Interest Groups

Photo Club to meet October 12

^The UMRA Photo Club will meet via Zoom to share and discuss photos on the theme of water at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 12.

Take a hike!

“Hike for health and friendship” seems like a great motto for the new UMRA Hiking Club. Welcome hikers! 

Book notes | Marcel’s Letters

Event Date: September 17, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Marcel’s Letters, by Minnesota author and graphic designer Carolyn Porter, is a fascinating journey from a small river town to war-torn Europe.

Book notes | House on Endless Waters

Event Date: August 20, 2021, at 2:00 PM

When Yoel Blum travels from his home in Israel to Amsterdam, where he was born, he begins a journey of finding out the many things his mother kept from him, which leads to a new understanding of who he is.

Family History Interest Group 2021–22 schedule

UMRA member Vicki Gaylord will share ways she has found to engage family members in the family history work she has done when the Family History Interest Group meets in October.

September 22, 2021 -- Jewish history, Sweden and Norway

Event Date: September 22, 2021, at 11:30 AM

The UMRA Armchair Traveler Program featured a compelling presentation by Charles Muscoplat about his wife Sue's and his visits to the WWII Concentration Camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and Jewish historical sites in Budapest and Prague. Lynn C. Anderson shared pictures and information about her 2019 visit to Oslo, Krokerøy, and Bergen Norway and Tanumshede, Orust, and Uddevalla Sweden.

Book notes | Just Mercy

Event Date: July 16, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Although at times emotionally difficult, Just Mercy is an important book about the problems of our legal system and the amazing work of the Equal Justice Initiative.

Book notes | Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Event Date: August 27, 2021, at 2:00 PM

More than a century after the timeframe of this tale of harrowing illness and intertwined heartbreak, the parallels with today’s COVID-19 pandemic and current wars struck Book Club II participants as eerie.

Book notes | The Last Tycoon

Event Date: June 25, 2021, at 2:00 PM

The Last Tycoon is a beautifully rendered story about the tension of a culture aspiring to creativity but dominated by cynicism, greed, and commercial imperatives.

Book notes | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Event Date: June 23, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Of all the books by John Le Carré, this novel about secrets, lies, and shifting identities is regarded as the most entertaining.

Book notes | The Big Burn

Event Date: June 18, 2021, at 2:00 PM

The Big Burn is an educational, breathtaking story about the largest wildfire in U.S. history, the men whose heroic actions worked to save people and land, and President Teddy Roosevelt’s embattled efforts to “save America.”

Civil War Ancestors

Event Date: June 16, 2021, at 10:00 AM

In June 2021 I talked to the UMRA Family History Interest Group about how I documented the story of my great grandfather, George Swift, who joined the 3rd Minnesota Regiment at the start of the Civil War in 1861and returned to Minnesota four years later after serving as the drummer boy of the Ohio 69th Regiment.

Will Craig

Starting with a short family story from my Grandmother, I traced and documented the Civil War experiences of my great grandfather, George Swift.

Lynn Anderson

My paternal grandfather Hildum Anselm Anderson was in France during the WWI and in France, Luxembourg, and Germany after WWI...

Book notes | The Black Tulip

Event Date: May 28, 2021, at 2:00 PM

Although not as well-known as the author’s earlier novels The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas père is a beautifully crafted novel, rich in its telling with themes of love, courage, honesty, politics, and the destructive capacity of jealousy.