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Tuesday, June 27
Songs of the Enslaved and Downtrodden (Monthly Meetings)
6:30 pm to 8:15 pm Zoom
This presentation offers a unique learning opportunity by combining music and a powerful message. Mary Dobbin Williams, uses her remarkable voice to take participants on a journey to a time when songs of hope resonated throughout the southern landscape. Mary will share her insights on the significance of the human voice during the days of slavery and the civil rights movement. Our voices and the songs we sing are an important part of our family histories and are shaped by the different seasons of our lives. They serve as a crucial narrative of our identity as individuals, as a community, and as a family. Mary Dobbin Williams is a native of Garner, NC. She has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Join us! Virtual and Free! Registration here:
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Wednesday, July 19
German Genes (Special Interest Groups)
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm ZOOM
Members Only: This SIG is for people who have German speaking ancestors. Sessions will discuss resources for doing German research, historical German speaking locales, research learning opportunites, and historical context. The SIG meets quarterly on the third Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Notes/handouts from the meetings are posted in the Members area of the website (under " Member Only Files") and are available to all WCGS members.
If you are interested in participating, please send an email to Sue Olmsted to get on the SIG group list. |
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Tuesday, July 25
The Trail Through Penns Woods, Records of Colonial Pennsylvania with Sandy Rumble (Monthly Meetings)
6:30 pm to 8:15 pm Zoom
Researching in Colonial Pennsylvania can be a challenge for genealogists unfamiliar with the diverse populations that came together to form early Pennsylvania. Whether your ancestors just passed through, stayed for a generation, or never left, understanding the goals of William Penn for his colony is critical to finding your ancestors. Penn wanted "his colony" to be a place where people of diverse backgrounds and religions could live together peacefully, without persecution and the heavy interfering hand of government. Penn's noble ideas led to scattered record keeping, and conflicts in land grants from the British Kings led to competing land claims from neighboring colonies. However, this successful social experiment led to Philadelphia becoming the home of the Continental Congress, gifting religious tolerance, freedom of speech, and conscientious objector status to the new Republic.
Join us! Virtual and Free! Regisgtration will begin shortly following the June meeting.
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Tuesday, August 22
Land, Horses, Neat Cattle, Polls and More: Tax Lists and Your Genealogy (Monthly Meetings)
6:30 pm to 8:15 pm Zoom
Bill Eddleman will discuss tax lists which are used by few family historians but can provide far more information than most suspect. These lists have been more difficult to locate than other records, but this is changing as digitized versions appear. This session discusses the basics of using tax lists for genealogy, including knowledge of legal basis for taxation; types of information collected on real estate, personal property, and combined tax lists; and genealogical information that can be gleaned from tax lists. Specific examples are used to illustrate different uses of tax lists for reconstructing ancestor's lives.
Bill Eddleman is a ninth-generation Missourian with numerous ancestors who came to Missouri via North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He was a professor of biology at Southeast Missouri State University for 22 years and also served as provost before his retirement in 2016. Long interested in local and regional history, he was the president of the Cape County Genealogical Society for 14 years and edited the society's quarterly publication for 20 years. Bill has authored over 20 books of transcribed local records. He served on the Board and was President of the Missouri State Genealogical Association for 4 years, and is the current Vice President-Conference. He hosts local history spots on KRCU radio and writes local history and genealogy columns for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian. Since July 2017 he has been the part-time Coordinator of the Cape Girardeau Research Center, The State Historical Society of Missouri.
Join us! Virtual and Free! Registration will begin shortly following the July meeting.
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Saturday, September 2
Family Tree Maker (Special Interest Groups)
10:30 am to 12:00 pm Zoom
Members Only: This SIG is for users of Family Tree Maker 2019. FTM sessions address aspects of using FTM such as resolving places, adding media, creating citations, linking to Ancestry and FamilySearch, creating charts and reports, etc. The SIG meets monthly on the first Saturday from 10:30 to noon. Notes/handouts from the meetings are posted in the Members area of the website (under " Member Only Files") and are available to all WCGS members.
If you are interested in participating, please send an email to the WCGS webmaster to get on the SIG group list. |
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Tuesday, September 26
Inspiring Ways to Capture the Interest of the Non-Genealogists in Your Family with Lisa Louis Cooke (Monthly Meetings)
6:30 pm to 8:15 pm Zoom
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If you are researching your family tree but haven't shared it with your family in a way that sparks their interest, then you are only experiencing half of the joy of genealogy! And if your descendants don't grasp the importance of their heritage, your hard work may tragically find its way to the city dump when you are gone. Don't just collect your family history and store it away in binders and files! Learn how creative displays, crafts and digital content can capture the imagination of your non-historian friends and relatives, while honoring your ancestors. These projects are guaranteed to inspire your family to ask you to tell them more about the family tree!
Lisa Louise Cooke is the author of several books including The Genealogist's Google Toolbox, 3rd edition. She produces and hosts the popular Genealogy Gems Podcast (founded in 2007) and publishes weekly videos at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. She offers a Premium Membership service at her website at https://lisalouisecooke.com featuring exclusive on-demand genealogy education. And she writes a regular column for Family Tree Magazine and produces the Family Tree Magazine Podcast. Lisa is a sought-after keynote speaker and presenter and has been featured at conferences such as Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London, RootsTech, the MyHeritage Conference in Oslo, Norway, and the National Genealogical Society Conference.
Join us! Virtual and Free! Registration will begin shortly following the August meeting.
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Tuesday, October 24
How Three Types of DNA and Genealogy Uncovered the Long-Lost Father (Monthly Meetings)
6:30 pm to 8:15 pm Zoom
For over 25 years, oral history led Melvin Collier down the wrong road in the search for the father of his great-grandfather, Albert Kennedy (1857-1928) of Leake County, Mississippi. DNA was indeed providing great clues, but he initially attached them to the wrong ancestor. However, more autosomal DNA analysis, Y-DNA evidence, X-chromosome matching, and genealogy research revealed that the oral history had not been entirely true. This put Collier on the right road to discovery. Travel down this exciting road as Collier shows how DNA and genealogy led him to the identity and the story of his 2X-great grandfather. Ironically, he was born in northern Virginia, where Collier resides now, and was eventually taken to Sugartown, Louisiana during the Civil War. Lots of genealogy and genetic genealogy tips to be gained from this case. |
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