Welcome to the Bucks County Genealogical Society!
The BCGS is a dedicated group of genealogy enthusiasts sharing our passion for researching family history, and working together to make a difference in the genealogical community. If you are researching your family history, especially in (but not limited to) Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or would like to learn how to start creating your family tree, please join us!
New visitor to bucksgen? Click here to view or download a flyer with all the details about our organization and our website! Or click here to view a short video featuring a tour of this website.
What's Happening?
September 11 Virtual Meeting: Janeen Bjork on Newspapers and Genealogy
This meeting will be open to the public!
Janeen Bjork will introduce us to both free and fee newspaper databases, present her top 10 search strategies, and review best practices for locating specific information from within the hundreds of millions of newspaper pages that are digitized and available online.
Members, please watch for an email that will be sent on Monday, September 6, with a link to register for our September 11 meeting at our $5.00 member fee.
Non-members, public registration will open on Thursday, September 9, with a $10 fee to register.
Please view our Calendar of Events page for more details on this event and our speaker, and instructions on how to register for the meeting.
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Registration for 2021 Bucks County Ancestry Fair Is Now Open!
The 2021 Ancestry Fair of the Bucks County Genealogical Society (BCGS), to be held virtually on October 2, 2021, will feature Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective. In a day-long virtual symposium, Solving Genealogical Mysteries with the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor, Maureen will present an overview of using photographs to augment genealogical research and how to ensure your photographs—both paper and digital—are well organized and safely preserved for future generations to enjoy.
For the afternoon session, registrants will be invited to submit some of their most intriguing family photos along with questions they may have about them. In an edition of her popular Photo Detective Road Show, Maureen will select some of the submissions and interpret them during a fascinating afternoon session.
Registration for the 2021 Bucks County Ancestry Fair is now open. To register, please visit our AncestryFair website.
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We're On the Road Again!
Bucks County Genealogical Society is happy to announce the return to in-person participation at local events for free family history guidance! On Saturday, September 18, we will be hosting a table at the Buckingham Friends Peace Fair in Lahaska, where volunteers will be ready to assist guests in starting or enhancing their family tree. On display will be celebrity family trees and interesting vital records from Patsy Cline and Pink to Bruce Lee and sports legends. Check our On the Road section at our Calendar of Events page for other upcoming events.
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Irish Research Special Interest Group
Joann Cosgrove, our Vice-President for Projects, has set up a special interest group (SIG) for members researching their Irish ancestors. The group meets virtually on Zoom, and the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 2:00 pm. If you are interested in sharing ideas, tips, and brick walls in your Irish research, and would like to join this group, send an email to Joann at projects@bucksgen.org.
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Message from Cheryl VanLeer, Director of Volunteers
Are you enthusiastic about history and genealogy? Do you want to contribute to the ongoing efforts of our Society? We would love to work with you as we continue serving the genealogical community. From serving on committees and volunteering at events, many opportunities exist to fit varying talents and time commitments.
We are currently looking for content to publish in our newsletter. What have you been working on since COVID19 started? A brick wall broken down? A puzzle solved? A new book to review? A family heirloom with an interesting story? Let’s stay in touch by sharing these or similar stories.
If you have questions about volunteer opportunities, would like more information about volunteering, have ideas on how you can volunteer, or want to contribute to our newsletter content, contact Cheryl at volunteers@bucksgen.org
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Latest Project: Memorial Cards
Our VP of Projects and Research, Joann Cosgrove, has announced our most recent project, Memorial Cards. We are compiling a collection of memorial or funeral cards to display on our website, along with background information on the individuals being memorialized. If you have been saving piles of memorial cards for family members or others, we invite you to scan them, and submit the images and biographical details to our new project. To view the cards collected so far, and for instructions on how to submit your own cards, go to our Memorial Cards page.
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Privacy Policy
BCGS has now published our Privacy Policy, explaining the information we collect and how we use it. Click here to view the details of our policy.
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Searchable Newsletter Page
Our Newsletters page has a new look and lots more information. In addition to displaying a list of all the past BCGS Newsletters every issued, it now shows you a list of articles that appeared in each issue. You can search the newsletters to find a particular article, all articles by a specific author, or all articles containing a word or phrase that you enter. Want to find all the articles on DNA that we've ever published? Give it a try! (But don't be surprised if the search also finds a mention of Aunt EDNA.)
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Bucksgen Forum
To follow up on Cathy Ivins' February presentation on using Facebook for genealogy, she has now created a Facebook group where BCGS members and friends can start discussions and exchange ideas. Feel free to post your general genealogy-related questions, seek advice, or join a conversation to help others. One of the highlights of our monthly meetings is the socializing before and after our programs. Now we have a means of staying in touch between our meetings for those meaningful connections and collaboration!
You can get to our forum at www.facebook.com/groups/bucksgen. The only restriction is that you must have a Facebook account to post to the forum. If you are a BCGS member who is not familiar with Facebook and not sure how to join, you can go to the Members Only section of this website and download Cathy's handout from her February presentation.
This new forum will replace the Members Forum that was part of our Members Only section on this website, and will supplement our public Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bucksgen.
Let's get some good discussions going!
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Rosie the Riveter Project
In 2017 BCGS launched a new project to honor the ladies who served their country during World War II. We asked our members to participate in this project by submitting the names, service description, dates if known, and a photograph of their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and their friends and neighbors who participated in the war effort by serving in the military, working in a defense industry, or otherwise making a contribution to support the war effort. The individuals you submit do not have to be related to you, and do not have to be from Bucks County. The photos and other information were combined into a presentation that is now posted on this site, along with a searchable index of the submitted names.
Click here to view the completed Rosie the Riveter video presentation, or here to go to our Rosie the Riveter page with its name index and additional background information.
You can still submit information on a Rosie in your family or of your acquaintance in either of two ways:
- Go to our online Rosie the Riveter submission page and fill out the information on your female ancestor; or
- Click here to print out a paper submission form, fill it out and either email it to Connie Ace at research@bucksgen.org or Joann Cosgrove at projects@bucksgen.org, or mail it to Connie Ace at the address at the bottom of the form.
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Beginners Page
We've added a new page for those just getting started with their family research, providing a video outlining the first steps to take, and a list of links to some of the most commonly used websites for genealogical information. Click here to go to the Beginners Page.
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Our Heroes: World War I Wall of Honor
To mark the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into World War I, BCGS has constructed a Wall of Honor on our website to honor those who served. The Wall was unveiled in April 2017, on the 100th anniversary, and has now been updated with submissions received through September 30. If you have not yet submitted your service member and want to do so, please submit your information on or before October 31, 2018, the last date to have your submission included on our Wall of Honor page.
Any questions, please contact Connie Ace at Research@BucksGen.org.
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Database Update
The BCGS searchable database, available to all visitors to this site, was recently updated, now containing over 400,000 Bucks County names. The latest additions to the database are:
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Almost 15,000 names from records of St. John's Reformed Church, Riegelsville, including baptisms, marriages, deaths, and membership and confirmation records.
You can begin your search from here or click on the "Search the BCGS Database" link from the menu.
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Civil War Diary
The diary of a Bucks County Civil War soldier has been donated to the Bucks County Genealogical Society. Go to the Civil War Diary page to read about this donation, and view the actual pages of the diary along with a transcription of its contents.
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Amazon Smile
Please consider using http://smile.amazon.com/ when making a purchase on Amazon, and selecting Bucks County Genealogical Society as the organization you are supporting. It does not cost you anything in addition to your purchase, but it gives BCGS a small percentage of the purchase price as a donation! Thanks so much for your support.
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Bucks County Cemetery Slideshow
Our multi-talented VP of Projects and Cemetery Lady, Joann Cosgrove, has created a beautiful slideshow of photos of Bucks County cemeteries, accompanied by music performed by the Bucks County Women's Chorus. Click here to view the finished product!
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Latest BCGS Video
An updated BCGS video chronicling the progress of BCGS over the last three years has now been created and posted by our amazing Director of Publicity, Cathy Ivins. Check it out to see how far our organization has come!
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Cemetery Project Completed!
Congratulations to our VP-projects Joann Cosgrove and her cemetery volunteers! They have now completed gathering and posting information on all of the known Bucks County cemeteries. Our Cemetery page can now serve as a comprehensive resource for anyone researching their Bucks County ancestors. Please visit our Bucks County Cemeteries page to see the outstanding results!
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BCGS Tax-Exempt Status Approved
The Bucks County Genealogical Society has been notified by the Internal Revenue Service that our application for tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code has been approved. That means that our Society is now officially a non-profit 501(c)(3), corporation, and that donations to the Society (not including membership dues) are tax-deductible to the donor, retroactive to January 9, 2012.
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Members-Only Section
The Members-Only section of the Bucks County Genealogical Society website is now open! If you are a BCGS member, you will have been assigned a user name (normally the beginning part of your email address) and a password. Once you log in, you will be able to access the members-only menu to:
- Renew your membership
- Download handouts from any meeting
- View and download files and photos contributed by members, and add your own contributions
- View a list of members' favorite genealogy websites, and contribute your own favorites
- Attach comments to your ancestors' records in the BCGS database
If you have forgotten your password, go to the login page and click on the "Forgot your password?" link.
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Member Benefits
BCGS members enjoy discounts on subscriptions to GenealogyBank, Fold3, and SavingMemoriesForever, as well as access to our members-only section featuring program handouts and member forums as well as photo and file sharing. Join us to take advantage of these and other benefits of membership.
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Stay in touch
Add your name to our email list by clicking on the button below:
Mission Statement
The mission of the Bucks County Genealogical Society is to promote genealogy through education of its members and the general public, to improve access to genealogical information in Bucks County, to foster collaboration among members, and to assist those researching their family history.
| PLEASE NOTE: The original Bucks County Genealogical Society was formed in 1981, and at its peak had 850 members. In recent years, the original society became inactive. The newly formed Society is a new Non-Profit Pennsylvania Corporation and is not affiliated in any way with the former organization. We'd like to acknowledge the members of the former Society and thank them with deep respect and appreciation for all their hard work spanning decades. They were prolific in their production of books and other tools which Bucks County genealogists will use for years to come, and they are role models for those of us now ready to continue this important work. We salute you!! |