The Brue Family Learning Center

In this online lecture, we will discuss how to ensure you are doing an exhaustive search, provide information on alternate sources, and how to draw conclusions from multiple sources when a “smoking gun” record doesn’t exist. This 60-minute lecture will include three, 10-minute intervals for audience Q&A for a total of 90 minutes.

Great jewels have dazzled people for millennia, their beauty and value producing respect, deception, love, and betrayal. This lecture explores how the 18th and 19th century British ruling classes, modeling themselves on the ancient Roman Empire, used jewelry to reinforce their positions in society and awe their peers.

Embroidered coats of arms were among the most prolific and enduring forms of schoolgirl needlework in eighteenth-century Boston. Not only do these objects demonstrate the skill and dedication of their makers, but as examples of genealogical material culture, heraldic needlework makes clear that young colonial women were integral to the articulation and preservation of their family history. 

Anyone can do family history research! In this one hour lecture, you will learn about key resources, strategies, and first steps to discovering and recording your family history. We will also demonstrate how to use important organizational tools, such as the multi-generational chart, family group sheet, and research log. And you will learn how to create a solid research plan.

Share your genealogical finds, hot tips, and research stories while gaining new avenues of research and encouragement from fellow family historians and members of American Ancestors. Senior Genealogist Melanie McComb will be on hand to answer questions and lend support during the discussion.

Today there are so many records easily available online that it can be tempting to quickly glance at a record, save it, and move on to the next one. In this online lecture, Senior Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will provide strategies for finding often-overlooked details in records that can provide clues about your ancestors’ lives and the times that they lived in. 

This lecture, a companion to the 2024 exhibition of the same name at London’s Garden Museum, will focus on and celebrate the evanescence of the metropolis’s vast and varied garden legacy. Noted historian and landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan will examine gardens that range from the capital’s humble allotments and defunct squares to amateur botanical gardens, princely pleasure grounds, artists’ gardens, and private menageries. 

The Brim-DeForest Library at American Ancestors serves as a center for research, learning, and discovery, where history comes to life through archival collections and expert guidance. Learn more about the collections, services, and other library offerings during a brief tour.

Fraternal organizations have been an important fixture of American community life since the nation’s founding. Join Jeffrey Croteau and Hilary Anderson Stelling of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library as they share the types of fraternal records that exist, where to find them, and how these records can unlock mysteries in your family history research.