Museum Hosting Statewide Genealogy Workshop Oct. 15
The Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives will host a free Genealogy Workshop in the downstairs meeting room on Friday, Oct. 15.
Reserve your spot and join for one or all of the eight streamed genealogy programs organized statewide by the Waco Public Library. This will be the fifth year for the Museum and Archives to host the event in La Grange.
The number of attendees will be limited due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19, so registration is required in advance. Everyone will also be asked to wear a mask to protect fellow attendees. The following is a schedule of events for the workshop:
• 10-10:50 a.m., NARA Mythbusters: Your Family IS in the Archives, Judy G Russell, JD, CG, CGL, The Legal Genealogist, sponsored by: Friends of Corpus Christi Public Libraries, Beginner difficulty level.
“All the military records were burned in the fire.” “There isn’t any birth, marriage or death information in federal records.” “There aren’t any details about ordinary families at the National Archives.” These kinds of mythstatements stop genealogist from breaking down all kinds of brick walls using the wealth of information in NARA records. Join the myth busters with the treasures the National Archives holds for your family.
• 11-11:50 a.m., Methodology: Using Timelines to Focus Your Research, Susan Ball, President Texas State Genealogical Society, Beginner difficulty level.
The most important tool you can use to research your ancestor is a timeline. Learn how to construct a timeline for your ancestor and use it to uncover previously overlooked avenues for research.
• 12-1:15 p.m., Beginning Genealogy Workshop, Kathy Huber, MLS, Director of the Tulsa Genealogy Center, Hardesty Public Library, Beginner difficulty level.
This workshop will explain the steps necessary to begin your family history research and introduce useful records that will assist you in getting started on the right tract. Exploring some basic genealogy research records, we’ll discuss how to locate and use them to your advantage.
• 1:25-2:30 p.m., So, You’ve Found Your German Town of Origin, Now What? Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, certified genealogist, sponsored by: Waco-McLennan County Library, Intermediate difficulty level.
Finding your ancestor’s town of origin can be exciting. Once this piece of information is found, you might be left wondering how to get records from the other side of the ocean. This lecture focuses on how to get records for German towns. Highlights include: verifying the location, strategies for identifying misspelled town names, finding historical jurisdictions, finding records for that town, useful aids for reading those records, tips for hiring a professional genealogist in Germany, when necessary.
• 2:40-3:35 p.m., Fingerprinting Our Families: Using Ancestral Origins as a Genealogical Research Key, Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, IGSF Manager, The Genealogy Center Senior Manager, Special Collections, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Beginner difficulty level.
Explore how the concept of “America, the Great Melting Pot” may really be a flawed concept. Identifying the ethnic group of one’s ancestor or potential ancestor can pay some significant research dividends. Topics covered include how to build a historical context for one’s ancestor, studying population clusters, paying attention to patterns of all sorts (naming, migration, settlement, etc.), understanding the motivations of migration, and locating resource repositories.
• 3:45-5 p.m., Attacking 18th and 19th Century Mysteries with DNA, Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D., The Genetic Genealogist, sponsored by: Waco-McLennan County Library, Intermediate difficulty level.
Did you know that you have an arsenal of Secret DNA Weapons at your fingertips? These tools can help you attack those mysteries from the 1900s and 1800s. Learn how to harness the power of Shared Matching to pull out matches related via a mystery ancestor, how to build Research Trees to quickly identify common ancestry, and more.
• 5:10-6 p.m., Filling in the Family Stories, Susan Kaufman, Senior Manager, Houston Public Library, Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Beginner difficulty level.
This presentation, through examples of sources, will help you to understand the context in which your family lived, celebrated, cooked, listened to music, and other daily activities that all help provide the stories that make our families come alive. Stories in context go beyond just a name, date and place on a pedigree chart. Social history helps us to better understand lives, provides context to our research, adds interest to the pedigree chart and can also lead to additional records.
• 6:10-7 p.m., Discover Genealogical Treasure Using Historic U.S. Maps, Hannah Kubacak, Genealogy Librarian, Genealogy Center Waco-McLennan County Library, Intermediate difficulty level.
Maps provide a valuable tool for understanding the world as it was when our ancestors were living. Explore a variety of resources for finding and using historic maps. A few of the maps to be discussed during this presentation will include Fire Insurance maps, county boundaries, Public Land Survey System maps, and land grants.
Please contact the Library at archives@cityoflg.com for more information or to register for one or more sessions. Handouts will be provided.