April Meeting Canceled

Our Genealogy Group has canceled April's meeting 

due to the Covid-19 virus.

Our Genealogy Group meets at Clayton State University, and will not be meeting again until the University System of Georgia reopens the campus. 

https://www.clayton.edu/

Now that you are social distancing it seems like it would be a good time to investigate what your ancestors were doing during the Spanish Flu or other world pandemic outbreaks! 

Here is a link to get you started

Year of Education and Discovery

2020

Our Genealogy Group's Year of Education and Discovery

This year we will be viewing the Legacy Webinars programs in our meetings and discussing them and their topics. 

Bring your wireless devices to get online. Come a bit early if you need help signing in to the wifi. 

Our first meeting is on SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!! It has been every year for many years. (We are i our 11th year, almost 12 now!) But believe me, we are always finished in plenty of time for you to get home for the game, or even for a Super Bowl party! 

We hope to see you for our first meeting in 2020. 

DNA & Adoptees October 6th

Tammy Moore

Spivey Hall, Clayton State University

Tammy has worked in marketing at Clayton State for many years. Beyond that, she has an amazing genealogy story to tell about adoption and the search for birth family members. She has taken her personal experiences and is making a difference for adoptees and both their adoptee and birth families. She has made about 40-50 matches over the last ten years using DNA and public records. “I mostly help adoptees because I believe every person has a right to know their genetic history,” she said. She has made her own match and has received requests from folks through DNA connections to help expand their family history. She has helped numerous non-related adoptees find their birth families. Out of the 50 searches she has worked on, she has never failed using DNA – although she is still working on one that is proving problematic due to the family history connecting them to Canada where there are less records than here in the US.

Tammy notes the following: a search angel is a person who volunteers his or her time and energy to help you find your family. They can be used by an adoptee and a birth family. Most search angels have been through a search and reunion themselves. They understand what you are going through and want to pass along what they have learned. Many do it as a way to pay it forward for the people who offered them help along the way. They use many different tools to aid you in your search. Online adoption registries are combed through. Public records such as birth and death certificates are searched. Sometimes property searches are helpful to lock down a person’s location. Some angels have paid subscriptions to information databases an average person would not have access to. DNA testing has been an invaluable tool in recent years for search and reunion. An adoptee can find their birth family using DNA even if the parents have not been tested, but biological parents searching for a child are encouraged to test as well.

Please join us for what promises to be an exciting presentation by Tammy Moore on Sunday, October 6, 2019, 3-5 pm, at Clayton State University, James M. Baker University Center, 2nd Floor, classroom #245.

Unconventional Genealogy

4th August 2019 – topic Unconventional Genealogy presented by Stanley Blackburn.

Are you looking for the unusual, the different and do you want to find that important link? Come to our meeting on August 4th and hear the unusual way Mr. Blackburn found his roots in Fayetteville through the Reuben Gay house. A house that has been standing in Fayetteville since early 1880s. He will share the story of his ancestor Reuben Gay and tell us how he went about verifying the genealogical records to this family.

"Reuben was born in 1828, in South Carolina, a slave serving the Stubbs family in Marlboro County. The Stubbs would relocate to the area with the Gay family, whom they were related. In 1840, when William Stubbs died, William’s wife sold the family’s slaves. Reuben was sold to the Gay family and by that time, he was around 30 years old and had grown children of his own.

Reuben got his freedom in 1865, and census records from 1866 show him working for the Gay Plantation as a laborer.

Records aren’t crystal clear, but Reuben would soon purchase land that once belonged to the Stubbs family, the land he once tilled as a slave. It would be on this land that the Reuben Gay homesite was built." - Christopher Dunn, Fayette News

A review of The Georgia Archives June 2nd

June's meeting will be a review of the genealogical offerings available at the Georgia Archives as well as a review of parts of their website. There will be a tour of the Georgia Archives the following Saturday for those who want to meet again and go behind the scenes. 

We are going to talk about genealogy blogs April 7th!

Our next meeting this year is going to be on April 7th starting at 3pm at our usual location at Clayton State University. 

We are going to talk about genealogy blogs. Do you have one, should you start one, follow one, or join a group? What is the benefit of having a blog, and what are the downfalls and headaches?

This will be a hand's on learning experience, so bring your questions and bring your blog addresses if you have them so we can discuss. If you have a blog you particularly like, we will look it up and share it with the group. 

If you come early (around 1:30 or 2) you can meet with Selma to talk about DNA or networking.

First meeting of 2019: Advanced DNA research February 3rd

We hope to see you February 3rd for the first meeting of Our Genealogy Group of 2019. Our first meeting of the year is always on Super Bowl Sunday! But, no worries, we are always finished in plenty of time before the game starts. Our meeting starts at 3 and ends around 5pm. You don't want to miss the first meeting this year. Especially if you came to part 1 of our DNA class last year. 

Andi Criminger will come back to present part 2 of DNA chromosome logs. Now that you have written out your chromosome match logs, what do you do next? 

This meeting will be for those who have already written out your chromosome match logs. IF YOU ARE JUST BEGINNING YOUR DNA RESEARCH, YOU MAY NOT BE READY FOR THIS CLASS. Beginner questions will not be answered. Beginner DNA researchers are welcome to attend the class, but please note that this is the second part and beginner DNA will not be reviewed. 

If there is enough interest, we will have a second room next door with a class on Identifying Photographs for those who are not ready for part 2 of DNA research.