GenealogyClassBlog

The new year of genealogy classes at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church has begun. I am again teaching five weeks of classes, with two different courses scheduled each Tuesday evening. The first is called “Genealogy:  Family History Basics” and meets from 6:30 to 7:30. And the second session, which is designed to complement the first (and give me a place to enhance and improve genealogy lectures), is called “Five Genealogy Talks,” and meets from 7:45 to 8:45.

The topic of last Tuesday’s first hour was “Important First Steps.” The class members and I introduced ourselves to each other and we discovered that most of class consisted of beginners, who are just starting out. We have a mother-daughter couple and a grandmother-granddaughter couple, but no husband-wife couples this time.

The second hour was made up of almost the same group of students. The topic for the week was, “How Do You Know? Understanding Evidence and Citing Your Sources.”

I plan to post some more details about each of these sessions very soon.

Next week’s first hour topic will be “The Census,” about one of my favorite genealogy resources. This is a resource that many beginning genealogists can use, but that experienced genealogists use as well. Ancestry.com, and some other commercial and private sites, offer access to the digital images of the United States Federal census or to transcriptions of the contents of the census. We’ll learn what the census contains and about how we can access it.

The second hour’s topic will be “Information Overload:  Organizing Your Genealogy Records.” We’ll learn about how to organize the names, dates, places and relationships, as well as how to organize research plans and notes, and how to organize the stacks of paperwork genealogists seem to generate.

I have been initiated into the fraternity of national genealogy speakers! I presented two lectures at the 2009 Federation of Genealogical Societies National Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was held Sept. 2-5. The first lecture was How To Be a Power Hitter, which was about getting better results when searching in online genealogy databases. I had presented an earlier version to the Tulsa Genealogical Society as the first part of a mini-workshop in May 2009. I really enjoy doing this lecture and presenting examples of how you and I won’t be able to find what we’re seeking until we have conquered the limitations of the index.

The second lecture was one I had proposed because of Little Rock’s proximity to Oklahoma, because attendees often decide to attend conferences in areas relating to their geographic area of interest. This one was called Oklahoma’s Settlement: Territorial Homestead and Allotment Records, and was one I had presented for the Tulsa City-County Library in July. I had updated the graphics on my slides with maps from the Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 4th edition, (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), with the permission of the University of Oklahoma Press. For those with an interest in tracing individuals or families in pre-statehood Oklahoma, this is a great resource.

Recordings of the audio portion of each lecture are available for purchase through JAMB Inc..

From all that I’ve heard, the Family History Month programming at the Tulsa City-County Library’s Genealogy Center was a great success! I had three large groups for my three presentations, including faces both familiar and new.

There were many interested in Oklahoma’s settlement July 23, when we explored a little history of Oklahoma and her two territories, Indian allotment records, and homestead records. I described the history of the settlement of the different areas of the state, then I explained how to locate land entry case files, which contain documentation of purchases of land from the federal government, as well as how to access Indian allotment files.

I had an even larger group on the morning of July 25, to learn about the resources of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We spent two hours and some would have stayed longer, I think. The Genealogy Center is now a Family History Center lending library, and therefore a new place to access microfilms and microfiche of original records from all over the world. I described using Family History Centers, ordering microfilm listed on the Family History Library Catalog, and visiting the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I described the various databases on FamilySearch, the website of the LDS Church, and the new Record Search feature, which allows study of digital images of original records that have been indexed by volunteers. I showed a video of an interview with David Rencher, the Chief Genealogical Officer of the Family History Library. The link to the RootsTelevision interview is available at Dick Eastman’s recent blogpost.

On Saturday afternoon, about 80 attendees came (or in many cases, stayed) to hear my presentation on organizing genealogy records. I described several different considerations to trying to get control of the piles of paper that we collect as we learn more about our ancestors. Because there is no one organization scheme that will work for everyone, each person needs to determine his or her own best system. I had some recommendations about a variety of different techniques and resources.

I hope to post the slides from one or more of these three presentations, but it may be a few weeks before I have them ready, so check back for a later posting. The Genealogy Center has my extra handouts for those who may be interested.

If you have found yourself in the mood to get into your family history work this summer, or even if you are not, July offers some great genealogy programming in Tulsa. The Tulsa City-County Library celebrates its own “Family History Month” in July again this year, with over twenty scheduled programs. I will present three of the programs, and members of the Genealogy Center staff will present nine programs, some of which will involve a mobile computer lab set up right in the Harmon Foundation Meeting Room at the Genealogy Center. In addition Kathy Huber, genealogy librarian, has arranged for several interesting guest speakers, including the return of J. Mark Lowe, a very popular and talented, nationally-recognized Certified Genealogist, who will present five programs during the weekend of July 18 & 19.

I will be presenting:

• Thursday, July 23, 4:00 – 5:00 pm — Oklahoma Settlement: Territorial Homestead and Allotment Records
• Saturday, July 25, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm — Genealogical Resources of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and
• Saturday, July 25, 1:30 – 2:30 pm — Information Overload: Organizing Your Genealogy Records

Here is a link to the flyer: Family History Month July 2009.

On Monday, 27 April 2009, I will be presenting a mini workshop for the Tulsa Genealogical Society. The topic will be “How To Be a Power Hitter,” which is all about how to be successful in online or database searching. I will explain the basic problem of trying to find what is in the record when an initial search doesn’t work.

If you cannot find your ancestor’s name, does that mean that your ancestor didn’t appear in the record? Maybe the name wasn’t entered correctly. I will describe many possible reasons and several possible solutions.

I will present the same topic as a one-hour lecture at the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ National Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Wednesday, 2 Sep 2009. The conference will last from Wednesday through Saturday, 2 – 5 September, and will be a great opportunity for attending high-quality lectures (with as many as nine offered each time slot), doing some serious genealogy shopping, and meeting new genealogy friends with only a short drive for those of us in the Tulsa area.

For the TGS mini workshop, I will be expanding the basic lecture into a workshop the second hour, for the attendees to have the opportunity to try some of the methods introduced during the first hour.

To attend, come to the Tulsa Genealogical Society’s facility in the Briar Village Shopping Center, on 31st Street west of Mingo. The Society suggests a donation of $7.50 for this mini-workshop. I hope to see you there.