Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

TEXAS LAND TITLE ABSTRACTS INDEX ONLINE

  Ancestry.Com, one of the most active commercial genealogical database websites on the Internet has added an online index to the Texas General Land Office's land title abstracts. The database is assessable at http://www.ancestry.com/. This database may be searched at no charge until October 16. After that date, one must be a member of Ancestry.Com.

 The land title database is a quick and ready reference to original land grants in Texas issued by the successive governments of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the State of Texas.

 The database lists the names and counties of the original grantees (the individuals or companies that obtained the initial right to claim part of the public domain), the patentees (the person or company listed on the patent that formally conveys land out of the public domain at the conclusion of the land granting process) and the land grant class. It, also, lists the location of the corresponding file and patent in the archives of the Texas General Land Office, the date of patent, and the acreage.

 The original land grant records are maintained by the Archives and Records Division of the Texas General Land Office (GLO) in Austin. They are arranged by the 38 land districts into which the 254 counties of Texas are divided. For an historical overview of Texas land grants, the land granting process and a description of land grant categories in Texas (headrights, military grants, script) visit the GLO's website at http://www.glo.state.tx.us/archives/info.html

 A similar free database, Land Survey Abstract Indices of the Original Land Owners of Texas, is located on Rootsweb.Com at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/tx/txcounti es.htm.  The  Rootsweb.com database is based on individual counties

GENEALOGY CLASSES

 Mic Barnette will present a beginning genealogy class, Roots of Genealogy: How To Research Your Family Tree at Leisure Learning's 2990 Richmond Avenue campus. Class will be held on Wednesday November 1 from 7 P.M. to 10 P.M. It will cover a brief history of genealogical research and the fundamentals of how and where to begin research. The following week the class will meet at Clayton Library for an evening tour and hands-on census research.

 To find out more about the course and to enroll, contact Leisure Learning at 713-529-4414.

FAMILY TREE MAKER CLASS

 Paula Perkins Parke will conduct an Organizing Your Ancestors with Family Tree Maker Software class on Wednesday November 1 from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. The class will be held at Houston Community College's 1681 Cartwright Road Missouri City Campus.

 Using live demonstrations, step by step instructions are given showing how to organize and document one's family information and sources. Other functions covered include creating charts and reports, using the searchable family surname index, viewing companion CD-ROMs and producing family books. For more information and to register, contact  HCC at 281-835-5539.

TSGS CELEBRATES 40 YEARS

 The Texas State Genealogical Society will hold their 40th Annual Conference Friday and Saturday November 10th and 11th. The conference will be held in Wichita Falls' MPAC Convention Center.

 On Friday Estelle Owens will speak on  Women in the American Revolution; Gloria Hargrave will discuss Organizing Research; and Cindy Smolovik of the National Archives Branch in Fort  Worth will explain How To Conduct Native American Research.

 On Saturday Lloyd Bockstruck, supervisor of the genealogical section of the Dallas Public Library will speak on The Great Wagon Road, Lesser Used Genealogical Records, Identifying Maiden Names of  Females and Finding Substitutes for Birth and Death Records.

 For more information about the conference and to register, contact TSGS Treasurer, Danna Elliott at P.O.Box 7 Sulphur Springs, TX 75483, email Doris Cozart at gleaning@chipshot.net  or visit the TSGS website at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs

NEWS FROM THE BOOK SHELF

 Mountain Press, P.O. Box 400, Signal Mountain, TN 37377-0400 has published the 1854 annual report of the Grand Lodge of Georgia. The report contains of a listing of the names of all Masons and all 189 Masonic lodges in the state that year. Grand Lodge of Georgia 1854 is available from the publisher for $28.50, postpaid.

 The book is a facsimile reprint of the original 1854 edition. It consists of a list of each lodge in the state including all the members of each lodge. For each lodge information is given on how many men were initiated, passed, raised and resigned and the place and time the lodge met.

  In addition to the foregoing, the editors have added an index of lodge names and their locations. They have, also, included an all name index to the Masonic members named in the book.

 Everyone with Georgia ancestry should peruse this book for potential Masonic connections.