As ICON makes plans to provide programs and instruction for all levels of users, ICON's Genealogy Special Interest Group (SIG) will meet only one more time – on May 24. In that fourth-Saturday time slot, we are going to have (for a time) an Advanced Technology Forum for advanced users. The Genealogy folks are invited to attend the meetings of the Ozarks Genealogical Society (OGS) at The Library Center on South Campbell. You'll have the opportunity to attend three programs a month instead of one, and if we decide we want to have a meeting of our own other than on a Saturday, that option is a possibility. Upcoming OGS programs are:

• Monday May 5 - 7:00 p.m. Computer Workshop: "The Federal Census Revisited – Are you getting the most from your online census searches?"
• Wednesday May 14 - 9:30 a.m. Business Meeting and Program: "Cherokee Indians – Both Sides of the Trail of Tears" by Dallie Howerton
• Wednesday May 28 - 9:30 a.m. Genealogy Workshop: "Roll Call for Our Veterans" Show and Tell
• Monday June 2 - 7:00 p.m. Computer Workshop
• Wednesday June 11 - 9:30 a.m. Business Meeting and Program: "Buried Treasures in Tax and License Records" by Robert Neumann, Archives Supervisor of the Greene County Archives

In June and continuing in September, OGS is co-sponsoring with Drury University's Institute for Mature Learning and a study series, "The Immigrant Experience." The curriculum comes from OASIS and the text, Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America by Thomas Dublin, will be the basis for the series – first-person stories of opportunities and obstacles faced by immigrant families. A special reduced fee of $2 per session is offered for this session, and classes will be at 2 p.m. each Tuesday in the Olin Library, Olin Room downstairs, with parking available on Lot 7 on Summit Street behind Weiser Gym.

Following are excerpts of an e-mail I received from Bill Longman:

The Immigrant Experience
Members of OGS are invited to a study about the many immigrants coming to America in classes co-sponsored by the Drury Institute for Mature Learning and the Ozarks Genealogical Society and in cooperation with the several ethnic heritage groups.

Place: Drury University either in Olin Library or Bay Hall
Dates: six sessions in June into July (see below)
Time: 2:00 p.m. each Tuesday for one hour
Cost: Institute for Mature Learning membership only $35 for entire year for all courses. Or special rate of $2.00 per session for the Immigrant Experience to be collected at each class.
Parking: Lot 7 or 1 (see map [pdf])
Guidelines: www.oasisnet.org/immigrant/project.htm

A bibliography will be available, but no required reading and you need not purchase a book.

• Immigrant Experience beginning June 3 with "A Brief Introduction and History," discussion of the waves of immigration plus a documentary "They Came to America" led by Bill Longman, curriculum chair, member of Ozarks Genealogical Society. In Olin Room at Olin Library
• June 10 on "Out of One, Many" focusing on Irish and especially German immigration and Ozarks settlement led by former state representative David Rauch serving on advisory board of the German-Austrian-Swiss Heritage Society of the Ozarks. In Olin Room at Olin Library
• June 17 on "Immigrants to America: Did They Fit In? An examination of European immigrants to America from the early 19th century through World War I with an emphasis on changing reactions to them by native Americans. George Hummasti, professor of history Missouri State. In Olin Room at Olin Library.
• June 24 on "Post World War I & II Immigrants," the personal stories of several immigrants including a former member of the Polish Olympic team, chaired by retired Federal prisons chaplain Sol Codillo. In Hearth Room in Bay Hall
• July 1 on "Coming to Ellis Island and Other Ports of Entry" as destinations for many seeking freedom, with conclusion of the documentary "They Came to America" led by Mary Blanche, president of the Institute and former teacher. In Olin Room in Olin Library
• July 8 on "The Spanish-Mexican Population in Early America" as found in Florida and the Southwest in Colonial times up to World War I, led by David Adams, retired professor of history, MSU. In Hearth Room of Bay Hall.

Immigrant Experience will continue in September on literature and in November on films related to immigrants and then in February '09 on immigrant food.

Questions: Bill Longman at 883-2975 or cell 763-0739. Visit the Institute for Mature Learning web site (schedule should be posted by the time you read this).