NWIGS is 40!

The Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society (La Porte's parent society) turns 40 this year. It focuses energetically on Porter and Lake counties. If you have $7 and Saturday, April 17, to spare, don't miss their celebratory day-long series of military records seminars with veteran Indiana genealogist Ron Darrah.

Escape from Slavery at February 2010 meeting

For Christmas 1848, William and Ellen Craft gave each other a very special present: their freedom. The Crafts were black slaves who were "owned" by different masters in Macon, Georgia. William and Ellen were illiterate, but they knew they could be free if they could only manage to get a thousand miles north, away from the Southern slaveholding states.

How did they do it? Find out Tuesday evening, February 9, when La Porte County Genealogical Society member Paul Graham presents a program in honor of Black History Month, derived from William Craft's book Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.

The society meets at 7 pm on the second Tuesday of every month at the Swanson Center for Older Adults, 910 State St., La Porte. The public is welcome at all meetings. For a list of upcoming programs and more information about the society's activities in awards, research, publication, and records preservation, visit our web site.

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/programs.htm

Settler Residents 1861-1880

You could be in this picture next year if you can prove an ancestor who was in La Porte County between 1861 and 1880!

The La Porte County Genealogical Society awarded 15 settler residency certificates at the annual dinner December 8 to individuals who had proven such an ancestor. Shown are recipients (from left) Kathleen Rita Harris, Patricia Gruse Harris, Mary Wenzel, and Susan Marie Harris Vail.

Wenzel accepted the certificate for Michael Shei, who could not be present for his documentation of Theodore Shei.

The others were honored for documentation of ancestors Peter J. Gruse and Veronica Zander. Recipients who received certificates for their ancestors Peter J. Gruse and Veronica Zander but could not be in attendance were Anita Catherine Harris Young, Ethan Harris Vail, Keith Alan Harris and Zachary Alan Vail.

The residency committee -- Fern Eddy Schultz, Chair, Glora Arndt and Dottisue Gansemer -- made the certificate presentations. For more information about this and related awards projects, visit the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society website.

Welcome

This blog exists to publicize meetings, events, and projects of the La Porte County (Indiana) Genealogical Society. Comments and queries are welcome as long as they pertain to genealogy in general, Indiana and La Porte County genealogy in particular.

For full information on the society, please visit our web site and consider joining or attending our meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. You can also browse our publications for sale.

Your blogging host is the LPCGS secretary, Harold Henderson, carrying out his constitutional responsibility to give notice of all meetings.