David will present two topics on Saturday.

• Effective Use of the Family History Library Catalog
• Sources and Methods for British Genealogical Research

Other topics and speakers for the afternoon sessions are:

• How My Michigan Ancestors Have Made Me A Better Genealogist with Jan Alpert.
• Beginning Genealogy with Sam Pardee
• Interpreting Vital Records in Latin, Polish and Czech with Kamila P. Mazurek
• Sibling Connection with Cynthia Grostick
• The 1st Michigan Colored Troops in the Civil War (102nd U.S.C.T.) with James Jackson
• Changes in the Land: Land Record Research in Michigan with Mark Harvey, State Archivist

At the conclusion of the afternoon sessions, a Tour of the Archives of Michigan will be available.

In addition, the Archives Research room will be open from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Registration this final week is $45 and includes a box lunch if you register before Wednesday, July 13.  The lunches must be ordered on that day, so all registrations received July 13 and after will not be guaranteed a lunch.  We expect to order a few additional box lunches, however we cannot guarantee a lunch to walk-ins and those received July 13 and later.

Additional details may be found on our website below.

Online registration  http://seekingmichigan.myshopify.com/products/abrams-genealogy-seminar
Mail in registration http://mimgc.org/2011Abrams/registration.pdf
Information           http://mimgc.org/2011AbramsSeminar

The Genealogical Society of Monroe County (GSMC) members
are inviting everyone to join them to support the Monroe
County Historical Museum at this time of financial crisis.

Come to the Museum, 126 E.  Monroe St
in Monroe on Saturday, December 18th
by 10:00 a.m.  to join hand in hand to
HUG the MUSEUM.

An Open House right afterwards will give everyone
a chance to view the wonderful Christmas Exhibits,
the Made in Michigan Exhibits, the Custer Exhibit,
and many other Monroe County displays.

Genealogical Society members will be available
to discuss genealogical research and the
Museum Staff will be available to explain
how to become a Museum Volunteer or
how to join the Friends of the Museum.

Refreshments Will Be Served.
10:00 a.m.  Museum Opens  ~  5:00 p.m.  Museum Closes

This tells about the event.  GSMC members have planned to let the citizens of Monroe County know what a jewel we have right here in Monroe.  Due to budget constraints, the funding for the museum has been drastically cut.  The final decision of the Board of Commissioners will be made next week.  There have been many plans discussed and the latest one developed would be a  one year .006 tax placed on county property owners.  The ideas have run the gamut.

So the HUG THE MUSEUM and an OPEN HOUSE was designed to see if we could interest county residents to stop by and SEE what the Museum has to offer and to meet the knowledgeable staff members who provide the services.  The genealogical society members offered to sponsor the events for the day.

Pleasel join us outside the museum at 10:00 a.m.  next Saturday, and the HUG will “officially” happen at 10:30.  but we need everyone there so we can get everyone in place on time.

We will be serving coffee (reg & decaf), punch and cookies.  If you would like to bring a dozen cookies, you can take them into the museum to the room at the back on the 1st floor.  We would like everyone to be a “host or hostess” to welcome the visitors and direct them to various places in the building, Let them know why YOU like the museum.

Things you might like to mention:

Christmas trees and wreaths around the building are labeled with the group that brought the display.

Various other exhibits are on display on the first floor, including maps of Monroe County in early years, items from Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, former Miss America, a museum store and artifacts from various Monroe County manufactures and model rooms.

The 2nd floor can be reached by stairs or an elevator.  There are restrooms on each floor.

The Museum Archives houses many Monroe County vital records, information on many families of Monroe Co., the fabulous obituary collection with thousands of former Monroe county residents.  If they have a question about a Monroe County ancestor, this is a great place to stop.  The Custer exhibit and the Mad in Michigan displays are here also.

At the opposite end of the building, is the Archives for the Genealogical Society of Monroe County.  We are touting our latest collection :The Betty Gay Collection.  Mrs.  Gay collected information on many Monroe county citizens and when she passed away.  her family graciously gave us all of her research materials, which have now been indexed.  We have copies of the books that our
society publishes, and copies are for sale.  We have someone who can help with German research and someone who can help with French research.  We have Ancestry.com on our computer to further assist our clients.  We also have some family histories, books from foreign countries , other states and counties.

And, yes, you can do genealogical research if you’d like on Saturday if you wish.

We hope you can ALL come on Saturday.  The weatherman says it will be cold, but sunny.  Dress warmly.  You’ll probably be outside about 45 manures.

Our purpose is to show visitors how valuable this building is to Monroe County and that we want it to stay open with adequate staffing.

We will have some signs for people to carry, if they wish.  They are all POSITIVE in nature ( “Dear Santa, please keep out Museum open”", “I LOVE (with a heart) our Museum”.  etc.  WE do have to leave room for people to walk on the sidewalk and we cannot be out in the street.  We do have a permit to do this, also.  the Mayor, the City Manager and the City Police Chief all approved what we are doing.

Hope to see you Saturday.

Genealogical Society of Monroe County

Our program will feature Mary Strouse of the Gratiot County Historical & Genealogical Society. Mary will speak on Family Search Indexing.