Annual Genealogy Workshop

Chattanooga Delta Genealogy Society is proud to announce its 2014 Genealogy Workshop!

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2014 at the Ooltewah United Methodist Church from 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.  (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.)

We welcome:

Linda Woodward Geiger, CG, CGL, who will be presenting two topics: 

    ”I Swear Allegiance – Naturalization records 1790-1950″ and 

    “More Than Land Descriptions: Treasures among the Deeds.”

Linda Mines, Hamilton County Historian, will present “Early 19th Century Tennessee: The War of 1812 and Beyond.”

Deborah Liening from the Ooltewah Family History Center will give us a Tour of FamilySearch and New FamilySearch Family Tree.

Pre-registration for the workshop (through February 15) is $20 for members and $25 for non-members.  Visit our website here to learn more!

Hope to see you there!

James County Historical Society is announcing their winter meeting. It will be held February 2nd, 2014 at 2:30 pm at the Ooltewah United Methodist Church in Ooltewah.

We have a great speaker. His name is Bob George from the Bradley County Historical Society. He will be speaking on the history of Cleveland and its Revolutionary Heroes.Their most important hero was Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, a commander at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.

I must admit that I don't know anything about this. I am looking forward to what he has to say. I just love History! Hope to see you there!

CAHA Annual Meeting

The Chattanooga Area Historical Association is announcing their annual meeting and lunch on February 1, 2014 at 11:30 am. The meeting will held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo in the Centennial Ballroom. The cost is $26.00. Please contact the CAHA for attendance qualifications.

The speaker will be Dr. Ned Irwin, Archivist for Washington County, Tennessee. He will be speaking on "Bottling Gold: Chattanooga's Coca Cola Fortunes". Coca Cola put Chattanooga on the map as the first place the drink was bottled and sold. Before that time, it was only available in soda fountains primarily in the Atlanta region.

Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle

To celebrate Black History Month, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Luther King, the Chattanooga Public Library is pleased to host a film discussion series on civil rights.  The Create Equal series uses the power of documentary films to encourage community discussion of America's civil rights history. The series consists of four documentaries, The Abolitionists, Slavery by Another Name, The Loving Story, and Freedom Riders, that chronicle the civil rights struggle from Revolutionary times to Martin Luther King. 

The first event is The Abolitionists (February 4: Library Auditorium. 6-7:30pm) -  Vincent Phipps, storyteller and motivational speaker, will begin with a dramatic reading of the  Emancipation Proclamation. The Abolitionists' release in 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The film's ​protoganists William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Angelina Grimke, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown fought to end slavery through newspapers and broadsides, literature and religion, and finally political action and violence. The scholar for the session will be Raymond Evans, author of Chattanooga: Tennessee's Gateway to the Underground Railroad and Historic African American Places in the Chattanooga Area.​ The Library will present clips from the film followed by discussion. 

More about the Create Equal Series at the Library:
The Chattanooga Public Library is honored to present these four documentaries with riveting new footage illustrating the history of civil rights movement in America.  It is one of 473 institutions that will bring these films into the communities they serve, hoping to help bridge racial and cultural divides in America civic life.  These films tell the stories of men and women who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation. 

Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle is made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 

Program note: All of the films, with the exception of The Loving Story, will be shown at the downtown library auditorium. Our community partners at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center will present The Loving Story at the BCCC on February 18. In addition to the film series the library will present a genealogy workshop as part of Black History Month​, From Africa to America: Tracing Your Roots, on Saturday, February 15. 

Dates, Times, and Places

Abolitionists: February 4, 6-7:30pm Library auditorium

Slavery by Another Name: February 13, 6-7:30pm Library auditorium

From Africa To America: Tracing Your Roots: February 15, 10am-12 Library auditorium

The Loving Story: February 18 6:30-8pm Bessie Smith Cultural Center

Freedom Riders: February 25, 6-7:30pm Library auditorium

Researching Your Civil War Ancestor: Johnny Reb or Billy Yank

Researching Your Civil War Ancestor: Johnny Reb or Billy Yank

The seminar will explore a wide variety of records about soldiers as well as people with Union sympathies, those who supported the South, and those who just tried to keep out of the way. Mary Helms, Head of Local History and Genealogy, will illustrate how to use many sources, such as Official Records, 1890 Special Census Schedule, Southern Claims Commission, and research on the Internet, including Fold3 and Ancestry. For more information call 757-5317 or email helms_m@lib.chattanooga.gov.
Open to the public at no charge as part of the recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Dec. 7 at Downtown Library
Dec. 14 at Eastgate Library
Dec. 21 at Northgate Library

CCH Historical Society Meeting to Highlight Veterans

 

The Charleston-Calhoun-Hiwassee Historical Society will meet Sunday November 17 at 3 p.m. at The Hiwassee River Heritage Center in Charleston.   Laura Spann of Whitebluff, TN will present a program on the recent discovery of more than twenty veteran’s graves in the Calhoun Cemetery, whose roles in prior wars had not been known.  For many years, various groups in Calhoun have placed flags on the graves of veterans buried in the cemetery, and this recent finding will give these newly discovered veterans the recognition they deserve as part of history. 

Several of the veterans, including the names of Bates, McCarty, Workman, and McClatchey served in the War of 1812 while others served in the Civil War.  There are fascinating stories connected with each of them, several of which had key roles during the Removal of the Cherokees.  Other were very active in the early county government and the founding of Calhoun. 

Ms. Spann has been very active the past year doing extensive research on the Calhoun Cemetery.  Her efforts have located several missing gravesites and markers and have established many family relationships, including those of Cherokee families, buried in the cemetery. 

At the meeting, visitors will be given an update on Phase II of the Heritage Center.  The public is invited to attend the meeting.  The Center is located on Highway 11 in Charleston near the school. 

Fourth Civil War Walking Tour

The Chattanooga History Center will present the fourth downtown tour in its Civil War Sesquicentennial series, A Walking Tour: Siege Lines, Confederate Perspective, at 5:30pm, Tuesday, November 5th.  The walk will be led by CHC Executive Director and Historian, Dr. Daryl Black, and Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park Chief Historian, Jim Ogden.  Participants will meet the guides at the corner of Orchard Knob and Ivey Streets, by the Orchard Knob Military Park.   The fee is $5 per person (CHC members free).  Space is limited and pre-registration is required by Monday, November 4th.  Call 423-265-3247 to register.