Bucks County
Genealogical Society
October 2014 Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
President's Message
Sat., Nov. 1, 2014, Annual Meeting, Pot Luck Brunch, plus Trials & Triumphs!
Candidates for 2015 Officers & Directors
Volunteers needed for several positions!
Database Update
Survey Responses
NJ Archives Guide for Members
We're in the home stretch for cemetery photos!!
New Member Benefit
Query - 2009 Original BGCS Journal
Query - Andalusia Contiguous Farms
Beginners Corner
Tech Tip - Safe Solutions for Hard to Read Headstones
Comprehensive Events Calendar
Have you looked at our Facebook page?
Do you have a query?
Membership Fees
 Chris
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Greetings to all BCGS Members and Friends,

It's almost November, and that means it's time for our Annual Meeting and Pot Luck Brunch!  In past years, our members have tremendously enjoyed this opportunity to socialize and feast together.  This year, we'd like to focus on helping each other: you'll share your research problems, and we'll all contribute ideas for solving them.  Or, share your research successes so others may learn a new technique! Don't forget to sign up in advance - see the article below for details.

Also at our Annual Meeting, we'll hold elections for 2015 Board positions.  We are extremely fortunate that ALL of the current Board members have agreed to serve for another year.  The incredible growth and success of our new Society can be attributed directly to this extremely talented, dedicated, and enthusiastic Board. A big THANK YOU to:  
Pat Gessner, Jeff Sipler, Joann Cosgrove, Marguerite Mogila, Nancy Heath, Mary Butash and Cathy Ivins - you are all amazing!!

And, sincere thanks to all of you who participated in the membership survey.  The results are fascinating, and we'll be sharing them with you soon.

I missed the October meeting (I hear it was terrific), so I'm really looking forward to seeing many of you on November 1st!!

Warm Regards, 
Christine Roberts

 


SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014
 
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

 at the David Library of the American Revolution, 
1201 River Road, Washington Crossing, PA  
_______________________ 

    

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING ,  

POT LUCK BRUNCH and

DIGITIZATION EXTRAVAGANZA! 

 

Our November program will begin with our annual business meeting, including elections for 2015 Executive Board positions.  Members and guests will then enjoy a Pot Luck Brunch of favorite family recipes. Please bring a dish to share with the group, along with a recipe or a story that goes with it. 

 

Following our business meeting and brunch, we will open the floor to members and guests to share a story of a brick wall they are facing in their genealogical research (a Trial) or a discovery they have made in their research (a Triumph) that others may benefit from.  Audience members will be invited to offer suggestions for breaking down the brick walls, and to use their devices to look up data that might help.

 

We will have our new scanner available so that members can bring paper documents, photos, etc. and have them scanned to a digital device. (Please bring your own flash drive.) The scanner can do both sides of your documents in a very short time. To see how fast and easy the scanning is, check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3De3mPxEgUQ  

 

If you are planning to bring a food item, present a Trial or Triumph, or bring documents for scanning, please either register in our Member Forums or email Cathy Ivins, Director of Publicity, at publicity@bucksgen.org 
 _______________________________
 
Open to the public. Cost: $5 members: $10 non-members 
$5 off for any member or guest with potluck food item. 
    
 
November Annual Business Meeting  
and Election of Officers and Directors

Article IV of the BCGS bylaws states that the annual business meeting is to be held in November for the election of officers and directors for next year.  Nominations for 2015 officers and directors will be accepted at the November 2nd meeting.

Here are the people who have served BCGS as officers and directors during 2014 and who are nominated for 2015 positions:

Chris Roberts is President and one of the founding members of BCGS.  She lives in Newtown and when she isn't working on genealogy research, she works as a Real Estate Finance and Development Manager at the NJ Economic Development Authority.

Jeff Sipler is Vice President - Programs and Education and a charter member of BCGS.   He lives in Langhorne with his wife and two children.  Jeff is a  social studies teacher at Council Rock High School North in Newtown and can trace his family roots to 18th century Bucks County.

Joann Cosgrove is Vice President - Projects. She lives in Levittown and is retired after 42 years of nursing. Joann has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors from Bucks County and Irish and German ancestors from Philadelphia. When not hunting down ancestors, she loves to sing with the Bucks County Women's chorus and garden with Southern Bucks Garden Club.

Pat Gessner is Vice President - Membership.  She lives in Doylestown, is happily retired and volunteers in an office at Doylestown Hospital.  She has traced her ancestors to the 18th century, and has frequently bored her progeny (two children and three grandchildren) with genealogy research stories.

Marguerite Mogila is Treasurer of BCGS and a resident of Newtown.  Her home is in Tennessee; however she is staying in Newtown, PA.  She is descended from farmers and aristocrats, church elders and non-church goers, ancestors who fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War and the War between the States. Marguerite is a member of the Washington Crossing Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and her roots go back to Ireland, Scotland, England, Denmark and Germany.

Mary Butash is Secretary and a charter member of BCGS.  Mary lives in Jenkintown (Montgomery County) but joined Bucks County Genealogical Society because she was so impressed by the programs offered.  Mary is retired from 45 years as a nurse, nurse practitioner and finally nursing educator at Roxborough Hospital School of Nursing.  She is descended from a mechanical engineer and a registered nurse with Polish and Slovak ancestry. Mary has 3 grown children.

Cathy Ivins serves as Director - Publicity. She is a resident of Levittown and works as an Instructional Aide and Student Council Advisor for Bristol Township School District. Cathy has two adult "descendants".  She is a coal-miner's granddaughter, with Polish, Italian and Irish roots, practicing genealogy without a license for 11 years!

Nancy Heath is the Director - Website and operates her own software development business, Town Place Associates, out of her home in Thorofare, NJ.  Nancy spends her spare time tracking down her ancestors in early Bucks County, as well as Hunterdon and Mercer counties in New Jersey. 

 
Can you help with refreshments one or two months a year?

Instead of making the coffee before the meeting, we are going to try purchasing coffee boxes at Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. The boxes come with all accoutrements and should make for an easy volunteer job. We are asking for volunteers to provide snacks, but all other supplies costs will continue to be paid by BCGS.

To volunteer or for more information,  
please contact Joann Cosgrove at projects@bucksgen.org.
 
_________________________________________________________
 

Can you help with our Database?

Website director Nancy Heath is looking for a volunteer to serve as moderator for our new public forums.

If you are willing to take this on, or would like to learn more about what would be involved,   

email her at: webmaster@bucksgen.org

   

________________________________________________________

 

 

Can you help with Publicity?

Publicity Director Cathy Ivins would be grateful for any media suggestions to include publicity for our events if they do not appear there currently.

Send suggestions to her by email at: publicity@bucksgen.org 
________________________________________

Always wanted to direct traffic?

Jeff Sipler, VP Programs, could use help on the first Saturday of each month with directing folks to parking at the David Library.  As BCGS is growing, parking has become a challenge and a traffic director is needed.  If you can help, please contact

Jeff Sipler at programs@bucksgen.org
__________________________________

DATABASE UPDATE! 

The database keeps growing and changes almost daily.  As of October 20, 2014 the BCGS database contains:

 

20,675 birth and baptism records

13,105 marriage records

69,817 death and burial records

208,617 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.

 

SURVEY RESPONSES      
Thank you to those of you who completed our survey!  Some of you asked for help in identifying ancestors or asked specific questions.  We will try to get back to each of you within the next couple of weeks and would appreciate your patience.  Pat Gessner, VP-Membership,membership@bucksgen.org.
 
Visiting the N.J. State Archives
Guide
for BCGS Members


BCGS Director of Publicity, Cathy Ivins, has put together a terrific guide, Visiting the N.J. State Archives. The guide gives directions, parking information, what to take, what to look for, information about the manuscript and microfilm rooms, microfilm cabinets, and the library. 

If you plan to go to the New Jersey State Archives, take a look at this guide.  It is on the Members-only section of the website; look in Members-only Files, and then click on Repository research guides. 

(If you are a member and haven't joined the Members-only section, just go to www.bucksgen.org, click on Login, and then click on Don't have an account?  Register and when you receive approval for your registration, you will be able to access the Members-only files.)

WE'RE IN THE HOME STRETCH!

We want to finish the photo portion of our Cemetery Assessment Project by November 2014.  We only have a few more cemeteries that need photos.  Click here to find one near you:  http://www.bucksgen.org/images/pdffiles/Cemeteries%20needing%20photos.pdf

You can have fun on a photo tour.  Call a couple of friends, plan a route, take photos at a few cemeteries, stop for lunch, and then send your photos to
Joann Cosgrove, VP Projects, at projects@bucksgen.org

WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER BENEFIT!
 
findmypast is offering a $20 discount for BCGS members.

       For those of you who don't know, findmypast has an extensive collection of material from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Here are some of the top collections from the U.K.: 

Census: The England, Wales & Scotland 1841-1901, and England & Wales 1911. Parish Records and BMDs: findmypast features a complete set of birth, marriage and death records from England & Wales beginning in 1837. 

British Newspaper Collection: Gathered from one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom, the British newspapers include thousands of local and regional publications from across England, Wales and Scotland.
British Army Services Records 1760-1915: It is possible to find soldiers in this collection that have hundreds of pages of material! 

Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960: Passenger lists include families headed towards the United States who passed through a UK port at any time during their travel.  

  

BCGS members may take advantage of this discount by contacting Pat Gessner, VP-Membership at membership@bucksgen.org to receive instructions to set up the discounted findmypast account.  
QUERY - 2009 BCGS Journal

David Long is trying to complete a run of the original BCGS journal that was published from 1998 to 2009 for a major research library and is  hoping that someone might have an extra copy of Vol. 12 (2009) that they'd be willing to pass along to him

If you can help, please contact David at dblong@princeton.edu

QUERY - Andalusia Contiguous Farms

In 1935, Nicholas Biddle bought two farms contiguous to the Andalusia Estate.  Does anyone know who owned those two farms previously?  Please respond to Gary Caufman at gary.gretcaufman@gmail.com

BEGINNERS CORNER

Take a look at this youtube video to find out about Free Records Available on Ancestry.com: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ZwzMDEpxs

TECH TIP...

SAFE SOLUTIONS FOR HARD TO READ HEADSTONES

Check out this interesting article and be sure to look at the examples in the paragraphs about using aluminum foil:

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
  


Do you have a query about a Bucks County ancestor, and don't know where to send it?


If you would like an answer from our Query Coordinator, Tom Myers, please send your query to Tom at queries@bucksgen.org

If you would like the query published in a BCGS newsletter, please send your query (or comment) to VP Membership, Pat Gessner, at membership@bucksgen.org


Membership Fees for One Year Membership 
    
                         Individual:  $20          Dual/Household:  $35
 
                                           Organization: $75

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. 
  • Findmypast: $20 discount on annual membership. 
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 and to get access to the above discounts,
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.