Ancestry.com is a premier on-line subscription site. It is expensive, yet still a great value compared to traveling to see these documents and books. There are things that you can do for free on this site. They offer the 1880 US Federal Census and 1881 England, Wales, Isle of Man and Channel Islands Census indexes for free searching. You can read tips for searching specific states. Download a free 14-day trial version of Family Tree Maker 2005 program. Download and print com- monly used family history charts: Ancestral Chart, Family Group Sheet, Re- search Calendar, Correspon- dence Record, Source Sum- mary, Research Extract, U.S. Census Forms, 1790- 1930, U.K. Census Forms, 1841-1901. Add messages to Message Boards to connect with other researchers on your family. Register in the Research Registry for others research- ing your specific family. Find facts about surnames, answers in the Knowledge Base (questions from mem- bers and the answers to those questions), articles in the Library, read the ten Learning Centers topics. One other thing you can do is sign up for the Ancestry Daily News. These are all things you can do from the comfort of your home at no cost to you. When you find what you would like to look further at, go to your local Timber- land Library and access the site from their card catalog computers. The Reference Librarians are all very nice and helpful, just ask them for assistance. Volume 1, Issue 4 FreeThings at Ancestry.com December 2005 December’s Meeting Our Annual Finger Food Potluck and Research Sharing  Thursday, December 1st  7:00 p.m. 12th & Connec- tion—Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  Membership Dues to Pauline Aldrich  Singles: $15.00  Couples: $20.00 NARA’s Sand Point: some of their holdings 2 A Genealogist’s Library: Reference Books 2 To Buy or Not to Buy That Book 2 Ellis Island—Is That All There Is? 3 Ellis Island Part Two: The Other Method 3 Winter Break Assignment 4 Inside this issue: The Mason Log Mason County Genealogical Society Devastating Fires of 1871 Chicago wasn’t the only place for the dread visitation of fire during the first half of October 1871. That time period should be long remembered as a time of widespread conflagration. Fires raged in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michi- gan’s lumber districts. The woods of New York State, and many cities from the Atlantic seaboard to San Fran- cisco. In late 1871 esti- mates of timbered land burned were not less than 480,000 acres, of which 200,000 were in Michigan. This is equal to 750 square miles of territory, containing the material that would yield a product of 1,800,000,000 feet of lumber. Chicago and the Great Conflagra- tion: Colbert, Elias and Everett Chamberlin; The Viking press, New York: Facsimile edition published 1971 by The Viking Press, Inc. 625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 West Virginia Division of Culture and History Vital Research Re- cords Search Selec- tion: Birth/Death/ Marriage This project is now online. Users can now search and view birth, death, and marriage records from six West Virginia counties as well as most statewide death records from 1917-1954. http:// www.wvculture.org/ , OCR Text: Ancestry.com is a premier on-line subscription site. It is expensive, yet still a great value compared to traveling to see these documents and books. There are things that you can do for free on this site. They offer the 1880 US Federal Census and 1881 England, Wales, Isle of Man and Channel Islands Census indexes for free searching. You can read tips for searching specific states. Download a free 14-day trial version of Family Tree Maker 2005 program. Download and print com- monly used family history charts: Ancestral Chart, Family Group Sheet, Re- search Calendar, Correspon- dence Record, Source Sum- mary, Research Extract, U.S. Census Forms, 1790- 1930, U.K. Census Forms, 1841-1901. Add messages to Message Boards to connect with other researchers on your family. Register in the Research Registry for others research- ing your specific family. Find facts about surnames, answers in the Knowledge Base (questions from mem- bers and the answers to those questions), articles in the Library, read the ten Learning Centers topics. One other thing you can do is sign up for the Ancestry Daily News. These are all things you can do from the comfort of your home at no cost to you. When you find what you would like to look further at, go to your local Timber- land Library and access the site from their card catalog computers. The Reference Librarians are all very nice and helpful, just ask them for assistance. Volume 1, Issue 4 FreeThings at Ancestry.com December 2005 December’s Meeting Our Annual Finger Food Potluck and Research Sharing  Thursday, December 1st  7:00 p.m. 12th & Connec- tion—Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  Membership Dues to Pauline Aldrich  Singles: $15.00  Couples: $20.00 NARA’s Sand Point: some of their holdings 2 A Genealogist’s Library: Reference Books 2 To Buy or Not to Buy That Book 2 Ellis Island—Is That All There Is? 3 Ellis Island Part Two: The Other Method 3 Winter Break Assignment 4 Inside this issue: The Mason Log Mason County Genealogical Society Devastating Fires of 1871 Chicago wasn’t the only place for the dread visitation of fire during the first half of October 1871. That time period should be long remembered as a time of widespread conflagration. Fires raged in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michi- gan’s lumber districts. The woods of New York State, and many cities from the Atlantic seaboard to San Fran- cisco. In late 1871 esti- mates of timbered land burned were not less than 480,000 acres, of which 200,000 were in Michigan. This is equal to 750 square miles of territory, containing the material that would yield a product of 1,800,000,000 feet of lumber. Chicago and the Great Conflagra- tion: Colbert, Elias and Everett Chamberlin; The Viking press, New York: Facsimile edition published 1971 by The Viking Press, Inc. 625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 West Virginia Division of Culture and History Vital Research Re- cords Search Selec- tion: Birth/Death/ Marriage This project is now online. Users can now search and view birth, death, and marriage records from six West Virginia counties as well as most statewide death records from 1917-1954. http:// www.wvculture.org/ , Mason County Genealogical Society,Mason Logs,Mason Logs,2005,V1 I4 MCGS Dec+2005 Newsletter.pdf,V1 I4 MCGS December+2005 Newsletter.pdf Page 1, V1 I4 MCGS December+2005 Newsletter.pdf Page 1