Create a Family History Unit Study

Family history is a huge topic of conversation in my family. My grandparents, great aunts, other family members and both of my parents have over the years shared enormous amounts of information and stories about themselves and other family members, enough to fill volumes of books and I’ve enjoyed hearing them tremendously. I’ve made it a project for each of my children interview their grandparents and glean from their experiences.  Listening to those stories over the years prompted me to do some research about my family to find out what information about my family has been recorded and documented. This has been and continues to be an exciting journey that has included hours of searching on Family Search, a website similar to those listed in the article below as well as a fieldtrip to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. 

Including your own family history in your curriculum for social studies or history can prove to be an exciting adventure for you and your children.  You can discover interesting information about your background that ties in to the period of history you’re studying. Tracing a family’s movements allows you to do geography and cartography. Make your own family time line. Locate cousins in other states or even countries! Write about your discoveries and share it with your family!  

Our local library has an abundance of information available to help you get started on a genealogy unit.  Libraries have research helps and knowledgeable staff on hand to assist and direct you as you go along. The article below is from our own Grace Cordial.  Mrs. Cordial has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Beaufort District Collection at the Beaufort County Library since 1999. The Beaufort District Collection exists to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value which records the history, culture, and environment of our part of the South Carolina lowcountry. Besides the research room, Cordial oversees the “Virtual BDC:” the BDC web pages, the Online Obituary Index, the Phosphate, Farms, and Family digital collection, and the Connections blog.

Among her duties is to coordinate or present programs about local history and our coastal environment, including the occasional instructional session about how to perform historical and/or genealogical research.  So take advantage of her expertise and begin your genealogy study soon!

Family Tree Magazine names 101 Best Genealogy Websites 2011

By Grace Cordial

For a number of years, Family Tree Magazine has been searching the internet for the best genealogy websites. In 2010, they highlighted free sites. In 2011, they've compiled a list of the 101 best, including both free and premium sites.

Pay attention to the individual entry for each website because "though some mostly free sites charge for premium services, you’ll see a symbol only next to sites where you have to pony up for the core content." So, it's a mixed bag of pay-to-view, pay-to-view some, and pay-to-view everything.

Categories include:

*Family History Mega-Marts
*Born in the USA
*State-of-the-Art Archives
*Local Heroes
*Ethnic Interests
*Putting Genealogy on the Map
*Share and Store Alike
*Tech Tools
*Canadian Cousins
*Genealogy CSI: Death and DNA
*Crossing the Pond

Read the article. [1] When you have a few minutes to investigate online resources, we encourage you to peruse these recommended websites to help you uncover your roots.

Please keep in mind that all branches [2] of the Beaufort County Library provide customers access to the Ancestry Library Edition [3] subscription database. Here's the caveat: You must use ALE inside our buildings on our public access computers. It is not available through the library's WIFI. (By the way, that's ALE's rules, not ours.)

Community Bible Chuch hosts Coastal Home Educators Conference

Community Bible Church will host their annual home education conference this weekend.  This conference provides opportunities to learn about home education and receive encouragement and helps for continuing to minister to your family through home education. The information below is their announcement.  To learn more and register, please visit their website at http://schomeschoolconference.wordpress.com/
 

CHEC 2011 is June 9th, 10th and 11th.

On Thursday at 7 p.m. we offer the Intro to Homeschooling taught by Dr. Carl Broggi. The cost for this separate seminar is $5.00 per person to cover materials.

The cost for CHEC is $12.00. This includes Friday and Saturday, including the BOOK Blast Used Curriculum Sale, Vendors Hall and all workshops. Your spouse attends free of charge. Doors open at 9 a.m.

The deadline for receiving a CHEC Buck has passed.

All BOOK Blast sellers must be registered for the conference.

Our registration process does not support the Safari. Please register with Explorer, Chome or Firefox.

Click here to print out a registration and mail with a check made payable to Community Bible Church.

Our conference is child friendly and we welcome you to bring your little ones with you. We ask that you are considerate to the other attendees and keep them with you and well-behaved. There is no charge for anyone under 18. Childcare is available with advanced registration below. Childcare registration ends June 6th.

From The Beacon: Summer reading kicks off at library

Every summer libraries across the country offer exciting programs to encourage reading during the summer months.  The kick off for the Beaufort County public library system began yesterday, June 6.  Each library in our system offers the local community it serves special summer programs and activities that support the theme.  You can read more about this year's summer reading program for all ages, the themes, prizes and more in the article below.  Get ready for excitement, adventure, thrills and more from the books you will read this summer!

Submitted by Traci Cox on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 8:19am

The heat has arrived, school buses will soon be in storage and the beach is beckoning -- summer is almost here. That also means it's time for the annual Summer Reading Program at the Beaufort County public library system. We have been hard at work planning and preparing for this exciting annual event.

According to the American Library Association, the annual Summer Reading Program began in the 1890s as a way to persuade school children to visit the library and develop lifelong reading habits. While it started as a way to promote literacy with children, the program has evolved over the past century into an enjoyable and worthwhile annual string of events in which all children, teens and adults can participate.

Funded by Beaufort County, our Friends of the Library groups and our Public Library Foundation, the official Summer Reading Program begins June 13th and concludes July 23rd. There will be branch-specific prizes and countywide grand prizes. This year's overall Summer Reading theme is "Travel." So whether you have plans to escape to a faraway destination or stay here in the Lowcountry, the Beaufort County library branches will provide you and your family with plenty of materials to keep you busy -- regardless of your travel plans (or lack thereof).

"One World, Many Stories" is the theme for children ages 4 to grade five, and "You Are Here" is the theme for teens (grades 6 to 12). Each participant signs an agreement to read (or have read to them) a minimum number of books. A visit to the library once a week will earn them a small prize. Once they fulfill their agreement, they earn a certificate, medal and a chance at winning one of our grand prizes.
Children and teens can visit their branch library to register beginning Monday. Check with your local library's children's room for more information for both teen and children's Summer Reading programs.
"Novel Destinations" is the travelworthy theme for adults ages 18 and older. Adults can read whatever they choose and submit reviews. Each review gets one entry into the prize pool, and names will go into prize drawings at the respective branches. Adults may submit their reviews beginning June 13 (there's no need to register). This year, reviews can be submitted online or to your branch's reference desk. Blank book review forms are located at all branches. There are no limits to how many reviews participants can submit. Reviews must have a minimum of 50 words in order to be eligible for prizes. If participants are feeling extra creative, they can submit their reviews in poetry form.
Hours at our library branches in Hilton Head, Bluffton and Beaufort will be changing starting Monday, so check out our website or contact your local branch for more information on all of our upcoming events.

10 Ways Libraries Matter in a Digital Age | American Libraries Magazine

The library is a favorite place of mine and I hope I'm passing that on to my children; I think I'm doing fairely well. It is one of the places we visit often to read, borrow materials, participate in activities, meet and greet neighbors and our wonderful library staff. This article written by Greg Landgraff and posted by our Beaufort District Collection manager, shows a number of ways libraries are important in our high tech, digital era. I hope more and more people become reacquainted with or introduced to thier local library and this summer is a great time to do just that. Enjoy the article!

Created 05/20/2011 - 8:38am By Grace Cordial

10 Ways Libraries Matter in a Digital Age | American Libraries Magazine [1] was written by Greg Landgraff as an updated response to why libraries still matter - and will continue to matter - into the foreseeable future and beyond.

Of the 10 reasons given, (and they are all right on the money) the two that most directly relate to a special collection such as the BDC are:

Libraries are hubs for preserving the past. Digital libraries are wondrous, but they exist, for the most part, because of the local and world treasures safeguarded by brick-and-mortar libraries, which keep them safe and accessible for future generations. We also work to help our patrons preserve their own materials.

Of course, this is what the BDC does. We bring the past to the present and future by taking good care of the materials we hold in trust, sharing those materials with customers who visit our Research Room, Branch Library Local History sections, the "Virtual BDC," or attend our BDC@ The Branches local history program series.

If you read Connections on a regular basis, I believe you already know that seldom does a month go by during which we fail to mention some preservation technique or disaster preparedness website or workshop. We want people to have the information they need to protect their family treasures and safeguard their persons.

Libraries are there in a crisis. After the recent tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tuscaloosa Public Library offered college students a means to communicate with friends and family. When Hurricane Ike struck Houston September 13, 2008, the Central Library reopened within three days to help residents contact insurance companies and file federal aid applications. Libraries belong to their communities and do what it takes in times of need.

While, thankfully, we have not been tested by disaster, we do train to meet those tests should they come. For example, the County's Emergency Management department will make use of volunteer Library staff to help man the PALS Points Of Distribution in the recovery stages after a disaster. Training sessions to go over the PALS Recovery Function, re-entry responsibilities, staffing of warehouse/PODS, and how to fill out the required forms properly (Aren't there ALWAYS forms!) were held May 12th and 17th.

Take time to read all 10 reasons - particularly if you are one of those folks who is of the opinion that books are going away, the utility of libraries is miniscule numbered, and/or that librarians do nothing but let poor people, of the female and minor varieties, borrow books!

I may be just a tad biased but I recommend This book is overdue! : how librarians and cybrarians can save us all [2] by Marilyn Johnson, 2010 to anyone who'd like to see what motivates the vast majority of people who are in the profession in which I am proud to be a member. Call number: 020.92 JOH (at Bluffton and Lobeco Branch Libraries); 021.65 (at Hilton Head Branch Library).

Honeybees - Answers in Genesis

Honeybees - Answers in Genesis


Do you know about the dance of the honeybees? Well, check out this article for the inside beat!