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CGS members with an interest in French Canadian ancestry meet occasionally during the year to discuss research problems. Lorna Jones sent this announcement with the dates of the upcoming French-Canadian Interest Group meetings for 2009:

French-Canadian Interest Group members: (left to right) Mary Beth
Frederick, Al Riel, Lorna Jones, Bill O’Neil and Barry Goyette.
(Not shown: Jane Lindsey, Tom Gesner, Lynn Theuriet, & Ann Cyr.)

Do you have ancestors who may have moved to the mid-west in the early 1800s? Or perhaps some who were born in Canada, but the exact location is unknown? The American-Canadian border was easily crossed; many others came up the Mississippi via New Orleans to settle before the railways were built.

This year the French-Canadian Interest Group will meet at the CGS Library at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2009 and again on Saturday, September 12, 2009. The meetings are casual and unstructured – someone usually comes with a “brick wall” question and we all dive in and work on it. We frequently have “show and tell” where we share new websites, or a good book someone has found, or some new French translation list. We’re a very low-key but entertaining group and the folks who attend are great.

If you would like to join us, pleasee-mail Lorna Jones to receive a reminder prior to the meetings.

Photograph courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.

A test e-mail is being sent to all CGS members with e-mail addresses on file. The communication has “CGS test e-mail” in the subject line. Members are requested to check their spam folders if they do not receive the test e-mail in their in-box. Successful receipt of the test e-mail means we have the correct address for you. If you do NOT receive this e-mail, please contact the society right away at [email protected] using the subject line “Response to CGS test” and, in the body of your e-mail, retype your correct and current e-mail address. We will respond to you.

When the last issue of the CGS Newsletter was snail-mailed last month, the society entered a new era of electronic communication. Obviously, we must have every member’s current e-mail address in order to effectively keep members up-to-date with society events and programs. We also are reminding you that if you manage personal e-mail on a work computer, CGS messages may be getting blocked.

Your membership e-mail and e-News e-mail have to be the same e-mail address for us. Please call us if you having difficulty with this requirement and we will help you find a resolution.

Members who do not have an e-mail address can arrange to receive a printed version of the e-News. Our records indicate that at this time, about seventy members fall into this category. Please note, members without an e-mail address will not be able to access the CGS members-only portion of the society’s website.

All CGS members without e-mail addresses on file will be contacted by telephone by a representative of the society to discuss this transition. We will be phoning members who fall into the following categories: those without e-mails; those whose e-mails have bounced back to us; those who have not opened the e-News, as far as this can be determined.