealogy course at IGHR at Samford University and course co-coordinator of the AG/CG Preparation Course at the 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She served as a Director for the Association of Professional Genealogists (2000-2005). She also is the "Foundations" module instructor for Boston University's Genealogical Research Certificate program. Elissa writes articles and book reviews for the NGS Magazine, the NGSQ, and the APG Quarterly.

The Award of Excellence: Genealogical Methods & Sources was awarded to Schelly Talalaly Dardashti for her book, Ties That Bind (Jewish Research Strategies). The award is given to an individual or nonprofit organization for a specific, significant single contribution in the form of a book, an article, or a series of articles published during the past three years that discusses genealogical methods and sources and serves to foster scholarship and/or otherwise advances or promotes excellence in genealogy. Schelly was unable to attend the conference, so the award was accepted on her behalf by David Horowitz.

The NGSQ Award for Excellence is given each year for a specific, significant, single contribution in the form of an article or series of articles that serves to foster scholarship and/or advances or promotes excellence in genealogy. The editorial board of the NGS Quarterly selects the recipient of this award. This year’s winner was Rachal Mills Lennon, CG, for her article “Jonathan Turner- More Than a Name: A Carolina Case Study in Dissecting Records,” which appeared in the March 2009 issue of the NGSQ. The award was accepted by Elizabeth Shown Mills on behalf of Rachal Mills Lennon.

To receive the Family History Writing Contest Award, a contestant must compile a three- or four-generation family history. The prize is an expense-paid trip to the next NGS Family History Conference and possible publication in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Among the comments from the judges regarding the winner of the award this year: “With thorough research and clear exposition, the author has done a fine job of capturing the Irish Immigrant experience in 19th century New York.” This year’s winner was Patrick Quigley from Ponco Pines, Pennsylvania, and his entry was titled, "The Quigley Family Searches for the American Dream."

The Home Study Scholarship is given to encourage those pursuing a career in genealogy. The winner was Terri Hildreth of Madison, Alabama.

Robert Young Clay Passes, Age 73

Robert Young Clay, age 73, of Richmond, Va., and a native of Dixon Springs, Tenn., died May 6, 2010 in Richmond. He was born September 4, 1936 to the late Robert Bell and Ruth Young Clay. Through his life, Mr. Clay was a heraldic artist, producing hundreds of paintings of coats of arms. After retirement, he returned to landscape paintings, sold through galleries in Richmond and Alexandria, Va. He also conducted a lifetime of research on the Clay genealogy.

He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1960 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, having studied painting under C. Kermit Ewing and Walter H. Stephens, after which he was employed by the UT Library. In 1969, he received his Master of Library Science degree from George Peabody College in Nashville. From 1970, when he moved to Richmond, until retirement in 2001, he worked as a genealogical reference archivist with the Virginia State Library and Archives, now the Library of Virginia. During that time and in retirement he spoke nationally on research in Virginia records. Mr. Clay was a member of The Order of First Families of Virginia, The Order of First Families of North Carolina, the Order of the Crown in America and he was a fellow of the Virginia Genealogical Society. He was a member of the Church of Christ.

Mr. Clay will be buried with his parents and grandparents in the Clay family plot in the Dixon Springs, Tenn. Cemetery following services at a later date. Memorials may be made to: Smith County Tennencie Historical & Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 112, Carthage, Tenn. 37030

NGS Conference in Salt Lake City

WHEW!!. It has taken me a week but I think I have finally recovered from the greatest genealogy week ever.

I'm Janet Hovorka--vice president of the sponsoring society, the Utah Genealogical Society. So you need to read my report with an awareness that I'm biased. But WOW. What a fabulous conference NGS was this year. The plans were that I would report every evening throughout the conference about the goings on, but I wasn't ever able to sit down long enough. There were so many wonderful activities, so many exciting people to meet, and so many things to learn that I don't know how I'll ever fit them into a blog post. It's like trying to describe a field full of wildflowers. I'm sure I won't be able to do it justice.

As a vendor, it ends up that I'm only able to really tell you about the exciting things going on there. Usually I get chances to steal away to classes, walk around and talk to people, etc, etc. But not this time. We were too busy. Luckily, in the fast moving social networking world, if you wait long enough, everyone else will have already written about it. So, for other blogger takes on the conference, and perspectives on all the different wildflowers, check out these wonderful posts:

• You can check out my blog, but I'm going to post a similar summary post to this one like I did with all the Salt Lake travel information I posted before the conference. I had a great time putting that series of posts together and hope they might even be useful in the future to anyone traveling to the FHL.
• Donna Pointkouski wrote about the fun of going to a conference for the first time and the excitement of meeting new friends, especially friends she knew online.
• Sheri Fenley as usual has a hillarious take on her conference adventures in parts one and two or her blog report.
• The Ancestry Insider published a great report on the fabulous Thursday evening program "A Celebration of Family History" with links to the videos and music and summaries of the talks.
• Dick Eastman reported on the conference and has promised to have various blog posts on the new developments he saw there.
• Jean Wilcox Hibben wrote about the Kid's Camp offered on Saturday and the presentation she did.
• Steve Danko shares his successful research on parishes north of Warsaw starting here. He went to town in that library.
• Diane Hadad wrote about the WDYTYA showing, the Thursday night program and some new findings, conference happenings, announcements and Revolutionary War resources she found at the conference.
• Kathryn Doyle posted a wordless Wednesday post of great pictures and wrote about the successes of the people who came from the California Genealogical Society. That's what it's all about.
  

So you can see everyone had a wonderful time, got some new research done, and caught up with all the new happenings in the world of genealogy. If you haven't tried a conference lately, be sure to come to one of the upcoming conferences. We'd love to see you there.

New Video Feature — American Genealogy: Home Study Course

The NGS Online Video Series is now showing a new feature from our award-winning filmmakers, Kate Geis and Allen Moore. Now on the NGS website: www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/publications/videos/interviews/about_the_ngs_home_study_course.

Elizabeth Shown Mills and others talk about our widely appreciated Home Study Course. The experts agree the Home Study Course prepares a solid foundation for all researchers.

The graduates tell us they love it because they are learning while doing their own research – a unique feature of this program. And they love it because in the graded option they get personal feedback from experts. One graduate recently called the Home Study Course “number one” in the “grand slam of genealogy.” Now that’s a compliment!

Have a look at the video for an insight into the value the Home Study Course can have for you. For details on getting started with the course, visit http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/homestudy_course_cd.

Digital Archive Provides Access to Historic Atlanta Newspapers

A new digital database providing online access to 14 newspaper titles published in Atlanta from 1847 to 1922 is now available through the Digital Library of Georgia, housed at The University of Georgia Libraries.

The Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers) consists of more than 67,000 newspaper pages and provides historical images. In addition to searching the full text, you can also browse by date and title.

“This site will provide users with a record of Atlanta's history from its origins as a railroad terminus, through the devastation of the Civil War, to its eventual growth into one of the nation's largest cities,” said Toby Graham, director of the Digital Library of Georgia and deputy university librarian. “Of great interest to anyone curious about Atlanta history, it promises to be invaluable to researchers on any number of topics.”

The archive includes the following Atlanta newspaper titles:

Atlanta Daily Examiner, 1857
Atlanta Daily Herald, 1873-1876
Atlanta Georgian, 1906-1911
Atlanta Intelligencer, 1851, 1854-1871
Atlantian, 1911-1922
Daily/Georgia Weekly Opinion, 1867-1868
Gate-City Guardian, 1861
Georgia Literary and Temperance Crusader, 1860-1861
New Era, 1869-1872
Southern Confederacy, 1861-1864
Southern Miscellany, and Upper Georgia Whig, 1847
Southern World, 1882-1885
Sunny South, 1875-1907
Weekly Constitution, 1869-1882

The Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspaper Archive (1808-1920), the Southern Israelite Archive (1929-1958, 1984-1986), and the University of Georgia's student newspaper, The Red and Black Archive (1893-2006).

Where needed for viewing the images, each section includes links to download the appropriate DjVu browser plug-ins for Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX users.

These archives can be accessed at: http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/Newspapers.html

Patricia Law Hatcher Elected Fellow of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania

Editor's Note: The following release is from the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.

At the Annual Meeting of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, held on 26th March 2010, Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG, was honored as a Fellow of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (FGSP). For her exemplary service to GSP and scholarly achievement as editor of Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, she was unanimously elected by the Board of Directors of the Society at its meeting on 22nd January 2010.

Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG, FGSP, has been editor of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine since 2001 and editor of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record since 2006. She is the author of Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors, Locating Your Roots—Discover Your Ancestors Using Land Records, Producing a Quality Family History, and other books. She has written over three hundred articles, which have appeared in over a dozen publications, many of which have been on Pennsylvania topics. She is a former trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. A popular lecturer and instructor, she has spoken at many national conferences and institutes.

Notable of the numerous articles she has authored are three published in Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine: “Finding George Lorah: An Exercise in Genealogy,” (Spring/Summer 2000); “Untangling the 15 Henry Hoffs of York County,”(Fall/Winter 2001); and “Land Record Magic, Scotch-Irish to German: The Wiley/Wahle Family of York and Cumberland Counties,” (Fall/Winter 2005).

For more information about the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, visit http://www.genpa.org

Invitation to Participate in Focus Groups or Interviews

Dear Genealogist,

A research project at the University of Maryland aims to learn more about how historians and genealogists deal with copyright issues when using online archival sources. In particular, we are looking for genealogists who have used the online holdings of American archival institutions in their research, and who are willing to participate in a focus group or telephone interview to discuss how you deal with copyright issues that arise in your uses of online archival material.

Focus Groups:

• will be held on a weekday in the Washington, D.C., area
• will last for approximately 2 hours
• will consist of 5-8 participants
• Participants will receive a $50 honorarium.

Interviews:

• will be conducted by telephone
• will last for approximately 1 hour
• Participants will receive a $25 honorarium.

Interested?? For further information, please contact Dr. Jean Dryden at jdryden@umd.edu or 301-405-3777.


Dr. Jean Dryden, Principal Investigator
College of Information Studies, University of Maryland College Park