Annual Genealogy Workshop Begins Oct. 21

In celebration of October as Family History Month, the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives in La Grange will again join the Genealogy Network of Texas (GNT) for a series of eight streamed genealogy programs on Friday, Oct. 21 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The GNT is a state-wide initiative to connect libraries and provide educational and research opportunities and is spearheaded by the Genealogy Center of the Waco-McLennan County Library.

This free programming includes something for everyone. You may attend one or all of the sessions. Beginners are welcome and local genealogists will be on hand to answer questions. Handouts, coffee and snacks will be provided.

• Deciphering Handwriting in Genealogical Records with Joseph B. Everett, family and local history librarian at the Brigham Young University Library, kicks off the event at 9 am – 10:00 am. with an intermediate level program. In this age of technology, reading handwriting is becoming a lost skill, but it is essential for success in genealogical research. It is not enough to rely on computer indexes, when they exist, to find and interpret records, as these only include a portion of the information and often contain errors. Learn about techniques and tools for improving your skills in deciphering handwritten documents. Information about developments in handwritten text recognition will also be included.

• Improve, Expand, and Enrich your Family Tree—With Tax Records! with Doug Waggoner, family historian, from 10:10 a.m. to 11 a.m. is a beginner level program. With some simple techniques, you can use tax records to expand your knowledge of your ancestors. You will discover new relatives, differentiate between people with similar names, and break through brick walls. You will also learn far more about where and how they lived.

• Choosing Genealogy Services & Software with Tony Hanson, family historian, from 11:10 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. is an intermediate level program. This presentation will provide a high-level overview of the capabilities offered by online genealogical services, genetic DNA testing services, and family tree software providers with the goal of helping participants make informed choices from the wide range of products and services that are currently available.

• Building and Researching Your Family Tree with Bill Buckner and Hannah Kubacak of the Genealogy Center at the Waco–McLennan County Library, from 12:25 to 1:35 p.m. is a beginner level program. Budding researchers will learn the basic concepts, skills, search strategies and resources needed to get started researching their family tree. Walk through the process of recording what you already know, getting organized, collecting, and evaluating the information you find. Learn to navigate online and print resources for records of genealogical value–vital, cemetery, obituaries, census, immigration records and more.

• Citing Sources Without Stressing Out with Amy Johnson Crow, founder and lead educator at Generations Connection and host of Generations Café podcast, from 1:45 to 2:35 p.m. is another beginner level program. Citing sources is one of those things in genealogy research that tends to make us kind of twitchy. We know we should be doing it and we want to do them right. There is a key to thinking about citing sources— and it won’t raise your blood pressure.

• Making the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Your Research Assistant with Curt B. Witcher, senior manager of the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 2:45 to 3:35 p.m. is a beginner level program. This presentation will provide an up-close look at the resources of this national family history collection, emphasizing the many resources that are free from anywhere. Participating in this presentation will help one truly make the Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana their research assistant.

• How to Approach and Solve Brick Wall Problems with DNA with Sara Allen, senior librarian of the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library, from 3:45 to 5 p.m., is an intermediate level presentation. Learn steps to evaluate your brick wall problem, learn best DNA tests to use for different problems, and how to work with the DNA results and genealogical research to solve the problem. We will also go over several case studies that utilize these strategies.

• United States Migration Patterns: Why They Left, Where They Went, and the Stories They Left Behind with LeAnne McCamey, professional genealogist, publisher, author, and owner of American Genealogical Research Services, from 5:10 to 6 p.m., winds up the day with an intermediate level program. This program provides a broad overview of migration touching on the reasons to study migration and the keys to understanding migration. The four distinct migration time periods are briefly addressed in addition to the reasons people migrated and finding the documents and records they left behind during their migration. Instruction is given in the methodology of developing a migratory tracing of an individual or family.

This is the sixth year the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives has participated in this event, which will take place in the Archives above the Fayette Public Library at 855 S. Jefferson St. in La Grange. For additional information or to reserve a spot, contact Rox Ann Johnson at (979) 968-3765 or archives@cityoflg.com.