GenealogyClassBlog

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.