We had a good time on Thursday August 6th at the Itasca County Historical Society’s Genealogy meeting. Nine of us reviewed new hand-outs Leona Litchke brought in on genealogy research sites on the internet. One had 75 genealogy websites focused on states across the USA, while the other was called Sweet 16: Discover the 101 genealogy websites that take the cake in 2015!
After some discussion about up-coming events, we watched 45 minutes of the Find A Grace online class. While it did have some interesting ways of researching, the best part was the cemetery that was visited finding out information for the client.
The cemetery had a beautiful layout, headstones and footstones were shown. The Find A Grave website now has over 14 million entries. Here in Itasca County we have 2 main volunteers, with 3 more that are assisting taking photos and documenting the Itasca County cemeteries. On cloudy days it’s best to photograph, thereby avoiding reflections off the grave stones. Also, sunny days let the volunteers go out and play golf!
The cemetery here in Grand Rapids Minnesota has over 12,000 graves, it took Bruce Aiton and others 2 summers to complete. If you have any relatives buried in Itasca County, he will give you access to them on Find A Grave and you can put their picture and information on the site.
According to the Family Tree Magazine, Minnesota is considered a STELLER STATE, at least the Minnesota Historical Society’s website made the cut! <www.mnhs.org/genealogy> Simply type an ancestor’s name into the PeopleFinder to get started searching the online resources here, which includes state censuses, vital records and veterans’ burials.
The other Minnesota site that is available is closer to home, Minnesota Discovery Center: Iron Range Research Center <www.inronrangeresearchcenter.org> Search a database that covers 1.4 million births, marriage and cemetery records from the Iron Range, plus alien registrations, naturalization records and obituaries from across Minnesota.
Next Genealogy meeting will be September 3rd at 6:00 pm