• Pay Membership Dues Online
• PGSA's 2009 Conference
• Naturalization Records Volunteer Project
• Members only Login Test Phase 2.5 has begun 
• PGSA Genealogy Forum
• Nominate Candidates for PGSA Awards
• What's New on the Site

Tired of writing checks?
You can now join the PGSA online. Click on New Membership and then click on the "Become a member of PGSA" link. Complete the registration form and safely pay for your membership via PayPal with your credit card. Current PGSA members, particularly those whose membership expires on July 31 of this year, can renew online but the process is only slightly different. Click on Renew Membership and sign in. Unless you changed it, your password is your membership number (see your Rodziny mailing label). You will be taken to your Membership Profile. One of the links on this page is "Renew My Membership Online". Follow the link to select the renewal option you want. Payment can be made via PayPal.

Mark Your Calendar
Make room on your calendar for the Polish Genealogical Society of America’s annual conference:

• Don Litzer, former librarian of the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN
• Kahlile Mehr, manager of the Slavic/Germanic Collection at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City
• Dr. Michael J. Mikos, professor of foreign languages and linguistics at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
• Cynthia Piech, Board Member and Treasurer of the PGSA
• Craig Pfannkuche, president of Memory Trail Research, Inc. and genealogical archivist at the Chicago and Northwestern Historical Society
• Julianna Smith, editor of Ancestry.com newsletters, author of genealogy books and magazine articles
• Loretto Szucs, author of genealogy books and executive director and vice president of community relations at Ancestry magazine

 Further information on speakers and session titles now available. Details on costs and programming, will be posted on PGSA’s website as they become confirmed and finalized.

Attention PGSA members! We have successfully completed Phase 1 of  our Members Only testing.  We have begun Phase 2.5.  All logins requre your email address and your membership number (from your Rodziny label).  If you  changed your password before April 23, it has been reset to your membership number.  You may change your password as you did before.  Informational updates of our test progress will be found in this section. 

Many of you have noticed the "Members log in/log out" words at the top of our web pages and have figured out it's not functional yet. New software has been installed that will eventually allow us to make this feature available. But like many new things, we won't know how well they will work until we try them out.  PGSA members can get a preview of the Member's Only section.

This feature is still very much a work in progress and subject to change. When you log in, you will have the option to look at your profile and change it.  You may now keep your contact information information current so as not to miss any Rodziny.  You can change to a new email address provided you have logged in under the old one first.  You may view your membership expiration date and the details of your last dues payment. 

Visit Members log in and use your email address as your login ID and your membership number as your password. Look around and see if it works as expected.

WORLD ARCHIVES PROJECT
Ancestry.com is sponsoring a “community” keying effort entitled “The World Archive Project.” Ancestry is digitizing records and enlisting the help of Societies and individuals to key-in indexes for the digitized records. The resultant indexes will be free on Ancestry.com and the websites of Societies whose members contribute to the effort. In addition, the indexed images will also be made available to society members through its website.

Ancestry.com has requested the help of PGSA for the indexing of Naturalization information it has digitized for Cook County as well as surrounding areas in Northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin , northwest Indiana and a portion of Iowa . These records cover all courts.

PGSA is looking for member volunteers who would consider participating in this project. Ancestry would arrange for the download of the record batches. The task would be to key-in about a dozen pieces of information from type-written data into a file. The best part is that this work can be done in the comfort of your home and at any hour of the day or night.

Why does PGSA support this project? Wherever the index appears the forms will include the logo and contact information for the Society providing the assistance, raising the awareness of the Society.

What do you gain from your participation? You will become an expert on the source material you are indexing, make a meaningful contribution to genealogical research and raise the awareness of PGSA—and that means the potential for more family contacts.

Volunteers can go directly to the website (www.ancestry.com/worldarchivesproject) to sign up. In the middle of the page is a list of the projects, please choose Illinois Naturalizations (our project). Clicking onit will take you to the next screen which has a place for Registration. You will be asked for your name and e-mail. Continue to follow the prompts, and your response to "how did you find out about the project" should be PGSA. When you conplete the registration, the special "tool" that facilitages the process will be downloaded. When that is completed, you are ready to begin at any time.

If you have any problems or questions that are not address in the FAQ section, our Ancestry contact is Loretto Szucs.

Your effort to help PGSA with this important project is most appreciated. Thank you!

Introducing the PGSA Genealogy Forum
PGSA announces the creation of the PGSA Genealogy Forum to help people help each other in conducting their family history research. See what other people are working on. Perhaps you know something that can help them? To post your own questions or responses, you will need to register by clicking the word "register" above the login box. The forum is free. Get started by posting those burning questions today!

Recommendations Please!
The PGSA honors those who have given outstanding service either to the PGSA or to genealogical research. The Wigilia Award is given to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the field of Polish-American genealogical research and since the Society’s inception more than 25 individuals or organizations have been so recognized. The Gwiazda Award is more recent, having had only 3 recipients, but is no less important. It acknowledges outstanding individuals who have given freely of their time and talents to help our Society to achieve its goals.

We need your help as PGSA members, in identifying individuals or organizations of merit. If you know of an individual or organization that you think would qualify for the Wigilia or Gwizada awards, please submit a nomination letter or download a form, indicate for which award you are presenting a candidate and detail the reasons why. Submissions should be directed to Richard Stanowski, 1648 Ash Avenue, Woodstock, IL 60098-2589 no later than June 1, 2009 . If you have any questions, you may also contact Stanowski at 815-337-5835. Of course, you may submit your recommendation(s) via e-mail: rstanowski@owc.net. Please remember to be specific as to which award the recommendation is for, and give us details as to why you think this person is deserving.

What's New on the Site !

Slownik Translations ( S-Directory) Chabowka, Toporzysko, Wysoka, Globikowa, Gumniska, Koscielna Wies

The Ladewski Papers ( Vital Statistics Directory) Lucky's collection of Vital Statistics, Family Histories, Documents & Photographs for thousands of midwest immigrants. We continously add data on immigrant families of any ethnic origin.

Combined Cedar Grove & St Joseph Cemetery Database (D_ Databases Directory) compliation of 10,000 gravesites in St Joseph County Indiana, adding new data quarterly

We will continue to report new additions to our site as they go live.

Summary of Mike Karsen's presentation on 9 November 2008.