(Due to COVID-19, Meetings will be conducted via ZOOM until further notice.)

Meeting Schedule

Meetings are the second Monday of the month at
7:00 PM, September - May.

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7:00 pm ~ Featured Speaker
8:00 pm ~ Society Business Meeting

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Guests are invited to attend a meeting to learn more about our group before joining our society.

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        Phillip Cezeaux Recreational Building

        100 N. Houston Ave.  Humble, TX 77338

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Currently, we are having Zoom meetings. If you would like to attend as a guest, email us at:  humbleareagen@gmail.com

13 September 2021

What is the answer to all my genealogy prayers?

WOW, you are not going to believe what you have been missing!! FamilySearch has a hidden resource that will blow your sox right off.  I am going to show you the Wiki and just a few of the many things that it can help you find.  It would take hours and days to go over all the “toys” in the Wiki.  It can lead you to sites that are not on any of the “Big Box” sites, like the actual digitized English will of an ancestor that left everything to her granddaughter but explained why she skipped her daughter.  It can help you write a letter in French/German/Spanish etc to the archive holding your record.   If you find a digitized document, you want to attach to your family tree just push one button and it will attach it and site your sources accurately.

 
These are just a few of the things you can learn, I’m still trying to find the right button to make it mop floors and wash windows, I’m sure it is in there somewhere.

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Sue Yerby

My all-consuming hobby, and often my obsession, is genealogy.  I have been doing my own family research for over 58 years.  
For over 49 years I have been a Family History Consultant.  I’ve taught continuing education classes in genealogy as well as developing and orchestrating several full day genealogy workshops.  Currently, I am a volunteer for FamilySearch.org, I work in the training department, I am one of the people who train those people who answer your phone calls, chats and emails when you have a problem with FamilySearch.
I hold memberships in many area genealogy societies as well as being a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  I have served on the Board of Clayton Library Friends in three different capacities.  I am also a member of the National and Texas Association of Professional Genealogists.
 

11 October 2021

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Digital Images and Descriptions in the National Archives Catalog

Methodical research in federal records in the National Archives requires researchers to consider how their person or subject might have interacted with the federal government, identify relevant record groups and record series, and then search those record series for mention of the person or subject. The online National Archives Catalog can help find nuggets of information that would have taken hours, days, or years to find in pre-digital days—or perhaps would never have been found at all. This presentation will show examples of digital records in the Catalog and how to search it

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Claire Kluskens

Claire Kluskens is a digital projects archivist and designated Genealogy/Census Subject Matter Expert at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, DC. She completed the digitization of the Confederate slave payrolls featured in a July 2020 Washington Post article and is involved in the forthcoming release of the 1950 census in April 2022 as well as other projects to increase digital records content in the National Archives Catalog. She is writing a series blog posts on the 1950 census on the History Hub website. She also blogs at The Twelve Key, which also contains an archives of her numerous past articles about federal records in the National Archives. Claire has been a NARA staff member since 1992 and has done genealogical research since 1976. 

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8 November 2021

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Anything You can Do, I can Do Meta : Metadata & Digital Archiving Your Family History

Having an organized file system is a must for any genealogical research. Traditionally this has been done with paper folders, and filing cabinets. But there are some benefits to upgrading to a digital organization system. Join Carl Smith, Librarian, for a talk on using metadata and digital archiving your family history to take your file storage into the 21st century.

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Carl Smith

Carl Smith is the Branch Manager for the Aldine Branch Library in the Harris County Public Library System. He earned his Masters degree in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University. Prior library service includes working as a copy cataloger, circulation clerk, special collections assistant, and worked for 5 years as the Genealogy Librarian for the Montgomery County Memorial Library System. As genealogy librarian, he focused on modernizing the department, increasing accessibility of the special collection for patrons, creating a genealogy maker-space, and developing a wide array of public programs. A fan of historical literature and fantasy, Carl lives in The Woodlands with his wife and two young daughters.

13  December 2021

Holiday Party

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10 January 2022

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program: Walking the Footprints of Your History

Dr. Ana Krahmer oversees the Texas Digital Newspaper Program out of the University of North Texas Libraries. TDNP is the largest open digital newspaper and preservation repository in the U.S., and it includes over 8.3 million newspaper pages, spanning west to east, from El Paso to Newton, and north to south, from Higgins to Brownsville.  Krahmer has served as the head of the program since 2011 and loves showing people the time machine that is the Texas Digital Newspaper Program.
 

14 February  2022

Be Prepared…Prepared…Prepared.  The motto of a true Scout.”  Preparing for the Release of the 1950 US Census

The objective of this class is to prepare all true Scouts to gather all the needed information to locate themselves, their families, and relatives upon the initial release of the 1950 US Census on April 1, 2022.

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Karen L Rasmussen

Karen is a multi-generational genealogy enthusiast.  Learning from the examples of her grandmothers and mother, she continues to search for her ancestors and their descendants.  Karen has written several books about direct line ancestors, each including a sourced chronological history.  She enjoys helping others with their research questions and has served on the FamilySearch help desk and in the local Family History Center.  Karen is a member of THAGS and enjoys associating with her genealogy-minded friends.

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14 March 2022

Genealogy From a Private Investigator’s Perspective

See how the the methodology, techniques, and resources used in the private investigation and genealogy professions overlap and are applied to solve cases. Four case studies are presented.

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Lisa Smith

Lisa Smith is a licensed private investigator, certified fraud examiner, and professional genealogist. She is a member of the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners,  and Association of Professional Genealogists. She is the owner of Dragon Investigation Group and is currently serving as the Texas Bay Area Genealogy Society’s (BAGS) President. Her career began in computers, moved into the medical field, then into investigation and fraud examination. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Criminal Justice. She caught the genealogy bug in her mid-teens and has been expanding her family tree ever since. She is a native of New Hampshire with roots in Sweden, Ireland, Greece, and Ukraine. Her genealogy services focus on those countries, help with DNA matching, and locating adoptee/birth relatives.

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11 April 2022

Brief history of Orphan Trains; the Texas riders, and the story of her grandfather John J Dunn

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Linda Fulmer

Linda Dunn Fulmer is a native Texan and granddaughter of John J Dunn, a Texas Orphan Train rider. Through research and discovery of John’s story, she became interested in finding and documenting names and stories of other Texas train riders.  In 2016 she received the Sister Irene Fitzgibbons Award from the National Orphan Train Complex for her work on the Texas Orphan Train List. She has a degree in Sociology and Social Welfare and lives in Lindale, Texas

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9 May 2022

Using Family Search and Ancestry, navigation and tips

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Sue Kaufman

Susan Kaufman is the Senior Manager of the Houston (TX) Public Library’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research in Houston. An Illinois native, Susan has more than 30 years of experience as a genealogy librarian, having started her career in Peoria, IL, then moving to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, then moving to Texas in 2004.  

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A presenter at local, state and national genealogy conferences and meetings, she also has held numerous genealogical society board positions in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas and at the national level.    

Susan is the recipient of the National Genealogical Society’s P. William Filby award for outstanding service as a Genealogical Librarian.  She is a Fellow of the Texas State Genealogical Society 2019 and was presented with the Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service by the Dallas Genealogical Society. She is past President of the Texas State Genealogical Society, and currently serves as its Director of Education.  She is a member of the Texas Library Association and the American Library Association.