Freedmen’s Bureau Records – Invaluable to ALL Southern Research!

Freedmen’s Bureau Records – Invaluable to ALL Southern Research!

We overlook records that we think pertain to only one group of people. The Freedmen’s Bureau records cover more than freed slaves – they include ex-soldiers, impoverished widows, small children, and destitute parents. They include ration, school, court, marriage, military, and more records, along with incredibly personal correspondence regarding loved ones.

Diane L Richard is the Principle of Mosaic Research and Project Management (MosaicRPM), www.mosaicrpm.com. She has M.E. and M.B.A. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She has been doing genealogy research since 1987 and since 2004 professionally focused on the records of North Carolina, other Southern States and migration paths to the Mississippi River.

A Path to Your Next Research Steps: Using Timelines to Organize, Analyze and Evaluate Evidence

A Path to Your Next Research Steps: Using Timelines to Organize, Analyze and Evaluate Evidence

So you’ve done all this research – now what? How do you figure out what you have and what to look for next? Learn how timelines enable you to organize your information, evaluate your evidence, analyze research results for accuracy, and identify next research steps.

Annette Burke Lyttle owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the national, state, and local levels and loves helping people uncover and share their family stories.

Naturalization Know-How: The Laws and Records of U.S. Citizenship

Naturalization Know-How: The Laws and Records of U.S. Citizenship

Many records were created when immigrant ancestors became American citizens. Learn what they are and how to find them.

Rich Venezia is a New Jersey native who now calls Pittsburgh home. He was a member of the research team of “Genealogy Roadshow” (PBS) for the second and third seasons. He started Rich Roots Genealogy in 2013. Rich specializes in 20th-century immigrant ancestry, with main focuses on Italian, Irish, Pittsburgh and New Jersey/New York research. He also assists clients with dual citizenship applications for Ireland and Italy. He is President of North Hills Genealogists in Pittsburgh. He lectures nationwide and delivered a TEDx talk on genealogy and empathy in June 2017.

Enslaved Blacks in White Church Records: An Overlooked Resource

Enslaved Blacks in White Church Records: An Overlooked Resource

Slaves often attended their owners’ churches. Learn to use records of those churches for details about a slave’s parents, owners, attendance, dismissal, sale and more.

Wevonneda Minis is a South Carolina-based genealogist with twenty-five years of experience. She researches, writes and speaks professionally. Ms. Minis focuses on general research methodology, African Americans, slave-holding families, South Carolina, Georgia, and several types of records.

Genetic Genealogy: Advanced

Genetic Genealogy: Advanced

Have you mastered the basics of autosomal DNA testing? There are several advanced tools that can help you glean more information from your DNA test.

A microbiology graduate, Diahan Southard has spent 16 years in the genetic genealogy industry. In her current position as Your DNA Guide, she provides personalized, interactive experiences to assist individuals and families in interpreting their genetic results in the context of their genealogical information.

Read ‘Em or Weep: Promise and Pitfalls in Newspaper OCR

Read ‘Em or Weep: Promise and Pitfalls in Newspaper OCR

Learn where to find free and pay newspaper sites online. Understand how to put OCR mistakes to work for you to increase search results. See a method to make sure you do thorough searching in every newspaper every time.

Mary Roddy, a Certified Public Accountant, earned a certificate from the Genealogy and Family History program at the University of Washington. She speaks frequently in the Western Washington area and at regional and national conferences.

Civil War Medical Records

Civil War Medical Records

A primer on how to locate Civil War medical records.

Craig is the President & CEO of Heritage Books, Inc. a genealogical publishing firm with over 5,100 titles in print. A professional genealogical and historical researcher for more than twenty-eight years, he specializes in the records of the National Archives, especially those that relate to the military.

Reverse Engineer a Genie Book: Creating Narrative from Evidence in Documents

Reverse Engineer a Genie Book: Creating Narrative from Evidence in Documents

When you’re ready to write the stories of your ancestors, where do you begin? Most researchers start with the research itself. Sounds good, but that approach can be intimidating. After all, you have multiple binders and years of research under your belt. Where do you begin? How do you choose among all of your findings to tell a good story? In this session, you’ll learn a different approach to genealogy writing. By reverse engineering your genealogy book, you’ll be sure to:
write for the right audience
tell relevant stories
use only the necessary evidence to support your story
accomplish the goal you envision
Learn a proven technique to write an engaging genealogy book that appeals to non-genealogists. Explore three books written by researchers just like you to uncover how these authors used this reverse engineer practice and turned evidence into creative prose for their books.
A Day Out With Your DNA

A Day Out With Your DNA

While DNA testing for genealogy is no longer a new idea, many companies are offering a new way to look at your DNA. In this lecture we will cover the biggest and brightest options, and help you decide where you should take your DNA, and how to make the most of it.

After getting bitten by the DNA bug as a high school student, Diahan went on to study at Brigham Young University where she earned a bachelors degree in microbiology. She worked before and after graduation for the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, one of the first efforts to create a correlated genetic and genealogical database.