Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette
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TEXAS HISTORY MUSEUM OPENS IN AUSTIN
Coinciding with the 165th Anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, the new Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum will open to the public today. The official grand opening, however, will be next week, Saturday, April 28. Located at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard and North Congress Avenue in Downtown Austin the museum is a dynamic educational institution engaging visitors in the exciting Story of Texas. Since the
museum is a non-collecting museum exhibits will constantly change. Objects on display are borrowed from collectors and institutions and are on loan by their owners. The museum was approved in 1997 by the 75th
Texas Legislature which appropriated $8 Million in bond revenue to pay for construction. The building was designed by E. Verner Johnson & Associates the creators of the Boston Museum of Science, the Cincinnati Museum Center and
the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. Featured at the exterior entrance of the building is a thirty five foot high bronze star sculpture visitors may walk under. Inside the museum massive objects of interest
include a full scale windmill and a circa 1940 AT-6 "Texian" airplane. The museum contains two major state of the art theaters. The first is a six story Imax Theatre with seating for 400 featuring large format
2-D and 3-D films. The second is the Texas Spirit Theater, the only multi media special effects theater of its kind in Texas. This theater seats 200, has three screens, fixed sets and ten special effects including some built
into the seats. Each of the three main museum floors depict the Texas history themes of Land, Identity and Opportunity. On each floor visitors are surrounded with the sights, sounds and, sometimes, smells of
Texas History. Exhibits highlight important chapters in the Story of Texas through objects, media programs and recreated environments. The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is open Monday through Saturday
from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. and on Sundays from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M.. The last Imax show is at 9 P.M. Combined admission to exhibits and both theaters is $12.50 for adults, $10 for seniors over 65 and $6 for youths under age 18. Lower
fares are available for single admittance to the exhibits or the theaters. Youths under age 18 are admitted free to exhibits in the main museum during regular museum hours. Parking is $5 per day. For more
information contact the museum by telephone at 512-936-8746 or visit their website at
A group of volunteers has organized a new nonprofit "Friends" group to give moral, physical and monetary support to The Texas State Library and Archives in Austin.
The Friends of the Texas State Library and Archives will be helping connect library, history and museum communities across Texas and the United States. For more information about this group, call 512-463-5514.
BEGINNING GENEALOGICAL CLASS
Taught by Paula Perkins Parke
the Grace Presbyterian Church, 10221 Ella Lee near the Sam Houston Tollway, will host a two class Beginning Genealogy course. The first class will be held at the church from 1 to 6 P.M. Tuesday May 1 and will be followed by a
research trip to Clayton Library the following week. For more information and to register interested parties should contact the GPC Adult Education office at 713-267-5091.
LEARN ABOUT WILLS AND PROBATE RECORDS
Learn the legal intricacies of using probate records to
solve seemingly insolvable genealogical cases by attending Mic Barnette's class, Understanding Wills, Probates and Guardianship Records for Historians and Genealogists. The class will be held at Leisure Learning's 2990
Richmond Avenue campus from 7-9 P.M. on Wednesday May 2. To learn more about this course and to register, contact Leisure Learning at 713-529-4414.
NEW SOUTHERN MAGAZINE
The premier issue of Southern Footprints: Genealogy and History Magazine
for the Southern States
is hot off the press. This new quarterly magazine is dedicated to the promotion of genealogy and history in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Edited by Clarise Soper the current issue of Southern Footprints contains queries, information about websites, notices of meetings, seminars and conferences of southern interest, colorful ancestor stories,
and "brick wall" problem cases. In addition, the current issue includes several southern research articles including an article about soldiers of minority races who served under Spanish General Bernardo
Galvez against the British along the Gulf Coast during the American Revolution; an article by Houstonian, Lynna Kay Shuffield, about Texas' new Historic Texas Cemetery Medallions; and a newly discovered list of names of some Civil
War dead buried in the Macon, Georgia area. To subscribe to Southern Footprints send a check for $24 payable to Southern Footprints to P.O. Box 16611, Hattiesburg, MS 39404-6611.
