News - Announcements

Monthly Program Schedule for 2008-2009

The CCGS Monthly Program Schedule has been published for the 2008-2009 season. This year's speakers include Dennis Ahern on Irish Genealogy, Diane Rapaport on her recent book, The Naked Quaker, Paula Greene from the Brewster Family History Center, Todd Kelley on early Cape history and ecology, and Leslie Huber on German and western European genealogy. Members from the Plimoth Speakers Bureau will offer presentations on Wampanoag history and culture, as well as on early Pilgrim settlers and their Cape Cod connections. Christopher Skelly has been rescheduled from last season to present on the connection between historic preservation and genealogy. See CCGS Monthly Programs, 2008-2009 for dates and details.

CCGS Elects New Officers

At the Annual Meeting and Luncheon held on June 11, 2008, three new officers were chosen for 2008/2009. Elected were: Bob Ward, President; Dan McConnell, Vice President; and Bebe Brock, Corresponding Secretary.

Continuing in their current positions are Carolyn Weiss, Recording Secretary, and Nancy Daniels, Treasurer.

See CCGS Officers.

Education Series Survey - your input counts

Please remember to complete the Education Series Survey Form to help the Education Committee plan the genealogy methods workshop series for 2009.

This is a great opportunity to get the topics you want covered included in the workshops.

Details and Survey Form.

PAF SIG open to all genealogy software users

Renamed the Genealogy Software - PAF and Others Group, the original PAF SIG now welcomes CCGS users of all genealogy software programs, not just Personal Ancecstral File (PAF). This is a great way to get help, trade ideas and learn the features of other genealogy database programs. The SIGS Page has the the details.

Trip to Salt Lake City scheduled for October, 2008

Depart Sunday, October 12, 2008 from Providence, RI, and return to Providence, RI, October 16, 2008.

We will have access to the Family History Library all day on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, October 13, 14,15. In addition, we will have a special one-hour Seminar on Monday morning, on the details of how to make the best use of this wonderful facility, followed by a brief PowerPoint presentation at the Library itself.

The trip is limited to 20 participants. Details and Registration

Workshops on heirloom preservation slated for September and October, 2008

The Cape Cod Genealogical Society is sponsoring two workshops back-to-back this fall on techniques for preserving family photos and heirlooms to help ensure that future generations will fully appreciate them.

On Saturday, September 27, 2008, Maureen Taylor, internationally recognized photo detective and family history expert, will offer a seminar on Identifying and Preserving Old Photographs. Known to many as the "Photo Detective," Maureen will show how to identify and preserve old family photographs, how to determine the time period of the photo and how to classify different types of photographs.

The following Saturday, October 4, 2008, will feature a workshop on Preserving Family Heirlooms For Future Generations. This follow-up workshop, presented by local experts, will focus on how to scan photographs, use Picasa software to organize your photo collection, use Fototagger to identify people in your family photos, and how to label and preserve antique items made of paper, fiber and glass.

See our Workshops/Events page for details and registration.

Joint Meeting with Falmouth Genealogy Society set for Saturday, November 8, 2008

Following on the success of last year's joint meeting, here again is an opportunity to meet new friends and compare research notes and tips. This year's program will include two presentions:

Technology and Genealogical Research -- led by Carolyn Weiss, Cape Cod Genealogical Society
Doing the Genealogy of a House -- led by Marianne Schafer, Falmouth Genealogical Society

The Workshops/Events page has the details.

CCGS Genealogy Room Library - Recent Additions

The following volumes have been added to the Society's book collection and are available for use in the Genealogy Room Library:

Volumes 21, 22, and 23 to our Mayflower "silver book" series. This brings the collection up to date with what is currently available from the Society of Mayflower Descendants. The series lists the latest information for the following Mayflower families through five generations: Edward Fuller, Edward Winslow, John Billington, Stephen Hopkins, Peter Brown, Degory Priest, Frances Eaton, Edward Doty, Francis Cooke, William White, Myles Standish, James Chilton, Richard More, John Alden, Isaac Allerton, Richard Warren, Thomas Rogers, Henry Samson, William Bradford, and John Howland.

Another recent acquisition is entitled Cobb, Hayes, Halm and King Ancestors, by Diane Marie Campbell Cobb. The pedigree includes descriptions of about 1400 ancestors of Warrington Crane Cobb in prior generations, including over 400 seventeenth century immigrants to Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies, Maine, New Hampshire, and Tidewater Virginia.

A Pictorial History of the 26th Division United States Army, by Albert E. George and Edwin H. Cooper, has also been added to our shelves. The volume lists many names of those serving in the Yankee Division during World War I.

Local Research Assistance available

Several local genealogists have have made themselves available to help others with their research. All are versed in Cape Cod genealogy, and some have expertise beyond the Cape. You can find their names and information listed on the Resources page. Contact them directly to make arrangements for scope of work and fees.

Summaries of presentations at the Society's monthly meetings are now on-line

This is a great way for members to recall past presentations or get a quick summary of a meeting they may have missed. Everyone will find the notes to these excellent presentations valuable for their genealogical research.

In the Monthly Programs listings look for the notes tag at the end of the meeting's description. A new Presentation Notes Index lists those speaker notes currently available - more are on the way. Enjoy!!

Brewster Archives cataloged and accessible to researchers

At the Society's meeting in January, speakers Suzanne Teuteberg and Sally Gunning, representing the Brewster Archives Committee, described their Committee's efforts to identify, preserve, catalog and make available important historical documents of the Town of Brewster. One result of the Committee's work is a 49-page catalog of many of the historical town records found in the Town Clerk's vault. Some records date back to 1710. See Town Records on this site for more on the project, a link to the catalog, and how to access the archives.

Work continues on Massachusetts Archives on-line databases

Volunteers are making steady progress entering data for the on-line index to Boston passenger ship manifests at the Massachusetts Archives. When the project is completed, researchers will be able to search for the names of over one million passengers who entered the port of Boston between 1848-1891.

Working from the original card index at the Archives in Dorchester, MA, volunteers in the Archives Volunteer program are entering the information into a database that can be searched and accessed on-line. Information available includes the name, age, sex and occupation of the immigrant; the country of birth, last residence and the passenger list number. Also included is the name of the ship, and the date of its arrival in Boston.

Over 500,000 records have been converted so far, with about 350,000 available on-line. This is a long-term volunteer project which will take several years to complete.

Meanwhile, data entry for the 1841-1910 Birth, Marriage & Death indices has been completed. Researchers can use this database on-line to find the citations for Birth, Marriages & Death records. Each index entry includes the person's first and last name, the town or city where the event occurred, the year, volume number, and page number. The database is searchable by first and last names, year, and location.

For more information about these databases and the Archives Volunteer program, contact Janis Duffy, Reference Supervisor, Massachusetts Archives, at janis.duffy@sec.state.ma.us

Dorothy Schatz donates copy of family history

CCGS member and family historian Dorothy "Dottie" Schatz has donated a copy of her newly published (2007) family history to the Society's Genealogy Library in Dennis, MA. Titled Burdick, Crowther, Eaton, Freethy and Related Families Including Two Mayflower Families – Chilton and White, Dottie's book is in the biography section under Burdick. The work contains four volumes - one each on the families of her four grandparents. Each volume is complete with a table of contents, bibliography, and index.

Dottie, who occasionally fills in as a volunteer in the Society's Genealogy Room, says her book contains "hundreds and hundreds of names," and would make an excellent resource for other genealogists.

"It includes a lot of Cape names which I didn't know I was related to, until I got on the female side - Nickerson and all those," said Dottie recently.

In addition to donating a copy to our library, Dottie has also placed a copy with the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, MA, and will soon be placing copies with the Mayflower Society and with the DAR in Washington, DC.

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