With this Covid 19 pandemic just about everything has changed. One thing that hasn't changed that much thanks to the internet is doing family research.
I've been able to continue my research at about the same as before the pandemic came about due to the fact that now a lot of research can be done online and you don't have to visit actual libraries to do research.
Even with the fact that a lot of research can be done online, I still encourage anyone serious about family research to visit local libraries because a lot of times you can find local records not yet available online.
The DNA test are still being done, I've seen some of my cousins’ DNA results online that weren't there just a few months ago, and I've found several new people that I've never known that have done the test recently.
Another thing that most of us can do is still visit cemeteries, since most of the time you are likely to be the only person there, or in case of large cemeteries you can stay several feet away from other people.
Since most of us carry phones now which have cameras I would advise you to take pictures of any headstone you are interested in, that way you will have a good record of the information on the headstone.
There is a online service called Find A Grave where you can enter a person's name and the name of a cemetery and possibly see a picture of the person's headstone and get information from the picture.
As I said earlier with this Covid 19 a lot of things changed, the Alger Sullivan Historical Society held it's first actual meeting last month since February of this year.
As many of you know we had to cancel our popular Sawmill Day and Car Show last May so we are looking forward to having it next year and seeing everyone there.
On another note as some of you may know we had two local schools participate in a project known as the balloon race around the world. These two schools were Flomaton and T.R. Miller.
We have since learn that these two balloons did set a world record for the time it took them to make the first trip around the world, about nine days.
We are now working on our next project and all schools are encourage to enter, which we are calling the “note in the bottle” where we will be putting small vessels in the Atlantic Ocean with HF transmitters on them to report in real time it's position and speed.
The balloons had very specific weight restrictions and would only allow them to be solar powered, these vessels won't have that restriction. We have been testing the HF transmitter and have got hundreds of reports from ham radio operators from around the country, the long distance winner so far is Salt Lake City, for a transmitter running only one tenth of a watt power on the 20 meter ham band.
We encourage all schools to enter this, though it might be difficult with the conditions schools will be under this coming school year. You can check the Southern Amateur Radio Union's Face Book page for more information.
As I said earlier we had our first actual meeting last month for the first time since February, we normally meet the third Tuesday of the month which this month will be July 21, we meet at the Leach House Museum on the corner of 4th and Jefferson in Century.
I haven't got any information on the July meeting, but we will be sending out emails to members in the next few days about this months meeting.
