South Dakota historical research news
Great research news via the February 2026 E-Newsletter of the South Dakota State Historical Society,
Family history sleuth? Please don’t avoid online family trees.
Every time I see someone posting on social media or saying out loud something akin to “I avoid those online family trees.” That may be followed by a comment that they are useless and baseless. Oh, do I disagree. Do I trust all family history details that someone told me, wrote about today or 120 years ago, posted on social media, or compiled into an online tree? No, but the CLUES are there. Don’t accept without verifying what you learn. In life and in genealogy.
I wonder if they also avoid all the family history books on library shelves everywhere and those now digitized? More clues to work with even without source citations.
- A novice genealogist gets excited and copies a tree, then another, and another. They likely don’t know yet that it requires verification. Someone may tell them or they learn more through genealogy webinars, classes, seminars, conferences, and institutes.
- The webinars and other education will provide tips such as look at the mother’s age when her child was born or does that tree have two children born in Indiana, then two in Switzerland, then one in Canada, and the next back in Switzerland. What clues can still be gleaned?
- Online trees can spread when copied by multiple genealogists on one website or to other genealogy websites. This is mainly due to the ease of duplicating them. Before doing this, analyze what is on the tree you looked at. Are there errors that pop out, Are there details you can change with actual documents?
- That tree from another genealogist, whether a novice or been at it for 25 years, can be a road to hours of additional and beneficial research. A fourth daughter named Annabelle who was born in Kansas to a family that was always in Pennsylvania? Hmmm, you didn’t know that your great great grandparents left Altoona and moved for three years to Salina, Kansas! They were there after the 1880 census and left before the 1885 state census in Kansas. They returned to Altoona to the land they hadn’t sold. Annabelle died at 2 years old in Salina and no one ever told you about her. That other genealogist who posted the family tree knew some family details that your part of the family didn’t pass down.
- My own online trees are rather sparse. Names, dates, and places. Some details have attached documentation. More is kept on my computer and some paper files. I welcome inquiries.
- Other researchers may have sparse trees with little documentation, too. Whether because it’s on their own computer or from lack of research, it’s ok to ask them for some details if the tree does have some sound connection to your part of the family. They might have a family bible!
- Yes, there are online trees and even older written family history books that have evidence of little actual research and have copied information from what others have done. If you see one tiny clue that leads to an additional great grandaunt or a connection to the old country, it’s worthwhile.
- Useless? No way. Many things can be learned, shared, investigated, and you add two new third cousins!
Genealogy Learning, Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills.
Next Thursday, 5 February 2026, at 1:00 p.m. EST, Noon CST, 11:00 a.m. MST, and 10:00 a.m. PST, registration opens!
Ready for a week of learning, networking, analysis, and insight to a variety of records to further your genealogy research. Would you like an opportunity to receive help on one of your own genealogy dilemmas? Join us in this virtual course for a week of learning in 19th through 21st century U.S. records, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, and methodology. Full session details https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/…/digging-deeper-records…/
Viewing my past genealogy webinars
Every so often someone asks where they can get a preview of one of my presentations. Most are from a genealogical or historical society or library representative who is interested in hiring me to do a presentation. It’s a good way to learn how I present and the comprehensiveness of the slides and handouts. Continuing education is another reason. There are several ways to view my past presentations.
- Check out the Speaking tab above and browse my upcoming presentations. Most are virtual and many of these one-hour webinars are at no cost for the initial viewing. Use the link from each webinar listing to sign up for the future presentation. Some of my speaking dates are for multi-hour or institute length courses that do require a cost to attend whether in-person or online.
- For past presentations, some societies make arrangements with me to enable society members to view my presentation and the handout for a time after the initial presentation. A nice benefit of membership! Check the society’s website.
- Check Legacy Family Tree Webinars for the back library of my annual presentations for them. The back library requires a subscription, and that includes thousands of other presentations by speakers. Most are 60-75 minutes long and include a syllabus (handout). https://familytreewebinars.com/speaker/paula-stuart-warren/?ref=566036
- Most presentations via Legacy Family Tree Webinars are initially at no cost and for one week after the webinar. After that, a subscription is necessary and is also needed to view the syllabus. For one year it also allows access to almost 2,700 different webinars by presenters from all over the world. That includes over 10,660 syllabus pages.
- My affiliate link for Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscriptions is https://legacyfamilytree.com/product/membership/?ref=566036
- p.s. Even if I do a presentation that I have done before, the PowerPoint slides and the handout/syllabus material are updated and expanded each time a topic is repeated.
Suddenly, it was a 4:00 a.m. bedtime for a genealogist
On a recent evening, I planned to spend a couple hours on some updating and expanding of syllabus material for upcoming presentations. Then I was going to reward myself with some more time on my own family history. I accomplished both and went to bed at 4:00 a.m.
- Added more cousin details to my family tree. That was the plan. Some people ask if we are ever going to be finished with our family history. NO, it’s an ongoing endeavor for many reasons.
- I had previously found many trees online that had a 1942 date of death for a 1c3r who died in Canada, and who had connections to the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. No source citations but some don’t put those online. Several do mention Canada as the death place. It’s tougher to research that time period in Ontario and especially in Quebec. I have a long list of what else has been searched for this family, including in the U.S. Pleasance May/Mary Reinhardt married Thomas Henry Connolly in 1899 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Several of their children were born in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
- My Great Grandmother Marie Delia Malvina Daoust (1875-1958 was a first cousin to Pleasance Mary Reinhardt. My great grandmother was only known to me as Nana or Violet Dow Cook. Her father, Arsene Daoust, changed that to Samuel Dow while they were still living in Montreal. Nana married John Thomas Cook in Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin in 1893. Following all this so far?
- I periodically check for more information on Pleasance and Violet, descendants of Clarinda Copping and Edward Reinhardt. My online trees are pretty basic as I keep most details on my own computer.
- My late night (early morning?) sleuthing finally turned up more details. The one I appreciate the most was a brief notice of the death and funeral for Pleasance Reinhardt Connolly. Another example of why we go back to websites, repositories, databases, and our own records. My searches this night were for variations of her name on Newspapers dot com. Was this newspaper newly added? Newly searchable? New years? Search variations? I’m betting that her own descendants knew of this but for me it was a bonus.
The Montreal Daily Star. Monday, 14 September 1942, page 18, column 2.
NEH humanities grant awards to preserve history
Today’s press release from the National Endowment for the Humanities shows a wide array of grants for preservation, education, research, and fellowships, with resulting growth in the humanities from the U.S. and beyond.
“WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 15, 2026) —The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $75.1 million for 84 humanities projects across the country.”
Several that caught my attention:
ILLINOIS, Champaign. University of Illinois Outright: $271,411
[Project Title: Intensive NAGPRA Summer Training & Education Program (INSTEP)]
Project Description: Four one-week seminars to train cultural heritage professionals
on the legal framework for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act and best practices around its implementation. The project would also develop an
open-access textbook on the topic with video modules on Tribal consultation.
MINNESOTA, Minneapolis
Midwest Art Conservation Center, Inc. Outright: $297,003, Match: $50,000 [Preservation and Access Education and Training]
Project Description: Preservation field services for smaller organizations in the Upper
Midwest. These services would include educational workshops and webinars,
preservation planning, preservation actions, and resource development and sharing.
NEBRASKA, Lincoln
Katrina Jagodinsky Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships], University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Project Title: Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812–
1924. Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on the widespread use
of the legal principle of habeas corpus by petitioners in American western courts
between 1812 and 1924.
TEXAS, San Marcos
Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships], Texas State University – San Marcos Project Title: Comanche Captivity and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1700–1875.
6 February 2026. Mark that on the calendar for GRIP Genealogy Institute registration!
Omigosh!! 6 February 2026 is less than a month away. That’s when registration opens for the 2026 summer GRIP Genealogy Institute courses. The virtual week is 22-26 June and the in-person week is 12-17 July.
I’m just a bit partial to the course Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills that runs during the June virtual week. I have been the coordinator of that course since the beginning of this institute. It has been updated, expanded, and the accompanying digital syllabus alone is amazing. That’s because the instructors that assist me with this course are experienced, knowledgeable, and friendly professionals. Amy E. K. Arner, CG®; Cyndi Ingle; Debbie Mieszala, CG®; and Cari Taplin, CG® do an amazing job in this course.
This may be your course! It covers 19th through 21st century US records, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, and methodology. This course often serves as preparation for other GRIP courses. It is a separate, but complementary, course to the 2025 debut of BEYOND Digging Deeper: Sources, Methods, and Practices. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, this course is for you.
- Are you past the beginning stages of researching your family history?
- Have you researched online but know there is more elsewhere or that you have missed some resources?
- Do you need a stronger foundation before taking advanced or specialized courses?
- Are you not yet comfortable with in-depth evaluation of documents, deciding what to do next, and delving into less-commonly used collections?
When we have checked basic records and done online searches but still have missing details, we need more leads and to do a better job of analyzing records. We will dig deeper into a variety of records, some you may have never heard about, and where they are found. There will be hands-on and interactive activities, small group discussions, and full class interaction. There’s more to learn about the individual sessions of this course so check out these links:
Facebook for updates between now and the course dates:
https://www.facebook.com/GRIPGenealogyInstitute
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gripgenealogyinstitute
MyHeritage website adds 9 new languages
MyHeritage announces that its website is now “available in 50 languages, following the addition of 9 more languages. This expansion enables millions more people around the world to discover who they are and where they belong, in their native language.” Further they said “It will also lead to more valuable matches and discoveries for MyHeritage users worldwide as more diverse audiences join and build their family trees on the platform.” The new languages are listed below. Wish I could read more of these!
- Albanian
- Basque
- Bosnian
- Georgian
- Icelandic
- Irish
- Luxembourgish
- Maltese
- Welsh
Free BCG-Sponsored 2026 Webinars
Press release from BCG.
Registration for the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ twelve monthly webinars in 2026 is now live at our partner website Legacy Family Tree Webinars, BCG Upcoming Webinars
(http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=6803).
2026 Dates, speakers, and topics:
20 January 2026. Gary L. Ball-Kilbourne, PhD, CG ® , CGL ® , “Beyond the First Clue: Unraveling a Genealogical Mystery with the GPS.”
17 February 2026. Angela Packer McGhie, CG ® , FUGA, “Lineage in Context: Creating a
Compelling Kinship-Determination Project”
17 March 2026. Kelley Conner Lear, CG ® , “Patterns from the Past: Using Visuals to Showcase Correlation and Analysis”
21 April 2026. Kristina Gow Clever, CG ® , “What’s in a Name? Finding Your Norwegian
Ancestors”
19 May 2026. Patti Lee Hobbs, CG ® , CGG ® , “Common-Sense Principles for Establishing Genetic Relationships”
16 June 2026. Jill Morelli, CG ® , CGL ® , “Mastering Data Collection”
21 July 2026. David Ouimette, CG ® , CGL ® , “Supercharged Research: Working with AI Tools and Meeting Genealogy Standards”
18 August 2026. Jennifer Zinck, CG ® , AG ® , “DNA Helps Identify Parents for James Dolan”
15 September 2026. Claire Ammon, CG ® , “Against the Peace and Dignity of the
Commonwealth”
20 October 2026. Karen Stanbary, CG ® , CGG ® , Joy Reisinger Lecture: “¡Eureka! Confirmación del Lineaje Ancestral: DNA and Documents Prove a Mexican Ancestral Line”
17 November 2026. Francine Crowley Griffis, MSc, CG ® , AG ® , QG™, “Snake Oil, Collusion, and a Battle of Wills: Proving Identity from a Network of Deception”
15 December 2026. Jan Joyce, CG ® , CGL ® , “Left Behind Dead or Alive: Finding Answers from Those Who Remained”
“BCG supports continuing education for all genealogists,” said President Angela Packer
McGhie, CG ® , FUGA. “We sponsor webinars to help family historians build their knowledge and skills.”
Following the free period for these webinars, BCG receives a small commission if you view any BCG webinar by clicking at our affiliate link:
For access to all BCG webinars, see the BCG Webinar Library at
Legacy Family Tree Webinars legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619
To see the full list of BCG-sponsored webinars for 2026, visit the BCG website at
https://bcgcertification.org/learning/bcg-webinars. For additional resources for genealogical
education, please visit the BCG Learning Center (https://bcgcertification.org/learning).
Genealogy syllabus work makes me think and I enjoy it
One of my work projects this week is my part of the syllabus for two sessions in the upcoming Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research course “Repository Research: From Website to Doorway.” See my 28 December post on this course for more details and to register for one of the seats that are still open in this live online course. I bet my fellow instructors and our coordinator, Cyndi Ingle, are also working on their syllabus parts. genealogybypaula.com/2025/12/institute-of-genealogy-and-historical-research-course-listing-and-registration-link/
As I was doing some updating and adding to the syllabus, several points kept popping into my mind about places we should visit to research our family history. The indexes that are available only in these repositories is a topic that makes me want to haul out the suitcase!
- The indexes that cover much more than the locality in which they are situated.
- As I reviewed websites of some specific genealogical society libraries, I kept finding things that weren’t there a few months ago.
- The indexes that are available on their websites.
- In some ways, it seems that various state archives are adding online finding aids more than even a year ago. Are some of them trying to keep up with each other?
- Time to add more on the old articles in genealogy and history magazines and journals that provide insight into what research materials are held at a specific repository.
Many new things to add to the syllabus!