A Review of Our Genealogy Lecture Series

We've been trying some new things out this year. One of those new things is live-tweeting our lectures. For those of you who aren't on Twitter, that may not mean anything, but it's a quick way of communicating little tidbits of information from our events to people who are unable to be here physically. Of course, if you're not on Twitter, you might feel like you're missing out on some of our services!

This is where another new thing comes in: We've collected those tweets using a service called Storify, so if you aren't familiar with Twitter, you can still read those tidbits easily. We've collected four of our genealogy lectures here for your enjoyment.

Cemeteries
Jeannie Regan-Dinius kicked off our lecture series with a discussion of Indiana cemetery laws and how to preserve them and conduct genealogical research using cemetery records and tombstones.

1940 Census
Allison DePrey spoke about the 1940 Census, which was recently released to the public. She discussed what questions were asked, how to search the census records, and how to use the results for genealogy.

From Daguerreotype to Digital: Dating and Preserving Your Family Photos
Joan Hostetler of Heritage Photo and Research Services gave a great presentation on family photographs, and there was a great deal of audience participation as she helped people with their own collections.

Maria's Journey: Writing Your Family History
Ramon and Trisha Arredondo gave an entertaining and informative presentation on their own journey through researching and writing their book Maria's Journey, about Ray's mother.

We hope this proves to be a helpful service to you. Please let us know what you think!

Follow Maria's Journey with Ramon and Trisha Arredondo

Everyone has a story to tell. Maybe someone in your family fought in World War II or marched with the Civil Rights Movement. Maybe one of your ancestors developed an important advancement in the medical or engineering fields. Maybe it's just a story about where you were the day you heard about JFK's assassination... the Challenger explosion... the World Trade Center collapse.

Whatever the story you have to tell, you'll want to join us this coming Thursday for our next genealogy lecture--Writing Your Family History!

Ramon and Trisha Arredondo of northern Indiana told an amazing story about their family when they wrote Maria's Journey, a true story about a fourteen-year-old Mexican girl named Maria, who entered into an arranged marriage to Miguel Arredondo. Maria, Miguel, and their young daughter immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and experienced the Great Depression, the Labor Movement, World War II, and other important eras in American history.

Join us Thursday, October 3 at 7 p.m. in the Carriage House for this fascinating discussion. Ray and Trisha will have copies of their book for sale and will be signing books while they are here.

This lecture is free and open to the public, but seating in the Carriage House is limited. Please RSVP so we can expect you by emailing study@ben-hur.com or calling us at 765-362-5769.

From Daguerreotype to Digital: Dating and Preserving Family Photographs

Lew & Susan Wallace Descendants pose for a family photo.
Come to the Carriage House for a closer look!

Is your family photo album neatly organized with all the names, dates, and locations written on the back? Even more organized, is it in archival scrapbooks with appropriate labels in chronological order? Or is it more like mine--a few haphazard scrapbooks and albums with photos that may or may not be labelled, with the extra photos shoved in boxes that aren't organized by...much of any criteria?

Whatever the answer, you may be interested in popping in for our upcoming genealogy lecture. If you're uber-organized, you can sit there and feel smug. If you're like the rest of us, you can learn how best to preserve your family photographs. And if your photos are unlabeled, you can learn how to be a photographic detective and figure out a little bit more about those unlabeled, undated, unidentified photos!

Join us September 12 at 7 p.m. at the Carriage House for this free lecture. Joan Hostetler of Heritage Photo and Research Services will discuss photographic processes and formats from the 1840s to the present. She will share clues for dating photos and techniques for preserving them. Bring your own family photos to learn more about them!

The lecture is free, but we do like to have a head-count beforehand, as space is limited. Please RSVP by emailing us at study@ben-hur.com or calling us at 765-362-5769.

If you're unable to join us that night, you can always follow us on Twitter, where we livetweet tidbits from the lecture with the hashtag #genealogy.

Fall Events at the Study

Happy September! We have a busy fall planned. We'll blog about all of these events in more detail later, but for now, here's a quick overview of important dates at the Study in September and October. Visit our website for a printable PDF version of this schedule.

Sept 12 - 7 p.m. - "From Daguerreotype to Digital: Dating and Preserving Family Photographs" Genealogy Lecture - FREE at the Carriage House

Joan Hostetler of Heritage Photo and Research Services will discuss photographic processes and formats from the 1840s to the present, as well as clues for dating photos and techniques for preserving them. Bring your own family photos to learn more about them. Please RSVP.

Sept 21-22 - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - History Beneath Us Archaeology - FREE on the Study grounds

Assist archaeologists from the University of Indianapolis as they continue excavations on Lew Wallace's reflecting pool. Join in the fun by digging and sifting for artifacts. Great for the family or scout troop!

Sept 29 - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Smithsonian Museum Day Live - FREE with Smithsonian pass

Free admission to the Study with printed pass from Smithsonian Magazine. See the Smithsonian Magazine website for more information.

Oct 3 - 7 p.m. - "Writing Your Family History" Genealogy Lecture - FREE at the Carriage House

Ramon and Trisha Arredondo will speak about the process of writing their book Maria's Journey, a family story about immigration, the rise of the unions, the Great Depression, World War II, and more. Please RSVP.

Learning about the 1940 Census

Our Genealogy Lecture series continued last night with a fun and informative talk from Allison DePrey about the 1940 Census.

Allison DePrey from IHS
talks about the 1940 Census

Allison DePrey is Assistant Coordinator for Education and Community Engagement at the Indiana Historical Society. She went over some interesting facts about the 1940 Census and discussed how to read the forms and maximize your research and understanding of the census.

The 1940 Census records were just released last year. Census records are held for 72 years before being released publicly, and they are an invaluable tool for genealogy researchers. The 1940 Census had some new features that previous census questionnaires didn't have, and the method used to take the census was new in 1940.

Here are a few tidbits we learned last night:

• Section 14 covered highest grade completed in education for the first time on a census.
• 16 supplemental questions were asked of only 5% of the population--place of birth, earliest language spoken, etc.
• People probably didn't admit on the 1940 Census that they spoke German at home thanks to anti-German sentiment from WWI.
• The supplemental questions asked for information about Social Security for the first time.
• Before 1940 no record was made of who provided the information--it could have been a neighbor or milkman!
• There were questions about place of residence in 1935, which reflected the impact of the Great Depression. About 14% of the population had migrated within the United States.

If you want to do genealogy research, start with the free official 1940 Census website. Other sources include Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, and Brightsolid. Ancestry.com also provides access to the 1940 Census.

Three additional Genealogy Lectures are planned throughout 2013.  Topics include Wallace family history (July 25), how to date and preserve your family photographs (September 12), and how to write your family history (October 3).  This lecture series is made possible through a grant from the Indiana Humanities Council in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Genealogy Lecture Series Opens with "Cemeteries"

Join us Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in the Carriage House for the first of our genealogy lectures!

Cemeteries can be invaluable resources for genealogists and historians. They serve as community museums in some respects. Many a genealogist has pored over cemetery records and traipsed across overgrown rural cemeteries to find an elusive ancestor.

Jeannie R. Regan-Dinius, Director of Special Initiatives for the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, will discuss the state of cemeteries in Indiana, what is being done at various levels to protect and restore them, and what we can do to help.

Jeannie Regan-Dinius has a life-long interest in history, family history, and research.  She earned her Bachelors in Public History from Ball State University, where she studied also anthropology and American Studies.  She has her Masters in Urban Planning and Information Management/Library Science from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis with additional graduate course work in public history.

Our "Cemeteries" lecture is free and open to the public, but we ask that you RSVP ahead of time. Email us at study@ben-hur.com or call 765-5769 to register.