Harlingen Happenings

By Mary Torres, Special to MyRGV.com

Happy Halloween! Today is Halloween and many celebrations have already taken place in our community, unlike last year when activities were curtailed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The origin of the celebration dates back over 2,000 years to the Celtic festival of Samhain held on November 1 in Ireland. This date marked the end of summer, the beginning of the New Year, and the start of winter and was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV, designated November 1 All Saints’ Day to honor saints and martyrs.

The night before the celebration began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Later the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day to honor the dead. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas. In Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, Halloween is known as “Dia de Los Muertos,” the three-day period beginning the evening of October 31 and ending on November 2, that honors departed loved ones and celebrates the continuity of life. In Mexico, All Saints’ Day, November 1, honors deceased children and infants as well as saints and martyrs.

FamilySearch.org has announced new free historical records for the week of October 11, 2021. If you haven’t already searched these records you can look for more ancestors in Liberia, Canada, Finland, Brazil, France, and Venezuela. You can also look for family connections in thousands of Catholic Church records for Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru. New U.S. content was added for Arizona, Washington, South Carolina, and Texas.

Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert, MyHeritage.com recently announced the publication of 463 million historical records from France in five collections: birth, marriage, death, and two censuses. The collections provide the most comprehensive coverage available for vital records from France in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Until now they have been available exclusively through Filae, a leading French genealogy company recently acquired by MyHeritage. The collections cover nearly every department in France and include a high-quality index of the transcribed records and digital images of the original documents.

Millions of these records are exclusive to MyHeritage and Filae and cannot be found on other commercial sites. By the end of the year, MyHeritage will publish hundreds of millions of additional records from Filae, further solidifying its position as an invaluable resource for anyone researching their French heritage. These new collections significantly bolster MyHeritage’s historical record offering in France, with a total of 514 million French records, and bring the total number of historical records on MyHeritage to 15.6 billion.

The Clayton Library,  Houston, is hosting a free virtual program, “Native American and First Nations Research,” at 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 12. Learn about the first steps in Native American genealogical research by guest speaker, Curt Witcher, Director of Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN. who will cover major record groups and provide an extensive bibliography. To register visit  https://houstonlibrary.libcal.com/event/7992269.

The  Valley Byliners will host a monthly meeting at the Harlingen Public Library Auditorium on Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m. and on Zoom at:

https://zoom.us/j/91395354611?pwd=cmRxcGEydVhIRHVFeElmSlR1UWpWUT09

Meeting ID: 913 9535 4611, Passcode: 744187. The  Monthly Writing Challenge this month will be: Poetry 60 Lines. All members and guests are encouraged to send in their poetry to [email protected].

The Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Genealogical Society’s last meeting for 2021 will be held at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 21 at the Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum. This is the annual member appreciation meeting and the start of the membership drive for 2022. There will be a report on the 41st Annual State Hispanic Genealogical & Historical Conference hosted by the RGVHGS at the Hilton Garden Inn, South Padre Island on Oct. 14-16. The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit the society’s Facebook page.