Dr. Maruta Lietiņš Ray will present on her memoir Refugee Girl. Have you ever thought that your memories may be worthy of recording for future generations, but you don’t know where to begin? Maruta Ray will share her process and some of her story she wanted to preserve with historical accuracy for her grandchildren.

Maruta Ray will present on her childhood memoir, Refugee Girl, for the St. Cloud Area Genealogists in-person on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 7 p.m. at Stearns History Museum (235 33rd Ave. S., St. Cloud). The presentation will be available synchronously online and will be recorded for members of SCAG and registered guests. Refugee Girl (published in 2021 and available from Amazon and at the Great River Regional Library) follows a world in turmoil as seen through the eyes of a child born during World War II in Latvia, part of the "bloodlands" of Europe. The author lived under Hitler and Stalin, spent a short time in a Nazi internment camp and five years in a UN Displaced Persons camp. At age 10, she came to America on a troop transport ship and grew up in New York. Come hear Ray’s story of how, at a time of mental and physical anguish and scarcity, people displayed a miraculous resiliency and the courage to alter their life’s path.

Dr. Maruta Lietiņš Ray is a professor emerita at the University of Virginia and now lives in Central Minnesota.

Stearns History Museum (235 33rd Ave. S., St. Cloud) and synchronously online. The event will be recorded to watch for two weeks after event.

Free for members of St. Cloud Area Genealogists, $7 for Guests - register at scagmn.org/store at least 2 days prior to event.

Join us at the historic Fishers Supper Club in Avon, as we regale you with fascinating tales from the days of moonshine, speakeasies, Minnesota 13, and police raids in Stearns County.

Free for Stearns History Museum Members, $10 per Guest

Discover how to trace family and local history using key historical records! This program will introduce all types of records-birth, census, naturalization, military, land records and more and show you where to find them, how to read them, and how to use them in historical research.

Free for Members of Stearns History Museum, $10 for guests

Thousands of Germans from Russia immigrated to the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries, many to the Upper Midwest. What did they bring with them? A prayer book. A gold gross. A pair of socks. A sewing basket. A scrap of paper. Sandy Schilling Payne will explore storytelling through the “eyes” of these treasured objects our Germans from Russia ancestors brought with them and left behind for their descendants.

Sandy Schilling Payne will present “What They Carried: Storytelling Through Objects” for the St. Cloud Area Genealogists online on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 7 p.m. at Stearns History Museum (235 33rd Ave S., St. Cloud). The presentation will be available remotely and will be recorded for members of SCAG and registered guests.

Sandy Schilling Payne is a descendant of Black Sea Germans on both sides of her family - Lutherans from the Glückstal colonies and Catholics from the Kutschurgan colonies. Her interest in genealogy began in 1994, and she has since researched her German ancestors into the modern-day countries of Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Canada, and the United States. She is a part of the Black Sea German Research group, the webmaster for the Glückstal Colonies Research Association, and the author of the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project.

Stearns History Museum (235 33rd Ave. S., St. Cloud) and synchronously online. The event will be recorded to watch for two weeks after event.

Free for members of St. Cloud Area Genealogists, $7 for Guests - register at scagmn.org/store at least 2 days prior to event.

The conference aims to teach participants how to access more collections and how to be more inclusive in their own genealogy endeavors.

Reserve October 24 and 25 for this year's 18th North Star Genealogy Conference at the Eagan Community Center, Eagan, MN. Hear featured speakers David E. Rencher, director of FamilySearch and current president of the National Genealogical Society, and J.H. "Jay" Fonkert, our own geo-genealogist and former president of the Minnesota Genealogical Society, as they help us 'chart our ancestral course'. Visit the conference web site to find out more about these stellar speakers and the plenary sessions they'll be presenting during the two-day conference.

We are looking for new and informative breakout session topics to complete the conference schedule. If you are a speaker and would like to share your expertise, get the Request for Proposal (RFP) information, which has a link to the proposal submission form. You can also find the RFP and submission form links on the main conference page. Proposals are due by March 30th.

Keep checking the conference web site as we continue to plan. Registration opens in early July. We hope to see you all in October in Eagan.