On the second Monday of each month, members of the Vicksburg Genealogical Society come together to share information and learn about the past. For some, it also serves as an outlet to aid in searching out their family lineage.

“It is always a learning experience being a member of the Vicksburg Genealogical Society, and it is rewarding,” Tony Dardaue said.

Dardaue serves on the VGS editorial board and is the journal editor for the Vicksburg Genealogical Society ‘s Mississippi River Routes journal.

On Monday, the group will hold its first meeting of 2017, at 6 p.m. at Hawkins United Methodist Church, 3736 Halls Ferry Road.

Members and guests are invited to attend, Dardaue said.

The program will be the group’s annual show and tell meeting.

The VGS was formed in 1982 and incorporated in 1986. Dardaue said the organization has about 80 members, and 15 to 20 regularly attend the monthly meetings.

Meetings consists of programs, some of which have included Marty Kittrell and his “How Great Thou Art” photography, Dardaue said, and Glenda LaGarde, who spoke on the 175th Anniversary of St. Paul Catholic Church.

In addition to the meetings, the VGS also publishes the Mississippi River Routes journal.

The quarterly journal includes original well-documented material from Mississippi and Louisiana.

According to the group’s website, in the 11 years of its publication, the MMR journal has had an abundance of material covering a wide temporal and geographic range. Also, its articles have reflected many types of source documents that members and friends have shared. That attracts and keeps a wide readership, Dardaue said.

Some of the more recent submissions in the MMR journal include information on mastodon bones found near Vicksburg, a story published in the Vicksburg Evening Post in 1888 about the high mass that was held to dedicate and bless the St. Paul Bells, and two congruent newspaper articles on sisters.

One of those stories was reported in the Vicksburg Evening Post on Jan. 16, 1911 and was on the marriage of Miss Lola Atkins. The other story was reported in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal on Jan. 24, 1911 and gives the account of how Atkins’ sister took her life following the news of the nuptials.

Apparently, Ella Brown, Atkins’ sister, must have felt she would now be left behind after her sister married.

The cost of a VGS membership is $25 and includes a subscription to the quarterly journals.

For more information and a complete listing of monthly programs visit, rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msvgs/events.