WBCGS

WINNEBAGO & BOONE COUNTIES GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

The Winnebago & Boone Counties Genealogical Society exists to:

Encourage and support genealogical researchers.
Promote the discovering and preserving of valued genealogical resources of Winnebago and Boone County, Illinois.
Through our website, provide resources to help genealogists with an interest in Winnebago or Boone County, Illinois.
Offer networking opportunities with others who have similar research interests.

NOTE NEW MEETING LOCATION: Rockford Public Library - East Branch 6685 East State St, Rockford IL
Our April and May meetings will have a remote Zoom speaker, but we will also be showing the presentation in the Community Room of the library. You will be able to participate remotely or in-person at the library.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

WBCGS holds monthly meetings that are open to the public. We do not have meetings in December, January, and July.
At each meeting, our speaker makes a presentation about a specific topic related to genealogy or a topic of local interest.

Based on the success we've had in using Zoom for our monthly meetings, we plan to continue offering Zoom meetings. Meeting invitations will be sent to all WBCGS members with an email address.
If you’re not a member and are interested in attending a Zoom meeting, please send us an email at wbcgensociety@gmail.com.
You can also contact us at: WBCGS, PO Box 10166, Loves Park IL 61131-0166.

APRIL MEETING

MAY MEETING

Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
"'I' Is for Identity Crisis"
Speaker: Dan Hubbard
Meeting Location: RPL East Branch (also Zoom - speaker via Zoom)

We think of identity as something fixed and simple, but as we try to reconstruct the identities of long gone people we need to realize that identity is a much slipperier concept. The things we use to define a person’s identity can change during that person’s lifetime. There are also questions of how a person self-identifies, the motivations they can have for changing how they self-identify, and how those changes affect the records they leave behind.

Dr. Daniel Hubbard has been seriously researching his family history since he was 11 years old. He is a former particle physicist who lived in France, Switzerland and Sweden for 20 years before returning to Illinois with his family. A full-time professional genealogist, book designer and writer, he is the owner of Personal Past (www.thePersonalPast.com ) with research concentrating on North American and Northern European records. He is past president of the Lake County Illinois Genealogical Society and a member of the Swedish-American Genealogy Society Advisory Board at the Swedish-American Museum in Chicago.

Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
“From the Source's Mouth"
Speaker: Dan Hubbard
Meeting Location: RPL East Branch (also Zoom - speaker via Zoom)

Once we’ve understood that identities can be tricky to reconstruct, how do we piece together the tidbits of information that we find into an actual ancestor? How do we avoid putting together a great-great frankenfather from the spare parts we find in the documents we dig up? Do we trust what seems to be true, or do we look long and hard into the “source’s mouth.”

This is Part Two of Dan Hubbard's presentation, building on what was shared during the April 2023 meeting.

JUNE MEETING

Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 6:30 p.m.
"Gravestone Preservation"
Speaker: Janie Jenkin
Meeting Location: RPL East Branch (also Zoom - speaker in-person)

Travel back in time and get a glimpse of early American grave stones and what they were made of. Learn what those symbols on them mean and see how the Victorian era truly made grave stones works of art. We will talk about how graves stones have changed since the Victorian era and learn how there is an ongoing movement to preserve and care for the legacy of our ancestors’ graves all around the world!

Janie Jenkin like most teens in high school never appreciated history. It wasn’t until her late 20’s when her boss taught her all about Genealogy which sparked the interest about history of her own family and learning all about her ancestors. It took another 25yrs and a 1903 American Foursquare in Rockford, IL (in which she is trying to get on the Historic Registry) that started her journey into a lot of Rockford history, house genealogy and the care of the grave stones for the souls that laid to rest of those who once occupied her home. From there it led to many opportunities of learning about grave stones and taking classes on the preservation of them and joining in on the movement of gravestone preservation.

ISGS Associate Member