Bucks County
Genealogical Society
May 2014 Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
President's Message
Saturday, June 7, 2014 Newspapers & Genealogy
Save the Date - Sat. Sep. 20, 2014
Member Spotlight Mary Goodenough
Finding Your Roots returns to PBS in September
Database News!
Looking for a speaker?
Tech Tip - Free Directory
Suggestions from Members
Genealogy Events Calendar
Have you looked at our Facebook page?
Membership Fees
2014 MEETING DATES


June 7

July- no meeting

August 2

September 6

October 4

November 1

December 6


WE CAN ACCEPT CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS AT OUR MEETINGS!

Our treasurer, Marguerite Mogila, has an attachment for her smart phone which enables us to accept credit card payments at our meetings for membership fees and donations.


Because there is a cost for us to do this, we cannot accept meeting fees through PayPal...just cash or check for the meeting fees. Thank you for your understanding.




DEFINITION

FLOOR (n): The place for storing your priceless genealogy records.

 Chris
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Greetings to all BCGS Members and Friends,

Earlier this month, I attended the National Genealogical Society's annual conference, held in Richmond, VA this year.  Imagine one of the great speakers at our monthly meetings, multiplied by five per day, for five days - it's amazing what you don't know that you don't know!  Being with 2,500 other genealogists and learning about the latest tools for our research was exhilarating. Next year's conference is in St. Charles, Missouri - I highly recommend it!

Our membership is now at 191 - getting very close to that 200 milestone! Welcome to all our new members, and a very big thank you to all our volunteers.

In addition to continual database updates, Nancy Heath, our Webmaster, has created a new cemetery page on our website, which is much more user friendly.  Peg Felter has volunteered to assist with updates as we receive cemetery information, Sally Sondesky with the Bensalem Historical Society has donated all of her Bensalem Township cemetery transcriptions, and several of us (Art Mayhew, Mariyn Sheinberg, and me) met with representatives of St. Andrews Cemetery in Yardley regarding digitizing and indexing their records - so our cemetery project is keeping us all busy.

We're looking forward to seeing many of you at our monthly meeting on June 7th, with speaker James Beidler on researching with newspapers.  Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend and this beautiful weather!

Warm Regards,

 

Christine Roberts

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2014 
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

at the David Library of the American Revolution
 
1201 River Road, Washington Crossing, PA   
(Park behind the building and use the Conference Center entrance.)
____________________________

  

NEWSPAPERS AND GENEALOGY
Presented by
James M. Beidler, Columnist & Author

 

Digitization has created a huge increase in accessibility of newspapers - making this the "hot" record group for family historians. Learn the perils, pitfalls and frequent rewards of researching local and regional newspapers of general circulation for tidbits about your ancestors.

_________
About the presenter:  

    James M. Beidler writes Roots & Branches, an award-winning weekly newspaper column on genealogy that is the only syndicated feature on that topic in Pennsylvania. He is also a columnist for German Life magazine and is editor of Der Kurier, the quarterly journal of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society. He is also an instructor for online Family Tree University.

     He was the President of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors from 2010 to 2012, and is the former Executive Director for the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. He served as national co-chairman for the 2008 Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Philadelphia. 

    Beidler is also a frequent contributor to other periodicals ranging from scholarly journals such as The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine to popular-interest magazines such as Ancestry Magazine and Family Tree Magazine. He also wrote the chapter on genealogy for Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, published jointly by the Penn State Press and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 

    As a lecturer, he was a part of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council's acclaimed Commonwealth Speakers program from 2002 to 2009, and has been a presenter at numerous conferences. In addition to being a member of numerous genealogical, historical, and lineage societies, Beidler also sits on the selection committee for the Pennsylvania Digital Newspaper Project and (until recently) Pennsylvania's State Historic Records Advisory Board.

    He is an Enrolled Agent and Senior Tax Advisor for an H&R Block franchise and previously was a copy editor for 15 years for The Patriot-News newspaper in Harrisburg, PA.

    Beidler was born in Reading, PA, and raised in nearby Berks County, where he currently resides and is an eighth-generation member of Bern Reformed United Church of Christ. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hofstra University in Long Island, NY, with a BA in Political Science in 1982.

_______  

   The meeting is open to the public.   

Cost for members is $5 and for non-members it is $10.  

 

SAVE THE DATE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2014


The Eighth Annual Bucks County Ancestry Fair will be held at the  
Bucks County Visitor Center, 3207 Street Road, Bensalem, PA.

This year the event will be sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania and the Bucks County Genealogical Society.

More information in future BCGS newsletters.  

 

 

Mary Goodenough is a BCGS member and an active volunteer. She has been at the refreshment counter making coffee at almost every meeting since BCGS began. She often brings her homemade chocolate chip cookies which are a big hit with members. We asked her to tell us about herself.

             ____________________

Mary Payne Furlong was named for her grandmother. Within her family she was known by the double name of Mary Payne, a name of which she is always proud. She grew up during the 1930s and 1940s in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The oldest of four children, she describes her family as typical of that era. Her father was a hairdresser and had his own shop in the city; her mother didn't work outside the home.

 

When Mary was 13, her parents divorced. After the divorce, Mary's job was to be a good example for her siblings and to take care of them. Her youngest sibling was four years old at that time. Mary quickly learned the difficulty of feeding and clothing a family on WW II ration books. Mary's paternal grandparents lived on a nearby farm, so they occasionally supplied the family with eggs and milk.

 

Mary Payne Furlong married Don Goodenough in the early 1950s. Sadly, their first child died at one month old. SIDS wasn't a diagnosis at that time; perhaps that was the cause. Mary and Don raised three children - a daughter and two sons.

 

Don worked in academia and during his sabbatical they traveled. At one point the entire family moved to Bristol, England. Taking advantage of their location, they piled into their VW bus to travel through Europe and Scandinavia - Mary and Don and their children. They have many stories to tell of their travel adventures.

 

Mary and Don settled in the Pennington, New Jersey area when he worked for the Education Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Both of them loved playing tennis. Along with other tennis devotees, Mary started a tennis club. This was the era for women to take off their aprons and work outside the home. Mary gave lessons to the women and partnered for a time with a man who wanted some exercise before going to work. During that time, Mary was on the court many days at 5:30 AM! During her tennis career, she worked at Rider College. For a time, she coached the men's tennis team. With the advent of Title IX, she coached their first women's tennis team.

 

Her interest in genealogy started in the 1980's when her husband's interest started. There were road trips to New England to do research. Two of her children (Jamie and Chris) picked up the genealogy bug. The BCGS president, Chris Roberts, is Mary's daughter; and Chris's children carry Mary and Don's names; i.e. Caitlin Payne and Kyle Donald. Mary feels it is nice to be so honored and have the names carried into the next generation.

 

Mary's maternal grandfather came from Germany, and her paternal grandparents came from England and Wales. The grandmother came to the United States when she was eleven years old and worked as a maid in a doctor's office. Her paternal grandfather worked in mines at age eight. Like most of us, she regrets not asking more questions about their lives and their memories.

 

Mary enjoys retirement and coming to BCGS meetings to learn what is new in the genealogy world. She graciously manages the refreshment area at our meetings.  

 

"FINDING YOUR ROOTS" WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.
RETURNS TO PBS ON SEPTEMBER 23!

 

30 celebrities including Ben Affleck, Billie Jean King, Ken Burns, Anderson Cooper, Courtney B. Vance, Stephen King, Sally Field, Gloria Reuben, Rebecca Lobo, Carole King, Deepak Chopra, Ming Tsai, Angela Bassett, Valerie Jarrett, Aaron Sanchez, Derek Jeter, Tony Kushner, Nas, Tom Colicchio, and Khandi Alexander.  Our BCGS Director of Publicity, Cathy Ivins, says: "That's 3 Kings if you're keeping track!"

 

DATABASE NEWS!

Our BCGS searchable database continues to grow!  The most recent additions include obituaries from the Quakertown Free Press (1881-1932), marriages and obituaries from the Hatboro Public Spirit (1911-1915), and obituaries from the Doylestown Democrat (1911).   The next group of records to be added will be newspaper notcies from the Springtown Weekly Times (1885-1918).  We will also begin to add donated cemetery transcriptions, which will be searchable from the database as well as from our cemetery pages.  


Searchers can now add comments to any record in the database, and anyone viewing that record will see those comments.  So if you have information on an ancestor that conflicts with or expands on what the record shows, you can share that information with others searching for the same person.  (Adding comments is limited to logged-in members only, for security reasons, but like the search itself, viewing the comments is available to all visitors to www.bucksgen.org.)  

As of May 19, 2014 the BCGS database contains:
      •  19,229 birth and baptism records
      •  12,754 marriage records
      •  50,692 death and burial records
      • 178,525 total searchable names

To begin your search, go to www.bucksgen.org and click on "Search the BCGS Database."  Your feedback is welcome!  Please email Nancy Heath at webmaster@bucksgen.org with your comments.

 

Looking for a speaker?

The Society's President, Christine Roberts, has developed a presentation called "Who Are My Peeps:  Six Easy Steps to Starting Your Family History Research".  The presentation is targeted toward beginners looking for guidance on how to begin their genealogy research, and includes examples from Chris' own research to make it come alive.  Chris hopes to present "Who Are My Peeps?" to various organizations to forward the Society's mission of educating the public about genealogy, and to spread the word about our Society. 

There is no charge for the presentation, but donations to BCGS are welcome.

If you know of an organization which might be interested in this presentation, please contact Chris at info@bucksgen.org
TECH TIP 
Are you looking for a genealogical & historical society outside of Bucks County?  Check out this free Directory of Pennsylvania Genealogical & Historical Societies at www.pennsylvaniaresearch.com/directory.html   
SUGGESTIONS FROM MEMBERS...

From Mary Butash, BCGS Secretary:  Members might be interested in learning about a new service called StoryWorth.  Take a look at this March article from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/business/preserving-family-history-one-memory-at-a-time.html?emc=eta1

Marguerite Mogila, BCGS Treasurer: Members interested in Irish research might want to take a look at the Irish Roots magazine here: http://irish-roots-magazine.myshopify.com/

BCGS doesn't endorse these products; we are just passing along information that might be of interest to our members.

COMPREHENSIVE EVENTS CALENDAR

Click the link for a listing of upcoming genealogy events for our organization and others in our area:

Have you looked at our Facebook page?

Cathy Ivins, BCGS Director of Publicity, posts great genealogy information almost every day.  Click here and take a look... www.facebook.com/bucksgen   
Membership Fees for One Year Membership 
   
                       Individual:  $20          Dual/Household:  $35

Our membership fees help to pay for speakers, facility rental, website costs, insurance and more.  Membership in BCGS is on a rolling basis and lasts one year from the month you join. Won't you join and help us continue to grow?

Member Benefits - with more to come: 
  • Discount on Society educational programs and events.
  • Members can have their surnames posted on our website with a link to the member's email address.
  • Members-Only section of the BCGS website.  Participate in discussion forums, share files, photos, and information with other members; see members' favorite genealogical websites and contribute your own.
  • Meeting handouts are available to members unable to attend the Society's regular monthly meetings.    
  • GenealogyBank: 20% ($14) discount - members may subscribe for $55.95 per year.
  • Fold3:  37% ($30) discount - members may subscribe for $49.95 per year.
  • Saving Memories Forever: 12% discount - members may receive a one-year premium subscription for $35.00.   
  • Dell Purchase Program: provides discounts on products sold through the Dell website to FGS member societies' members, their families, and their friends.  BCGS is a member of FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) and the discounts are available to our members.  
Join or renew by mail using our membership application/renewal form, on line on the Society's website via PayPal or by paying with cash or check at our next meeting.  And, we now have the ability to accept credit card payments at our monthly meetings!

If you have questions, please contact:  membership@bucksgen.org
More information about us:
  
Members only...join our Members-Only section of our website.  Registration information available at: Login - Bucks County Genealogical Society 

Not a member and want more information?  Check our website at www.bucksgen.org and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/bucksgen.