Genealogy News from the Hayes Presidential Center
Genealogy News from the Hayes Presidential Center
Three classes coming up within a month!
2010 Classes Sponsored by RootsMagic ™
April 17 - Saturday - Tracing Your House's History - Becky Hill and Tom Culbertson- Learn how to determine the owners of the house, its age and possible changes made to it. Tom will discuss the physical evidence and his experience with his own 19th century home.
 April 25 - Sunday - RootsMagic Workshop with Bruce Buzbee (FREE) - the creator of the RootsMagic family of genealogical software spends an afternoon at the Hayes Center - 1- 4 p.m. Bruce gives a great overview of his software and answers all of your questions about the program. Cookies by Dorothy Wagner at the break!
May 1, 2010 - Care and Identification of Family Photographs - Gil Gonzalez, HPC's Head of Photographic Resources, will show examples of various styles of photographs and explain how to identify and preserve them. New class!
All classes are held at the Hayes Presidential Center, 9:30- 11:30 a.m.
Call 419.332.2081 to register.
$10.00 fee for each class ($5.00 for students through high school) -
May be paid the day of the class
Four episodes have been aired, with three more to come. I have found this a very interesting show to watch - a real genealogist’s dream. The subjects get to travel to their ancestor’s home towns and have the local experts tell them what can be found there. They have seen cemeteries, original documents, ancient homesteads and met distant cousins. Sound familiar? 
I understand that the series has been renewed so after this one is complete, we should be able to see more of them in the future.
It airs on NBC at 8 pm Friday nights and also can be downloaded to your computer.http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/video/
Can you help us double a donation?
An anonymous foundation has honored the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center with a $5,000 pledge to the Center’s Gateway to the Future appeal. This new challenge gift is to benefit children. The anonymous foundation has asked that its pledge be used “primarily to promote/encourage school bus tours or other educational efforts directly relating to children.” Matching dollars raised by the Hayes Presidential Center can be used as the Center sees fit. You can help the Center meet this new challenge by making a contribution toward the match. Donations of any amount are appreciated. 
The generosity of Gateway to the Future challenge-gift donors is crucial to the future of the Hayes Presidential Center, which is struggling to overcome a 45% cut in its state funding. In the past, contributions from the State of Ohio made up a full third of the Hayes Presidential Center’s annual budget. State funding now represents a mere 19 percent of the budget and is expected to drop further next year. The remaining 81% of the budget comes from the Master Trust and revenue from admissions, memberships, fundraising and Museum Store sales. The Hayes Presidential Center receives no federal funding.
The Center created Gateway to the Future not only to avoid additional cuts in operating hours, staffing and community programming, but also to grow its Master Trust, thereby strengthening its financial stability.
If you would like more information about Gateway to the Future or how to make a contribution that will be matched by a challenge-gift donor, please contact Development Director Kathy Boukissen at 419-332-2081, ext. 26 or kboukissen@rbhayes.org. Information and an online donation form also are available on the Center’s website at www.rbhayes.org. Click on the “Gateway to the Future” tab in the right-hand column
Thank You
Thanks to the following who have given donations of money or materials specifically to the Hayes Library and its genealogical collections since the last newsletter:
Sandusky County Kin Hunters - Sponsorship of the Heritage Quest subscription and purchase of genealogical books
Jill Carter Knuth
Brad & Diane Kepler
Leanna Elder Shaberly
James G. Widmer
William & Barbara Oliver
Ruth Brill
Judith C. Ware
Clan Hay Society
And thanks to an anonymous donor for a check to buy many new genealogy books and a “new” (second-hand) lens for one of microfilm printers that will make better and larger newspaper copies than the existing lens did.
Heidelberg Volunteers
Allyson Stanton and Heidi Fearing from Heidelberg University completed 40 hours of volunteer work at the Hayes Library and Museum as part of their requirement for the Honors Program Off-Campus project. Allyson was one of our obituary look-up people and learned a lot about the newspapers of the area throughout a century and a half. Heidi helped with entering Hayes genealogy in the RootsMagic software and also worked with Collections Manager, Mary Lou Rendon, cataloging museum artifacts. Thanks for all your help!
New Books at the Hayes Presidential Center Library
Venne in America; The 19th Century Mass Emigration to America of Tenants and Small Cottage Farmers from a Rural Village in the Region of Osnabrück by Udo Thörner
E184 G3T46 2008 ORR
Book review by Merv Hall
Among the recent donations of books by the Sandusky County Kin Hunter is the above title which helps explain German immigration to America. If you have ancestors from Germany this will go a long way in helping you understand the factors in their decision to leave there. More importantly if these ancestors settled in the Woodville/Pemberville area this book contains information about specific persons.
In 19th century German farming villages laws governing inheritance and an unchanging supply of land forced many to reassess their future. The land was no longer able to feed the number of inhabitants. Populations had tripled in 200 years yet the amount of arable land stayed nearly the same. Secondly, only one child could inherit the farm. This caused brother and sisters to either marry into other farming families, stay single, or become “huermann (hireman)”, a type of sharecropper. Looking elsewhere for opportunities immigration to America started slowly but soon surged to a mass movement.
This has never before been as thoroughly documented as in Venne, a small village in Osnabrueck, one of more than 300 small German states. Starting in 1874 the Venne pastor of St. Walburgis Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ludwig Stueve recorded the names of 637 families and individuals who had left for America. This exodus had started in the early 1830’s and grew steadily through the century. Building upon this list genealogists have arrived at over 2000 residents of Venne who left the area during this period.
Nearly 50% of the immigrants settled in big cities, the remainder homesteaded in rural areas of the Midwest. One of these areas, which must have been particularly attractive based upon the large number who moved there, is the Woodville / Pemberville area along the Wood, Sandusky county line. Section 20 of this book, Settlement in the Black Swamp of Ohio, is 16 pages of history of the area, short biographical sketches, extensive discussion about Pastor Cronenwett, and the Lutheran Church influence on the area. The appendix immigrant listing then provides dozens of Venne individuals that settled in the area, including Hurrelbrinks, Meyerholzes, and Sollmans.
This exhaustive study is obviously true of not just Venne but could be applied to most of the other rural villages and hamlets in northwestern Germany. Further developed through numerous photos, maps, charts, and reminiscences of the immigrants this book is truly a great way to understand 19th century German farming village life and the immigrant experience.
Please check our website often to see the list of new books we receive, mostly donations since we aren’t making any new purchases at this time.
Membership at the Hayes Presidential Center
Don’t forget that a Hayes Membership is a great asset to research at home http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/joinmember/
When you join at the $45.00 level, you get access to all the US census records at home with Heritage Quest for a year, a 10% discount at the Museum Store, $.10 copies when at the Library plus many other benefits.
Save This Date
Spring is in the air at Speigel Grove – wildflowers are blooming and the croquet
lawn is being groomed for the big doings here on July 4th 2010. The Hayes Presidential Center is having a BIG weekend then with a Wine Auction, a Pro-Am Croquet Tournament and a collectible car show, running from July 2 to 4th. Check out all the exciting new things that will happen that weekend . This is a fund-raiser, but there are also opportunities to enjoy the Grove and have fun for free.
And perhaps you might even have something to donate for sale at the auction - click here for further information
Learning about YOUR Past –
Genealogy, Photos, and House History
Class Schedule 2010
Sponsored by RootsMagic™
All classes (except April 25th) 9:30- 11:30 a.m.
April 17 – Saturday – Tracing Your House’s History – Becky Hill
Apr 25 – Sunday – RootsMagic Workshop with Bruce Buzbee 1 – 4 pm (Free – no charge)
May 1 – Saturday – Care and Identification of Family Photos – Gil Gonzalez
June 12 – Saturday – Beginning Genealogy - Becky Hill
July 10 – Saturday - Internet Genealogy I – Free genealogical websites. (Ohio Obit Index, Family Search, USGenweb) - Becky Hill
Aug.28 – Saturday – Internet Genealogy II – How to make the most of the paid subscription sites (ancestry, heritagequest, footnote) - Becky Hill
Sept. 18 – Saturday - Searching Your Ohio Roots – Becky Hill
Oct. 16 – Saturday - Online Resources for Photo Management – Gil Gonzalez
Nov. 6 – Saturday- Using RootsMagic Genealogical Software- Becky Hill
Becky Hill
Head Librarian
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Spiegel Grove
Fremont, OH 43420-2796
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