Events and Activities : FRIENDS OF CP LIBRARY OFFERS ‘GENEALOGY ON A SHOESTRING’

You can learn—hands on, with a patient teacher at your elbow--how to use free software to trace your family tree at a genealogy workshop sponsored by Friends of the Center Point Library on Saturday morning, February 22, from 10 to noon, at the Center Point Urbana High School.

“Give your money to the Library, not Ancestry.com,” recommends local genealogist Bob King, who is donating his time to Friends of the Library to teach the workshop. There is no fee for the class, but a freewill donation, $5 minimum, is suggested.

Also donating her time to the class is Cedar Rapids personal historian Linda Joy Schmidt, owner of Memory Echoes LLC. Linda will talk about the value of preserving family history, how to interview family members and how to get their stories written down. There are no such things as boring lives, Linda says, and no better time than now to get those lives recorded.

Pre-register for the workshop with Bob King, at 319-560-4259 or via email to bobking@fmtcs.com. Class size is limited because of computer availability. Participants are asked to bring the names, approximate birth dates, and approximate locations of ancestors who were alive between 1850 and 1940. Beginning with that information, the class will help them find other ancestors and trace their lives.

The workshop is being made possible through the generosity of the CPU school district’s loan of a classroom because the current Public Library doesn’t have enough computers and computer class space. The planned Library expansion, for which Friends is helping raise money, will accommodate such programs in the future.

---Lego Club Starting at Library---

Another project Friends decided at its January meeting to sponsor is the Public Library’s Lego Club which will start on Wednesday, Jan. 22, after school from 3:30 to about 4:45. The club is free, Legos are provided, and family members are invited to attend. Kids under eight need to be accompanied by a parent. Plans are for the club to meet at 3:30 the third Wednesday of each month.

---Romance on a Shoestring Too---

A Friends project suggested by president Christina Lahr is already pretty in pink at the Library. “Bundles of Romance,” five paperback romance novels wrapped in ribbons and lace, are on sale for $1.