Welcome to CAGGNI!EXTRA SPECIAL ALERT - Please read the 2025 Annual Update from CAGGNI President Cathy Gulbrantson. SPECIAL ALERT - CAGGNI Events are now at a variety of library venues. In-person attendees should make note of the location of each event. October 18 Monthly CAGGNI Presentation:
by Liz Ross
10:30 a.m. CT Saturday, 18 October 2025 Hybrid event – Zoom and Prospect Heights Library The Purple Heart medal is one of the higher awards given by the military for service and is awarded when a soldier is wounded during a conflict. Sometimes personal situations separate the medal from its recipient. PHR's mission is to provide the research which reconnects the medal to its family. Enter a volunteer genealogist. As a volunteer, after getting a picture of the medal, and any information associated with that medal, the volunteer has one week to find a positive identification of the medal recipient, and 2 living descendants. That done, results are written up and sent in. Several times a year an awarding ceremony returns the medals. After a re-counting of the soldier's history, the military liaison hands the medal, now part of a collaged picture, to a lineal descendant of the soldier. I attended one such ceremony in Chicago; it was incredibly moving. Solving the presented puzzle required out of the box thinking and assembling many small pieces. For each project, I started with only name, rank and date, was not allowed to use social media or seek any contact with family or relatives of the soldier, and had one week to identify the soldier and two living relatives. Join Liz as she walks through the research done on 3 recipients of the Purple Heart, the things learned and the thrill of the solution. Liz Ross, professional genealogist for more than 30 years, focuses on the Midwest and its feeder states. She served CAGGNI as VP of programs for 2022-2025 and was Chair of the 2022 Conference. For five years pre-COVID, Ms. Ross led "Second Saturday Genealogy" at the Forest Park Library, a two-hour bi-monthly forum, teaching, mentoring, and encouraging. Nationally and regionally she is published in the Chicago Genealogy Society and DuPage Quarterlies. Proud of her Scottish heritage, Ms. Ross was President of ClanRossAmerica (2 terms), and Trustee (14 years). From 1993-2003 Ms. Ross was Quarterly Editor of ClanRossNews (2 awards), and awarded FSA (Scot) for her work on the newsletter. She lives west of Chicago with a gracious husband, two computers, three spinning wheels and many books. Her email address is RossGen360@outlook.com.
For more info and to register: Purple Hearts Reunited: Honoring The Past
It's always a great time to join CAGGNI!Join now and you’ll enjoy all the perks of membership, including access to meeting handouts, videos, current and past newsletters, and the online meeting links to CAGGNI Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The program committee has produced an exciting lineup of presentations for 2025 and is working on the same for 2026. Meetings in the coming year may be in-person only, online only or a combination of both (hybrid). Please note, non-members are charged a $5 guest fee for the Zoom link to regularly scheduled monthly meetings. Per library policy, any guest attending meetings in person at one of our host libraries will be welcome for no charge. Join CAGGNI | Upcoming Events
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CAGGNI (The Computer Assisted Genealogy Group of Northern Illinois) is a group of amateur genealogists who are committed to effectively using technology and the internet in support of their research activities.
Monthly meeting topics cover a broad range of subjects of interest, including software, tools, techniques and methodologies. Additionally, monthly newsletters, support for computer and genealogy issues and internet surname exposure are among the benefits of membership.
A wide variety of genealogy software packages are used by the members as well online trees and database websites. We are also interested in personal websites, digital photography, handheld apps and other ways to share our family histories.
For questions about the group, comments and suggestions, contact secretary @ caggni.org. To report problems with the website, contact webmaster @ caggni.org.