Beginning Genealogy

The Emily Fowler Central Library can help you look into your family’s history with a beginning genealogy class on Saturday, June 15, at 3 p.m. Learn the basics of genealogical research, including gathering information, using genealogical forms, basic sources and staying organized, as well as the resources available at the library.

This two-hour program is free but seating is limited. Please call (940) 349-8752 to register for the class. The Emily Fowler Central Library is located at 502 Oakland.

For more information, contact Chuck Voellinger at (940) 349-8746 or Chuck.voellinger@cityofdenton.com

 

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For other news items on the City of Denton, visit our website at www.cityofdenton.com, go to Quick Links and click on Press Releases.

In The Weeds 3/30/13: Dark Days For an Early Denton County Family

Searching through our Shepard Funeral Home Indexes from the early 20th C, we found the following information (names witheld):

Deceased: (withheld)

Charged to: (withheld)

Secured by: Mortgage on Horse

Date of Funeral: Mar. 11, 1906

Place of Death: 5 miles east of city

Cause of Death: not known

Date of Death: Mar. 10, 1906

Age: One Month

Interment: Ballew or Cooper Cemetery

In order to pay for his daughter’s funeral the father had to mortgage his horse.

Thanks to Leslie for finding this.

Census Research Class, February 23rd, 3-5pm.

  The Emily Fowler Library will present a free Census Genealogy Research Class on February 23rd, from 3-5pm. The US Census is an invaluable resource for genealogy research and there helpful tips and tricks for navigating the forms. There are idiosyncrasies as well, which we will discuss. To register, call 940-349-6813.

US Census form

Free Genealogy Databases Class, 12/1/12

   The Special Collections Department at the Emily Fowler Library will present a class on using the  genealogy databases we subscribe to such as Ancestry.com and Family Search as well as the indexes and local history resources we have available on our homepage. The class will be held Saturday December 1st, 2012 from 3:00pm-5:00pm at the Fowler Library.

Cat-Top

   With so much genealogy information being added daily to these and other databases, knowledge of efficient search strategies, techniques, and learning what each has to offer make your research faster and more enjoyable.

  This class is free but registration is required. Please call (940) 349- 6814 or contact me at chuck.voellinger@cityofdenton.com to register or for more information.

In The Weeds, 11/7/12: Amelia Found at TWU

   This is one of those really cool collisions between people and institutions. If you don’t mind, let me recount the story of how this happened because I think it has value in itself.

A few weeks back, Associate Professor of History at TWU Kate Landdeck contacted me about a project she is working on. I mentioned The Portal to Texas History website as a repository of the Denton Public Library photo archive. In the course of our conversation, Dr. Landdeck informed me that, in one of our photos, Amelia Earhart can be seen. While doing research for her project, she had identified one of the people in a photo entitled “Three Unidentified Women” as Amelia. Sure enough, there she is. Apparently, Ms Earhart was touring the country promoting aviation, especially for women.

Here’s one of several photos in the series of Ms Earhart at TWU:

As anyone with a collection of old photos can relate to, sometimes not everything you have has been meticulously identified and archived.  It takes fresh eyes to see something that was previously unknown. Here’s the Jan 27th, 1936 Denton Record-Chronicle on her visit to TSCW (TWU):  1.27.36DRC 

We are most grateful to Dr. Landdeck for indentifying Amelia for us and anyone who uses the Portal!

Lineage Society Applications

Daughters of the American Revolution Building, Washington D.C.
Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Join us on October 27, at 3:00 PM, at the Emily Fowler Central Library, 502 Oakland Street, to learn about joining a lineage society like Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, or the Jamestown Society. Learn what is expected and how to obtain the proper documentation for membership. This program is free, but seating is limited, so call (940) 349-8752 to register.

 

For more information, contact Kathy Strauss, Special Collections Librarian (940)-349-8752 or at kathy.strauss@cityofdenton.com

 

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For other news items on the City of Denton, visit our website at www.cityofdenton.com, go to Quick Links and click on Press Releases.

 

 

In The Weeds, 9/18/12: 1862 Gainesville Hangings Commemorated

    A local group comprised of professors from North Central Texas College, The Clark Family and the Texas State Hist0rical Association will present a program dedicated to the commemoration of the mass hangings of suspected Union sympathizers in Cooke and surrounding counties during the Civil War.

You can read more about the hangings here and we have a couple books available in the Special Collections Dept. here at the Fowler Library for your perusal:

Tainted Breeze by Richard B. McCaslin, professor of History at UNT and speaker at the event, and…

George Washington Diamond’s Account of The Great Hanging At Gainesville, 1862 edited by Sam Acheson and Julia Ann Hudson O’ Connell.
The event is open to the public and here is the text of the email we received:

“The Clark family would like to extend a warm invitation for you to join them on October 13, as they will now host commemorative events to honor the 150th anniversary. Several days ago, the Texas State Historical Association and North Central Texas College, deemed they would like to participate and co-partner with the Clark family in remembering Cooke County’s Civil War experience. 

 

 

Remembering Our Past, Embracing Our Future

October 1862 – 2012

October marks the 150^th year since the Great Hanging at Gainesville. The Clark Family in collaboration with the Texas State Historical Association and the Honors Program at North Central Texas College, invite you to join them for commemorative events, special guests and catered luncheon on

 

Saturday, October 13, 2012 at the Civic Center

311 S. Weaver St, Gainesville, Texas

 

8:30am – 12:30pm	Speakers – Richard McCaslin, Leon Russell, Ron Melugin and L.D. Clark
12:30pm	Catered Luncheon by Rohmer’s Restaurant $7.00 adult, $3.00 children under 10
3:30pm – 4:30pm	Clark Cemetery Intersection Clark Rd and CR220 Sons of the Union Veterans-Color Guard/Rifle Ceremony
5pm	Clark-Carri Farm  (1/2 mile from the cemetery) 629 Clark Rd  Gainesville Hor d’ oeuvres & Bonfire   Special Guests Richard McCaslin, PhD is the University of North Texas Department of History Chairman.  He earned his BA from Delta State University, MA from Louisiana State University and PhD from The University of Texas at Austin and has authored Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862. Leon Russell, born in 1928, three miles East of Gainesville considered it home until enlisting in the Army Air Corp at the age seventeen 17. Fueled by his motivation and complete disapproval of the cloak of secrecy surrounding the hangings, and the lack of the proper recognition of the injustice to the slain and their families, he successfully influenced the city of Gainesville to allow the first commemoration in Georgia Bass Park in 2007. His mission was to honor those citizens who tragically lost their lives in 1862.   Ron Melugin,  Professor of Government, NCTC; chairman of Cooke County Historical Commission; research responsible for 15 Texas Official Historical Markers in Gainesville; author of Heroes, Scoundrels and Angels: Fairview Cemetery of Gainesville, Texas. L.D. Clark earned his BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University. He had a long career of teaching English at the University of Arizona, The University of Nice and Korea University.  He is the author of A Bright Tragic Thing and Civil War Recollections of James Lemuel Clark. Mr. Clark is the grandson of James Lemuel Clark and great-grandson of Nathaniel Miles Clark, victim of the Great Hanging. ** New Book** – The Texas State Historical Association will unveil its newest publication, The Great Hanging at Gainesville, 1862: The Accounts of Thomas Barrett and George Washington Diamond, with an Introduction by Richard McCaslin and Afterword by L.D. Clark. (Combined accounts of Barrett and Diamond )

 

 

RSVP – before October 5, 2012 to:  NathanielClarkfamilyreunion@gmail.com or colleen.carri@gmail.com

 - posted by Chuck.

Free Online Genealogy Resources Class, Sept 1st, 2012

   Do you like saving money? Do you wonder if there are free websites to help with your genealogy research? The Emily Fowler Library Special Collections Dept. will present a class on Saturday Sept 1st, 2012 at 3pm that shows the researcher some useful and *free* websites that can assist you. Call 940-349-6814 to register and for more information. Oh, and the class is…free!

Free is good.

Miss Emily’s JukeJoint 8.24.12: Folkies invade NTSU!

   In my research for someone unrelated in the old Denton High Bronco yearbooks circa 1962, I came across the following photo of one “Steve Fromholz”…

Bad Luck Steve

    I figured it had to be the singer-songwriter because it fit the era and that name is kinda unusual. The next one is pretty sweet:

Friendly Steve

   Which led my brain to vaguely remember a picture of him at NTSU. Sure enough, here he is in the 1964 Yucca yearbook with the more well-known Michael Martin Murphy singing an old appalacian tune that the Stanley Brothers recorded and Ralph Stanley made hugely popular about a decade ago thanks to the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack and movie.

Wherefore Art Thous

Some kind of unbroken circle, what with the resurgence of folk-influenced music of current Denton bands such as Hares on the Mountain. The so-called “folk craze” of the early ’60s swept many a college campus but, I don’t know how many could say in retrospect that they had two very fine musicians in the making. You can read about Steve here and Michael here and about the Folk Music Club at North Texas State here.

Uncommon Genealogy

Join us on August 18, at 3:00 PM, at the Emily Fowler Central Library, 502 Oakland Street, to learn about new ways to search for your ancestors. Have you ever thought to look for family members in your newspaper’s “Letters to Santa?” How about looking at passport applications or prison records? Explore some uncommon sources where you family members may be listed. Learn how to find these sources, and how to search them. This program is free, but seating is limited, so call (940) 349-8752 to register.

 

For more information, contact Kathy Strauss, Special Collections Librarian at (940) 349-8752 or at kathy.strauss@cityofdenton.com

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For other news items on the City of Denton, visit our website at www.cityofdenton.com, go to Quick Links and click on Press Releases.