President's Pen - January 2025
I guess that I am just becoming an old softy, because I genuinely look forward to our members’ Show & Tell program every year. I never know which presenter will inspire me or others to take on new projects in pursuit of our collective genealogical endeavors. This year’s talks covered such topics as the new look of the WAGS website, Civil War research, photography, and how a genealogy fan chart coupled with inherited scrapbooks inspired new avenues of research.
First up was Rick Frohling, our intrepid Newsletter Editor and Webmaster. His presentation focused on our new responsive website that has been in the works for the past half year or so. Rick gave us an overview of the new site and walked us through each section, giving us a preview of what the future looks like. Currently, we are “in the queue” for the transition from old to new. I have to say, our WAGS future looks bright! Thanks for all your hard work Rick.
Next up was our Program Director, Christine Cohen, with a PowerPoint presentation on researching her Civil War third great-granduncle, William Coleman. William died at the young age of 21 at the Battle of Vicksburg. Christine did a deep dive into William’s Civil War activities and discovered that he had been court-martialed and imprisoned for going AWOL. She spoke of all the records she located through NARA, Fold3, Battlefield.org, and Ancestry.com and how they helped to fill in the story of his short life.
Third was my PowerPoint presentation about “Discovering My Family History Through Photographs.” It was Sara Cochran’s November presentation on the history of photography and how to organize, digitize, and preserve photographs for future generations that inspired my talk. I began with some of my earliest tintypes. I then progressed through cabinet cards and black and white photography, finishing with a printed digital image. In the process of organizing my inherited collection, I delved into the history of each image, the people and places photographed, and their relationship within my family tree. It is a work in progress as I have many more boxes of photographs to file.
Charter member Bonnie Morris spoke about how she incorporates her historical family photographs into beautiful keepsake Christmas ornaments for her extended family. First, she digitizes her photos so she can reduce them in size for her annual holiday mementos. Her next step is to attach a brief identification on the back of the ornament. She then includes an information sheet that briefly retells the life story of the pictured individuals. This year’s ornament featured the life story of John Q. Wall and his wife, Betsy. I wish I had someone like Bonnie in my family.
Our fifth speaker was Marisa Reyes, our WAGS Historian, who inherited an antique photo album and scrapbook album from her great-grandmother, Mary F. Brown. With her new-found family connections from her research trip to the Orange County Family Search Center and this wonderful collection of prints, she hopes to expand on her family history. Her goal is to match these photos with historical research and share this information with her extended family. She called her research plans “her retirement fun!” It all began with a simple fan chart. Keep us updated on your progress, Marisa.
A quick reminder to our members both near and far, we host a member show and tell every year. Please consider sharing your genealogical treasures with us next year. We’d love to hear from you.