WINNEBAGO & BOONE COUNTIES GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
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The Winnebago & Boone Counties Genealogical Society exists to:
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CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!
We are in critical need of volunteers! The 2023 Board has openings for three Officers and several Directors, bringing the future of the organization into doubt. If you want to see WBCGS continue to provide genealogical education and information to our membership and the community, please contact us to volunteer on our Board and preserve the future of this organization. Send us an email at wbcgensociety@gmail.com.
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 when we have a remote speaker. If the speaker is in person, then Zoom will not be available. 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.
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 when we have a remote speaker. If the speaker is in person, then Zoom will not be available. 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.
FEBRUARY MEETINGSaturday, February 4, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
“Records at the Winnebago County Courthouse" Speaker: Bill Edmundson Meeting Location: Spring Creek United Church of Christ, 4500 Spring Creek Road, Rockford IL (No Zoom meeting) What records are available at the Winnebago County Courthouse, and how do I access them? This presentation will cover the offices of the Winnebago County Clerk, the County Circuit Clerk, and some additional records at the Rockford Public Library. Types of records covered will include vital records (birth, marriage, and death), land records (grantor/grantee indexes and deeds), probates, and naturalizations. Bill Edmundson has served as a board member of the Winnebago and Boone Counties Genealogical Society since 2009, specializing in handling local research requests. Bill has worked on his personal family research for more than 40 years, has published a family history book in 1995, and has helped with over 200 research requests our society has received. |
MARCH MEETINGSaturday, March 4, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
"Farming, Factories, and the Frontier: Midwest Genealogy Basics" Speaker: Eleanor Brinsko Meeting Location: Zoom meeting Eleanor Brinsko, Lead Genealogist and Owner, has been collecting tools for genealogy her entire life. Raised by two historians, her passion for discovering and telling the story of her ancestors grew strong in her. Eleanor gained her training while working at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Area Research Center, answering questions by phone, letter, email, and in-person by patrons around the country. She holds a Bachelors of Music Education from UW-River Falls as well as a Masters in Music History (specializing in radio history) and a Masters in Library and Information Science from UW-Milwaukee. In 2020, Eleanor was made adjunct professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s iSchool where she teaches a 1-credit graduate-level course on genealogy! Her perspective when teaching this course is from both sides of the reference desk: what would a genealogist need from a librarian and what resources does the librarian need in order to help promote genealogical resources in the library. 
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APRIL MEETINGSaturday, April 1, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
"'I' Is for Identity Crisis" Speaker: Dan Hubbard Meeting Location: Zoom meeting 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. 
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ISGS Associate Member
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The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) was formed in 1968 through the cooperative effort and forward thinking of Illinois genealogical society representatives, who envisioned a statewide genealogical organization. ISGS is a not-for-profit, nonsectarian, educational organization.
Visit their website for more info www.ilgensoc.org |
