52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 13 - Local Societies

Because my genealogical research is focused thousands of miles from where I live, I’ve never joined a local genealogical society. However, I am thankful for all that local societies do in preserving records and promoting family history. Without their tireless efforts, much of what we find online would not exist. Local societies have taken on the dirty work of transcribing old, overgrown cemeteries and sitting in dusty courthouses going through record books. What they have produced throughout the years is amazing!

In this new digital age, local societies are joining in the effort to index the 1940 census. Often their cemetery work involves not only transcribing information from headstones but also taking photographs and creating memorials such as Find-A-Grave and interment.net. They continue their efforts within their communities to preserve and promote local history and to educate their members and the public about genealogy.

Despite the fact that I have no ancestors in the area in which I live, I need to join a local society so that the resources we have are available to researchers everywhere!

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research