Hark! Have You Subscribed to Our Newsletters?

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our two free Heritage Room newsletters. 

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from Christmas tours at state parks and plantations around Georgia to Census classes at the Atlanta History Center. We make sure you know about webinars that are coming up, such as Researching Your Irish Roots and lunch-and-learn series at the National Archives about using DNA for genealogy research. The events newsletter makes it possible to plan your schedule and ensure you don't miss a chance to learn, explore, and discover new things.

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter keeps you in the loop with the latest resources available for research, such as the expanded marriage records holdings by FamilySearch.org and primers on searching for your War of 1812 ancestors. It also includes tips on how to use general software apps for genealogy and lets you know about new sites for sharing what you find with friends and family.

Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!

Are You Reading Our Heritage Room Newsletters?

On this day we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two fantastic Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with all that is going on in genealogy and history throughout the year, and especially during the busy holiday season.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from Haunted History tours in Athens and Macon to free webinars about Irish ancestor brick walls and getting started with Native American genealogy. Find out where to hear historians talking about their latest books, or when the dedication ceremony for a new historical marker will be held. Autumn is a busy time for cemetery tours, and with the newsletter, you can take your pick of tours in Athens, Cartersville, Atlanta, and McDonough. The commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War continues apace, with a variety of symposia, lectures, programs, and book-related events. Don't regret not doing something because you didn't find out in time--just read our newsletter!

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on the information you need for your research, even as everyone's schedule speeds up this autumn. We cover practical information, such as the increase in copying fees at all National Archives locations and updates about the status of the Georgia Archives, to new resources online such as Mercer campus newspapers from 1920-1970 and Scottish post office directories. We even include information on how to fit your research into a busy schedule, such as Family Tree magazine's list of "Weekend Warrior" genealogy projects.

Click here (or either newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so sign up today!

Heritage Room Newsletters: The Cool Way to Follow What's Hot!

On this day, we'd like to remind you that our two Heritage Room newsletters are great ways to find out what is happening and what resources are available, all from the cool comfort of your own home!


In our Genealogy and History Events newsletter,  you can find how to sign up for guided tours of the University of Georgia's new Special Collections library on Hull Street, or when the William Faulkner celebration at Ciné in downtown Athens on the 50th anniversary of his death. Discover the Women of Oakland Cemetery in a Twilight Tour in Atlanta, or how to use a Flip-Pal mobile scanner (the only one allowed by the National Archives) at family gatherings to enhance your family history through a webinar accessible from your home computer. Take a day trip to hear about Alabama and the War of 1812 at the Alabama State Archives, or to learn about "Historic District" designations for neighborhoods at the DeKalb History Center. There are so many interesting, new things to explore, and the Events newsletter ensures you know when and where they are.


In our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter, you'll learn when subscription databases are having sales or free access to their holdings, and how far along the name indexing of the 1940 has come. Click through our links to read the personal journals of Queen Victoria, or to peruse the City of Dallas's online collection of documents and images from the John F. Kennedy assassination. You'll learn which archives are cutting back their hours, and which ones have acquired or are exhibiting fascinating new collections. Links to stories about organizing your family research photos and the best way to preserve family documents for posterity are delivered to your computer so you don't need to search the web for it yourself.


Click here (or any newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so what are you waiting for? Sign up today!

9 June 1898: Summer Art Lessons with Miss Jennie

On this day in 1898, at the bottom of a column on the front page of the Athens Daily Banner, was this advertisement:

Miss Jennie Smith had been the art teacher at the Lucy Cobb Institute since her own graduation from the school in 1880. She continued to study art, going to Baltimore, Maryland, and Paris, France, for instruction, after her graduation. In 1886, she had exhibited her own art and her pupils' creations in the Athens Cotton Fair. The local paper extolled that

Perhaps, in the whole city of Athens, there is no young lady who has so decided a talent for painting and etching as Miss Jennie Smith. There is hardly a home where decorative art is admired and appreciated that has not some specimen of this young lady's skill. Miss Smith loves her work with all enthusiasm of youth, and her handiwork is rendered all the more attractive as it is the result of a cultured and strikingly original mind. 

For some time past she has been engaged instructing a class of young ladies. That she has been a diligent and successful teacher is demonstrated by the beautiful and elaborate display of art at the fair grounds and that she is proud of her pupils is illustrated by the conspicuous positions their work occupy.  --Athens Banner Watchman, 16 November 1886, p. 3, col. 2.

Her summer classes were likely to help augment Miss Jennie's income. The salary of a school teacher was not high, and she had a passion not just for creating art, but also collecting. She collected china, brass, period furniture, and in 1891, bought Harriet Powers's Bible Quilt for $5 "and enough calico to make a new quilt." Her appreciation of art as a creator is likely why she welcomed Mrs. Powers to "visit" the quilt while it was in her possession. The quilt now hangs in the Smithsonian.

Miss Jennie's students loved her, "even though she was a hard taskmaster." She's remembered for always wearing black, "the shirtwaists and flaring skirts of the late nineteenth century, which she never gave up," short, plump, "like a little black teddy bear. Oh, she was so jolly and fun!" 

She lived in a small stone house "crammed with art stuff and memorabilia of her life" behind the Lucy Cobb Institute, even after the school closed. It was there she also had her "quaint studio," and when Lucy Cobb closed in 1930, the new owners of the property, the University of Georgia, allowed Miss Jennie to stay there until her death in 1946. Most of her collections were given to UGA in her will, and some of her acquisitions are in the President's House on Prince Avenue.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1, 1894 - Nov. 3, 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994, edited by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces by Kyra Hicks in the Heritage collections.
• Clarke County, Georgia, Ordinary: Estate Records, Book H on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards in the general collection.
• Creative China Painting by Wanda Sutton in the general collection.
• Pull Up an Easel by Norman Garbo in the Large Print collection.
• Creative Watercolor Techniques by Zoltan Szabo in the general collection.
• The Complete Quilting Course by Gail Lawther in the general collection.
• Decorative Arts in Georgia by the Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts in the Heritage collection.

Last Spring Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's final spring class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room on Hoyt Street. The title of the class is Tracking Our Ancestors' Footsteps: More Mobile Than We Think.

If you missed earlier classes, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about immigration records or using maps and DNA in your research, just sign up now for the April 18th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our final spring installment, we'll describe the basics of immigration, naturalization, and migration, and learn to use geographic tools with our research. We will also see how to integrate GoogleEarth, GoogleMaps, and newspapers as we track our ancestors from their home countries and within their new one. Types of DNA testing and why to use it will also be covered. 

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Fourth Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's fourth class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is Finding Those Who Served: Military Records.

If you missed the first class, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about service records or using draft cards and pension records in your research, just sign up now for the April 4th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our forth installment, we'll demonstrate the width and breadth of the war-related information available and useful for genealogical research. Our overview will cover what the records are, what sort of information they contain, and where they are located going back to Colonial times.

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Third Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's third class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is The Genealogical Benefits of Bureaucracy: Government Records.

If you missed the earlier classes, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you want to know more about court records or using wills in research, just sign up now for the March 21st class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our third installment, we'll discuss how to use for our own research needs the records created by local, state, and federal levels of government. We will cover the types of records available, how to use them, and where to find them, including tax records, deeds and land records, wills and estate records, other court records, and much more. 

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

9 March 1847: Free Lecture on the New and Extraordinary Art of Phreno-Mnemotechny!

On this day in 1847, this exciting advertisement was read by subscribers to the Southern Banner:

The lecturer was Pliny Miles, a writer from Watertown, New York, who was known for his "remarkable talents as a school-teacher." Two years later, he would author American Mnemnotechny, or Art of Memory: Theoretical and Practical, with a Mnemotechnic Dictionary to impart his theories and systems of memory to a wider audience. 

Mr. Miles book defines his subject on page six of his book:

Memnotechny, rightly considered, comprises all those aids to the natural mind that go by the name of association, combination, and comparison. When a person wishes to remember a name that is difficult to retain in the mind, he naturally seeks some fanciful association or other, perhaps compares the name to something that sounds like it, and thus will recall it when required. This is Mnemnotechny; though it is only the commencement of the beginning.

Mr. Miles used a system of mapping letters and words to figures, and claimed that any student using his method would reduce his study time by 75%. Within the book, he listed historic events, people, facts, and provided formulas for remembering them in his system. He also devoted a chapter in his book to creating and using one's own formulas.

Pliny Miles is described in his New York Times obituary as "a striking figure--tall, thin, of nervous-sanguine temperament, wearing a beard that never scraped acquaintance with a razor; a rapid walker, keen observer, talking with wonderful volubility, always cordial, open-hearted, and everywhere welcome for his agreeable social qualities."

In 1854, he would write a travel book about Iceland, described by the New York Times as "a pleasant book of the gossipy sort." By the time of his death in 1865, he was best known for his strong advocacy for changes in the postal system, pushing for a flat price on letters by weight regardless of the distance to reach their destination. This method, still used today, was adopted by the U.S. Postal Service in 1863.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Mar. 13, 1845 - Nov. 1848 on Microfilm in the  Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• National Postal Museum website.
• Mnemotechnics.org blog, forum, and wiki about memory techniques.
• Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer in the New Books collection.
• Committed to Memory: How We Remember and Why We Forget by Rebecca Rupp in the general collection.
• Ageless Memory: Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young by Harry Lorayne in the general collection.
• Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind by Daniel Tammet via PINES.
• Improving Your Memory: How to Remember What You're Starting to Forget by Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern in the general collection.
• 101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory by Terry McDermott in the general collection.
• In the Places of Memory: How We Build the Worlds Inside our Head by George Johnson in the general collection.

Second Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's second class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is Searching for Your Family Members: A Surprising Genealogical Treasure Trove.


If you missed the first class, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about tax records or using city directories in research, just sign up now for the March 7th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.


In our second installment, we'll explore every day records and sources that are often overlooked, discuss how to identify locations to find ancestors, and learn how to understand the place and time they lived. Some sources to be covered include non-population census schedules, special or local censuses, church records, cemetery records, school records, and substitutes for vital records.


For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Heritage Room Newsletters Keep Your Research Moving Forward!

On this day we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two fantastic Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with all that is going on in genealogy and history throughout the year.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from classes about using the 1940 Census when it is release in April and tours of Civil War battle sites to museum exhibitions of local woodworkers and Brown Bag lunch programs at the Georgia Archives. Many organizations are noting the Civil War Sesquicentennial with events, and this newsletter is an excellent way to avoid missing any of the great learning opportunities available.

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on new resources and discoveries, even as everyone's schedule speeds up with spring. With news about the latest collections available through Family Search and new archival collections now online to news about summer genealogy programs and opportunities to contribute to new collections.


Click here (or either newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so sign up today!

Don't Miss Out! Sign Up for Our Newsletters!

On this day, we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two free Heritage Room newsletters. 

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from webinars by the National Archives in Atlanta about the 1940 Census and lock-in research evenings at the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville to exhibitions about George Washington Carver at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta and furniture by Athenian Henry Eugene Thomas at the Georgia Museum of Art here in town. Rather than keep up with a million postcards, flyers, and emails, we put all the coming events of the month into a neat package or two that you can use to ensure you don't miss a thing.

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter keeps you in the loop with the latest resources available for research, such as the Tennessee Death Records recently added to the Ancestry database and a link to the new searchable online index of Alabama probate records. It also covers updates about the release of the 1940 Census (available on April 2, 2012, at 9am EDT) and fun things, like the new Henry Louis Gates PBS program, Finding Your Roots, and when the new season of Who Do You Think You Are? returns.


Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!

Heritage Room Genealogy Classes at the Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room librarians will be offering a series of genealogy courses this year in conjunction with the Athens Community Council on Aging. 


Rather than the longer, comprehensive single classes we offered in the Heritage Room, these courses are focused on certain areas of research, such as Military Records (such as service records and pension applications), Courthouse Documents (such as deeds, wills, and tax records), and Milestone Documents (such as birth, marriage, and death certificates). 


Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about tax records or using newspapers in research, just take those classes when they are offered later in the year. (No final schedule has been set; please see the ACCA's program schedule for class dates and descriptions.)


Our first course will cover Getting Started with the Basics on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012, from 1-2:30pm in the Harris Room at the ACCA's Hoyt Street location. The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, registration is required.


In this class, we'll cover such introductory information as how to fill out and use pedigree charts, family group sheets and family trees; how to use vital records, federal census records, and newspapers to piece together a family history; how to use family-kept records and papers, such as Bibles, scrapbooks, letters, etc.; and the importance of interviewing not just relatives, but family friends and neighbors when trying to fill out the many leaves on your family tree.


For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Newsletters for You!

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our two Heritage Room newsletters, free updates of information that land easily in your email inbox and make keeping up the world of genealogy and history research and events easy as can be.


Our History & Genealogy Events newsletter offers you a schedule of  the upcoming tours, classes, fairs, festivals, meetings, book signings, lectures, and other happenings in Athens and around Georgia. We also include webinars sponsored by genealogy companies such as Legacy Family Tree  in which you can participate from your own home. As items are added to the month's calendar, we will send out updates so you state current with all the historical events.

Our Genealogy News & Tips newsletter provides you a round up of recent genealogy and research information, such as newly published books, new online resources, ways to get past your brick wall, tricks for researching ancestors in other parts of the nation and world, the way various records can be used, and free software available for doing your family tree. It's a great, concise way to keep up with all the ways you can research without spending all your time seeking out information yourself.

Click here (or either newsletter link above) to read the current newsletters and subscribe to have them delivered to your email Inbox. They are a free service of the Heritage Room, and it couldn't be easier, so sign up today!

News You Can Use!

On this day, we'd like to remind you about the two Heritage Room newsletters offered free of charge and delivered right into your Inbox!


Our History & Genealogy Events newsletter offers you a schedule of  the upcoming tours, classes, fairs, festivals, meetings, book signings, lectures, and other happenings in Athens and around Georgia. We also include webinars sponsored by genealogy companies such as Legacy Family Tree  in which you can participate from your own home. As items are added to the month's calendar, we will send out updates so you state current with all the historical events.


Our Genealogy News & Tips newsletter provides you a round up of recent genealogy and research information, such as newly published books, new online resources, ways to get past your brick wall, tricks for researching ancestors in other parts of the nation and world, the way various records can be used, and free software available for doing your family tree. It's a great, concise way to keep up with all the ways you can research without spending all your time seeking out information yourself. 


Click here (or either newsletter link above) to read the current newsletters and subscribe to have them delivered to your email Inbox. They are a free service of the Heritage Room, and it couldn't be easier, so sign up today!

Heritage Room Newsletters Keep You in the Loop!

On this day, we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with genealogy and history throughout the year.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from seminars on using land records and deeds for your family research to the latest Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation tours and twilight tours of Oakland Cemetery.  Our area has many fantastic educational and research opportunities, and we also let you know about distance learning opportunities with webinars and online courses provided by other historical and genealogical societies.

Our Genealogy Tips and News newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on newly available resources and discoveries. With information and links to how to organize a box of inherited family records, new newspapers added to free resources such as the Library of Congress's Chronicling America site, the name change of Footnote to Fold3, and what is available in our Heritage Room collection during construction (quite a lot!), we make sure you know what is new, what is available, and what can be helpful for the family researcher.

Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!

An Evening with Your Ancestors Is This Friday!

On this day, we'd like to remind you that An Evening with Your Ancestors, an after-hours Heritage Room event, will be this Friday, July 15th, from 6pm-10:30pm at the Athens-Clarke County Library.


Registration is required by 6pm on Thursday, July 14th, 2011! 
To register, call the Heritage Room at (706) 613-3650, ext. 350, or email us at heritageroom@arlsmail.org.


Come to the the Athens-Clarke County Library at closing time for classes about online resources covering everything from free sites such as the new Family Search and Google Books to the databases provided by the library and Heritage Room such as Footnote, Ancestry, and HeritageQuest. You can also skip the classes entirely and just get a little extra time in the Heritage Room before we temporarily close for construction.


We'll have dinner around 7pm, show you the plans for the expanded Heritage Room, and answer questions about construction, family research, available resources, and anything else you can think to ask. We're very excited about the plans for the new Heritage Room, and hope to see you Friday night!

4 July 1911: "College on Wheels"

On this day in 1911, the Athens Banner ran the following editorial about the recent railroad tour of the state made by the State College of Agriculture, which at the time was still a separate institution from the University of Georgia:

 

 (click to enlarge image)

In 1911, the train from the State College of Agriculture visited 154 towns in 120 counties in 47 days. The train carried a passenger car for the educators and staff, livestock cars, and cars with modern farming machinery, with a center flat car that served as a stage. At each stop, the flat car was used for speeches promoting proven practices in farming methods, demonstrate the farming machinery, and exhibit the livestock. The train would stop overnight, with those on board eating at local restaurants and staying in local hotels near the railroad station, a boost to Georgia businesses outside agriculture.

These tours of extension education to improve agricultural outputs in Georgia began in 1908 and lasted until 1917. Extension work was highly promoted by College President Andrew M. Soule, and were immediately popular. Their first tour in 1908 brought out only about 150,000 people, but had ballooned quickly to "nearly four hundred thousand people" within just a few years. Dr. Soule believed that the State College of Agriculture was truly "the college with the state for its campus." 

Other outreach work included welcoming Georgia farmers to the campus farm and other cooperating farms for "field days" where they could demonstrate results of pasture development, winter grazing and foraging crops for livestock, and the effects of different practices on crop and livestock production. One of the earliest successful outreach campaigns was conducted with the Veterinary School to introduce the widespread vaccination of hogs to protect that industry from a devastating strain of cholera.

Formal offices for Agricultural Extension Services were not created until 1914. In later years, working at first with the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, the College's extension work expanded to other areas, with demonstrations of fireless stoves and iceless refrigerator, and the effectiveness of screening the home to prevent disease from insects. Later, new female Home Economics graduates from the College of Agriculture would hold community meetings to discuss health and nutrition, parenting techniques and child training, canning and pickling for food preservation, art, and physical education. 

The Agriculture College also helped set up "corn clubs" for boys around Georgia, a forerunner to the current 4-H Clubs. Within just a few years, the average per acre yield of corn by the boys' Georgia corn clubs was three times higher than the average per acre yield for the rest of the state.

The result of this groundwork in Georgia agriculture over the past century is Georgia's strong industry today: one-third of the state's land is used for farming, and sales of agricultural products earn nearly $7 billion. Despite ranking #28 in the United States for number of acres devoted to farmland, Georgia is the #1 producer of broilers (chickens), peanuts, and pecans; #2 in cotton, cotton seed, cucumbers, spring onions, rye, and snap beans; #3 in cantaloupes, bell peppers, sweet corn, and watermelon; and #4 in blueberries, peaches, and squash.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1911 - Nov. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• History of the College of Agriculture of the University of Georgia by Calvin Clyde Murray in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia College of Agriculture: An Administrative History, 1785-1985 by Stephen J. Karina in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• The University of Georgia Under Sixteen Administration, 1785-1955 by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• UGA College of Agriculture and Environmental Science website.
• UGA Cooperative Extension Services website.
• Georgia Statistics web pages on the National Agricultural Statistics Service website.
• The United States Department of Agriculture website.
• The United States Census Bureau website.
• The Georgia Department of Agriculture website.
• Linoleum, Better Babies, and the Modern Farm Woman, 1890-1930 by Marilyn Irvin Holt in the general collection.
• The American Family Farm: A Photo Essay by George Ancona and Joan Anderson in the Heritage collection.
• The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry in the general collection.
• The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land, edited by Norman Wirzba in the general collection.
• Atlas of American American Agriculture: The American Cornucopia by Richard Pillsbury and John Florin in the Reference collection.
• The Profitable Hobby Farm: How to Build a Sustainable Local Food Business by Sarah Beth Aubrey in the New Books collection.
• Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil by Andrew Lee and Patricia Foreman in the general collection.
• Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance, edited by Deborah Burns in the general collection.

Don't Miss An Evening with Your Ancestors!

On this day, we'd like to tell you about our program, An Evening with Your Ancestors, on Friday, July 15th, from 6:00 pm until 10:30 pm, here at the Athens-Clarke County Library. 

We will be offering a special opportunity to have the 2nd floor of the building to ourselves to do a little extra research, enjoy dinner and conversation, see the plans for the renovated Heritage Room, and learn about the online resources available to further your genealogy study.

Just because the Heritage Room itself will be temporarily closed for renovation, doesn't mean you have to put your research on hold. Our goal is to show you how much you can still accomplish even while the Heritage Room and library are being expanded, in a fun, friendly atmosphere. 

Heritage Room librarians will offer classes about online books and database resources that you can access from home, such as Footnote and HeritageQuest, with plenty of time for questions and answers. You can also skip the classes and just take the time to do some extra research and socialize with others in the genealogy research community. It's going to be an informative and enjoyable evening that you don't want to miss!


An Evening with Your Ancestors is free, but pre-registration by the time Heritage Room closes at 6pm on Thursday, July 14th, 2011, is required. To register, call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350, or email the Heritage Room (heritageroom@arlsmail.org) with your name, phone number, and email address. 


This event is co-sponsored by the Athens-Clarke County Heritage Room, the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society, and the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library. 

We can't wait to see you here!

Spend the Evening of Thursday, May 19th Getting Started with Genealogy!

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our Getting Started with Genealogy class on Thursday, May 19th, 2011, from 6-8:30pm in the Heritage Room.

In this free, informal session, we'll walk you through the basics of researching your family history. The goal is to help you begin the construction of your family tree, and to teach you about the resources available in Athens that will be helpful to your research. The class includes handouts, and is useful no matter where your relatives originated or later migrated.

Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350 or email us at heritageroom@arlsmail.org to register. As the Heritage Room can be chilly in the summer, we suggest you bring a sweater or light jacket to the class. We hope to see you here!

Don't Forget Our Newsletters!

On this day, we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with genealogy and history throughout the year. Now that the sequicentennial of the Civil War has begun, there are more and more opportunities you don't want to miss.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from cemetery tours to book repair sessions and classes for everything from how to do genealogical research to how to make ancient tools and weaponry. Our area has many fantastic educational and research opportunities, and we also let you know about distance learning opportunities with webinars and online courses provided by other historical and genealogical societies.

Our Genealogy Tips and News newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on newly available resources and discoveries. With information and links to new obituary collections, how to register for Atlanta History Center summer camp, new resources available online on FamilySearch.org, and even an Historic Markers of Georgia app from Georgia Historical Society, we make sure you know what is new, what is available, and what can be helpful for the family researcher and historian.

Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!