Then and Now

Ideas for Sue Kaufman’s December Presentation

Sue: See https://www.enwoven.com/collections/view/1737/content for some images and pictures from the early days of the society.

Then (1933)

Then: DGS Donates 1850/60/70 census records obtained (transcribed? photographed? The article doesn’t say) by member E.B. Comstock to the Dallas Public Library

Headline: County ‘before War’ and French Colony’s Facts Are Compiled; Article Type: News/Opinion
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas) • 01-15-1933 • Page One

Now

DGS Pays to provide access to online databases.

• NewspaperArchive.com – A subscription-based site that provides its users access to online digital images of their many exclusive collections ($3,945/year).
• HistoryGEO.com – A family history software service for linking old maps and land records to your genealogy research ($2,600/year).

Then (1963)

DGS Plans Two-Day Institute

Headline: History Society Plans Two-Day Institute, Study; Article Type: News/Opinion
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas) • 05-07-1963 • Page 4

Now (June 2020)

4 months after the outbreak of COVID DGS hosted a 3-track virtual Seminar on DNA featuring Blaine Bettinger, Diahan Southard, Patricia Hobbs and Mary Eberlie that had more than 200 participants.

All Seminars and General meetings are now hybrid (in-person, broadcast on Zoom and recorded for later viewing.

Then (1955 – 2015)

DGS Newsletters were printed and mailed

Now

Newsletters are electronic & distributed via email

Then

Payments to the society were either by check or cash

Now

We longer solicit payment by check. Payments are almost entirely on-line via credit card.

Then

We have been responsible for the purchase of countless books for the History & Genealogy section of the Dallas Public Library

The collection reached the 50,000 book mark in 1988.

https://dallasgenealogy.org/DGS_Docs/Newsletters/1988/April/PDF/DGS_Newsletter_1988_April_Iss_104.pdf

We celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2005 with a (successful) challenge to boost the genealogy collection to 100,000 books.

Now

We paid to create a facility in the library used by Family Search personnel to digitize out-of-copyright books in the collection to make them available on the FamilySearch website.

Then

We used to publish paper copies of Quarterlies and Journals.

Copies were provided to DGS members as a benefit of membership.

Now

We publish our last Journal in 2016.

Every Newsletter, Quarterly and Journal we ever published has been digitized and made available on the Portal to Texas History.

In addition, each issue has been indexed on our website with links to the images available on the Portal to Texas History.

The images on the Portal to Texas History have been viewed more than 1,000,000 times. The DGS was the first Genealogical Society (and only the 31st portal partner) to reach this significant threshold.

Then (2010/2011)

Before YouTube & Zoom

General Meetings averaged 50 attendees

General Meeting Participation

Now (2025)

Each General meeting was experienced (in-person, live via Zoom or by watching a recording) by 220 participants