DALLAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Roots Magic SIG
2016-09-11 13:30 - 14:30 (America/Chicago) | 5th Floor – Hamon Room, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young, Dallas, TX-Texas, 75201, United States

General Meeting
2016-09-10 10:30 - 12:30 | 1st Floor – Auditorium, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States
Join us starting at 10:30 for hospitality and mingling. The business meeting starts at 11:00, followed by our featured speaker around 11:30.
Our speaker will be Shirley Sloat. Her presentation is titled “It takes a village…… to produce a book preserving the memories of the only living grandchild of two Georgia slaves who came in a wagon with nine children to Wheelock, Texas, in 1894”.
Shirley met Estelle Mitchell Adams at an aqua exercise class in 2013 and the two formed a friendship. Estelle shared many written documents about the Negro churches, schools, and cemetery in Wheelock. When Estelle showed Shirley that she remembered the names of all but about 12 of the 40 students attending the Wheelock Colored School in 1934, Shirley knew that she had to help to capture Estelle’s voice and memories for the public.
Their collaboration has led to the publication of “Remembering Negro Life in Wheelock, Texas – Churches, Schools, Cemetery, Families in the 1900s” (copies of the new book will be available for sale at the meeting).
The intention of the presentation is to provide a suggested path through some of the intricacies of creating a book in general, to shed some light on the challenges of creating one with a story teller, and to give courage to those who might have been afraid to try publishing their work. It will include a brief talk from Estelle, now 89, followed by Shirley’s account of the various events and help provided along the way by people and organizations like the Texas Portal, University of North Texas, Dallas Public Library, and DGS members, with particular thanks to Ed Millis who just likes to make books and who tells all about things like achieving an ISBN number.

Shirley Remnant Sloat was a computer professional at Texas Instruments and Sun Oil until she retired in 1992. She immediately joined the Dallas Genealogical Society as a Life Member and began working at the Dallas Public Library’s 8th floor volunteer desk.
She joined a small genealogy study group who encouraged her to expand her volunteer work into other areas of DGS. Over the years she chaired the publicity committee, and served on the DGS Board as VP Membership, Executive VP Fundraising, and President in 2005-6.
She received DGS awards for the Writing Contest, Volunteer of the Year, Historical Preservation, and the Award of Merit. She has received the Dallas Public Library Award of Excellence twice, and the A.C. Green Award from the Friends of the Dallas Public Library.
She still volunteers on the 8th floor on Wednesdays, and is a proofreader for DGS publications.
She has spent the past two years organizing, editing and indexing, and posting online and in book format the remembrances of a close friend who is the last living granddaughter of Georgia slaves who came to Wheelock, Texas in 1894.

Estelle is the author of three other publications that are available on the Portal to Texas History:

The History Of Wheelock Afro-American Cemetery, Wheelock, Robertson County, Texas (View on the Portal)
Preserving the History of Wheelock Colored School, Wheelock, Robertson County, Texas (View on the Portal)
The Black Churches in Wheelock, Robertson County, Texas (View on the Portal)

Technology Special Interest Group
2016-09-01 18:00 - 20:00, 2016-05-05 18:00 - 20:00, 2016-04-07 18:00 - 20:00 | 5th Floor – Hamon Room, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young, Dallas, TX-Texas, 75201, United States

Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference
2016-08-31 - 2016-09-03 | FGS, Springfield, IL, United States

Brown Bag Special Interest Group
2016-08-27 10:30 - 13:00, 2016-07-23 10:30 - 13:00, 2016-06-25 10:30 - 13:00, 2016-05-28 10:30 - 13:00, 2016-04-23 10:30 - 13:00 | 8th Floor – McDermott Room, J. Erik Jonnson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States

Jewish Special Interest Group
2016-08-17 10:00 - 13:00, 2016-07-20 10:00 - 13:00, 2016-06-15 10:00 - 13:00, 2016-05-18 10:00 - 13:00, 2016-04-20 10:00 - 13:00 | 8th Floor – McDermott Room, J. Erik Jonnson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States

MacGen Reunion Group
2016-08-13 13:00, 2016-06-11 13:00, 2016-04-09 13:00 | 8th Floor – McDermott Room, J. Erik Jonnson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States

Summer Seminar: Preserving and Sharing Our Family Treasures
2016-07-29 - 2016-07-30 | 1st Floor – Auditorium, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States
This two day seminar is a must for anybody looking for information on how to preserve photo’s, documents and memorabilia. Denise may Levenick, The Family Curator, is a widely respected expert on archiving and preserving family keepsakes. Read more about Denise on her blog, www.theFamilyCurator.com.
More Information & Registration….

African American Genealogical Interest Group
2016-05-21 14:00 - 16:45, 2016-04-16 14:00 - 16:45, 2016-03-19 14:00 - 16:45 | 1st Floor – West Room, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States

DNA Special Interest Group
2016-05-19 18:00 - 20:00 | 5th Floor – Hamon Room, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young, Dallas, TX-Texas, 75201, United States

General Meeting
2016-05-07 10:30 - 13:00 | 1st Floor – Auditorium, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States
Join us starting at 10:30 for hospitality and mingling. The business meeting starts at 11:00, followed by our program around 11:30.
The major item on this months agenda is the election of officers to the Executive Board for 2016 – 2017. Nominations will be closed at the meeting and the vote will be held immediately afterwards.
This months education program will be a look back at the history of the Dallas Genealogical Society:
– Tony Hanson – Introduction and Overview
– Carolyn Davis – How we have educated by creating, fostering, and maintaining interest in genealogy
– Barbara Ware – How we have collected, preserved, copied, and indexed information relating to Dallas County and its early history
– Kathleen Murray – How we have assisted and supported the genealogy section of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas, Texas
– Lloyd Bockstruck – His perspective on the relationship between the Dallas Public Library and the society
– Tony Hanson – Wrap up
The presentation will incorporate several drawings and there will (of course!) be a birthday cake.
April Meeting Minutes

National Genealogical Society Annual Meeting
2016-05-04 - 2016-05-07 | Greater Fort Lauderdale & Brownard County Convention Center, 1950 Eisenhower Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33316, United States

Pleasant Mound Cemetery Photography Day
2016-04-23 07:30 - 12:30 | Pleasant Mound Cemetery, 3151 South Buckner Boulevard,, Dallas, 75227, United States
Grab your smart phone and help photograph tombstones at the historic Pleasant Mound cemetery… Volunteer now

DNA Special Interest Group
2016-04-21 18:00 - 20:00 | 5th Floor – Hamon Room, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young, Dallas, TX-Texas, 75201, United States
We will talk about the changes in GEDMatch for FTDNA users, share what the DIG members have learned from using GEDMatch during the past two months, and look at the following features in GEDMatch.

GEDCOM to All
2 GEDCOMs
Search all GEDCOMs
GEDCOM + DNA Matches
User Lookup

General Meeting
2016-04-02 10:30 - 13:00 | 1st Floor – Auditorium, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States
Join us starting at 10:30 for hospitality and mingling. The business meeting starts at 11:00, followed by our featured speaker around 11:30.
Read about the proposed Bylaw Changes
Ari Wilkins is a genealogist who works in the Genealogy section of the Dallas Public Library. She will be discussing Ante-Bellum Southern Plantation Records, which are an invaluable collection of records of plantation owners and, often, their descendants that may connect an individual to his or her family.

March Meeting Minutes

Brown Bag Special Interest Group
2016-03-26 10:30 - 13:00 | 8th Floor – McDermott Room, J. Erik Jonnson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX, 75201, United States
The topic for the March Brown Bag SIG discussion will be about writing an ancestor character sketch for a family history. The Register Style for building a character sketch can be found in Guide to Genealogical Writing pp. 14-18.
As a writing assignment you should choose one of your ancestors and write a short sketch in the Register style. A computer generated sketch is okay as a starting point. We will share results in the meeting.
