Cinco de Mayo has really caught on as a day of celebration with festivals around the Kansas City area. Independence had their own celebration in McCoy Park. The day was chilly, but the air was festive. People from many Latin countries came to perform and browse around. There was a group of dancers composed of enthusiastic special needs young people. Several conglomerates of beautifully dressed dancers with shining, braided hair entertained us with their lively music. Colorful costumes and dancers, magicians, and poetry were some of the entertainment.
If your ancestor was born in Ireland before 1864, Irish church records should be searched. In most cases, you will need to know the name of the civil parish and the ecclesiastical parish. See A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland by Brian Mitchell for more on this.
Ecclesiastical parishes in Ireland include Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic, and Presbyterian. They are organized as follows:
900 Miles from Nowhere: Voices from the Homestead Frontier
With springtime weather upon us, can a genealogy road trip be far behind? Maybe it is time to take what you have learned from your research and set off to follow in the footsteps of your ancestors. There is nothing quite like visiting the towns or farms they inhabited to help see through their eyes. You don’t want to miss the local cemetery, either!
History is all around us. We share it when we tell stories about the church our grandparents were married in, look at old photos of family farms, spend an afternoon visiting a historic cemetery, and pass through a neighborhood where family members once lived. It is in these buildings, sites, and objects that we have our most visible and valuable ties to the past.
The Midwest Genealogy Center has joined the Pinterest community. We are very excited about this new opportunity to share all the wonderful resources MGC has to offer. Pinterest’s main attraction is the ability to share photos and websites through "pinning" and allow others to share or "repin" your information; think online scrapbooking. Users create boards to hold their pins, and followers can repin whole boards, as well.
What better way each year to celebrate the infamous April Fool’s Day than to dress up! Here at the Midwest Genealogy Center, we are all about history, family, and maybe not dressing up, but definitely about making history come alive! We started this fun "History Dress Up Day" five years ago when we moved into our new building. Since then we have had staff dress as ancestors of all descriptions.
Genealogists love to share...most of the time. After all, it is by sharing that we find genealogy gold. It is with this spirit that we use social media. One of our goals is to meet our customers where they are at online. By using social media, we are able to connect with you in a unique way on your terms. MGC is using a variety of platforms for your convenience including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.
The Kansas State Historical Society has announced that, effective April 1, 2013, they have suspended their interlibrary loan (ILL) program to out-of-state libraries. What does this means for the patrons of the Midwest Genealogy Center? Unfortunately, we will no longer be able to borrow newspapers on microfilm from the Kansas State Historical Society.
In celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, the staff of MGC would like to let you know about some of the things we do to encourage our co-workers, as well as patrons, to be more eco-friendly.
Did you know that there are recycling bins for paper, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles in our patron lounge and by our copiers? Customers and staff are encouraged to reuse paper or recycle whenever possible. MGC also offers recycled scratch paper near each copier.
This week the Midwest Genealogy Center, in conjunction with the Mid-Continent Public Library, joins libraries in local schools, college campuses, and communities across the nation in celebrating National Library Week. This week recognizes the attributes, contributions, and value of libraries and its staff in their respective communities.
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country, annually each April.
