2015 KCGS Annual Meeting and Conference

KCGS Annual Conference will be held June 20, 2015 with Wichita Genealogical Society as co-hosts in Wichita, KS. Please visit our website for program and registration information. 
Featured speaker will be Kathleen Strader Brandt Professional Genealogist / Consultant / Speaker. You can see Kathleen's work on TLC and NBC: Who Do You Think You Are? with Tim McGraw (appears on episode), Reba McEntire, Ashley Judd, and Chris O'Donnell; on PBS: Finding Your Roots; CCTV Biz Asia; and, in AARP and Jet Magazine.  Ask about the You Are A Pioneer series as presented at Stephens College, Columbia, MO, Feb 2014, and is referenced in Genealogy Online for Dummies, 7th Edition, 2014. Engaged in forensic genealogy, she is a licensed Private Investigator (MO). She recently compiled and authored Colored Marriages of Saline County, MO., released April 2014.

Researching Ancient Native Americans in Kansas

On Monday, February 23rd, at 6:30 p.m., Donald Blakeslee, Professor of Anthropology at Wichita State University, will present “Researching Ancient Kansas Native Americans” to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Good Taste Chinese Buffet, 1311 E. 16^th St., Wellington.  No cost for the program; guests are welcome.  For possible weather cancellations, contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266 or the restaurant at 620-399-8401.

 

Blakeslee said that he specializes in the history of the Great Plains with a special interest on the Walnut River basin during all time periods. His current research could, in his words “rewrite the Great Bend culture.” The Great Bend Aspect, as archaeologists call it, refers to ancient Native American people, particularly the ancestral Wichita tribe, who lived in several regions of the state, including Cowley County, from about 1425 AD to the early 18^th century.

Native American Research - Sunmer County Historical & Genealogical Society

On Monday, January 26th, at 6:30 P.M., Michelle Enke, Wichita Public Library, will present “Researching Your Native American Ancestor” and will share tips and hints for finding your elusive Native American Ancestor in the Wichita Public Library’s extensive Native American Collection to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests meeting at the Good Taste Chinese Buffet, 1311 E. 16^th St., Wellington.

Wichita Genealogical Society Annual Conference

 October 11, 2014 - Wichita Genealogical Society Annual Conference, 9:00 am – 3:45 pm, (doors open at 8:15); Eugene M Hughes Metropolitan Complex,  5015 E 29^th St N, Wichita, Kansas.
Our Guest Speakers are John Philip Colletta, one of America’s most popular genealogical lecturers and Michelle Enke, Local History Librarian at The Wichita Public Library and manager of the Lawrence & Lucile Wulfmeyer Genealogy/Special Collections Center located in the WPL downtown library. 
For additional information and to download registration forms, see our website:  www.wichitagensoc.org

Wellington, Kansas Tornado - May 27, 1892

On Monday, April 28th, Jim Bales, local historian and President of the Chisholm Trail Museum Board, will present the program “A Turning Point In Sumner County: The 1892 Wellington  Tornado”, a program about the 1892 tornado in Wellington, and how it affected Wellington’s business and the growth of the city, to the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Wellington Senior Center, 308 South Washington, Wellington at 6:30 p.m. Contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266 in case of inclement weather.

On May 27th, 1892, when a tornado hit the fast growing new town of Wellington, Kansas, there was no radar, no tornado sirens, no trained tornado spotters, and the tornado took everyone by surprise.

“About where the Memorial Auditorium was it took out an area about 2 blocks wide there,” Bales said, “That was probably the widest spot.”

There were no radios or televisions,” Bales said, “And people on the south side of town woke up the next morning and didn’t even know anything had happened.”

Bales has photographs of the damage. Lots of photographs. Using a Powerpoint presentation with maps and photos, Bales will track the path that the tornado took through Wellington, twisting through the new and bustling downtown area, cutting a two-block-wide swath in places, coming down at about West Harvey and the Rock Island tracks, and heading  east towards the area of “B” and “C” streets.

Thirteen people died. More were injured. Buildings, banks, and homes were destroyed, and one man was picked up along with the timber that had him pinned down, and then dropped him off, mostly uninjured, about where Roosevelt school is now.

Bales will tell the stories that go along with the tornado, and will also talk about the lasting effect the tornado had on the city. According to Bales, Wellington had just gone through a big growth spurt following the end of the cattle drives and the beginning of large wheat harvests, and the tornado had a long-lasting and very negative impact on the growth of the city.  

 “At that time, Wellington was growing faster than Wichita, and we had a population of 12,000 people” said Jim Bales, “We lost several businesses and banks in the tornado and Wellington never did recover.”

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society

On Monday, March 24th, at 6:30 p.m., Vickie Stangl, Andover, will present the program “Etta Semple – Kansas Free Thinker” to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Wellington Senior Center, 308 S. Washington, Wellington.  In case of inclement weather, contact Jane Moore: 620-447-3266.

Stangl was required to do a “piece on a Kansas person” for her Master’s degree at Wichita State University, and after reading about Etta Semple, she became fascinated, and asked her instructor if she could “write about this heretic in Ottawa.”

Stangl said that Etta Semple, born near Quincy, Illiniois in 1855, had views that were considered radical for the time.

Stangl said that Semple was a humanitarian, and had a state of the art sanitarium, but she was also an activist.

 “She and her second husband were active in the labor movement,” Stangl said.

“I began reading her newspapers and I was fascinated,” Stangl said, adding that she worked on her thesis for three years.

Stangl said that Semple died in Ottawa of influenza in 1914.

Sumner County Genealogical Society

 

Where DID I Come From? 
What DNA indicates about Ancient and Recent Human Migration

On Monday, February 24th, Pam Robinett, Wellington, will present the program, “Where DID I Come From?  What DNA indicates about Ancient and Recent Human Migration”  to the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society at the Wellington Senior Center, 308 South Washington, Wellington at 6:30 p.m. Contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266 in case of inclement weather.

“The title of the book “Seven Daughters of Eve” by Brian Sykes, caught my eye, made me curious, and piqued my curiosity in using DNA for genealogy,” Robinett said. Robinett, former Wellington High School math instructor now works with the high school diploma completion program for the Sumner County Detention Center.

 “I have done genealogy since I was in high school,” Robinett said, “I am the kind of genealogist who is interested not only in the names and dates of the individuals, but also the context, or the setting that the person lived in.”

“It’s one thing to know that a person was born, married, died and was buried in certain years,” Robinett said, “But it’s quite another, to me, to think of her as the woman who held down the farm, literally, while her husband went down the Cherokee Strip as a paid hunter at certain times of the year; and to discover that they nearly lost the farm over taxes one year when he was late returning.”

Robinett said she believes DNA is a tool that can put “flesh on the bones on a bigger scale,” and give us the “ability to track migration patterns over a period longer than recorded history can offer,” as well as the provide the opportunity to find cousins that could not easily be found with traditional sources.

 “As more and more people take advantage of this tool, more and more data will become available,” Robinett said, adding that this will make the picture/story of our species and each of us clearer.

Robinett said that with DNA research you may learn that there was an infidelity at some time in your family tree’s history, adoption(s) that were not recorded, and you may be able to add cousins that you didn’t even know that you had, allowing you to “fill in the blanks in your family tree” as well as “learn the migration path that your family tree took over the last 60,000 years or so.”

Robinett said that while she is curious about what DNA research can provide for genealogists she “hasn’t acted on it yet.”

 “If you and I have the same mitochondrial sequence, then you and I had a common female ancestor sometime in the last 10,000 years,” Robinett said.

“The opportunity to put your family in the biggest picture is pretty exciting,” Robinett said, “It lends a historical perspective.  It’s kind of cool when you can do that!”

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies Moves Web Site

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies has moved their web site to http://www.kcgs.us/ . Information on the 2014 Annual Conference is posted there. To be held in McPherson, KS, the speaker this year will be Valerie Eichler Lair.

Sumner County - "Emily Sell: Letters of a Kansas Homesteader's Wife"

On Monday, January 27^th, Elaine Clark, Sumner County Historical Society Prairie Letters’ Project Director, will present the program, “Emily Sell: Letters of a Kansas Homesteader’s Wife” to SCHGS members and guests at the Wellington Senior Citizen Center, 308 South Washington, Wellington, Kansas, at 6:30 p.m. For bad weather cancellation information, contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266

In 2012 the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society received a notebook containing letters written primarily in the 1870’s by Emily Sell, one of Sumner County’s earliest settlers.

SCHGS President, Jane Moore, shared the letters with Elaine Clark, and they soon realized that they were holding a treasure trove of first-hand accounts of the everyday life of the wife of a Kansas homesteader.

Moore said that the Sells homesteaded in the Rome, Kansas area in the 1870’s, and even though Kansas was opened to settlement in 1854 and became a state in 1861, there were only 22 white people living in Sumner County by 1870.

“There have been histories written about other areas of Sumner County during this time period,” said Elaine Clark, adding “but very few collections of letters have been discovered which give a first-person perspective.”

 “That makes this collection of letters a priceless, irreplaceable piece of Kansas history,” Clark said.

Because of the historic value of the letters, the Kansas Humanities Council (KHC), a nonprofit organization that supports community-

based cultural programs, www.kansashumanities.org, awarded the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society of Wellington a $3,500 grant for the “Prairie Letters: Written in Rural Kansas in the Late Nineteenth Century” project.

Since receiving the grant, Clark said that she has spent 194 hours transcribing the letters, and preparing them for publication. Clark will share details about the entire process: the acquisition of the letters, the transcription, the research, and the preparation for turning them into the book with SCHGS members and guests.

Clark said that when she first held the letters in her hand “I just stood there and wondered what her life was like.”

Now, Clark knows.

“We tend to take food, warmth, air conditioning, doctors and medical care for granted, but these letters share the facts of everyday life for Kansas’ early settlers,” Clark said, adding that for some, it was a life that included hunger, deprivation, and early death.

“It was hard to put the letters down,” Clark said, “I kept wanting to transcribe the next one to see what was new in the life of Emily.”

“I kept wanting things to get better for her,” Clark said, adding that for her, the saddest event in Emily’s letter was the death of her toddler child.

“I've transcribed letters that probably would have languished in someone’s closet, or worse yet, been destroyed,” Clark said, “It gives future generations a glimpse into the life of a homesteader in the early days of Sumner County.”

Midwest Historical & Genealogical Society Hosts Watch Parties

Midwest Historical & Genealogical Society will host watch parties each Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. 1201 North Main, Wichita, KS.

Genealogy Roadshow

PBS announced in May that thy will have the new series, Genealogy Roadshow, in their fall lineup. MHGS is happy to be a sponsor of this program which will start on Monday September23 at 8:00-9:00 our time on KPTS. This show will run for four Mondays through October 14. This series will be part detective story, part emotional journey, and will combine history and science to uncover fascinating stories of diverse Americans. Each individual's past will line to a larger community history, revealing the rich cultural tapestry of America. 

Genealogy Roadshow's premiere season will feature participation from Four American cities - Nashville, Austin, Detroit and San Francisco - who want to explore unverified genealogical claims, passed down through family history, that may or may not connect them to an event or historical figure. Genealogy experts will work with the participants chosen and will use DNA, family heirlooms, letters, pictures, historical documents and other clues to hunt down more information. 

MHGS will hold a "Watch Party" at the Society Library at 1203 North Main each Monday evening of the Genealogy Roadshow. We will open the library at 7:30 p.m. and attendance is free. We do need to know how many are interested in the "Watch Party" so we can plan seating and get everything ready. Make your reservations by calling 316 264-3611 or e-mail mhgs1121@aol.com.

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society

On Monday, August 26th, at 6:30 p.m., Lori DeWinkler, Lead Investigator and Historian for Moonlit Ghost Hunts, will present the program “Wellington After Dark” to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Wellington Senior Center, 308 S. Washington.

Lori DeWinkler, a paranormal investigator since 2008, loves being a paranormal investigator for Moonlit Ghost Hunts, www.moonlitghosthunts.com. 

But Dewinkler doesn’t just go to a location for the first time on the night of the investigation. She checks out the location ahead of time. Thoroughly.

She researches the building’s history, who owned it, who lived there, and maybe even who died there.

She reads newspaper articles, talks to folks who know the history of the location, and the area, searches for clues, and compiles and analyzes her findings before the group ever goes in to investigate. And she gets excited when the pieces of the historic puzzle start falling into place and she can pull together a structure’s fascinating history before an investigation.

DeWinkler will share several fascinating stories about Wellington and Sumner County and bring along some of the tools they use to investigate.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.. There is no charge for the program and everyone is welcome. In case of bad weather cancellation, contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266. For more information, go to www.ks-schgs.blogspot.com.

Kansas Genealogy Society Quarterly Meeting

Kansas Genealogy Society quarterly meeting, July 11, 2013, 2 :00 p.m., USD 443 Learning Center, 308 West Frontview, Dodge City, KS (across highway north of Village Square Mall). Gary and Margaret Kraisinger of Halstead, KS will speak on Texas Cattle Trails. Program is free of charge and open to the public.

2013 KCGS Conference and Annual Meeting

KCGS 2013 Conference and annual meeting, June 18 . "Research on the Range", Dyck Arboretum, Hesston, KS., 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Registration is required to guarantee lunch and a syllabus.
Speakers will include:

Art Binford	Friends University	Quaker Collection
Ashley Diaz	Emporia State University	ESU Archives at William Allen White Library
Jane Jones	Harvey County Archives	Local Historical Society Collections
John Thiesen	Bethel College	Mennonite Library & Archives Records
Lenora Lynam Lorna Nelson	Lindsborg Old Mill Museum	Swedish & Lutheran Records
Michelle Enke	Wichita Public Library	Wulfmeyer Genealogy Collection at WPL
Patty Nicholas	Ft. Hays State University	Volga German Records at Forsyth Library
Randy Roberts	Pittsburg State University	PSU Archives at Axe Library

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society

March 25^th Meeting
Contact: Sherry Kline – 620-326-3401

On Monday, March 25th, at 6:30 p.m., Dolores Carr, Wellington, will present the Women’s History month program “Who Was Mary Elizabeth Lease: Kansas Homesteader, Mission Teacher, or Political Activist?”  to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Best of Orient meeting room, 114 E. Lincoln, Wellington.

The meal begins at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting at 6:30 p.m.. There is no charge for the program and everyone is welcome. For possible bad weather cancellation, contact Best of the Orient at 620-399-8575 or President Jane Moore at 620-447-3266.

Dolores Carr said that Mary Elizabeth Lease, author, speaker, and editor, was born in Pennsylvania to upper-class Irish immigrants Joseph P. and Mary Elizabeth Clyens, was raised in New York, and was well educated before coming to Kansas to teach in an Osage Mission after her father and older brothers died fighting for the union in the civil war. 

According to Carr, Mary Elizabeth Lease “read for the law” while earning money washing clothes for the neighbors, and after marrying, she and her husband homesteaded in Kingman County, Kansas but were not able to make a go of it, and she and her family moved to Wichita where she founded a club for woman who wanted to improve their education.

 “She became a speaker for the Populist Party,” Carr said, “and was often called “The Lady Orator of the West” and “the Kansas Cyclone” by some because of her speaking abilities.”

 “She could just mesmerize the audience,” Carr said.

Carr stated that Lease believed that if she had been a man she would have been appointed to the U. S. Senate, but Carr added that because Lease promoted women’s suffrage as well as temperance and was politically active in the Populist Party some comments about her were not complimentary.

“She was probably a woman ahead of her time,” Carr said.

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society

On Monday, February 25th, at 6:30 p.m., Neta Jane Doris, Winfield, will present the program “Exodusters in Kansas” to Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society members and guests at the Best of Orient meeting room, 114 E. Lincoln, Wellington.

The meal begins at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting at 6:30 p.m.. There is no charge for the program and everyone is welcome. For possible bad weather cancellation, contact Best of the Orient at 620-399-8575.

When two of Neta Jane Doris’s former high school classmates asked her to do their family history, Doris was only too happy to help them out.

Doris has been involved in several family history projects, found ancestors and descendants for several, reconnected family members, begun family reunions, and published a family history on her mother’s side of the family.

She was glad to help her friends out.

“I’ve been researching for about 40 years,” Doris said, “I just love the research. Actually, when I’m researching, they almost feel like my family.”

Doris, who did the bulk of this research prior to the age of computers, learned that her two friends were not only the descendants of “Exodusters”, or African-American slaves freed by emancipation, they were also related to each other.

“The more I researched, the more interested I became,” Doris said, adding that it took several months to find much of the information and expand their family trees.

“There were about three years when there was a mass exodus,” Doris said, adding that most Exodusters came to Kansas between 1879 and 1881 and many were from Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas where circulars were passed out by both black and white people to entice the new settlers to Kansas.

Doris said that the mass exodus “happened so fast and so suddenly that it caused a Congressional investigation.”

 “Over 40,000 poor black people emigrated during that time,” Doris said, “they were kind of led to believe that they would get money and land, and that didn’t happen.”

Doris said that she will “speak about the general history of the Exodusters and talk a little” about the people who settled in Kansas: one family who was involved in the Underground Railroad, one family whose owner (and father) freed them and gave them money to move, and Lutie Lytle, who became the first woman black lawyer in Tennessee in 1897 and was the first black woman to be admitted to the Kansas bar.

“Sometimes families were torn apart and you never get them back together again,” Doris said.

For those genealogists and family historians searching for their own Exoduster history, Doris said that she will bring along a copy of the circular used to advertise settling in Kansas as well as books and articles, census and land records, and share information on some of the resources that she used, and also how and where she found the information.

According to Doris, many of the citizens in Larned today are descended from the Exodusters.

“They were some of the earliest settlers in that part of Kansas,” Doris said, “they showed a lot of strength and determination.”

Swedish Genealogy Workshop

Old Mill Museum, Lindsborg, KS will sponsor at Swedish Genealogy Workshop September 28 &29, 2013. Registration is required. Go to http://www.mcphersoncountyks.us/DocumentCenter/View/1552  for details.

Midwest Historical & Genalogical Society Special Interest Group

Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society will begin an Afro-American Interest Group.
The meeting will be at 1203 N. Main, Wichita , 67201, on Saturday, December 15 and January 19th at 1:00 pm.
The purpose is to encourage historical and genealogical study of families of any ethnic group with
special emphasis on Afro- Americans. This informal group will seek to learn more of the history
and factors within the family stories we have been told.
We will demonstrate how to research your family tree with the goal of discovering and
understanding your family history. The discussions will include a variety of methods, including
exploring public records, interviewing older relatives and preserving information. 
 Join us and you may become your family historian.
Jozel Smith Eckels, Chairperson

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society meeting

On Monday, November 26th, Frank Korte, Wellington attorney and Vietnam veteran will present the program “The Normandy Invasion” to members and guests of the Sumner County Genealogical & Historical Society in meeting room A at “The Rock” restaurant, 1311 East 16^th (east Highway 160), Wellington. 

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.; meal begins at 5:30 p.m.. Reservations are not necessary for the meal. Contact "The Rock" in case of inclement weather for cancellation information.

In 1968, Frank Korte’s National Guard unit was activated and they were sent to Vietnam on January 3^rd, 1969.  In the years since his military service, Korte has become interested in both Civil War era and World War II battles and the preparations that led up to them.

“I’ve always kind of had an interest in the military,” Korte said.

“WW II was the first war we fought with Armored machinery,” Korte said, adding “we woke up about 1939 and realized that they (the Germans) had tanks and had developed artillery and fighter aircraft, and we still had an army equipped to fight WW I.”

I’ve always been fascinated by that transition,” Korte said, “and by where we started and where we’ve come to today.”

 “In 1939 we got busy converting to a WW II Army. It was the infancy of how we fight today” Korte said, “we do a lot of the same things we did then, but we have much better equipment.”

Korte will share maps and photographs of the area at Normandy, including German bunkers that still exist today.  And while his talk will encompass the tremendous battle fought at Normandy Beach, he also plans to touch on what led up to the Normandy invasion, including “Operation Fortitude” the operation that was created to deceive the Germans into believing that the main attack would be elsewhere.

“The whole name of the game was to isolate the beaches and keep the Germans off of them so we could get on the beaches,” Korte said, “that operation really threw the Germans off.  Rommel was at Normandy trying to defend the beach with one-third of his Army.”

Contact info: Sherry Kline – 620-326-3401
skline09@gmail.com

KCGS Annual Meeting and Conference

June 23, 2012

2012 KCGS Annual Meeting and Conference will be June 23, 2012, in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union at Emporia State University, co-hosted by Flint Hills Genealogical Society.
Our Speaker will be Julie Miller of Colorado. She will present the following lectures:
The 5 Steps of Genealogical Proof
Make the Census Work for You
When Grandpa Went Off to War: U.S. Military Records
An Ounce of Prevention: Making a Genealogical Disaster Plan

Registration and additional information