Welcome to the Rapid City Society for Genealogical Research, Inc. (RCSGR)
Serving the Rapid City, Black Hills and Western South Dakota genealogical community by providing a learning and sharing environment and by providing genealogy materials and assistance to its members and the public.
Upcoming Seminar
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MINING FOR YOUR FAMILY HISTORY -
The Basics of Genealogy Research
Friday evening, September 30 and
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Lecture Hall, Classroom Building
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
501 E. St. Joseph Street, Rapid City, SD 57701
Sessions to be held:
Friday evening:
DNA Basics: An Introduction to DNA and Genealogy
Saturday:
Introduction to Genealogy
Gems and Junk: A Beginner’s Guide to Online Research
Timelines: Your Ancestor’s Lifeline!
The Bred, the Wed, the Dead: An Introduction to US Vital Records
DNA: I’ve Tested, Now What?
Celebrate the South Dakota Genealogy Society - 40th Anniversary
Forgotten Wives, Mothers, and Old Maids: Tracing Women in US Research
WE HOPE YOU STRIKE GOLD WHILE MINING
FOR YOUR FAMILY HISTORY!
FURTHER DETAILS ARE FORTHCOMING!
Be sure to mark your calendar for this amazing seminar!
* Sponsored by Rapid City Society for Genealogical Research,
in cooperation with the South Dakota School of Mines
and Technology - Devereaux Library
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RCSGR
Library
Collection
We have a large diverse collection available in the Genealogy section at the Rapid City Public Library. We strongly encourage you to visit and utilize the collection. Once you pull a book or other publication from our Genealogical section, please return to the filing cart and the library staff will reshelve.
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NOVEMBER 2021 PROGRAM
REBOOTING YOUR INTEREST
IN GENEALOGY
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President Cathy Druckery presented a program on rebooting your interest in genealogy. Here are some of the tips she presented:
1. Go through the records you have and double check your logs. Are you missing any information for that person such as death, obituary, funeral, or marriage records? Are there any errors or omissions?
2. Optional spellings - maybe their name is transposed such as Turner Joe or Joe Turner.
3. Create a timeline for that person's life, including parents names, when born, christened, married, any children, and death. Why a timeline? Why not?
4. Check for new records that may have been added to a website. It may give you further clues.
5. Travel to where that person lived. Check out the cemetery, courthouse, genealogy society in that area.
6. Photographs. Look for clues in old photographs. What were they from or what is going on?
7. Occupation. What did they do for a job. May provide clues.
8. Organizations. Did they belong to any organizations? If so, there may be records there.
9. Favorite food. Did they have any favorite recipes? Check with relatives. Start a cookbook.
10. Talk to others. Great source of information and can lead to other clues.
11. If you find something, call a family member or friend. Share that information.
12. Consider going on the Salt Lake trip. There are consultants there that will assist you with your search. There a many foreign records, and the consultants can assist you with translation of those documents.
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RESEARCH TRIP
TO
SALT LAKE CITY
Mark your calendar!
September 4 - September 11, 2022
For more information, e-mail us at askus@rcgenealogy.com
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JULY 2021 MEETING
Restoring and Digitalizing Old Family Photos
Did you know you can restore old family photographs that may have been damaged? Kenny Putnam was the speaker at our July meeting, and he provided very informative information on this topic as well as other tips on preserving your old family photographs.
Some things to think about when preserving and restoring old photographs:
* Be sure to store old photographs in a cool, dry place.
* Placing photographs in locations in the sun will fade your photographs.
* Areas with grease or smoke in the air can contaminate photographs.
* Newsprint and cardboard have gases. Newspaper print will cause it to turn yellow.
* Photographs on old cardboard is not good--it will destroy the photograph.
* If a photograph is stuck to the glass of a frame, capture the photograph digitally by scanning.
* Tears or scratches on an old photograph can be restored.
* You can scan and save your old photographs onto a website.
* If old photographs are yellow, capture digitally. When digitally restoring the photograph, you can restore the eye color or clothing to the natural color using Photoshop or other software program.
* If you are doing your own scanning of photographs, Kenny recommends the Epson Perfection V 600 scanner.
* Scan with full color even if the photograph is in black and white.
* If you have a negative, you can digitally scan and then invert the negative and turn it into a photo.
* Have small photographs? You can scan and fix digitally.
* If enlarging to print a photograph, use 3200 dpi--for storing, use 360 dpi.
* You can also preserve old photographs by taking a photo with your cell phone--fill the screen with the image. You may want to step back and zoom in a little. You can then email the image to your computer using the largest resolution, as a small resolution will be fuzzy.
* Storage options:
- Jump drive.
- Cloud.
- Dropbox - can upload at full resolution and then send the link.
If you have any questions on restoring or preserving old photographs, please give Kenny Putnam a call at the above number.
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We offer short trips usually of one-day duration
that we take to surrounding areas for research
or to enjoy something historical.
NOTE: Due to the COVID-19 virus,
these excursions have been put on hold.
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Winter Excursion - February 8, 2020
Photo from Private Tour of "McGillycuddy House"
Valentine McGillycuddy was born of Irish immigrants in Racine,
Wisconsin, on Valentine's Day, Feb 14, 1849. McGillycuddy's nearly
90 years of adventure and accomplishments include: doctor, educator, explorer, topographer, surgeon, government agent, Indian advocate,
bank president and politician.
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IF YOU MISSED IT . . .
Past Program - February 20, 2020
Deadwood City Archives
Michael Runge, Deadwood City Archivist, presented
Michael Runge has published a book entitled Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery, which was researched, written, and in some cases, photographed by archivist Runge. "Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery" is a combination of historic and contemporary photographs chronicling the history of the cemetery and the stories of the individuals, both colorful and illustrious, who helped carve Deadwood into the annals of the American West.
Archivist Runge also recommended Historic Deadwood Experiential Tours (www.ExperienceDeadwood.com or
call 1-800-999-1876 or eamil dawn@deadwood.org).
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July 21
MILITARY RECORDS
Program: What and where to look for military records that are not Civil War era.
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August 18
EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION
What's the difference? Program: Discover how your ancestor got to America and traveled across the country.
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September 4
RESEARCH TRIP TO SALT LAKE CITY
Program: What better way to learn more about genealogy research and immerse yourself in records that are at your fingertips than with a group of ...
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September 30
GENEALOGY SEMINAR
Program: The RCSGR will host an evening program and a full-day seminar with main topics and break-out sessions. Watch for details coming soon!
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October 20
CELEBRATING FAMILY HISTORY MONTH
Program to be determined!
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