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Our 51st Year !
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USGSMD Research Center |
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The USGSMD Family Research Center/Library will be open on most Saturdays (except holiday weekends/member meeting dates), from 9 AM - 2 PM. The specific planned dates are as follows:
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Membership meetings are open to the public and are held on the second Saturday of the months of January, March, May, September and November at 1:00 p.m.
Upcoming Events:
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Meeting reminder - the next membership meeting for USGSMD will be on Sepember 13, 2025, at 1 PM. The location is to be determined shortly, as well as any information about a presentation for the meeting. As always, we try to use Microsoft Teams so that members who cannot make the meeting in person can try to attend remotely. Information about the Teams meeting will be provided once it is set up.
Past Events:
Meeting reminder - the next membership meeting for USGSMD will be on May 10, 2025, at 1 PM, at the Caroline County Public Library, 100 Market Street, Denton, MD 21629. This will be our annual election meeting, so please plan to attend in person if you are able! If you cannot make it in person, we will be hosting the meeting via Microsoft Teams to enable our members who cannot come in person to be able to attend, and have their vote/voice heard as we elect officers for the coming year. The meeting information is below:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9335841720113?p=7gZcpCorrOrO35pZWr
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Meeting reminder - the next membership meeting for USGSMD will be on March 8, 2025, at 1 PM, at the Wharves of Choptank Visitor and Heritage Center, 3 Crouse Park Ln, Denton, MD 21629. Our speaker will be Dr. Eric Cheezum, who will be talking about our own Chessie! He has written a book about the origins of the Chessie mystery, and will be ready to answer all your questions. Dr. Cheezum is a former president of USGSMD (2012-2014). Join us for an interesting and fun talk!
As always, we try to use Microsoft Teams so that members who cannot make the meeting in person can try to attend remotely. The invitation information is below:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9386250840704?p=jysC3t4nH25XVckuJE
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
UPDATE Please join us for our membership meeting on January 11, 2024, from 1-2 PM, in ONLINE format only, as the library has closed due to the road conditions from the recent snow events. Details for the online/virtual meeting are below.
Planned Agenda
Recap of USGSMD Printer/Copier Donation Drive
Books still available for sale
Overview of Maryland Room at the Library
We will be sharing the meeting via Microsoft Teams. Below you will find the Meeting link:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9355684818863?p=Us15RGpJ4ZYxdQnd0p/a>
USGSMD Yard Sale Fundraiser
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Please join us for our membership meeting on September 14, 2024, from 1-2:30 PM at the Caroline County Public Library Meeting Room, 100 Market Street, Denton, MD 21629. This is our first meeting of this fiscal year, so please try to attend to meet the officers and committee chairs for this upcoming year. The business of the meeting should be brief. The incoming President, William Schaffner will give a talk on Immigration and how it has affected the growth of the United States, making our country what it is today. It should be a lot of fun and we should have very interesting conversations.
As we have been doing since 2020, we will do our best to provide for remote attendance for the meeting for those of our members out of state, or who are unable to make it to Easton. In person is always your best option, as even with the best of intentions, sometimes remote meetings have issues. We will host the meeting using Microsoft Teams. The Teams meeting information is:
Meeting link: https://teams.live.com/meet/9355684818863?p=Us15RGpJ4ZYxdQnd0p
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Please join us as we continue having our membership meetings in each of our five county focus area in this, our 50th Anniversary year! Our May Membership meeting will be held on May 11, 2024, from 1-2:30 PM at the Talbot Historical Society (THS), 25 S. Washington Street, Easton, MD 21601. This is our annual election meeting, so please try to attend if possible to help us choose our officers for the upcoming year. The business of the meeting should be brief, then followed by a talk and walking tour of their facilities which may include the Jenkins House at 30. S. Washington Street. It should be a lot of fun and we should have very interesting conversations.
As we have been doing since 2020, we will do our best to provide for remote attendance for the meeting for those of our members out of state, or who are unable to make it to Easton. In person is always your best option, as even with the best of intentions, sometimes remote meetings have issues. We will host the meeting using Microsoft Teams. The Teams meeting information is:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9365747765635?p=8oFgPMT7HozQLzjy
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Please join us as we continue having our membership meetings in each of our five county focus area in this, our 50th Anniversary year! Our March Membership meeting will be held on March 9, 2024, from 1-2:30 PM at the Dorchester County Historical Society (DCHS), 1003 Greenway Drive, Cambridge, Maryland 21613. The director of the DCHS, Zoe Phillips, will be giving a talk about the history of the county, followed by a walking tour of both their museum and the Meredith House. It should be a lot of fun and have very interesting conversation.
As we have been doing since 2020, we will do our best to provide for remote attendance for the meeting for those of our members out of state, or who are unable to make it to Cambridge. In person is always your best option, as even with the best of intentions, sometimes remote meetings have issues. We will host the meeting using Microsoft Teams. The Teams meeting information is: https://teams.live.com/meet/9318300237621?p=3i1NRfwmqE55Xe72
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
We are continuing our 50 year anniversary celebration and having meetings throughout the five counties in our area. The January membership meeting will be held at 1 PM January 13, 2024, at the Bordley History Center of the Historical Society of Kent County (HSKC) (https://kentcountyhistory.org/), 301 High Street, Chestertown, MD 21620. The meeting will start with a short business session. After that, Bill Leary of the HSKC will give a talk on research he has conducted on African American life in Kent County from the time of the Revolutionary war until the Civil War. We will also have some general information about the HSKC and what activities they support in preserving the history of Kent County Maryland. I think it will be a great meeting and we wish to thank the HSKC for agreeing to host a meeting! As a point of information, there is a Farmer's Market in downtown Chestertown that will end at 12 noon, so if you feel up to taking in some of the local charm of Chestertown, come to the Market before the meeting. It should be a lot of fun. There should be plenty of parking available in the area. We will again attempt to use Microsoft Teams to make the meeting available to those who cannot attend in person, since we have so many members across the United States. The meeting link is: https://teams.live.com/meet/9331156439296?p=FlYR64hOE7yEuPiT
Membership Meeting
Join us as we continue our 50th Year as a society at the Kirwan House Museum, 641 Dominion Road, in Chester, MD, 21619, at our Membership Meeting from 1-2:30 PM on Saturday November 11, 2023, hosted by the Kent Island Heritage Society. We will have a tour and discussion of the Kent Island Heritage Society's museum after the brief business session. It's sure to be a very informative and interesting afternoon! We are working to have a member meeting in each of the five counties in our society's geographical focus area during this big year. Our first meeting was in Caroline County in September, and we have planned visits to Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot Counties for our meetings in 2024. We plan to broadcast the entire meeting via the Teams capability, including walking through the museum with the Teams mobile app. The meeting information is below:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9359243124150?p=M26ZlxABNokjDp1N
Membership Meeting
Come kick off our 50th Year as a society at the Museum of Rural Life, in Denton, MD, at our Membership Meeting from 1-2:30 PM on Saturday September 9, 2023. We will have a short meeting upstairs in the board room of the Caroline County Historical Society, who are graciously hosting our meeting for this month. We'll also have a tour of the museum after the brief business session. We are working to have a member meeting in each of the five counties in our society's geographical focus area during this big year. We plan to broadcast the entire meeting via the Teams capability, including walking through the museum with the Teams mobile app. The meeting information is below:
https://teams.live.com/meet/9319073210622?p=w5LXalwBgOiJbtHA
Kermit Travers: The Last African-American Skipjack Captain On The Eastern Shore
The next membership meeting was at 1 PM, May 13th, 2023, at Caroline Post 29 of the American Legion, 9238 Legion Road, Denton, MD 21629. This was our election meeting, and we had a special guest speaker after the election portion of the meeting. Dr. Clara Small presented a talk titled "Kermit Travers: The Last African-American Skipjack Captain On The Eastern Shore". A Microsoft Teams invitation was emailed to members and interested individuals to allow them to attend remotely, if they were unable to attend in person.
Physicians of Caroline County
The meeting was at 1 PM, November 12th, 2022, at 111 South Main Street, Greensboro, MD 21639. The speaker was Dr. Christian E. Jensen, who gave a talk about many notable physicians in past history who served Caroline County. Dr. Jensen's Bio follows: DR. CHRISTIAN E. JENSEN, M.D. Dr. Jensen was born and raised on Sandy Hook Bay, N.J. I graduated from Rutgers University (BS, MA), Duke University (MD) & Medical College of Wisconsin (MPH). He spent 3 years at The University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a retired Navy Captain, graduated from Officers Candidate School, Navy Supply Corps School, and the Naval War College. He began medical practice in Denton in 1973, and with interruptions by wars, is still working. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, with 13 direct ancestors on the winning side in the Revolution. He is the author of a book “Lives of Caroline County Maryland Physicians 1774-1984”. His genealogical interests are his Delmarva family: Andrew, Beauchamp, Chance, Baker (Caroline) & Adams, Frampton, Harrison, Carroll, Price (Talbot).
A Wedding in 1806
The meeting was at 1 PM, January 8th, 2022, at Caroline County Library, 100 Market Street, Denton, MD 21629. We featured Robert Jarrell as our speaker, the author of A Wedding in 1806.
- A Wedding In 1806 covers a period from 1665 to 1894, starting with the earliest American generations of Jarrells, Powells, and Slaughters as they and their families weaved their way through life. By 1806 two of their descendants, Margaret Slaughter and Richard Jarrell, were standing in a Methodist meetinghouse exchanging wedding vows.
- The research for the book was done, as much as possible, through viewing primary sources, ancestral records found in the Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania Archives. Much time was also spent visiting the collections found at Swarthmore College’s Friends Historical Library, Barrett’s Chapel, the Maryland Historical Society, the Delaware Historical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Talbot County Free Library, and the Caroline County Public Library. Add to this the academic studies published about life and economic conditions in early Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, A Wedding in 1806 is a mixture of family history and local history.
- Bob briefly discussed his book but concentrated on a couple of subjects covered in the book – early Talbot County immigrants, some paying their passage to Maryland and some not, and, secondly, the ninety-year fight between the Penn and Calvert families over ownership of the Delmarva Peninsula.
Growing Up In Greensboro
The meeting was at 1 PM March 13, 2021, held at American Legion Post 29. Our guest speaker was Larry Porter, who gave a talk titled "Growing up in Greensboro". This event was open to the public with some capacity and social distancing restrictions in place due to the current COVID issue.
Genealogy, DNA and Family Diseases
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March 14, 2020 Membership Meeting to begin at 1:00 p.m. followed by lecture Genealogy, DNA and Family Diseases presented by Sue Clabaugh, LPN and Liz Stitely. |
Men of Color From the Lower Eastern Shore
Who Served in the Civil War
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January 11, 2020 Membership Meeting to begin at 1:00 p.m. followed by lecture by Dr. Clara Small. Men of Color from the Lower Eastern Shore Who Served in the Civil War, PDF Flyer |
Using Church, Cemetery Records and Other Sources To Trace Our Shared Histories
Elinor Thompson
Genealogist, Historian, Author
Elinor Thompson is a genealogist, historian and author; and has been preserving, archiving and documenting both black and white historical church and cemetery records for over 30 years. She is a native of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and has traced her family to Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, as well as tracing one ancestral line to 1812 in Dorchester County. Mrs. Thompson will discuss how to preserve our history through the use of church and cemetery records; the importance of tracing African American history; and how to document our shared histories. She will also discuss the techniques of putting together a family history book for your next family reunion and more. For beginners to advanced.
Date/Time - Saturday, May 7, 2016 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The Presentation will be held at the Talbot County Free Library - Easton
100 West Dover Street
Easton, Maryland 21601