Genealogy Weekend & Illinois State Archives

Special genealogy program for June....

A special Genealogy Weekend will be held at the library on June 13th and June 14th. The Genealogy Librarian will be here all weekend specifically to assist with genealogy questions, getting started in genealogy, assistance with HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com, and offer suggestions to further your genealogical quest.

Mr. Greg Cox from the Illinois State Archives will be the guest speaker on June 13th as part of the Library's Genealogy Weekend. Mr. Cox's program will start at 10:30. Mr. Cox is a fifteen year employee of the Secretary of State, State of Illinois. Formerly a Micrographic Equipment Operator filming historical documents, Greg is now employed with the Reference Section as a Records Archivist assisting patrons with their genealogical research. Greg is the Archives' resident genealogical speaker, utilizing a forum-style presentation involving audience participation. His presentation of approximately 45 minutes consists of the available genealogical resources found in the Illinois State Archives. Records he discusses in some detail include the Census, both State and Federal, death certificates, and County records held in seven State depositories. He also covers lesser-known resources such as the Application for Bonus of military veterans of various wars, original land registers, Civil War Muster Rolls, Servitude and Emancipation Records and more.

Computer system

The Harrisburg District Library is a member of the Shawnee Library System, along with most of the libraries in Southern Illinois. The storm that passed through the area on Friday May 8th, struck the Carterville headquarters for the Shawnee Library System, taking out their electrical system (along with part of their roof and various other damage). Thus our library lost major parts of our computer operating systems. The staff used an emergency system to enable us to check out books for our patrons. Without our computerized system we weren't able to provide the complete range of services our patrons are used to. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused our patrons, especially our Internet users. The Shawnee Library System staff have worked extremely hard to restore those services for us, so we can in turn resume our normal operations. Thank you all for your patience and understanding this past week.

Help with online genealogy research

The May genealogy program will be held on Saturday May 23, 2009 10:30-11:30 in the adult computer lab. The workshop will provide hands on practice and tips on using various Internet sources for genealogical research. This program will focus on helping you become familiar with using the Internet to further your research , so bring your research material!



Watch for information regarding the upcoming genealogy weekend in June!