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It’s Time to Renew Your Membership for 2024!

Please visit the Membership Information page for a downloadable membership form to mail in with your payment, or to use PayPal.

Membership is on a calendar-year basis, with no partial year rates or proration; however, renewals or new memberships received in November 2023 or later will be effective immediately and remain valid through December 2024.

Our Meeting Calendar:

All meetings will be hybrid (in-person at South Hills Business School, plus virtual by Zoom), unless otherwise noted. Meetings begin promptly at 7:00 pm unless otherwise noted. Visit the “Meetings and Events” tab for more information on each meeting as it becomes available, and how to join the presentation by Zoom, or in person!

2024 March 7. Amber Oldenburg, ‘One Branch at a Time,’  Using FamilySearch Wiki and Family Search Catalog.

2024 April 4. Dr. Michael Lacopo, Roots4U.com

2024 May 2. Roslyn Torella, How to Use Steven Morse’s Genealogy Tools. Italian and Immigrant Genealogy.

2024 June 6. Stacey Adger, Philadelphis Adger Family and Family Fight for Freedom.

Check Out These New Resources!

1. Listing of Family History Records and Library Catalog for the Milesburg Historical Museum, provided by Debbie Arnold, our speaker on February 3, 2022. (In the Members Only section: click on the Members Section tab).
2. 1950 Census, Enumeration Districts for Centre County:
Descriptions and Maps to help you find the right images to browse! (Click on the Resources tab.)
3. Some Resources for Using the 1950 Census: websites to view, browse, or search the Census images; Useful Tools; Some Webinars about the 1950 Census. Find this PDF file at Item 2 (Enumeration Districts).

Other News…

The latest issue of our quarterly newsletter, Roots, has been posted in the Members Only section of the website (Click the Members Section Tab).

Schlow Centre Regional Library and Centre County Libraries are now Affiliate Libraries of FamilySearch.org !

Other News:

The Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library specializes in, among other things, central Pennsylvania genealogy research.  Click on the name to go to the website for more information and Pennsylvania Room hours.

Ancestry Library Edition no longer is available from home, but continues to be available from  Schlow Regional Library and Centre County Libraries.

The Family History Center (State College) is open by appointment. Please call Martha Taylor at 814-308-8467 to schedule.

Future Events:

See the Meetings  & Events page for further information about events, as details become available.

Programs  happen with input and help from members. Are you interested in sharing your knowledge or stories or successes and puzzles with us? Do you have topics that you would like to learn more about? Can you pitch in to help the Program Committee? Contact Pamela McCloskey (president@centrecountygenealogy.org).

Unless otherwise indicated, meetings are held at 7:00 pm. Program meetings are open to the public.  Please pay close attention to the physical location of any in-person meeting, as announced here. (Foxdale Village, our former host, is not available, given the health risks to its residents and staff.)


It’s Here! 

CCGS funding (your dollars) has helped the Pennsylvania State University Libraries digitize and upload for FREE viewing and searching, the Democratic Watchman (Bellefonte, Pa.),  1897 July 2 through 1919 Jan 27, at PANewsArchive.psu.edu ! More years will follow, until the entire run from 1871 to 1923 is scanned and online! (The Civil War era of the Watchman and other Pennsylvania papers are already posted.)

UPDATE, early Jan 2020: Additional years including 1889-1897 and 1919-1922 have now been uploaded to the PANewsArchive website!

FURTHER UPDATE, Spring 2021: With further funding from CCGS, a long run of the Centre Hall Reporter / Centre Reporter, from December 1914 to August 1928, has now been digitized and posted!

Our Spring 2021 newsletter contains an article with tips about using this valuable website. Did we mention that it’s free?

Society News…

The State Library in Harrisburg is located in the Keystone Building temporarily due to the renovation of the Forum Building. Visitors are advised to plan ahead and request materials in advance, as some items will need to be pulled and brought to the temporary location. Visit the library website at https://www.statelibrary.pa.gov/Pages/moving.aspx to learn more.

The handout for our November 7, 2019, presentation on “Searching Online Historical Newspapers” is now available as a PDF file in the Members Only section, with web links, etc.

A summary of our October 3, 2019, viewing of Sunny Morton’s webinar on “Comparing the Genealogy Giants” appears in the Fall 2019 issue of our newsletter, Roots.

The handout for our March 7, 2019, presentation on “I have My DNA Results, Now What?”, by guest speaker Kelli Bergheimer, is now available as a PDF file in the Members Only section. This is a longer version (in color) of the printed version passed out at the program.

The handout for our February 7, 2019, presentation on “Space, Time, and Relatives!” (using maps and other tools for family history) is now available as a PDF file in the Members Only section, with active links to the websites mentioned.

The handout for our November 1, 2018, presentation on “Finding Females” is now available as a PDF file in the Members Only section.

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CCGS now has a Privacy Policy. You can find it by clicking on the Membership Information tab at the top of this web page.
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The Index to the CCGS Cemetery Series is now online and free to the public!

Members, we have the last 11 years of Roots newsletters along with additional information from programs and newsletter articles available in our Members-Only section of the website.

Members, the Society welcomes contributions for the newsletter from our members: interesting historic photos or newspaper items, articles about families, summaries of research finds, queries, etc. Please contact our Newsletter Editor, if you have something you would like to submit.

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State College Family History Center Hours

The FHC at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse on Whitehall Road in State College is open with limited hours. Official hours are Tuesday mornings from 10 am to noon (by appointment only) and Wednesday evenings from  5pm to 8:30. If you wish to make an appointment to come on Tuesday or at another time, please contact Martha Taylor.  See the top of this page for information about closures due to COVID-19.

Microfilms already in our possession are available to view. Premium websites, such as Ancestry.com, and restricted digitized records are now accessible.
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