52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Local Societies

Local Societies: Local genealogical and historical societies are the lifeblood of genealogy. Members and volunteers give their time and money to preserve local history and promote family history. Tell us about a local society for which you are thankful.

Our local genealogical society, Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society, is a wonderful group.  When I rejoined a year or two ago (after taking a few years off to have babies), they welcomed me back so warmly.  Our Membership Chair invited me to the meetings and to the board meetings.  

I was offered the privilege of helping with the monthly eBulletin, which I absolutely love.  They are open to new ideas, such as a writing group to lead and a lunch-and-learn group to participate in.  They have people to share local history and un-local history.  They have docents in the library and brilliant people creating brilliant books.  The Program Chair lines up fantastic people to speak at our meetings- people that I would normally drive far and pay much to hear.

To those who tell me that they don’t belong to their society because they have no ancestors there, I say, “Get thee to a society meeting.”  Now.

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52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.