Wake County Genealogical Society, North Carolina
WELCOME to the Wake County Genealogical Society website!


May Meeting

Using Newspapers to Enrich Your Ancestor's Story
Tuesday May 28, 6:30 pm to 8:15 pm
Olivia Raney Local History Library
4016 Carya Drive
Raleigh, NC 27610
 
Speaker: Cynthia Gage
 
While obituaries and wedding announcements can provide summarized information about your ancestors, other sections of the newspaper can offer a better understanding of their day-to-day lives.  This presentation will explore some of these benefits of newspapers and introduce you to some techniques and sites to help improve your success and keep track of your finds.
 
All WCGS meetings are free and open to the public.  Bring a friend!  Refreshments will be served during social time before the presentation. Presentation will start at 7:00.


Wake Genealogy Watch - Summer Edition!

The new issue, Vol. 2 Issue 4 of Wake Genealogy Watch, is available and brings you informative topics and news of upcoming events to help enhance your genealogy skills over the hot summer season.  In this issue you will find an article by Cyndi Deal about her selection and use of a scanner which makes easy work of converting slides, negatives, and film into JPEGs for preserving and sharing photos.  She supplements this topic with a short discussion of her photo editing software and presents a few resources on how to date 19th century images. Cynthia Gage shares some newspaper resources that North Carolina residents can use from home with just their library card! Ted Bainbridge shares his analytical process using family lore, census records, and maps to help prove/disprove the story of one of his ancestors. 
 
The summer WGW issue also provides details on the June-August WCGS meeting theme, “Summer of DNA”.  And whether local or not, everyone can take advantage of the free webinars on “Tarheel” research by the late Helen Leary, our recognized expert on North Carolinian research.  All these and many more recommendations and helpful hints from this WGW issue will keep you progressing and successful during the heat of summer!  As always we welcome your articles, comments, or other items for the newsletter, so please contact Cyndi at newsletter@wakecogen.org if you have something to share.
 
Photo Note: If you choose to read a printed version of this newsletter, some of the photos will be difficult to view due to size constraints. Please refer back to the online edition where you can enlarge the photos to accommodate better viewing.  This recent issue of the Newsletter may be downloaded from the WCGS Newsletter page.  Enjoy!


Wake Treasures - Vol 28, Issue 3 Released!

Summary from  "Message from the Editor - Diane L. Richard"
 
Vol 28, Issue #3 of Wake Treasures incorporates more records and information that hopefully benefits your research.  We continue to explore pre-vital records' law birth records and the late 19th century poor house records.  For those researching 18th century ancestors we resume transcriptions from the General Assembly Session records and Treasurer and Comptroller's collections of Wake County related documents.
 
A piece on the Library of Virginia and its bible collection reminds us that sometimes the documents we seek are not located within the state.  Carla again regales us with a story about a family member, though this time it is a sad one, reflecting the reality of our ancestor's lives.  Last but not least we have an itemization of the Colclough and Bragg collection located in the Durham County Library.  These records relate to families located in the Oak Grove Township which at various times has been part of Wake and part of Durham County.
 
To download this new edition, log into the Members Area and go to the Wake Treasures webpage. And if you have personal stories of people, places, and events connected to Wake County, please consider sharing them for inclusion into future editions!


Transcription Training

Have you wanted to help WCGS or another organization with transcibing historical documents but felt unsure about your skills or are you unfamiliar with the transcription process in general?  Maybe you were unable to attend the transcription training given by our Editor, Diane Richard, last summer?  Now she has provided us with an option to learn these skills at our convenience.  Diane has recorded a virtual session for the North Carolina Genealogical Society which is free to all for viewing.  This one-hour training provides examples, tips, tricks, and resources in best practices for transcribing documents for publishing and for genealogical research in general. To view "Accurate Transcription for Historical Records", click on the title and scroll down to the viewing window.  Then we hope you will visit our Projects page to find the right transcription project for you to help us!


WCGS on Lulu!

Did you know you can purchase WCGS journals (new and archived) on Lulu? Visit the Wake County Genealogical Society Bookstore here.


      
Summer of DNA
This summer our monthly meetings will focus on helping you get more out of your DNA matches! Check out the WCGS Events page to find specifics on the meeting topics.
WCGS Blog site
Find our Blog site here to keep up with all the research hints and local activities of interest to Wake County researchers.
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WAKE GENEALOGY WATCH - Summer Issue!
Vol 2, Issue 4 of our newsletter is now available! You can download the issue from the WCGS Newsletter webpage.
June Meeting - The Leeds DNA Process
Part 1 of the "Summer of DNA" teaches a fairly simple process useful for both beginners and others. Our instructors are WCGS's own Sallie Szymczyk and Cyndi Deal.
July DNA Meeting - What are the Odds?
Jean Lansford will present Part 2 of the "Summer of DNA" with another analysis tool useful for beginners and others.
Volunteer needs
Near or far, there is always a way you can help WCGS!
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Amazon Smile
WCGS is a Member of AmazonSmile--help earn funds for our society! When shopping at amazon.com, please use http://smile.amazon.com/ch/56-1392575. When you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Wake County Genealogical Society, Inc. Bookmark the link and you will be supporting us every time you shop! THANK YOU!
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