Florida State Genealogical Society

New Lineage Society for Children of World War II Vets Created

2011-07-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

The NEHGS Weekly Newsletter recently featured a story about a new genealogy related society that has been created by the Admiral Nimitz Foundation - the Society of Sons and Daughters of World War II Veterans. Stephanie Hagee, the Program Administrator for the new group sent us the following information about the Admiral Nimitz Foundation and the Society of Sons and Daughters of World War II Veterans:

"The Admiral Nimitz Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization that provides financial support and management infrastructure for the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, and its associated entities, including the Nimitz Research Center. Descriptive information about the Foundation, and the Museum, is available on the Museum website http://nimitz-museum.org/ The Foundation currently carries a four star rating from Charity Navigator.

On January 1, 2011, the Foundation launched a lineage society for descendants of participants in World War II under the copyrighted corporate name Society of the Sons and Daughters of World War II Veterans. The Society’s goal is to preserve the stories of sacrifice and achievement of America’s “greatest generation “– those who fought in and won World War II. Membership enables individuals to document family ancestry from an American veteran who served in any branch and any theater of World War II. The Society of Sons and Daughters of World War II Veterans plans to be an asset for educators and students, as well as family historians, as it creates a database of publically available military records about World War II veterans that will be accessible to family historians, authors and students. Membership is open to relatives of all men and women who served in the United States military in World War II in any theater, may they be related by birth, adoption, or marriage. Our aspiration is to give a voice for generations to come to men and women who may be trying to research their own family tree, including one of our newest members, President George W. Bush, who joined in honor of his father, President George HW Bush, and his service in the US Navy.

To that end, the Society plans to actively identify and make available publicly available records arising from the conflict that will assist later generations research and comprehend the participation of their own ancestors in that global endeavor. The Society proposes to inform by traditional periodic media distributed to Members and through the Society website, www.sonsanddaughtersofww2veterans.org.

Reflecting on the development of fellow lineage societies, the Society believes that it has been given an opportunity not available to the older institutions--to begin the collection and presentation of relevant material in a digital, not paper, environment. Consequently, the Society hopes to link access to substantive work done by each of the service branch’s history centers and museums, the service academies, academia and to the global archival and museum world—especially the surviving physical examples of equipment large and small from that conflict. As an example of the type of resources the Society hopes to identify elsewhere, our Foundation supports a Museum with a physical plant that houses over 45,000 artifacts, large and small, and includes a B-17 displayed on a carrier aimed at Tokyo, a Higgins PT boat at dockside preparing for night patrol, a TBM torpedo bomber of the type flown by President Bush in carrier hanger deck, the casing for the undeployed third atomic bomb as well as an archival repository of paper records from the Pacific Theater (in the process of digitization) and several thousand oral histories of participants in that theater. Other institutions here and abroad have a similar profile of relevant resources—physical, paper and digital-- which can be accessed online or physically visited to help tell the story of the conflict.

One of the immediate primary objectives of the Society is to spread the word about the Society throughout the United States in order to enable as many World War II veterans’ families as possible to consider joining to honor their loved ones by documenting their service and to thereby ensure that they will be remembered, always. We would hope that the content the Society develops might be of interest to Archives.com in the future. The Society is in its infancy but hopes to enrich the search by all descendants of World War II veterans for explanatory descriptive material about that global conflict in which their ancestors had a part."

If you are interested in learning more about this new society, here is their contact information:

Sons and Daughters of World War II Veterans

Admiral Nimitz Foundation
328 E. Main Street
Fredericksburg, TX 78624
www.sonsanddaughtersofww2veterans.org

Call For Papers - 2011 Annual Conference

2011-06-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

The FSGS Conference Chair for has put out a call for proposals from genealogists interested in being speakers for the Breakout Sessions at FSGS 35th annual conference. Those interested should send their proposal - in the form of a brief bio, including previous speaking experience, and accompanied by short outlines or summaries of their intended lecture topics to the FSGS Conference Chair at: fsgsconference@gmail.com.

The Conference Committee will review submitted proposals and select the topics to presented at the Conference.

The New FSGS Website Is Live!

2011-06-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

The Florida State Genealogical Society is happy to announce that our newly designed website is live and available for your use.

In addition to several other new features that we hope are helpful, you may now renew your membership online through the site. And within the next day or so, we will have registration for the Annual Conference available online.

Check it out at: www.flsgs.org

2011 Annual Conference

2011-05-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Start planning now to join us this at this year's Annual Conference!

When: 11 & 12 November 2011!

Where:

Sheraton Orlando North Hotel

600 North Lake Destiny Drive

Maitland, FL 32751

Sheraton has created a personalized link for registering FSGS Conference attendees.

A block of rooms has been reserved for Conference attendees at $88 per night. Be sure to mention that you are attending the FSGS conference when reserving accomodations.

Who:

Our keynote speaker is Lloyd Dewitt Bockstruck, nationally known professional genealogist, educator, librarian, author, and columnist. From 1979-2009, he served as the Supervisor of the Genealogy Section of the Dallas Public Library. He wrote a popular weekly "Family Tree" column for The Dallas Morning News from 1991 to 2008 and has been a contributing writer to the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter since 2008. Lloyd is also the author of Bounty and Donation Land Grants in British Colonial America; Denizations and Naturalizations in the British Colonies in America, 1607-1775; Naval Pensioners of the United States, 1800-1851; Virginia’s Colonial Soldiers; Genealogical Research in Texas; Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants Awarded by State Governments.

The recipient of numerous genealogy-related awards, Lloyd has served on the faculty of the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University since 1974, and also taught at the Genealgical Institute of Mid-America at the University of Illinois from 1994-2004.

What:

Finding the Maiden Names of Your Female Ancestors: This can be such a challenge that women have become known as the “hidden half” of our genealogy. You will learn about records and techniques that can help reduce the challenge.

The War of 1812 and its Genealogical Consequences: Next year marks the 200^th anniversary of this war, and huge numbers of records that have never even been microfilmed are now being digitized so that they will be available online. This lecture can help you find out if these new records will play a role in your genealogy.

Migrations 1607- 1850: How and why our ancestors moved about their new country – and why it matters to genealogists

Newspaper Genealogy: Newspapers from the periods in which our ancestors lived not only often provide us with the vital statistics that we seek, but can also serve as a window into their daily lives.

Stay tuned for additional information!