Membership Renewal
ZVA annual membership dues of $10 are based on the calendar year. Please check your dues status on the web site. Go to Your Profile in the user menu and scroll down to “Dues paid to the end of: ____” If you have not yet paid for 2016, please remit your dues using one of the options described on the Membership page. I will downgrade unrenew ed members on the web site in April of each year to give you plenty of grace. From September on, I will credit new members for the following year. We are continually adding new content to the Members Only parts of the site. If you are not connected to the Internet, just drop me a line at the address below and I will update you. Thanks for contributing to our common cause.
Research Interests in Your Profile
A registered member recently pointed out a deficiency in our web site. For privacy purposes, actual names are not displayed in the user profiles. You only learn the person’s name after he/she agrees to accept your contact. This makes it difficult for a researcher to find people with surnames that are of interest. There is another field which asks for your areas of interest, but many people do not complete this. I encourage everyone to fill in your research interests by going to Your Profile so that you can connect more easily with other people researching your family.
SGS Demolish the Deficit
The Saskatchewan Genealogy Society, which hosts our library, has accumulated a deficit over the last several years. (There is more detail in our last newsletter.) At our last meeting we voted to contribute $500 per year over four years to help stabilize the home of our library. If you wish to make your own contribution, go to http://www.saskgenealogy.ca/.
2015 Mt. Angel, Oregon Conference
PDFs of presentations from the conference are at http://danube-swabians.org/MtAngel/?page_id=1241
Familienbuch Hatzfeld
The much anticipated Hatzfeld Familienbuch has arrived in our library. It contains 26,394 family groups compiled from church records. Hatzfeld was one of the early villages that served as a source of settlers for many later villages. Many people from other villages can trace their roots back to here. This series supplants a previous publication covering 1766-1866. (We have a copy on CD.) The new publication uses records that were not available to the original author and cross references with many other Familienbuchs to correct errors from the original and expand on its content, plus adding about 55 years of new information. It includes several pictures, some maps, a history (in German – translation on our site soon), and the usual indices of wives’ names, villages, and an unusual index of occupations. If you wish to borrow by mail, please check out the SGS policy on their web site.
Kalocsa Archives
Some duplicate church books from Banat are stored at the Kalocsa Archives. The Kalocsa E-Archive is a pay site but it is reportedly very easy to use once you are registered. It is reported that the church books are easier to read on-line than the microfilms from the LDS. Their web site is at http://archivum.asztrik.hu/?q=en
SGS Spring Conference
The conference is April 15-17, 2016 in Regina. The early bird deadline is February 5, 2016. I am the volunteer coordinator and would love to hear from any of our members who would like to help out with the conference or with a ZVA display table. Unfortunately, there is not enough margin for a free pass for volunteers. Go to http://www.saskgenealogy.ca/and find the registration info under Education.