TIP OF THE WEEK – FREE INTRODUCTION TO
AFRICAN AMERICAN GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH   Want a preview of the SGS Fall Seminar? 

An introductory presentation by Ari Wilkins, sponsored by the Chemung County (NY) Library District, will discuss the methodology, challenges, and myths regarding African American genealogical research. It will be an overview of useful sources for researching people of African American ancestry.

Ari Wilkins is a genealogy professional and staff member at the Dallas Public Library. She specializes in African American research and will be the speaker for our SGS Fall Seminar. 

This introductory event will be held via Zoom today, Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 4:00 pm PDT. Hurry, this event is free, but you must register in advance:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrcuiorD4tE9ZdfkNOETRo9hBYkjtGIiH8

TIP OF THE WEEK – ANCESTRY FATHER’S DAY SALE
  As it does multiple times each year, Ancestry has put their autosomal AncestryDNA test on sale for $59 ($40 savings). That’s a nice deal, but if you are interested in a 3-month Ancestry research subscription, here’s a great deal for you! They have bundled their AncestryDNA test with a 3-month World Explorer Membership for only $60 ($118 savings). World Explorer Membership gives you access to all research records Ancestry has to offer, both international and US, as well as access to all public family trees on Ancestry. This bundle offer is for new and returning subscribers only. It cannot be used for renewal of current subscriptions. The sale lasts until 11:59 ET on June 20, 2021.

A link to the offers:

https://www.ancestry.com/c/dna/offer/?o_iid=115349&o_lid=115349&o_sch=Web+Property

TIP OF THE WEEK – FHL LOOKUP SERVICE
  For over a year, the Family History Library (FHL), family history centers, and the affiliate libraries (SGS is an affiliate library) have been closed due to COVID, preventing researchers, like yourself, access to those pesky “locked” records, the ones that can only be viewed from within the FHL, or a family history center, or an affiliate library.

The FHL staff and volunteers have come up with a solution to this big problem. They launched a new Lookup Service. You still do the research work on FamilySearch, identifying the record that is important to you. If you find your access to that record image is restricted, fill out a Records Lookup Request Form. The staff, or a volunteer, will find the record from the information you provided and email it to you. 

Be patient. Requests may take a few weeks to process, depending on the volume of requests being handled at any given time.  

For more information on the Records Lookup Service and what types of materials (including books) it encompasses, visit:
https://www.familysearch.org/family-history-library/family-history-library-records-look-up-service  

TIP OF THE WEEK – DROP IN FOR TECH TUESDAY
  If you haven’t been to SGS’s “Tech Tuesday” why not drop in? As one attendee said…she didn’t have a question herself, but she always comes away with a new tidbit of information she didn’t know about. The next “Tech Tuesday” will be May 18, 2021, 10:00-11:00am PDT. Visit www.seagensoc.org Calendar of Events for the Zoom meeting link.

TIP OF THE WEEK –
CLASSES at FamilySearch    

The May calendar at FamilySearch.org is full of free online learning opportunities for those new to genealogy or new to the FamilySearch website. The classes are free. Registration is required. Start out on the right foot with this invaluable instruction. A sampling of the titles slated for beginners and coming up on the calendar in May are:
May 3   – Using the FamilySearch Catalog (Beginner)  
May 4   – Using the FamilySearch Wiki (Beginner)
May 13 – Comenzando tú árbol en FamilySearch (Beginner)
May 20 – The US Colored Troops & Buffalo Soldiers: History, Records, Strategies (Beginner)
May 25 – Navigate, Add, Edit, Standardize, Print on FamilySearch Family Tree (Beginner)
May 27 – Ask Your United States and Canada Research Questions (Beginner)

For a full list visit: 
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/img_auth.php/0/01/May_FHL_Webinars.pdf

TIP OF THE WEEK –
ORDERING A DECEASED PERSON’S SS-5 FOR GENEALOGY
The first time you order a copy of the Social Security Application (SS-5) for a Deceased Person, the process may feel a little daunting. What do I order? How do I order it? Will I be spending money and getting nothing? 

Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, has written a nice little article, “Ordering the SS-5 : 2020 Style”, that will walk you through the process in detail.

Her key points are:

You have to make a request using Form SSA-771. Do this online if you are comfortable filling out forms online, making payments online, and attaching supporting files. If you aren’t comfortable with the online process, you can print the form, fill it out manually, attach supporting documents, and mail it back. 

Always choose the option “Photocopy of Original Application for a Social Security Card (SS-5) for a Deceased Individual”; it costs $21. Do NOT choose the the Computer Extract of Social Security Application (Numident) for a Deceased Individual that costs $20.

Expedited processing? Answer NO.

Certification? Answer NO. 

Supporting files? That depends on a couple of factors, including the age of the deceased person. Read the details in Judy’s article at: 

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2020/11/16/ordering-the-ss-5-2020-style/

TIP OF THE WEEK –
GOOGLE SCHOLAR   One tip that came out of Pam Vestal’s Second Saturday presentation on March 13, 2021, is the use of a little known feature of Google, Google Scholar. Found at https://scholar.google.com, Google Scholar focuses on searching scholarly literature found on the internet. It will display results found from academic publishers, universities, professional societies, etc. It will find doctoral dissertations, theses, academic papers, and more.  
  Our upcoming SGS Second Saturday presentation will be Steve Morrison presenting “Digging Up New Dirt – Unearthing the ‘Real’ New England Immigrant”, on April 10, 2021. It’s virtual. All are welcome. The link can be found on the SGS website Calendar of Events.   

TIP OF THE WEEK –
WYOMING DIGITAL NEWSPAPER COLLECTION   Have Wyoming ancestors? The site www.wyomingnewspapers.org currently contains over 134,000 issues of historical and archived Wyoming newspapers with issues dating from 1849-1922. The database is searchable and use of the site is free to the public. It is a service of the Colorado & Wyoming State Libraries and the University of Wyoming, and it is partially funded through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

TIP OF THE WEEK

– Small Town Papers   This tip came from a member of the Seattle Genealogical Society Networking private group on Facebook. If you would like to become a member of the group, just ask; use the Facebook search to find the group and then click on the JOIN GROUP icon.  

Karen P. turned us onto a website she found, www.stparchive.com , which is a “Master List of all newspaper archives hosted by SmallTownPapers”. This list is sorted by newspaper name, or by state. Karen says,  “I just found this website on small town newspapers. Click on the newspaper, Then Browse will give you the years the have digitized. Search will let you search. As always finding things are hit and miss, but it looks like a good source.”