Rhode Island Genealogical Society
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Sunday, March 24
RIGS Membership Half-Day March Meeting
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Virtually on Zoom
The March Membership meeting of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society will be held on Sunday, March 24, 2024 from 12:30 - 3 pm and will be virtual only via Zoom. An e-mail reminder with the link will be sent prior to the meeting. Grab some snacks and get yourself logged in by 12:30 am on Sunday, March 24th. Questions may be asked after each talk or typed into the chat box. There will be brief breaks between speakers.
 
Our first speaker, Mark Arslan, will begin at 1pm.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Armenian Immigration Project Database
    Mark Arslan will present an overview of his Armenian Immigration Project database, which is a free searchable online collection of abstracts of primary documentary sources relating to Armenians who came to the United States and Canada prior to World War II. The types of sources include ship manifests, naturalization applications, federal censuses, military draft registrations, passport applications, missing persons ads, and vital records. Most of the families who settled in the Rhode Island area during this timeframe are represented in the database.
     Mark is ¼ Armenian, through his paternal grandfather Dikran Arslanian, who immigrated to America in 1906 from Keghi, Erzurum, Turkey in the Ottoman Empire. Mark has been researching his Armenian genealogy since 1971 and expanded his research to include all those of Armenian descent who came to America (USA and Canada) from the mid-1800's to the early 1900's. Mark is retired from a 35-career at IBM Corporation in technical services and sales. Mark grew up mostly on the west coast and has lived in North Carolina since 1990. He is married with three children and three grandchildren. His hobbies include genealogy and historical research, hiking, and travel.
 
 
Our second speaker, Keith W. Stokes, will begin at 2:00 pm. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Gilded Age Rhode Island in Color
     The story of Newport, Rhode Island in the Gilded Age (1865-1915) is anchored by the economic, social and civic achievements of many of America’s wealthiest individuals and families, notably the Vanderbilts, Astors, Belmonts, Oelrichses and Berwinds. These names represent the critical economic and cultural growth period of late 19th- and early 20th-century America. Newport also was home to many important African heritage business entrepreneurs who would leverage their commercial enterprises to promote economic security and build wealth to invest in and advance civic, recreational, social and political interests. Newport’s earliest African heritage doctors, dentists, teachers, hospitality entrepreneurs and elected officials appeared during the Gilded Age. This exhibition explores a largely unknown but important chapter in American history in which African heritage families could come together and promote their economic and social well-being through self-reliance, entrepreneurism, political advancement and cultural interchange.
     In all of the various roles in his four decades of public service to Rhode Island Keith W. Stokes is driven to create community for all who call the ocean state home. From elected city official in his beloved home of Newport to statewide office as a gubernatorial appointment on economic development to his service for the City of Providence, Stokes sought to braid public dollars with private development to foster a beloved community. Keith took an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his formative graduate work on public policy was obtained at the University of Chicago. Woven into the formal education are the stories of a generation of ancestors whispering long shared stories of a time before the American Revolution and the lens to see the present. Keith is presently Vice President with the 1696 Heritage Group. He has also been an Advisor for Rhode Island with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and served on numerous local, regional, and national business and public boards, including Preservation Society for Newport County, Touro Synagogue Foundation, Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission Historical Review Board, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, Quonset Development Corporation, Rhode Island Foundation, and the American Antiquarian Society. His current passion is borne of a heritage that extends before the republic and ground his roots in the land of Rhode Island. From his father the cerebral and equally physical baseball, and from his mother a grounding in history and a curiosity to learn more about his African, Jewish and Caribbean family roots. He frequently appears on national historical programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News Legends & Lies, and Ted Talk. Recently, he was the lead researcher and author of “A Matter of Truth” publication for the examination and documentation of the role of the City of Providence and State of Rhode Island in supporting a “Separate and Unequal” existence for African heritage, Indigenous, and People of Color. He is a 9th generation Rhode Islander and calls Newport home with his beloved wife Theresa and is the father of four children, and an extended clan of Pit Bull dogs that he rescues and nurtures.
 



Saturday, May 18
RIGS Full-Day Annual Meeting
9:30 am to 3:00 pm
New England Institute of Technology, 1 New ENgland Tech Boulevard, East Greenwich, RI 02818
The Annual meeting of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society will be held on Saturday, May 18, 2024.
 
The theme of our meeting will be Writing and Publishing and our speakers will include Drew Bartley, Michael Leclerc and Jenifer Kahn Bakkala. There will be a local RI Historical Societies Exhibition & Fair.
 
More details regarding the program for this full-day meeting will be available soon!