St. Croix Valley Genealogical Society

04/04/2026

Happy Easter! Our April SCVGS meeting will take place on April 16, at 7:00 p.m. Renee Garrick will present, "It’s Your Obituary—You Write It!” Do you like to plan ahead? You’ve written your will. Maybe you’ve even pre-planned your funeral. So... what about your obituary? Instead of leaving it for grieving family members to write in the midst of loss, take the proactive approach! When you write it yourself, it will say what you want it to say.

Teaching English and speech for more than twenty years—along with editing and proofreading for another ten—prepared Renee for another adventure: Personal History. Her passion for preserving family stories, military stories, and inspirational stories, and for weaving them together with your genealogy research, made it a natural next step.

Location: First National Bank of River Falls Community Room; Renee will be speaking in person, and the meeting will also be carried live via Zoom. If you wish to attend as a guest via Zoom, please message us on FB by Tuesday 4/14 so we can email the link to you.

Also, anyone interested can join the group for dinner at the Nutty Squirrel before the meeting (5 pm). We hope to see you there!

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03/17/2026

Remember - our next meeting is this Thursday, March 19th, 7 pm, via Zoom and in person. Paula Stuart Warren will be our speaker. The meeting will take place at the First National Bank of River Falls Community Room. If you'd like to socialize before the meeting, we will gather at The Nutty Squirrel at 5:00 pm for food & beverages.

The Zoom link and handout for the presentation were emailed to SCVGS members today. If you'd like to attend as a guest, message me TODAY. Include your email address, and the meeting link will be sent to you.
It will be good to see everyone again.

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03/08/2026

Hey, hey, hey! Our next SCVGS meeting will be here before you know it! March 19th, 7 pm, IN PERSON and on Zoom. Paula Stuart Warren will tell us about “The WPA, CCC, & HRS Era: Free Lasting Records Boon from the Government." During tough economic times in the 1930s and 1940s, U.S. government programs put many people to work. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Historical Records Survey, and the Civilian Conservation Corps created a goldmine of material useful to today’s genealogists and others. Record transcriptions, courthouse and manuscript inventories, vital records indexes, city/county histories, newspapers, infrastructure improvements, newspapers and indexes, and a bridge you drove over recently. We will discuss many of those creations, some of which you already use regularly, and where others may be found today. We will also discuss online access to more information.
The Zoom link will be emailed to SCVGS members about a week in advance, along with the handout. If you are not yet a SCVGS member (and why not?) you can message us here for the link to attend as a guest. Please send that by Tuesday, Mar. 17th (St. Pat's Day).
The meeting will be held in the Community Room of First Nat'l Bank of River Falls on Locust St. Hope to see you there!!

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02/02/2026

Happy February, SVCGS fans! Mark your calendar: our next meeting is Feb. 19th at 7 pm, on Zoom only. Our topic - “Mysterious Codes: Passenger Manifest Letters and Numbers.” Christine Cohen will be the presenter.
What do those letters, numbers, stamps, and pencil marks mean on Immigration Passenger Manifests? Does your ancestor have the letter “D” or “X” next to their name? Do you know what V/L, # 404, USB, Transit, CL, N.O.B, C/A, LPC, SI, NQIV, BSI, PV, or C-###XX mean? We will determine whether and when to contact the US National Archives or USCIS to obtain additional genealogical information from these codes. Plus, what insights you can gain about your ancestor’s immigration experience based on these notations.
The Zoom link will be emailed to SCVGS members about a week in advance. If you wish to attend the meeting as a non-member guest, message me with your name and email address by Tuesday, Feb. 17th.
The Zoom call will open at least 10 minutes early so we can say hi before the meeting starts. See you there!

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01/14/2026

Hi Folks. Our PIPOST newsletter editor, Darcy Boock, is looking for articles to include. Do you have an interesting family story to share, a new website you've found helpful, new tech you are using, or research tips? Please consider sharing your knowledge and submitting your article to Darcy. You'll become a "published" author, and your fellow members may learn something new!

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01/14/2026

Hi Folks. The weather sure is cold! Aren't you glad our next SCVGS meeting is ALL Zoom? Grab a warm drink, and join us for a presentation explaining The Internet Archive with Debra Dudek. It's sure to expand your family history research. The presentation starts at 7:00 pm, but log in early and say hi. The link was emailed on Jan. 7th.
While we're talking about the Internet Archive, did you know that for more than two and a half decades, they have collected, preserved, and shared our digital cultural artifacts. Thanks to the generosity of patrons, the Internet Archive has grown from a small preservation project into a vast library that serves millions of people each year. Their work has impacted the lives of so many of our users who value free and open access to information. The Internt Archive is a 501 (C)3 non-profit and can be supported through donations on their website: archive.org.
Stay warm, and we'll see you tomorrow!

01/03/2026

Happy New Year! Get ready for our next presentation, January 15th, 7 pm, via Zoom ONLY - no need to drive! Dynamic Debra Dudek returns to explain the “Internet Archive: The Amazing Genealogical Resource You’re Not Using."
Learn all about Internet Archive and its amazing collection of city directories, county histories, gazetteers, yearbooks, and family genealogies. In this lecture, we will focus on a long list of searchable and browseable items, so bring your research checklist and see if these resources can help you fill in the gaps in your family tree.
The Zoom link and syllabus will be emailed to SCVGS members about a week in advance. If you are not an SCVGS member (and why not?) and want to attend, please leave a FB message requesting the link at least 3 days in advance. Be sure to include your email address.
If you want to explore the website in advance, go to archive.org, and dig in.

12/09/2025

Hi SCVGS members. Remember to sign up for the Christmas party & potluck. See you on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 5:30 pm at HOPE Lutheran Church in River Falls. Wear your festive holiday sweaters!! 🎄🎁⛄🎅❄️

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10/11/2025

Hello, SVCGS Members and Friends. Our next meeting is Thursday, Oct. 16th, 7 pm, at the First National Bank of River Falls in the Community Room.
The topic is: “Who are these people?….when you think you know it all, think again!”. Initial research revealed that only three immigrants bearing a unique surname settled in Minnesota. However, through intermittent searches, a border crossing record, and an obituary, Joy Curtin uncovered a fourth individual with the same distinctive surname—someone who immigrated to America and lived and worked in Chicago! Drawing from a variety of sources, this investigation traces the steps taken to uncover the identity of this mystery individual.
Joy Curtin, will present in person. The meeting will also be broadcast over Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to members a few days in advance. If you are not a SCVGS member, you can request the link by messaging our FB page by Tuesday, 10/14. Be sure to include your email address.

Joy is a longtime member of the Germanic Genealogy Society of Minnesota (GGS), serving on their Board of Directors for 6 years. She is a member of several other genealogy societies/groups including the Minnesota Genealogical Society, Pommern Regional Group of Minnesota and SCVGS. Her family history research has focused on northwestern Germany and Pommerania (now northern Poland).

If you will be in River Falls, consider joining us for dinner and conversation at 5pm at the Nutty Squirrel on Main St.

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09/23/2025

Thank you, Chris Falteisek, for sharing this quote. It's a good reminder to all of us.

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09/23/2025

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