​Houston West Family Genealogy Society
​P. O. Box 842661
Houston, TX 77084
​houstonwestfamgen.org

Welcome to the Houston West Family Genealogy Society.  We meet on the second Thursday of each month at the Westlake Fire Department, 19636 Saums Road just east of Fry Road.  The Meet 'n Greet begins at 12:30, with society update and presentations at 1 PM.  For further information, please see our Contact page.  

​*** ALL HOUSTON PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE CLOSED.  THIS INCLUDES CLAYTON.***
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***HOUSTON WEST FAMILY GENEALOGY SOCIETY MEETINGS WILL BE VIRTUAL ONLY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.***

​***THE KATY FAMILY HISTORY CENTER IS CLOSED.***


​ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR OUR SOCIETY

Using Digital Libraries: Search Strategies for Family Historians, by Elizabeth O'Neal.  Thursday October 29 at 1 PM.
Looking for books about your family history? You may be able to find them without leaving the comfort of your home! Millions of books have already been digitized and are free to use as well as download to your personal library. Learn where to find the best digital book collections, how to strategically search them, and how to save your finds to your computer or cloud storage for later reference.
This will be a video courtesy of the Texas State Genealogy Society.  Please click below to register for this virtual meeting.  

​Tips for Using FamilySearch, by Shauna Leggat.  Thursday November 12 at 1 PM.
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Have you been wishing you were more proficient in using the FamilySearch website? FamilySearch, the premier free family history website, has an array of features for setting up a family tree and for helping you locate ancestors in online records. Shauna will share tips and tricks for navigating the website and successfully utilizing the various features, including filtering the main search form and navigating the Wiki, all while expanding and documenting your family history research. In this presentation you will learn strategies to stack the cards in your favor for greater confidence and success with the website.
Shauna works with those new to the FamilySearch website, has attended RootsTech and currently works with the FamilySearch Wiki Team. She has a BA in English and a Masters in Library Science. She spent her working career teaching ESL and gifted language arts, as well as, serving as a media coordinator.
We are looking for a volunteer to help coordinate publicity efforts for our society.  Please contact Jenny for more information.  
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Houston West Family Genealogy Society has established a privacy policy concerning your email address and our membership list.  Click here to view to policy statement.  

We will hold our next  board meeting Tuesday November from 10 AM to noon.  All members are welcome.  Click here to join the Zoom meeting.

​Handouts from Gail Colby's September talk:  "DNA Results !?  Now What?!" are available here.
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We have relaunched our Facebook page.  We hope you will friend us.  We hope that it will become a place, not just for announcing guest speakers but for members to connect regarding research.  Ask research question, share a great website you have found, mentor other learners...that sort of thing.  Let's make it a place that will help to grow interest in genealogy and in our society.  www.facebook.com/groups/HWFGS .

​Our society has created a monthly newsletter to be emailed to all members.  The first issue was released in September.  Each issue will contain a feature article related to the month's presentation, a message from the President, and a list of upcoming events.  Ideas for other articles are welcome.  Thank you Linda.

Our 2020-21 program schedule has been revised.  See Calendar.  Please note the new dates for the board meetings as well as a new event on October 29.  All members are welcome to attend the board meetings.  Decisions about virtual, in-person meetings, or both will be announced later.  For now, all events are virtual only.
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​OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Several local genealogists have organized the Houston Suffragists Project celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote.   There is also an exhibit at the Heritage Society, Houston.  This exhibit at Sam Houston Park can be viewed either in person or through their website.

Susan Kaufman gave an excellent presentation to Clayton Library Friends on the State of the Clayton Library 2020.  This presentation includes usage statistics for Clayton, pictures of the remodeling, and most important, genealogical services still available during the COVID closure.  These services include many useful online databases, access to ancestry.com from home, and lookup services from both the Clayton book collection and the affiliate FamilySearch site.  This video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/5q-jAEwSknc .  The handout is available on our handout page.

RootsTech has announced that the 2021 conference originally scheduled for early February in Salt Lake City will now be a totally free virtual conference on February 25-27.  For information and registration, see rootstech.org .
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The December 10 meeting of the  Greater Houston Jewish Genealogy Society will feature Lara Diamond with "Endogamy: Considerations for Analyzing Jewish DNA for Genealogy.  This talk is at 7 PM.  Preregistration is required.

On Saturday November 7 the  Houston Genealogical Forum will host three presentations by Nancy Loe on genealogy research methodology.   These presentations are open to all and free to HGF members.  HGF also has a RootsMagic SIG scheduled for Tuesday November 10 and a DNA SIG on Friday October 30.  See their website for further information.


 The Saturday November 21 meeting of  Clayton Library Friends will be Photo Detective Road Show with Maureen Taylor, "The Photo Detective."    See their website to register for this free meeting.  CLF membership is not required.  Photo submittal is now closed.

​Clayton Library Friends is holding a weekly "Genealogy Face to Face" session each Thursday at 2 PM.  These sessions also requires preregistration at the CLF website.   CLF also has a Facebook page.

The Katy Texas Family History Center has a website describing their resources.  Too bad that they are currently closed.  

There are many  opportunities for sharing genealogy research in Houston this summer without leaving your home.  Here is a list of some of the opportunities.
Houston West Family Genealogy Society, houstonwestfamgen.org .  Also on Facebook.  See above.
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Houston, http://htown.aahgs.org/ .  Also on Facebook.
Bay Area Genealogical Society www.txbayareagen.org .  TXSGS webinars and Members Helping Members.  On Facebook.
Clayton Library Friends, www.claytonlibraryfriends.org/.  Weekly discussions.
​Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society, ghjgs.org .
Hispanic Genealogy Society of Houston, www.hgshtx.org .  Facebook.
​Houston Genealogical Forum, hgftx.org .  DNA SIG active year round.
Humble Area Genealogical Society, www.humblegen.org/ .  
​I encourage readers to submit updates, additions, or corrections to webmaster@houstonwestfamgen.org .


Updated October 23, 2020 webmaster@houstonwestfamgen.org