Legacy Family Tree Webinars 24-hour marathon

A 24-hour marathon of webinars is taking place NOW through Legacy Family Tree Webinars. The presentations are free when first given and after a couple days, will be available for 1-week for free. 

Most presentations include a handout but those are only available to those who have a Legacy Family Tree Webinars. What does a $49.95 membership do for you?

  • Access at any time to the library of 1,700+ past webinars
  • Access at any time to the 6,400+ pages of handouts
  • 5% discount on items in the store
  • Access to chat logs from webinars
  • First door prize chance during live webinars
  • More details at https://familytreewebinars.com/

This makes sense education-wise and budget-wise. Consider joining today and please use my affiliate membership link to help support my own blog. http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=1739

 

Indigenous research in Canada

At the end of my Native American research webinar for the Boston Public Library, a question was asked about French Canadian and Native research. These are a few links that may be helpful. It’s not my area of expertise but I welcome comments on additional resources to assist researchers. 

 

 

Updates after Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society Conference

This past Saturday, I presented four sessions virtually for the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society Spring Conference. It was a great day for me, and the audience was wonderfully involved. The organizers ran it well and I thank them for the invitation. They asked for some additional information and some repeats of what appeared in my PowerPoints in addition to the handout. 

  1. First morning presentation: U.S. Federal Government: Underutilized Research Resources

     A few Record Groups:

  • Census RG 29
  • Pension records RG 15
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs RG 75
  • Bureau of Land Management RG 49
  • Department of the Interior RG 48
  • USCIS RG 566

  • Naval History and Heritage Command: https://www.history.navy.mil/

Military Headstone Articles:

Claire Prechtel-Kluskens. Headstone Records for US Military Veterans. Part I: Headstone Design NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): 30- 33. FHL 973 D25ngs

Claire Prechtel-Kluskens. Headstone Records for US Military Veterans. Part II: Records for Headstones Requested from 1879 to 1925.” NGS Magazine 39 #2 (April-June 2013): 32-35. FHL 973 D25ngs

Clair Prechtel-Kluskens. Records of Burial Flags for Veterans.” NGS Magazine 42 #4 (October-December 2016): 39-42. FHL 973 D25ngs

John P. Deeben. Last Rites for the Honored Dead: Records of Military Burials in National Cemeteries. NGS Magazine (January-March 2011): 15-18. FHL 973 D25ngs

 

2. Links following our discussion on identifying buildings and places in old photos:

3. Additional citations to some of the items mentioned in the German organizations and periodicals presentations:

  • Hofmann, Annette R. “Lady ‘Turners’ in the United States: German American Identity, Gender Concerns, and ‘Turnerism.’” Journal of Sport History 27, no. 3 (2000): 383–404.
  • Lorh, Rev. L.L. “The Germans in North Carolina West of the Catawba. The Pennsylvania German, v XII, #4, April 1911, page 206.
  • Nolan, J. Bennett. “John Conrad Weiser The Elder, A Forgotten Pioneer.” The American-German Review, 7, no 3 (1936): 42-45.
  • Roberts, Warren E. German American Log Buildings of Dubois County, Indiana. Winterthur Portfolio. V. 21, # 4 (Winter, 1986): 265-274; (Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum).
  • Schede, Simone. “Gone, but Not Forgotten”—But Almost: The German Heritage of Arkansas.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 44, no. 4 (1999): 477-96.
  • Wayland, John Walter. “The Germans of the Valley (Concluded).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 10, no. 2 (1902): 113-30.

Lastly: The German Relief Society of Mobile, Alabama, articles in the Deep South Quarterly 49, no. 3 (2012): 121-125. The records are at the University of South Alabama.

 

Pronunciation does count as far as city and county names in Minnesota

I think we all tend to get a specific pronunciation in our brain and can’t unlearn it. One place is Mower County, Minnesota. This is a county that confuses many people as they try to pronounce the name. I was taught it was closer to Mow – er as in mow the lawn and not like Mauer. I found an interesting article today https://www.austindailyherald.com/2017/06/whats-in-a-name-sometimes-a-surprise/ that says locals say it more like Moore which is close to Mower than Mower. 

I could list other towns but instead will go back to working on handouts for an upcoming conference. 

April 2 Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society Virtual Conference

I’ve been working on adding new things and updating URLs for my four presentations and accompanying handouts for the April 2, 2022, Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society’s Virtual Spring Conference. Join us from anywhere via Zoom. These four presentations also provide help with your non-Germanic ancestors and records. Registration and fee payment required. https://www.magsgen.com/eventListings.php?nm=19#er140

o The U.S. Federal Government: Underutilized Research Resources

o World War I Era U.S. Alien Registrations [Mainly German]

o They Joined, They Associated: Finding Records of Germanic Organizations and Other Collections

o German Research Gems: Back Issues of Historical and Genealogical Periodicals

 

 

Native American Research? FREE two-part webinar series

Over the past 25 years, I have worked extensively with Native American Tribes, law firms, and individuals in the area of Native American research in the United States. Among the various titles and positions I have held as an independent contractor are consultant to an enrollment committee, Enrollment Committee Chair, creator of enrollment documents, creator of tips on how to enroll and where to find records, analysis of submitted enrollment applications, court testimony on enrollment issues, searching out records in local, state, and national repositories (and online) to create an archive for a tribe, and locating many original records that some Tribes did not know existed. 

On March 24 and April 28, I will be presenting a two-part webinar series hosted by the Fort Myers Regional Library of the Lee County, Florida, Library System. The good news for you is that the webinars are free, each has an extensive handout with a lot of reminders, resources, and some wonderful online links. You do need to register in advance. See below for the link.

No two Tribes (clans, community, nation, or rancheria) are the same. Nor are our ancestors the same. Whether your Native American connection is known, is a family secret, a DNA result, or the probability has been passed down orally, this series will aid in your research. Whether your Native American heritage is from 1900 or 1750, you’ll learn more about the research route. Do come armed with questions so we can help you find the correct research path.

Many types of records and the repositories where they can be located will be covered.  The record types to be discussed include Indian census and annuity rolls, oral history, manuscripts, private sources, Indian school records, Tribal records, and Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) collections.  Historical societies, state archives, county courthouses, NARA regional facilities and more will be covered. The importance of understanding the historical context of the records, and the lives they reflect, and their impact on events will be discussed. Many important records are those related to individuals and families that did not attain official enrollment/membership or correspondence related to their quest. 

These sessions are designed to share the basics of ancestral research for those with Native American ancestry. It does not provide instructions on how to enroll with specific tribes but provides a path for you to determine your eligibility. Resources that are universal to this type of research are covered. In addition to the resources that I will discuss and provide in the handouts for those who attend the virtual seminars on these dates, we have more for you. Bryan L. Mulcahy, the Fort Myers Genealogy Librarian has compiled a number of guides that would help supplement, not replace, the handout information. These supplemental materials would include information and links pertaining to the NARA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, manuscripts, county courthouse research, and a listing of Native American resources in the collection at Fort Myers Regional Library.

Ready to join the webinars?

 

 

Are you ready for the 1950 census that appears in 2 weeks?

April 1 is much better than just April Fools’ Day this year. The 1950 United States population census will be released free to the public by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on a dedicated website. NARA’s 1950 census informational page listed first in the helpful websites below will post that link at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. For me in Minnesota, that means 11:01 p.m.  

It will be “helpfully” indexed via an artificial intelligence/optical character (AI/OCR) recognition tool that the National Archives will have for us on that day. Users can also contribute additional names and corrections to those that will appear if we see errors.

I have been listening to webinars, reading blogs, and checking social media for news, updates, and tips on accessing the 1950 census that day. Major genealogy websites will be adding the images to their websites. That won’t occur at 12:01 a.m. EDT, though. Then those websites will be actively indexing the census with employees and volunteers. Many genealogists did that for the 1940 census and it was fun and personally rewarding to be part of that.

I have studied addresses of various family members to hopefully be sure where everyone was located. City directories, previous censuses, memories, old telephone books, military records, and many other records we use in our family history research will aid in that address search. I used a photo of 21-month- old Paula Stuart to determine where my parents and I were living in 1950. It was just before my parents owned a house and the photo showed me still in our rented upstairs residence that month. Then I located that address on the East side of Saint Paul on an enumeration map. The enumeration maps show which area of a city, town, county, or other designated place is the area in which your people were living. The ED (enumeration district) is noted on the census pages and will help if the AI/OCR created index doesn’t yield a direct hit for you.

A selection of helpful links to help you learn more as you prepare for searching the 1950 census:

 

 

Mastering Genealogical Proof – Beginning Principles Class Series with Cyndi Ingle

From a notification I received:

This will be a beginner/low-intermediate level class to study the book Mastering Genealogical Proof by Tom Jones. We will cover the principles outlined in the book as well as discuss the workbook questions.

  • There will be two sessions: Wednesday daytime at 3pm Eastern, and Wednesday evenings at 7pm Eastern (so adjust for your time zone), both being led by Cyndi Ingle (of Cyndi’s List). Beginning April 6 – May 25, 2022 (7 weeks, plus optional 8th week). Each class will be about an hour.
  • We will meet on Zoom.
  • You will need to have the book, Mastering Genealogical Proof. It can be purchased on Amazon or through the National Genealogical Society if you don’t already have it.
  • More details and how to register via Genealogy Pants

My updated Genealogy Speaking Calendar for 2022-2023

A couple days ago, someone asked why one of my upcoming webinars wasn’t on my speaking calendar and she wondered if I was still going to be doing it. I gave her a two-part response. 

  1. I was still scheduled to be doing that webinar.
  2. My general info that I send to organizations when they contact me about speaking says that neither of us will publicize an event until we have a contract signed by both sides. Now that two more organizations and I have signed my contracts, I can share that info. 

I just finished updating my speaking calendar for 2022 into 2023. All presentations are still being done virtually which means that most organizations offer it live to many who are not members of their organization. That is a benefit to us who continue our genealogical and historical education. I hope those who attend will seriously consider joining that organization or renewing their membership. At least send a donation to show your appreciation. That goes for organizations for which other speakers present, too. 

Summer 2022: still room in virtual genealogy courses at GRIP

Some courses for the July 10-15, 2022 Virtual Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) filled when registration opened in February. Others still have some openings including the one described below.

Each year, I coordinate the “Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills” course.  Cyndi Ingle, Debbie Mieszala, and Cari Taplin join me in this online course as instructors and consultants. We are busy preparing an extensive syllabus, class content, hands-on exercises, and some other tools. Let me know if you have any questions about the week. View the course details at https://www.gripitt.org/courses/digging_deeper/. As it says on the course page, 

  • Have you progressed past the beginning stages of researching your family history?
  • Maybe you have researched online but know there must be more elsewhere or that you have missed some online resources?
  • Do you need a stronger foundation before taking advanced or specialized courses?
  • Are you not yet comfortable with in-depth evaluation of documents and setting up research plans?

We teach about some specific records, how to find and use them, and the background details on how some came about. Tools and techniques for the “Digging Deeper” run through the week. Analysis of individual records is a big part of the Monday morning sessions and pertains to many of the week’s sessions. Then the students are broken into small online groups to work together on a project involving such analysis, research planning, and some research based on that. The virtual format of GRIP works well for this process. Your small group stays together at times during the week. On Thursday, each group reports on the analysis, planning, and research. The kicker? Each group operates based on the same document that is provided on Monday. It’s a sort of competition between groups to see which one does the best analysis and uses their best knowledge and methodology to find the best, surprising, shocking, or intriguing information on the individual or family related to the document. You will surprise yourself at what you do know and what you glean from working with others in your group.

We interact with the students all day, even at breaks and during the lunch hour. Bring your questions, ask them after each class, at breaks, or type them into the chat box. The chat box is also where students love to suggest additional records and websites for us all.  When one instructor is teaching, another may add something in the chat box for all to see. We have a tech support person assigned to us and I highly approve of this person. I don’t think the names of the support personnel have been released yet. This person keeps us on time, arranges for break-out groups, and lets us know what is going on in the chat box.

The course has an extra 45 minutes at the end of the day on Monday-Thursday to review and discuss student submitted genealogy problems. In early April, registrants in this course will receive an email describing how to submit one of their genealogy issues that needs some additional eyes and minds. The submitted issues are included in the syllabus. The other students and the consultant of the day review these before the day it is presented live. Then the consultants will provide tips, websites, record ideas, and other things to direct the student to finding answers. This time is also open for other students to suggest ideas. In past years, a way to solve an issue has come from other students, a consultant, and some people have recognized common ancestral families!

Go sign up today and join the hundreds of past students who have benefitted from this course. Please let others know about it.