Busy week ahead in the county

The Prairie Arts Council next week will be starting up its annual ARTCAMP, a week-long series of community art classes for all ages.

If you have not taken part in one of these programs before, this community effort is one of the summer highlights of Jasper County.

To learn more about it, their website is under construction, but you can always stop in at the Carnegie Center in Rensselaer (the old Rensselaer Library!), call them at 866-5ART or email them at prairie@nwiis.com.

There will also be an art display from the ARTCAMP participants on the center grounds on Saturday, during the Taste of Rensselaer community cook out.

The Carnegie Center is located at 301 N Van Rensselaer St, Rensselaer IN 47978.

And when you're ready for a break, or to grab a book or movie to take home after a busy day, the library is only one block away.

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You will also find some library staff this Friday night June 27-28 at the 2008 Jasper and Newton County Relay for Life at the Jasper County Fairgrounds in Rensselaer. Our staff members have formed a team, Librarians Against 616.994, and will be doing our part to reach a cure one step at a time.

We hope to see you there.

Disaster Information for Kids Online

When the weather gets nasty or the news has stories about people involved in weather disasters, kids may have lots of questions.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a website that may not only help answer their questions, but some of your own as well.

FEMA's The Disaster Area is a kid-friendly website that has useful information about thunderstorms, tornadoes, wildfires and even national security emergencies.

And for more grown-up kinds of questions and answers, and step-by-step family safety plans, there is always FEMA's main site at fema.gov.

Finding your feminine side

Advocates of "herstory" (as opposed to history) point out how infrequently the contributions of women are recorded for future generations to learn from. Anyone who has searched for female ancestors in their family tree would likely agree.

Prior to the 20th century, many records (such as bank transactions or land deeds) were recorded in the husband's name. Women changed their name with marriage, and with higher death rates (and even some divorce) may have changed their names several times over their life. Whether out of social convention or personal taste, many newspaper articles and even gravestones will refer to a woman only by her married name, "Mrs. John Doe."

These wrinkles can be frustrating to any historical researcher or archiver.

The January 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine, available at the Jasper County Public Library, offers several tips and solutions for tracking down your feminine side.

Stumped by a vague gravestone? Chances are the woman may have been buried near her family. Contact the cemetery caretaker or the church office for the burial record, which could provide more clues, including who purchased the stone and surrounding plots.

For more tips, check out this and similar magazines at your library, or check out our two genealogy databases (Ancestry Library and Heritage Quest) available in Research Resources at any of our patron computers or online catalog machines.

Heritage Quest is also available to our patrons at home through our website at http://www.jasperco.lib.in.us. You must be a JCPL patron and have a PIN number for home use of your account. (This may be different from the password you have to use Internet at the library.) Contact your local library if you would like to use this service and don't already have a home PIN.