Welcome to the Birmingham (Alabama) Genealogical Society's Website!
Take a look at our newsletters !
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On Sale |
The Jefferson County Historical Commission now has a web page. Take a look, you might see something you like.
The Birmingham Genealogical Society now has a "BLOG" !!
Visit our BLOG at http://birminghamgenealogy.wordpress.com/
The Birmingham Genealogical Society (BGS) has a long history of providing help to researchers. This web page is a continuation of that tradition by
 | providing Links to other genealogical resources |
| providing the ability to request information or make information available to the public via posting queries to this website |
| providing guest speakers at each monthly meeting |
| providing research materials of the Birmingham area to the general public |
The Society meets in the 3rd floor auditorium of the Linn-Henley Research Library (part of the Birmingham Public Library) in downtown Birmingham. The meetings are held on the 4th Saturday of the month, except for November and December (see GUEST SPEAKERS below for details), from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
We welcome your comments and suggestions about our web site and/or society. You can contact us at :
Officers:
President..........................................Scott Martin
1st Vice President (Program).............Mary Taylor
2nd Vice President (Membership)......Yvonne Brakefield
Treasurer..........................................Ann Gilbert
Recording Secretary.........................Melissa Paulk
Corresponding Secretary..................Betty Ward
Chaplain..........................................Earl Massey
Historian..........................................Melissa Hogan
Curator............................................Dr. Tom Caldwell
Parliamentarian.................................David Crider
Publicity..........................................A.C. Burtramm
Webmaster......................................Patrick Henry
Hospitality.......................................Barbara Smith
Pioneer Trails (Quarterly Magazine)..Mary Taylor
BGS Newsletter...............................Scott Martin
Board of Directors:
2008 Josephine Martin
2008 Pat Coleman
2009 Patricia Crim Dietlein
2009 Gary Gerlach
2010 Barbara Tillery
2010 William Clement
To view or post a query to our website, click here.
BIRMINGHAM AFRICAN-AMERICAN
GENEALOGY STUDY GROUP (AAG)
February 23rd - Past President and current program chairman, Mary Taylor, presented "The Importance of Family Letters in Genealogical Research".
March 22nd - .Please join us as Catherine Browne, a resident of Avondale for almost 50 years, discusses her recently published book, "A History of Avondale." Avondale, once a city of its own, is now broken up into at least three Birmingham city neighborhoods - South Avondale, East Avondale and North Avondale. Mrs. Browne has been compiling data about the area along with that of the Forest Park neighborhood since the early 1970s while leading a committee to research listing Forest Park on the National Register of Historic Places. She has also written a history book about Forest Park in the early 1990s, but by then she also had substantial information on Avondale. The research yielded stories about mounds built by American Indians in what was then a rural area they referred to as King's Spring and Big Spring - the area is near Sloss Furnace. Browne's research unearthed stories about Avondale Mills, a school called Avondale School that served the black community of Taylor Hill, and Avondale Park, the site of the city's zoo.
April 26th - Marvin Clemons and Lyle Key recently published a book entitled “Birmingham Rails.” It consists of 280 pages of historical narratives, entertaining personal essays, detailed maps, and richly detailed color and black & white photos, many published for the first time. Separate chapters cover each of Birmingham’s major rail lines, including Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Georgia, Frisco, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Seaboard Air Line and Southern Railway. Birmingham’s numerous industrial railroads, such as U.S. Steel, Tennessee Coal & Iron, U.S. Pipe and Foundry, Woodward Iron and shortline Birmingham Southern, are extensively reviewed by subject matter experts Tom Lawson and Rone Mele. Of course, no book on Birmingham railroads would be complete without an account of Birmingham’s magnificent Terminal Station. A full chapter is devoted to the station’s history, from its glorious beginning in 1909 to its sad demise in 1970. The station’s grand interior and exterior features are covered in pages of rare photos, along with many colorful images of the passenger trains that called at the Terminal Station. Please join us as co-author Marvin Clemons discusses the history of Birmingham Railroads. He will have many slides to show and his wonderful presentation will entertain everyone. Please join us!May 24th - It’s that time of year again! The Birmingham Genealogical Society will take a Walking Tour of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences and Alabama Museum of Health Sciences at the University of Alabama in Birmingham on Saturday, May 24th at 1:00 pm. The Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, established in 1945, is the largest biomedical library in Alabama and one of the leading such libraries in the South. It serves as a Resource Library in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine for the Southeast/Atlantic region. Its collections span seven centuries of knowledge beginning with the 30 incunabula within the thirteen thousand old and rare books to approximately 1500 current print journal subscriptions and thousands of electronic subscriptions through both individual publisher arrangements, aggregated packages, and consortial agreements. The volumes of books, bound journals, microforms, and other media currently held total approximately 350,000 volumes. The Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is dedicated to the preservation and display of equipment, instruments, and objects that represent the history and development of the health sciences in the areas of education, research, and practice in the United States with special emphasis on the state of Alabama and its contributors to the practice of medicine. The scope of the collection includes, but is not limited to the following fields: medicine, nursing, ophthalmology, dentistry, public health, and allied health. Our walking tour will be led by Michael A. Flannery, Professor and Associate Director for Historical Collections at Lister Hill Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Lister Hill Library is located at 1700 University Blvd on the UAB campus. If you are driving north, take I-65 to 8th Ave South exit (Exit #259). The library is on the left side of the road between the 4th and 5th lights. If you are driving south, take I-65 South to the 4th Ave South exit (Exit #259-B). Turn right on 14th Street. Turn left on University Blvd (8th Ave) at UAB’s Hill University Center. The Library is on the left side of the road before the next major traffic light (18th Street). For more detailed information about directions and parking, visit their website at <http://www.uab.edu/lister/about/acceslhl.htm>. Please join us on Saturday, May 24th at 1:00 pm and don’t forget to wear your walking shoes!
June 28th - Learn how to preserve treasured photos and documents and create wonderful heritage scrapbooks when Birmingham Public Library archivist Jim Baggett presents Old School Scrapbooking!
July 26th - Local genealogist, historian and author J.D. Weeks of Gardendale will speak on Genealogical Research on the Freeman Family. Please join us!
August 23rd - Elizabeth Wells, Head of the Special Collections Department, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama will present Church Records and how to use them.
September 27th - BGS Member William Clement will present a program on Revolutionary War Hero, Daniel Morgan. Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier and United States Representative from Virginia. One of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War, he later commanded the troops that suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion.
October 25th - No guest speaker. Annual Genealogical Fair.
November - The society does not meet in November.
December 13th - No guest speaker. Annual Tea, Come and join us for a relaxing and enjoyable social event.
