Coming Events at Houston's Clayton Genealogy Library

There are several great events coming up at the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research.

Here's the lowdown:

August 13: Clayton Library Friends meeting in the Carriage House meeting room on the Clayton Library grounds. Registration is at 10:15am and the meeting begins at 10:30am. The featured speaker is Steven Sloan, Director of the Institute for Oral History at Baylor University. His topic is the Library of Congress Oral History Project, Interviewing your Family for Posterity.

August 20: Clayton Library Orientation, 10:30am - 11:30am. Learn about the vast resources and how to efficiently utilize genealogical research materials housed at the Clayton Library Center. No reservations needed. Meet at the information desk.

August 27: Clayton Library Friends all-day seminar featuring Arlene Eakle. I've seen Arlene speak and she is a walking encyclopedia of genealogy information. She knows every early family in Virginia and that is no joke. Registration form.

.

Clayton Library Update

The Clayton Library fared well during Hurricane Ike. Even better, the new construction continues to move along. The Carriage House is set to open in November, just in time for the Clayton Library Friends meeting. I can't wait to see how the restored building looks.

There is a Clayton Library Orientation this Saturday (Oct. 18) at 11:00 AM, and the third Saturday of each month. A list of events at the Clayton through 2008 is available here.

You can subscribe to the Clayton Library Town Crier e-newsletter, by going to the Houston Public Library NextReads newsletter page (you do not have to be a cardholder), checking the "Genealogy" box, and providing an email address and password.

Clayton Library Friends Meeting

Back from Arkansas. The Williamson Family Road Trip and Celebrity Death Tour (tm) went well. More details to follow. I have to upload more pictures first.

Yesterday, I went my first Clayton Library Friends meeting. I wanted to see where my dues went. My dad was visiting, so he came with me for curiosity's sake.

This is a very friendly group with some amazing volunteers. Reports were given on the state of the organization, as well as the state of renovation at the library site. The Clayton Library is good now, but it's going to be great.

After the meeting was a presentation by Karen Miller, President of the Guild of Colonial Artisans and Tradesmen 1607-1783. It was a good talk. I learned a lot.

Since I was in "the city" anyway, I took my dad to Goode's for lunch. Then we went to the Clayton so he could see it. I think he was impressed.

The next Clayton Library Friends meeting is Saturday, November 15, 2008. If the planets align and the wood is properly knocked, the meeting will be in the newly renovated Carriage House at the Clayton. If not, then it's at Houston Public Library's Jungman Branch one more time.

The speaker for the November meeting is Karen Black-Morrow who will present From Piles of Paper to Polished Prose, a talk about writing a narrative history of your family and organizing records and documents.