Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting – August 9, 2018

The August 2018 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, August 9, at 7:00 pm.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE

Do you have a family member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.

The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected], about a gift membership.

August Meeting

 

On August 9, 2018, Tom Pearson presented a program titled Guided Tour of Fold3.com.

 

INTRODUCTION

Fold3 is a reference database that provides convenient access to many US (and a lesser number of UK) military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of many men and women who served.

 

Original records at Fold3 help you discover and share stories about these everyday heroes, forgotten soldiers, and the families that supported them. On Fold3, subscribers can combine records found on the site with what they have in their own albums and shoeboxes to create an online memorial for someone who served. Today Fold3.com continues to grow and bring to life history that was once hidden.

 

Fold3.com offers subscriptions to individuals and institutions. Fold3.com Library Edition (F3LE) includes access to all the records in Fold3.com, but does not allow use of all the interactive features that are available to individual subscribers.

 

GETTING STARTED

F3LE offers a video tutorial on its landing page on use of Search and Browse. You can also access the Fold3 Training Center and Ancestry Academy via the landing page. Library staff can also instruct you in the use of F3LE. Clicking Help also links you to the Fold3 Training Center, plus provides answers if you encounter any technical issues while attempting to use Fold3.

 

SEARCH

A Basic Search in Fold3.com is quite simple: first and last name are input into boxes provided for that purpose. F3LE also offers Advanced Search. This allows you to add these delimiters: Keyword; Place; and Year Range. You can also specify that you only want to see records recently added to F3LE (options include 1 month; 3 months; 6 months; or 1 year). It is also possible to do a Wild Card search in Advanced Search. For instance: Hans*n will retrieve instances of Hanson and Hansen.

 

BROWSE

F3LE divides its record sets into categories in order to allow users to easily browse those record sets. Categories include:

 

·      Revolutionary War

·      War of 1812

·      Mexican-American and Early Indian Wars

·      Civil War

·      Spanish American War

·      World War I

·      World War II

·      Korean War

·      Vietnam War

·      Recent Wars

·      Commonwealth

·      Non-Military Records

 

Military records available can include a variety of types of records/documents, including:

 

·      Casualty lists and burial registers

·      Compiled military service records and indexes

·      Lists of winners of medals and decorations

·      Maps

·      Orders and correspondence

·      Pension records and indexes

·      Photos

·      Rosters and muster rolls

·      Etc.

 

Commonwealth records include various military records (mostly rosters and casualty lists) of member countries of the British Commonwealth (UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for the most part).

 

Non-military records cover a variety of records/documents, which may include:

 

·      Account books

·      Census records

·      City directories

·      Correspondence

·      Homestead records (Nebraska only)

·      Naturalization records and indexes

·      Newspapers

·      Passport applications

·      Photos

·      Postcards

·      Town records

·      UFO investigations

·      Vital records

 

Available records vary widely by locality. Clicking on Site Map at the bottom of the Fold3 landing page allows you to browse via several Popular Categories including:

 

·      Military Records

·      U.S. Historical Records

·      Genealogy Records

·      U.S. State Collections

 

U.S. MEMORIALS

Users with Fold3 accounts can create Memorial pages for veteran ancestors. Users can upload photos, historical documents, and stories to add to Memorial Pages. Fold3.com itself has created Memorial Pages for many veterans using historical documents in its collection, so you should search a veteran's name before creating a page for him or her. If the veteran's name is found, you can then add your photos, historical documents, and stories to the already existing page.

 

YOUR GALLERY

Users with Fold3 accounts can gather and organize images you have uploaded to or discovered on Fold3. Once an image is added to your gallery, you can edit their names, add descriptions, and connect them to other images. Images can be grouped around a theme using the Collections feature of Your Gallery.

 

VIEWER

Being able to explore an image or document in close detail is important to researchers and history buffs alike. The Fold3 viewer is a powerful tool that lets you explore, annotate, print, and save/download documents and images. Here are some of the Viewer's key capabilities:

 

·      Previous Page

·      Next Page

·      Show Filmstrip

·      Open Info Pane

·      Bookmark

·      Annotate

·      Save to Ancestry

·      Zoom In

·      Zoom Out

·      Fit to Page

·      Brightness/Contrast

·      Rotate Image

·      Fullscreen

 

BLOG

The Fold3 blog highlights record sets, documents, and photo collections in Fold3. It also provides tips for using Fold3, and provides advance notice of occasions when Fold3 offers free access to its collections (generally speaking around holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day). Fold3.com Blog: http://blog.fold3.com/

 

About the Speaker

Tom Pearson is a Subject Specialist in the Genealogy Room at the St. Louis Public Library. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and comments.

 

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