GENEALOGY: Wabash Valley Genealogy Society to host all-day seminar June 21

By Tamie Dehler
Special to the Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 03, 2008 08:39 pm

— The Wabash Valley Genealogy Society will host an all-day seminar June 21 in the Forsythe Program Center, 1100 Girl Scout Lane.
Three speakers are slated for the morning and afternoon sessions. The morning sessions will include speakers Shirley Richison Fields and Kandie Adkinson.
Shirley Richison Fields is the current treasurer of the Indiana Genealogical Society and a coordinator for the Family Search Indexing Project, Marriage Indexing 1790-1957 and the Once a Hoosier project.
She will describe these projects to the attendees and explain how they can submit family information to the Once a Hoosier project. She also will discuss other Indiana Genealogical Society projects in the works.
Kandie Adkinson is the administrative supervisor of the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Land Office Division. In addition, she has been an honorary member of the Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors since 1995. She teaches a seminar on the land grant system to surveyors and engineers and often presents programs on the land patenting system to historians and genealogists across Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. She will discuss the Kentucky land grant system, the land patenting process, and how this applies to many other areas of research.
The afternoon speaker will be Beau Sharbrough, presenting on several topics. Sharbrough is a native of Houston, Texas, and a graduate of Texas A&M University. The former president of GENTECH, he established the GENTECH and Federation of Genealogy Societies Web sites, worked for Ancestry.com and is now the vice president of content for the history Web site Footnote.com. He will present several topics, including a demonstration of Footnote.com, tips for using Ancestry.com, how to preserve family photographs, and how to use automated search tools such as GenSmarts, Ancestry Member Trees, Bloglines and Google.
In addition to the speakers, there will be a number of vendors present to show off their genealogy products.
The Forsythe Center is in Farrington Park, behind the YWCA. The seminar will begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. The registration cost will be just $15 for the entire day. Lunch, which is optional, will be served for an extra $5. The lunch will include a honey ham or turkey sandwich on wheat bread with a side of broccoli raisin salad, two cookies, chips and bottled water.
To register, send a check to WVGS, PO Box 236, Terre Haute, IN 47808-0236, or register online at www.inwvgs.org.

Query
I am looking for a birth record for Frank E Pratt, born Nov. 26, 1898, and Arthur H. Pratt, born Aug. 8, 1900. They were both supposedly born in Danville, Vermilion County, Ill.
However, Arthur stated before his death that the family lived on both sides of the state line so wasn’t certain of the exact location. The father of these two was a railroad man named Frederick or Fred, or maybe Frank Pratt. The mother’s name was Ellen Rebecca Pratt. Vermillion County couldn’t find any records of either birth. I have the 1900 census record taken before Arthur’s birthday and it shows the family at 823 Kimball St. in Danville, Ill. Any leads or ideas would be appreciated. Contact Arthur H. Pratt, 195 Rainbow Drive PMB 9567, Livingston, TX 77399, e-mail aprattjr@msn.com.