Society Relief - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Katrina and Rita Damage

June Collier — 20 Feb 2006 12:47:19 GMT

The South Mississippi Genealogical and Historical Society, whose library and meeting room is located at Hardy Street and Park Ave (Kamper Park) in Hattiesburg, MS, escaped damage from the storms. Only 1 of the numerous pines surrounding the building was blown down and it landed in the parking lot, missing the building by inches. The building was one of only a few in the city that did not have significant wind damage to the roof.
As soon as we were able to get into the building we inspected our holdings and found no damage.
In this area Rita only affected buildings already damaged by Katrina.

Still seeking information about storm impact on gen socs

bsharbrough — 23 Jan 2006 5:09:35 GMT

We've passed the two-month mark since establishing the message board, and to still seek any additional information about the impact of last summer's storms on genealogy societies along the Gulf coast.

During the past month, the SRS page was mentioned in the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter, and discussed with the genealogy committee of the American Library Association.

Our efforts to assess the damage to the genealogy community continue, and if you have relevant information, please post here!

Update on Society Relief

Beau Sharbrough — 14 Dec 2005 3:45:04 GMT

We've received several responses to our survey of genealogy societies in areas affected by these storms. Some quotes have been added to the web pages found on the "links and announcements" section of this board.

To date, our knowledge of damage to records belonging to a genealogy society is limited to the one instance found in Dick Eastman's blog about the Acadian society. Other damaged collections of interest to genealogists, but not held by a genealogy society, are the Notarial records of New Orleans, and some church records from the area.

Grants have been awarded for restoration of some of these records, and the recovery work appears to be moving forward.

Still, we seek information about the status of genealogy societies and their collections. If you know something like that, please post here.

Genealogy Societies damaged by storms

Beau Sharbrough — 17 Nov 2005 12:58:33 GMT

Since early September, we've been hoping to gather information about genealogy societies affected by gulf coast storms. We have found a number of sites with information about libraries, and one about state and local history practitioners, but none about genealogy societies specifically. This messge board is designed to gather information to feed to that site.

If you are active in a genealogy society bounded by a line from Beaumont to Lufkin, across to Dothan, and back south to the gulf, please take the time to post a message and let us know how you and your society are faring.

If you know of a need, please post it here. If you know of any available resources for relief, please post a message here.

We'll collect the information and update the SRS web page.