Following announcement is posted at the request of the New York State
Historical Association.

Moderator, NYHIST-L


For Immediate Release
Contact: Christine Liggio
(607) 547-1472; email: [log in to unmask]

THE NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION CELEBRATES FAMILY HISTORY
MONTH 2003

Cooperstown, N.Y. September 17, 2003-For the third consecutive year,
the United States Senate has designated October as "Family History
Month."

To celebrate this event the New York State Historical Association will
be presenting a series of Saturday workshops throughout the month of
October to promote researching and preserving your family history.
Genealogy is now the second most popular pastime in the United States
next to gardening. More than 80 million Americans are currently
researching their family histories. The workshops listed below are
designed for both the beginner and advanced genealogist. Topics
include
how to research your family history, home or business, how to preserve
your family treasures, and how to create a traditional genealogical
fan
chart.

FAMILY HERITAGE PRESERVATION CLINIC
October 4th  from 10:00 - 12:00
Workshop limited to 12 participants

Documents, photographs, books, paintings, prints, and other objects
represent your family's history. Come to NYSHA's preservation clinic
to
find out how to best organize, store, and preserve the materials that
make up your family's heritage. Participants are encouraged to bring
in
family photos, slides, scrapbooks, documents, paintings, prints, and
art
objects to get specific answers to your questions. Staff in NYSHA's
Conservation Department and Research Library will provide
recommendations on how best to handle your special materials and will
invite you to explore examples that will be on hand.

The Preservation Clinic will be run by C. R. Jones, Head of
Conservation
at NYSHA and Melissa McAfee, Director of the NYSHA Research Library.
C.R. Jones has M.A. degrees in Museum Studies and Conservation of
Historic and Artistic Works from the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
For
nearly 35 years he has specialized in historic and artistic works on
paper, paintings, and objects. Melissa McAfee is a graduate of
Columbia
University's School of Library and Information Science.  She has held
a
variety of positions in academic libraries over the past 16 years,
including head of preservation departments at Indiana University,
University of Texas and the University of Pittsburgh.

HOUSE HISTORIES: RESEARCHING THE GENEALOGY OF YOUR HOME
October 11th from 10:00 - 12:00
Workshop limited to 12 participants

Cooperstown village residents, property owners and business operators,
take advantage of this opportunity to dig into your property's past.
Find out more, and maybe more than you wanted to know, about the place
in which you live, own or work, using materials from the Special
Collections Department at the New York State Historical Association
Research Library.  You will have access to the written, photographic,
local architectural and historical files, as well as appropriate maps
from the past.  Not only will you be able to find information on your
own place, you will be able to look at information on any village
addresses, and on a more limited basis, property on the East and West
side of Otsego Lake.  Get ideas for renovation, restoration,
archeological digs and more!

This workshop will be led by Susan Deer, Associate Director and Head
of
Technical Services, NYSHA Research Library. She has taught research
courses for nearly nine years.

RESEARCHING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY: INTRODUCTION
October 18th from 10:00 - 12:00
Workshop limited to 12 participants.

Learn how to conduct a search of your family history. This workshop
provides an introduction to family history research and an overview of
genealogy records at the New York State Historical Association's
Research Library.  Learn methods for identifying and searching the
most
popular on-line databases and Web sites.

RESEARCHING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY: CENSUSES TO CEMETERY RECORDS
October 25th from 1:00 - 3:00
Workshop limited to 12 participants

This workshop will teach you how to research your ancestors using
censuses, cemetery records, and other primary materials. Workshop
participants will learn about the types of information found on Census
records, how to use the information to locate other records, and how
to
search the Census. In addition, researching Revolutionary War and
Civil
War soldiers will be covered. The workshop will conclude with an
overview of how to organize a genealogy.

Both workshops will be taught by Wayne Wright, Associate Director of
the
Research Library of the New York State Historical Association. He has
a
Masters of Library Science degree from the State University of New
York
at Albany. Since 1978 he has assisted genealogical researchers and has
helped to build the library's genealogical collection. He has
contributed articles to New York History and authored the "Tracing New
York Roots" feature in Heritage magazine. He is also the author of
Thornton W. Burgess: A Descriptive Book Bibliography, of which a revised
edition was published in 2000. He has compiled several family
genealogies including one on the family of James Fenimore Cooper.

GENEALOGY FOR CHILDREN
October 25th from 1:00 - 3:00

Who was your mother's mother?  Where did your father's uncle live
before
coming to America in 1912?  These are questions that can be answered
through "genealogy," the study or investigation of ancestry and family
histories. In this workshop children ages 7 and up will research their
family history using resources in the NYSHA Research Library. In
addition, they will create a decorative genealogical fan chart. Fan
charts are works of art as well as repositories of information for
family history. Examples of some
striking historic genealogical charts from the collection of the
Fenimore Art Museum will be shown. This workshop will be offered at the
same time and place as "Researching Your Family History: Censuses to
Cemetery Records" to enable both parents and children to participate.
Workshop participants are encouraged to bring family photographs or
small mementos that can be used for decorating their family tree.
Charts, crayons, and colored pencils will be supplied.

This workshop will be taught by Lisa Sorensen and Eunice Cooper. Lisa
has taught workshops for children in art history, anthropology and
museum studies for the past 10 years. She has worked in NYSHA's
Education Department since 2000. Eunice Cooper has been employed by
NYSHA since 1988. An artist and poet, she has taught workshops for
children for over 50 years.

REGISTRATION

Please pre-register by contacting Jo Anne Van Vranken at (607)
547-1470
or via email at [log in to unmask]

All workshops will take place in the NYSHA Research Library.

Workshop Fee:

Adult Workshops: $10 for NYSHA members and $15 for non-members
Genealogy for Children: $3 for children of NYSHA members and $5 for
non-members

Workshop fees include use of the Research Library for the day of the
workshop, handouts, and supplies.

For more information, please call Melissa McAfee at (607) 547-1473 or
via email at [log in to unmask]

The New York State Historical Association is a non-profit, private
educational institution which was founded in 1899 in Caldwell (Lake
George). The Association moved its headquarters to Ticonderoga in 1926
and to Cooperstown in 1938. During the past 100 years, the Association
has preserved tens of thousands of documents, works of art, photographs,
and artifacts. The Association operates Fenimore Art Museum, a Research
Library, and The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown and sponsors statewide
educational programming. For information, write or call: NYSHA, PO Box
800, Cooperstown, NY, 13326; (607) 547-1400.

The web site address is www.nysha.org.

Melissa McAfee
Research Library Director
New York State Historical Association
The Farmers' Museum
PO Box 800  Lake Road
Cooperstown, NY  13326
607 547 1473 (tel)
607 547 1405 (fax)