Genealogy door prizes and why we support local genealogy societies

Regional genealogy societies and history groups are a critical resource for people conducting family research. In a post from 2024, I described the discovery of a handwritten family tree for my Lynch branch (shown above) in an archive maintained by the Clinton County Historical Association in New York. 

Such groups offer many more services and events. For instance, earlier this month, the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois hosted its annual conference in Carterville. GSSI was established more than 50 years ago “for the purpose of encouraging the science of genealogy; helping others gather genealogical information; and preserving, protecting and publishing information of importance to Southern Illinois genealogy.”

Besides holding an annual conference, the group has amassed a sizable archive and hosts special talks by experts from the DAR and elsewhere. If you have ancestors who resided in the 28 counties south of Interstate 70, GSSI is a go-to source for local genealogy, ranging from a database of surnames to unique maps showing the location of ghost towns:

The GSSI’s mission is one we can get behind. And, in fact, we do get behind GSSI in a tangible way: We provided the conference with free genealogy charts to hand out as door prizes. We later received a nice thank-you note from organizers:

"#6 is the happy Winner of your door prizes! He and his wife were really excited about winning!  We explained your company and products and created interest with the attendees. And our attendance was up this year too! Thank you again for your generous donation. We really appreciate your kindness and support of our organization!"

Besides GSSI, we have also supported the following organizations in the past year:

• Southern Maryland Genealogy and History Conference
• Topeka Genealogical Society
• Ohio Genealogical Society
• South Bay (Florida) Genealogical Society
• Family History Society of Arizona
  

Even if you don’t live close enough to attend their annual conferences in person, many have online resources or virtual sessions. These can help anyone who has ancestral ties to these areas. For instance, GSSI has a free online transcriptions of obituaries from the Jonesboro Gazette as well as newspapers in Pulaski County and Cairo, Illinois.

As we have stressed in the past, local genealogy and history societies need support for the important work that they do. They are increasingly under threat by tech giants, including Google and Ancestry which strip-mine their data without permission, derank them in search results, and erode their ability to provide services and recruit new members.

If you belong to a local genealogy or history society, forward this post to organizers and have them reach out to EasyGenie the next time a live event is planned. We stand firmly behind the local groups that do so much to preserve and promote genealogy and history, and would love to support more local events across the country.