October is Family History Month and I always try to take part in various programs to help get me focused on my genealogy. In the coming paragraphs I’ll share with you what my month is consisting of to help me find my family members.
Early Morning Genealogy
My local library has a Special Collections department where they kicked off Family History Month by having an “Early Morning Genealogy” program where family historians were able to head to the library before the library opened and begin to research. As I’ve stated before I am so lucky that my library has a wonderful resource in our Special Collections area, including books from just about every state and various countries as well.
Representatives from various local groups are in attendance as well. I know in past years we have had ambassadors from D.A.R., Daughters of the the War of 1812, Palatines, this year we had someone willing to assist with Slovak research and DNA questions. It’s just a great environment to talk with others who enjoy this hobby and you learn so much.
Watching Genealogy Videos
There are so many videos out there on the internet that can help you find out more ways to find your people. One is the website Family Tree Webinars as they have 2,845 programs where you can watch and learn about so many different topics. Yes, it helps to be a member but they do have new webinars presented weekly that you can watch free for a week.
Over the summer I signed up for the 2nd Pennsylvania Genealogy Event, or PaGE. It is the virtual genealogy conference by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. With a majority of their membership coming from those who live outside the states borders, they opt for an online conference. This year they provided the programming 2 weeks before they had their 4 day conference where you could then attend a 30 minute Q&A session with each presenter. We now have until November 11 to continue to watch both the presentations and their Q&A’s. The topics this year have been amazing and I’ve learned so much. But I’ve seized the moment with Family History Month to really get myself into the zone of getting caught up before the presentations go away.
So far I’ve watched presentations on coal mining towns, blue collar jobs, finding clergy, and using religious records. Next up for me for tomorrow will be “Local Counties & Histories”.
You can also gain a lot of knowledge just by searching the term “genealogy” on YouTube. It’s amazing what you can find, and who knows, if you focus your research even more you may be able to find exactly what you need to chip away at a brick wall.
Local Family History Days
Next weekend my local FamilySearch Center will be having their Family History Day where they will provide programming on Polish, Italian, and African American Ancestry, FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, AI and more. I always enjoy a day where I can learn about a variety of things, and sometimes sitting in on a class I think I know so much about still has me learn something new. If you live in an area where a FamilySearch Center is located, check them out to see what sort of programs they are offering this month. Just go to FamilySearch.org and look under “locations” to find out.
Keep It Simple
If you are like me and sometimes get overwhelmed trying to figure out what you want to begin researching about, sometimes you just need to pick a branch you know you need to work on. Last weekend for “Early Morning Genealogy” I opted to choose my 2nd-great-grandmother, Anna Maria Leighty, as there is so much I need to work on with that line. I’m so glad I did as I happened to find a published genealogy book on the Leighty line on Ancestry.com. It gave me names to look into and for some reason, new people popped up on my radar to look into for others in my family that have had me puzzled for a while. They always say re-look over the documents you have, and they aren’t kidding how sometimes you see stuff you hadn’t seen before.
Enjoy this month dedicated to our wonderful hobby and I wish each of you the best of luck on finding some hidden information on the ancestors that came before you.
