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Touring production of ‘A Chorus Line’ to visit Scranton Cultural Center

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Today in history

<p>A milestone for the area&#8217;s genealogists has been reached with complete digitizing of all church records of the 11-county Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton.</p><p>The records are now available at the research library of the Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, the society announced recently. The library is in the caretaker building on the grounds of the Hanover Green Cemetery, Main Road, Hanover Township.</p><p>Thanks to this effort, family history researchers will no longer have to contact the many individual churches of the diocese, which covers Northeastern and North Central Pennsylvania.</p><p>There are some restrictions. The records will not go online and must be viewed at the society&#8217;s library. Also, because of an agreement with the diocese, there will be some privacy considerations, such as exemption of the most recent records from researchers&#8217; viewing.</p><p>The diocese is headed by Bishop Joseph Bambera.</p><p>&#8220;In total, Roman Catholic records from 352 unique parishes, churches, missions and chapels spanning the period from the 1830s to present day have been digitally preserved,&#8221; the group said in its newsletter.</p><p>Church records offer a great deal of information about ancestors. They include births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and other events in parishioners&#8217; lives, as well as references to ages, homes, families, residences, languages and national origins, all of which genealogists find vital in building up information about their ancestors.</p><p>The newly digitized records are nothing short of &#8220;a treasure trove of information,&#8221; the society said in its recent newsletter.</p><p>The research library is open Thursdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the second Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. During inclement weather, call 570-829-1765 or go to the society&#8217;s Facebook page for possible closure. For information on membership in the group, visit the Facebook page or the website at www.nepgs.com..</p><p><strong>Genealogy Class:</strong> The Luzerne County Historical Society will offer a genealogy workshop 2 to 4 p.m. on May 5, a Saturday. Attendees will learn about the society&#8217;s holdings at its Bishop Memorial Library and how to use them to find family. The cost is $15 for members and $25 for non-members. With space limited, reservations are required. Call 570-823-6244, ext. 3, or email reservations@luzernehistory.org.</p><p>If you haven&#8217;t been to the Bishop Library this year, remember that the days and hours have changed. It&#8217;s open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. It&#8217;s closed Sunday through Tuesday.</p><p><strong>Resources: </strong>FamilySearch, the free online service, continues to add huge quantities of American and overseas genealogy-related information. Go to www.FamilySearch.com and sign up for a free membership. The material is from the immense holdings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints family history library.</p><p><strong>Yearbooks:</strong> With plans to close two of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District&#8217;s three high schools moving forward, this might be a good time to address the subject of yearbook collections. Yearbooks are useful to genealogists researching their ancestors&#8217; education, containing as they do information that is not readily available any other way. Often, though, they are scattered around among graduates, gathering dust or becoming lost. Those kept in the schools are generally not available to the public. Anyone wishing to honor his or her old high school should consider donating yearbooks to the public library or historical society serving that community.</p><p><strong>News Notes:</strong> The Nanticoke Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Samantha Mill House, next to the Mill Memorial Library. The entrance is via Kosciuszko Street. For information on the group, go to www.nanticokehistoryonline.org.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_TOM_MOONEY-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Out on a Limb</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Out On a Limb: Digitized records a ‘treasure trove of information’