Bear Creek Genealogical Society
P. O. Box 842661, Houston, TX 77284
Welcome
Welcome to the Bear Creek Genealogical Society. Our society meets on the second Thursday of each month at the Bear Creek Community Center, 3055 Bear Creek Dr., Houston, TX 77084. We have approximately 50 members and hold our meeting from 1 to 2:30 PM. All genealogical researchers, whether novice or expert, are welcome to attend. Attire is casual. We also have several bus trips per year, departing from and returning to the Bear Creek Community Center. Our most popular trip has been to the Clayton Library Center of Houston Public Library, one of the top genealogical libraries in the country. We look forward to seeing you. For further information, contact Gary Tober, President, 281-398-0333 or Tom Woltz, Vice-President, 281-807-0233. Click here for a membership application. Annual dues are $10.Announcements
On Thursday March 8 we will take a tour of Washington County for a taste of 19th and early 20th century Texas history. Our bus leaves Bear Creek Community Center at 8:30 AM sharp and takes us to the Chappell Hill Museum and the adjacent Providence Baptist Church, built in 1873. After lunch at Bever’s Kitchen (1907), we will view the Old Rock Store (1869) with its quilt depicting the history of the area. After a visit to the United Methodist Church (1901), we will continue to the Brenham Heritage Museum in the “modern” (1915) Post Office Building.Effective February 15, the price of microfilm rentals through the Family History Centers will increase to $7.50 due to the increasing price and limited availabilty of microfilm. As a reminder, film rentals can now be ordered online. For details see https://www.familysearch.org/films .
NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" began its 3rd season on Friday, February 3 at 7 PM. Celebrities for this season are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen. Also, PBS will begin "Finding Your Roots" on Sunday March 25.
The program is available for both major national genealogy conferences this year. The National Genealogical Society meets May 9-12 in Cincinnati, OH. The Federation of Genealogical Societies meeting will be August 29-September 1 in Birmingham, AL.
February is African American History Month at Clayton Library. On Saturday February 18, 2-3 PM, Sue Kaufman will describe the "African American American Heritage Database." On Saturday February 25 at 10:30 AM, there will be a presentation on "Researching Free Persons of Color in Louisiana," Both presentations require reservations, See the Clayton website for details.
Clayton Library also offers help with lineage groups most Wednesday evenings 5:30-7:30 PM.
The 1940 U.S. census will be released to the public on April 2, 2012. The National Archives and Records Administration has announced that the records will immediately be available for free through archives.com . However, there will be no index at that time. Instead you must browse via Enumeration Districts, just like the old days. For details, see this article in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.
Familysearch.org has prepared a set of free genealogy lessons. So far I have gone through lessons on Civil War records and German handwriting. Some of the lessons even have quizzes. You can find these lessons by clicking "Learn" and then "Research Courses" from their main webpage, or you can go directly to familysearch.org/learn/researchcourses .
The free Familysearch.org website has reached 43 million names in its indexing program for German vital records. See http://www.genealogyblog.com/?p=9531 for details.
Dick Eastman has prepared a nice explanation of the Family History Library and Family History Centers. The Katy FHC is at 1603 Norwalk near Highland Knolls, and there are several other locations in the west Houston area. Click here to view his article.
Katy Library, 5414 Franz Road, holds a Genealogy Lunchbox every Monday from noon to 1 P.M. From the library's website: "Bring your lunch and join us for an informal genealogy get-together. We'll have computers, Ancestry.com, and other genealogists to help each other with our work."
For a guide on getting started in genealogy, you may visit http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/01/a-genealogy-intro.html .
For a set of videos showing the efforts of the Family History Library to archive and digitize their records, visit this site. 2,400,000 reels of microfilm are a lot of data.
Some items from our library collection have been moved offsite. These items may still be checked out through the club. For a list of these books, click here.
Links
HomeMembership form
2011-2012 Calendar
Library