Simsbury Free Library Announces September Programs

This September, the Simsbury Free Library (SFL) will continue its Genealogy Road Show, with two dates, as well as host two special programs. For all events, RSVP via email (simsburyfreelibrary@gmail.com) or phone (860-408-1336).

Genealogy Road Show
Saturdays, September 12 and 26, 2015, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
If you are researching your family tree, but don’t know where else to look to find missing ancestors, bring in your tree. Genealogy librarian Diane LeMay can help with deciphering handwriting, online research, Massachusetts and French-Canadian research, and much more. Free to members; $5 for non-members. RSVPs recommended via email (simsburyfreelibrary@gmail.com) or phone (860-408-1336).

Gifford Pinchot and America’s Early Forest Rangers
Thursday, September 24, 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Bibi Gaston will talk about Gifford Pinchot’s collection of letters (1937-1941) between him and his first class of American foresters, the Old Timers.

Gaston says “I think of the Old Timers Collection as a roadmap. Though we travel back in time, nearly 100 years to the time when these men and women served as forest rangers, the Old Timers collection is something that affords us the opportunity to remember who we are, and what we stood for not so long ago. Not only is the writing absolutely beautiful, but the collection reveals our roots in nature, in the conservation of trees water, wildlife and soil. It is non-partisan. We can all love the landscape. And through it, we hope, we can learn to love one another better.”

The event is free to members; $15 for non-members. To make a reservation or for more information, please call 860-408-1336 or email simsburyfreelibrary@gmail.com.

About the speaker: Bibi Gaston (www.bibigaston.com) is a nationally recognized and fully licensed professional landscape architect. She has provided landscape architecture, site planning and design services for public and private clients throughout the United States since 1986.

Also an author, Gaston had her first book, “The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries and Her Granddaughter’s Search for Home,” published by William Morrow/ Harper Collins in hardback in 2008 and by Harper Perennial in a paperback edition in 2009. Her next book, tentatively titled “A Forester’s Alphabet: Gifford Pinchot, the Old Timers, and 26 Stories to Lead us out of the Woods,” is due to be published this fall.

Connecticut’s Borders and Firelands
Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 1:00 p.m.
Ever wonder how Connecticut came to have the shape it does (like the little notch in the top center and the tail or panhandle in the southwest corner)? Or why several towns in Northeastern Ohio have Connecticut place names (like Avon, Bristol, Southington, Farmington, and Hartford)? The story of our political boundaries is full of curious events, individuals, and disagreements covers 200 years but fits nicely into a 75- minute discussion. Professor Tom Ratliff returns to the Simsbury Free Library with another exciting history talk – this time on Connecticut’s unusual borders and the firelands in Ohio.

The event is free to members; $5 for non-members. To make a reservation or for more information, please call 860-408-1336 or email simsburyfreelibrary@gmail.com.

About the speaker: Tom Ratliff is a former English and Social Studies teacher who writes historical fiction for young adults. An expert on Connecticut History and the Civil War, he has a master’s degree in Early American History.

Ratliff is the co-author of the six-volume Matty Trescott series (written with Carole Shmurak under the pen name Carroll Thomas), and has written non-fiction books for young readers on the Civil War, the Pony Express, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the American Revolution, as well as graphic novelizations of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Last of the Mohicans, and Jack London’s White Fang. His serialized stories for young readers have been published through the Newspapers in Education program in several states.

For the past 20 years, Ratliff has taught at Central Connecticut State University in both the history and secondary education departments. Currently, he is teaching online for the community college system and writing a book about Connecticut’s role in the American Revolution.

About the Simsbury Free Library
The Simsbury Free Library (the Simsbury Genealogical and Historical Research Library) opened on the second floor of the Hopmeadow District School in 1874. In 1890, the Library’s collection was moved to its present location at 749 Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury. Today the Simsbury Free Library (SFL) seeks to promote interest in genealogy and history by providing access to research material and expertise, artifacts, and educational and cultural programs. It seeks to help patrons connect with the past and to learn from and be inspired by those who have gone before them. The SFL provides a relaxed setting in which people can pursue family research history at their own pace. For everyone from seasoned genealogy veterans to beginners, the SFL has the staff and resources necessary to help visitors develop the skills required to create family trees, search local histories, look up census records, explore vital records, etc.

The Simsbury Free Library – the Gracious Yellow Lady – is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and the second and fourth Saturdays of the month from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. as well as by appointment. To RSVP or for more information, visit www.simsburyfreelibrary.org or call (860) 408-1336.