Catalog of Lectures

German immigrants first arrived to American shores in large numbers in the late 17th century, and today nearly 45 million Americans have German heritage. Published resources are an essential tool for researching your German-American ancestors. There are treasure troves of published resources including general guides, dictionaries (both for words and surnames), books on paleography, and published records including immigration, census, and military records. Join our expert as they share go-to published resources for German family history research in America.

Continued urbanization characterized much of 20th-century Pennsylvania. This lecture will look at records that emerge in the 20th century—including state-wide vital records—as well as changes in records and record keeping that persisted since the 17th century. We will also discuss the topic of “access” and a review of key research repositories.
 

Pennsylvania experienced even more transformation in the 19th century. Westward expansion and settlement continued across the Allegany Mountains, aided by growth in transportation systems such as canals and railways. Steel, coal mining, and oil made Pennsylvania an industrial powerhouse, fueled by a labor force of millions of newly arrived immigrants. This lecture will explore several records that emerge during this period, including federal passenger lists, Civil War pension files, published genealogies and local histories, employment records, and other less commonly used records.

There is a treasure trove of genealogical resources available for Massachusetts research—if you have ancestors from the Bay State, you can count yourself lucky in this regard! However, with the wealth of information available, it can be difficult to navigate and to know where to start. In this online lecture, Chief Genealogist David Allen Lambert will provide an introduction and overview to Massachusetts Research. He’ll discuss the historical context of available record sets, go-to resources, and helpful strategies.

Online family trees are a powerful tool—allowing you to organize different branches of your family in one place, to consolidate your documents and timelines, and to make new discoveries through publicly shared trees. However, there is a flip side to online trees! When researching, it can be easy to get swept up in your discoveries and to begin adding people to your tree without documentation—before you know it, your tree has grown, but you find yourself questioning how much of it is accurate! In this online lecture, Senior Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will discuss how to leverage family trees to further your research while avoiding common pitfalls.

You may encounter several people of the same name, living in the same community, at the same time. How do you know which is your ancestor? In this online lecture, Senior Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will introduce you to best practices and organizational tools to untangle common names and add people to your family tree with confidence and accuracy.

When examining records, it can be easy to make the misstep of simply filling in the dates on our family trees and continuing with our research, or even ignoring some dates all together. In this online lecture, Senior Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will discuss how dates can contain important clues for your family history research. In particular, she will discuss how examining dates in relation to one another in a timeline can shed light on new insights and stories hidden within your family tree.