to the new Union County Genealogical Society website, a work in progress. Check back with us often as new information will be added by our volunteers.

The Union County Genealogical Society is dedicated to meeting the educational needs of their members through the preservation of the county's public records, cemetery records, newspapers and family histories for research by future generations.

UCGS is a 501(c)3 non-profit and contributions are tax deductible. Contributions are used to purchase genealogy materials housed at the Matilda Gibson Public Library in Creston, provide additional offerings on our website and assist in providing quality educational genealogy programs. UCGS is a member of the Iowa Genealogical Society.

Monthly Membership Meetings

UCGS meets on the 4th Monday of each month except December at 6:00 PM in the Genealogy Room at the Matilda Gibson Memorial Library located at 200 West Howard Street in Creston, Iowa and are also available via Zoom. Membership meetings are open to the public. For information on additional educational opportunities in genealogical research, check out our Events page.

To become a member or to renew your membership, click here

To make a donation, click here.

Workshop Saturday, 20 April, 10:30 am-12:30 pm

The Union County Genealogical Society continues their 2024 Family History Plus! programs on Saturday, 20 April from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm in the Genealogy Room at the Gibson Memorial Library, 200 West Howard Street, Creston, Iowa. Jane Briley’s will be presenting an informative presentation on Using Advantage Archives and Newspapers in Your Research.

The Family History Plus! Program is a series of workshops and seminars, open to the public and members alike, that are held on the third Saturday of each month on a variety of research topics by experienced speakers. A special invitation is extended to students, Scouts and 4-Hers working on badges or school projects in family history.

Pre-registration is requested for planning purposes for the speaker either on-line at our website, or by calling 515.868.1415. There is no charge for the programs, but a donation would be most appreciated so that UCGS can continue to bring these programs to the community. For information on upcoming new Saturday and monthly programs for 2024, check out the society’s website https://unioncgs.org or their Facebook page.

Thank You to Corrine Bass

A big thank you to Ms. Corrine Bass for sending us a new resource for our Research Links page that she found while working overview of a family history project for her Social Studies class at school. Entitled Video Editing Tips for Family History Videos, it provides an overview of how to create a videography of your family's history. It includes tips for what questions to ask, how to make your video more personal and includes additional research tools for tracing yur family's lineage! Corrine thought it might help other families with their history quests! Check it out.

New Research Links

Several new resarch resources have been added to the Research Links page. A DNA catagory has been added with several sites to visit. Check them out. Check back offen as more are being added in the future.

New Blog

Check out our new blog, 7 Steps to Fact-Checking Online Trees.

Membership in Iowa Genealogical Society

Your membership in the IGS contributes to the preservation of genealogical and family history records. Benefits of membership are:

Access to IGS research facility
Access to FamilySearch affliage records when in the IGS Library
Access to Ancestry Library Edition when in the IGS Library
Bimonthly newsletter
Discounts on classes and conferences and research fees
Networking opportunities
Join a Special Interest Group
Email notification of upcoming events and classes
Access to genealogy interest groups
Access to free queries in Hawkeye Heritage
There are annual spring and fall conferences with lectures, workshops, and vendors. To become a member of IGS go to IowaGenealogy.org and click on membership.

Free Resources to Assist With Your Research

Explore upcoming webinars on Legacy Family Tree Webinars at https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/ They are free the day of the webinar and for the next seven days so you can fit them into your schedule when convenient. They can help you learn new techniques and resources.

Check out the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) award winning website, americanancestors.org As the online repository for more than 1.4 billion searchable names from America and beyond. Although their name says New England, they provide expertise and research across American family history. This is a membership organization but they provide some in-depth learning online seminars, and lectures that are free.

Also check out our Research Links page for more FREE websites that can assist you with your research from the comfort of your home. Do you have a good site link that you would like to share? If so, please emai it to unioncgs.org for consideration. If you find a link that is no longer dworking, please let us know so that we can correct it.

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BEHOLD the Work of the Old…..

Let your Heritage not be lost.

But bequest it as a Memory,

Treasure and Blessing…..

Gather the lost and hidden,

And preserve it for thy Children.

Christian Metz, 1846

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