Watertown Regional Genealogical Society

10/26/2024

The group is alive and well. A few new faces have shown up at the meetings. Our meetings are just basic and we then just talk about genealogy, the how to's and why's. We never know which direction we will discuss but it is always interesting. We always leave knowing a bit more.

We are almost done cataloging the about 6,000 records from Mathiesen, Gergen, Rhodes and Wight Funeral Home. We hope to have these records on the Library site so they can be searched. If a record is then found, our group will then need to pull the file by the record # and get any info you may need.

The meeting is the second Tuesday of each month at 1:00 at the Watertown Regional Library. November 12th, 2024 is the next date! Stop by and see what we are all about.

03/21/2024

Watertown Regional Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Mar. 12th, 2024 Meeting

The Mar. 12th, 2024 meeting of the WRGS was held at the Watertown Library. The meeting was called
to order by Pres. Erland Carlson. There were 7 members present, Alan A., Wanda C., Marie B.,
Donna C., Shelly M. and Laurie M. One guest, Jim Josephson

The meeting minutes and treasurer's report were given for the month of Feb. 2024 and were approved as read.

Old Business
Erland talked with Ann R. at the courthouse and said that we could record records if we stayed in
the room where the records are. That limits us to two people.

The theme for the 2024 State Fair is "Farm Life". This includes farming, homesteads, Century farms
and farm machinery. Be sure to include the location of the farm, they will place a pin on the SD map.

New Business
The Watertown library has a "translation machine" outside of the computer room. You run your paper
through the machine, then e-mail home to yourself. There is no charge for this service.
I brought 2 items along to try. One was an obiturary from a newspaper, so type written, the other was
a hand written piece from a church record. We used German as the language. The obit came back as
jibberish, the hand written item, I received nothing. So I went back and we tried again, this time we
tried using English as the language, thinking that maybe we needed to say we wanted it to translate to
English. Both documents came back as jibberish. Josh if you have any thoughts on this, please let us
know. It would be an awesome thing if it works.

Eralnd now has more research cards.

Tri-state Genealogical Society is located in Belle Fourche, SD. They are hosting a seminar along with
with the SD Gen Society on April 20th. The speaker is Paul Higbee, historian and author of the
book, The First Strike. The fee is $30.00. If anyone is interested in attending, please let me know.
I have a registration form.

The Kingsbury County Gen Society is asking for copies of obituaries from anyone in Kingsbury county.
Or with connections to Kingsbury county. They also have several years of obituaries. If you would
like to contribute or request an obituary, this is the address -
KCGS
P. O. Box 328
DeSmet, SD 57231
There was no other new business, the meeting was adjourned and opened for discussion.
Laurie Musch, Sec/Treas

Open discussion
Talked about how you would find where someone lived when renting property. Old plat maps only show
land ownership. Possibly an older person from the area, school records, etc.
School records show teachers, students, and teachers salary.
I came across an interesting website. It has many interesting articles on doing geneology research.
The website is reclaimingkin.com

03/19/2023

The winter has been tough on everyone. The March 2023 meeting was postponed due to weather. Spring will be here soon and we can get back to normal, we hope!

06/16/2022

Watertown Regional Genealogical Society

Minutes of the June 14, 2022 Meeting

The June 14th, 2022 meeting of the WRGS was held at the Conference Room in the Library. The meeting was called to order by Pres. Erland Carlson. There were 9 members present, Donna C., Wanda C., Alan A., Diane A., Terry A., Marie B., Susan M., Erland C. and Laurie M.

The meeting minutes and treasurer's report were given for the month of May 2022 and were approved as read.

Old Business
Marie had more WRGS pamphlets printed at a cost of $50. She refused payment for this, but asked for free membership until paid off. This was approved.

The 2nd reading of the Constitution was read, a was made motion by Donna C. and seconded by Susan M. to accept the changes, all members approved, no opposed. Motion carried. Erland will have copies made of the new constitution.

New Business
Laurie will be gone for the July and Aug. meetings. Erland will select someone to take meeting minutes. These will be sent to Laurie and she will send them out.

1950 Census is available at Family Search or 1950census.archives.gov.

Facebook has a site called "German Genealogy Translations". The lady writing the article said she "took a picture of the German writing, posted it to the above site" and they sent her back the translation.

There was discussion about generating interest in the WRGS, Erland suggested that we have presentations to see if that would encourage people to join. Marie said she had a friend who would do a presentation on Norway. Other suggestions were DAR and land records. Also the State Historical Society or the SDGS may have ideas.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Society International Convention is in Aberdeen, SD at the Ramkota Convention Center on July 13 - 16, 2022. For more information, the website is grhs.org.

There was no other new business, the meeting was adjourned and opened for discussion.
Laurie Musch, Sec/Treas

There were a couple websites listed in the SDGS quarterly:
Research guides for ship passenger lists and immigration records -
researchguides.net/immigration/index.htm
US Census Bureau: census.gov/topics/population/genealogy.html

05/12/2022

Watertown Regional Genealogical Society

Minutes of the May 10th, 2022 Meeting

The May 10th, 2022 meeting of the WRGS was held at the Conference Room in the Library. The meeting was called to order by Sec/Treas Laurie Musch. There were 7 members present, Donna C., Wanda C., Alan A., Delores F., Marie B., Susan M. and Laurie M. One guest, Rita Rauen.

The meeting minutes and treasurer's report were given for the month of Apr. 2022 and were approved as read.

Old Business
Erland taught a genealogy class at the Clear Lake Library on Apr. 26th. 6 people attended.

The 2nd reading of the Constitution will be postponed until June.

SD State Fair theme for this year is "Our Ancestors in the News"

SD Gen Soc annual meeting will be held in Sioux Falls on June 3 & 4. The Sioux Valley Gen Soc of Sioux Falls is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary and will be hosting the meeting. The speaker will be D. Joshua Taylor. Registration will begin in Apr. Their website for registration is
siouxvalleygenealogicalsociety.org.
this is the correct website, when you open the website there is a menu bar across the top, click on "Seminar", scroll down, the information and registration sheet are there.

New Business
There are no WRGS pamphlets left. Marie will have some printed.

Election committee is Donna C. and Alan A.
Donna made a motion that Erland C. be President and Laurie M. be Sec/Treas this motion was second by Wanda C. All approved, motion carried.

There was no other new business, the meeting was adjourned and opened for discussion.
Laurie Musch, Sec/Treas

Open Discussion
Rita R. explained about a book called "South Dakota in World War II". This lists every person who served in WWII from SD. Also has assigned units, where they served, etc. Rita has donated the book to the Watertown Museum. Very interesting, Thanks Rita!

Much discussion on WWI & WWII.

04/18/2022

Minutes of the Apr. 12th, 2022 Meeting

The Apr. 12th, 2022 meeting of the WRGS was held at the Conference
Room in the Library. The meeting was called to order by President Erland Carlsen. There were 4 members present, Donna C., Wanda C., Erland C. and Laurie M.

The meeting minutes and treasurer's report were given for the month
of Mar. 2022 and were approved as read.

Old Business

Erland will teach a genealogy class at the Clear Lake Library on April 26th.

The 2nd reading of the Constitution will be read at the May meeting.

SD State Fair theme for this year is "Our Ancestors in the News"

SD Gen Soc annual meeting will be held in Sioux Falls on June 3 & 4.
The Sioux Valley Gen Soc of Sioux Falls is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary and will be hosting the meeting. The speaker will be D. Joshua Taylor. Registration will begin in Apr. Their website for registration is:

siouxvalleygenealogicalsociety.org.

this is the correct website, when you open the website there is a
menu bar across the top, click on "Seminar", scroll down, the information and registration sheet are there.

New Business

It is with sad hearts that we have lost our dear friend and fellow
genealogist Jack Little. He was an excellent addition to our group, serving as Vice President. Erland attended the funeral and brought a funeral card to share. Jack rarely talked about his accomplishments in life or his successful genealogy quest. He will be greatly missed!!

There was no other new business, the meeting was adjourned and opened
for discussion.

Laurie Musch, Sec/Treas

Open Discussion

Last time we talked about websites that don't use cookies, duckduckgo
and startpage. None of us knew how to be able to use them. Alan has gratefully shared his knowledge, see below:

I use Linux Firefox for a browser. It is free and easy to use.

To change your browser to StartPage or DuckDuckgo:

In the upper right hand corner is the menu.
Three horizontal lines over the other.

Click on that and I go to the home area.

Look for the Homepage tab.

You enter in the Homepage tab: http://www.startpage.com/do [1]

Yours should say Google now if that is what comes up on yours.

You can also put in: https://duckduckgo.com/ if you want to try that. [2]

leave off the "if you want to try that" from the internet address

Once replaced, whenever you open the internet, Startpage or
duckduckgo should come up.

Hope this helps.

We also discussed inherited diseases and other small things that are
passed down thru the generations.

The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

01/06/2022

The next Genealogy meeting will be Tuesday, January 11th, 2022 at 1:00 PM at the Watertown Regional Library.

Have questions about genealogy, want to get started and don't know how, stop on by and we can get you pointed in the right direction. Get your family information noted for future generations.

12/18/2021

This explains what we can do for people with genealogy questions.

11/12/2021

A group of like minded Genealogists who gather on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, at 1:00 PM, at the Watertown Regional Library, 160 6th St NE, Watertown, SD to discuss genealogy information and to preserve the past Funeral Home obituaries and records from the area.

We welcome new members and those interested in Genealogy. Come see us.