Heritage Room News
March 2015 Events and Classes
Buns, Beards, Bodices and Bustles:
Understanding Ancestors Through Clothing
a live webinar with Photo Detective Maureen Taylor
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
6:00pm
Multipurpose Room B
Ancestral fashions and the industry that produced them left behind a fascinating legacy of images and information. In this class you will learn about:
- Paris fashion in America: north, south, east and west interpretations
- Fashion icons from Charles Dickens to stage star Lillie Langtry
- Fashion foibles and practical pastimes: how our ancestors designed and hand-crafted accessories
- What’s old is new and what’s new is old? Repeating fashion trends and how to read the clues
- Labor records relating to hat, hair and accessory factories and home-work
About the presenter: Maureen Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on historic photograph identification, photo preservation and family history research. She is the author of several books on her topics of expertise, and has held distinguished leadership positions at the Boston History Collaborative, Rhode Island Historical Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Houghton-Mifflin. She has been dubbed "the nation's foremost historical photo detective" by The Wall Street Journal.
This event is co-sponsored by the Heritage Room, RSL, and the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library. Registration is required. Please click here to reserve your spot.
Getting Started with Genealogy
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
6:00pm
Heritage Conference Room
This class will help you get started with your family research. This is an introductory genealogy class. Registration is required. Please click here to reserve your spot.
Local History Book Club
Thursday, March 19, 2015
6:00pm
Heritage Conference Room
The Local History Book Club is a reading group that meets on the third Thursday of each month to discuss that month's assigned reading. This month we will discuss Carolyn Newton Curry’s Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907.
Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas was an intelligent, spirited woman born in 1834 to one of the wealthiest families in Georgia. At the age of fourteen she began and kept a diary for forty-one years. These diaries of her life before, during, and after the Civil War filled thirteen hand-written volumes with 450,000 words.
She began producing articles for newspapers, keeping them in scrapbooks that tell the story of her life after she quit keeping a diary. In 1899 she was elected president of the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association. Because of her own losses, Thomas was sensitive to the well-being of other women. As she said, she had suffered and grown strong. Her life is an amazing story of survival and transformation that speaks to women in our own time.
February 2015 Events and Classes
The World at Your Fingertips: Ordering Microfilm from FamilySearch
Thursday, February 12, 2015
2:00pm
Computer Training Lab
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah possesses one of the world's largest genealogical collections, boasting over 2.4 million rolls and 727,000 microfiche of microfilmed genealogical records spanning the globe. These microforms can be mailed to you through FamilySearch.org. The digitized records available freely online are only a tiny fraction of the total number of microfilmed records available to genealogists.
In this class we will learn how to take advantage of this fantastic resource by using the FamilySearch catalog, setting up a free account, and learning how to order microfilm online to have it sent directly to the Heritage Room. Participants should have working familiarity with a computer and the internet. Registration is required. Please click here to reserve your spot.
Beech Haven: A Hidden Arts & Crafts Landscape in the Heart of Athens
Monday, February 16, 2015
5:30pm
Multipurpose Rooms B & C
To date Athens-Clarke County has acquired more than 80 acres of “Beech Haven”, the Rowland family's historic rustic retreat along the Middle Oconee River. First purchased by Charles A. Rowland II over 100 years ago, Beech Haven is now surrounded by suburban and commercial development, but remains a secluded natural sanctuary. The site has a long history as an important social and religious gathering place in Athens and, with new public ownership, may once again be a cultural and recreational hub for the community.
In this illustrated presentation Helen and Nat Kuykendall will trace the fascinating history of the place and discuss the Arts and Crafts design movement that influenced its development. We will briefly discuss on-going efforts to protect the site and Beech Haven’s exciting potential as part of the Athens-Clarke County Greenway Network.
Following the presentation, Paul Duchscherer, San Francisco-based author of Outside the Bungalow: America's Arts and Crafts Garden, will talk about the significance of the site from a national perspective.
This event is co-sponsored by the Heritage Room, Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation, Leisure Services, the Oconee Rivers Greenway Commission, Athens Cultural Affairs Commission, and Athens Historic Preservation Commission.
GALILEO Genealogy Resources
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
6:00pm
Computer Training Lab
This class will explore the wonderful resources available to Georgia genealogists for FREE via GALILEO, an online library portal to authoritative, subscription-only information that isn't available through free search engines or web directories. Some of the databases we will cover include Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3, HeritageQuest, the Sanborn maps, and others.
Participants are strongly encouraged to have taken the Heritage Room's Getting Started with Genealogy class--or another comparable introductory genealogy course--prior to attending. Registration is required. Please click here to reserve your spot.
Local History Book Club: Winterville, Georgia: A Classic Railroad Town
Thursday, February 19, 2015
6:00pm
Heritage Conference Room
The Local History Book Club is a reading group that meets on the third Thursday of each month to discuss that month's assigned reading. This month we will discuss Winterville, Georgia: A Classic Railroad Town (ISBN 1633180026), a book about Winterville's history, people and places. Researched and written by local Wintervillians Emma Foley and Mary Quinn, who are both fascinated by the history of Winterville. The book is 90 pages with full color on every page. The history of Winterville is displayed with beautiful photography throughout and includes both current images and many historic photographs.
Copies of the book are available for circulation.
Scotch-Irish Clan in Cobb's Brigade & COGS Monthly Meeting
Saturday, February 21, 2015
2:00pm
Multipurpose Room A
Join the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society for a special presentation and regular monthly meeting. Sam Thomas, Curator of the T.R.R. Cobb House, will be discussing Cobb's Brigade and the Scotch-Irish Clan.
Researching Ancestors in the Era of Freedom:
A Legacy Family Tree Webinar
Thursday, February 26, 2015
2:00pm
Multipurpose Room A
The years right after the Civil War were critical years for all southerners white and black. Amazing records reflect that incredible time during those years. This session will explore several amazing record sets and will point to where they can be found.
About the presenter: A founding member of AfriGeneas.com, Ms. Walton-Raji is also a genealogist specializing in information for beginners, via daily and weekly online genealogy chats on AfriGeneas. As host of a weekly genealogy podcast, a number of instructional videos and as an expert consultant on video documentaries, Ms. Walton-Raji combines her skills as a genealogist with a warm on camera personality that brings comfort to her viewers through and her instructional videos on YouTube, while providing them with useful information. She is a published author, host of 3 blogs, in addition to a 10-year ongoing message board, 3 websites, and The African Roots Podcast. Registration is required. Please click here to reserve your spot.
