Research Methods & Sources
Ancestors Hanging on Your Family Tree: Using Court and Institutional Records
All families had their tough times and problem people. Locating and carefully researching these underutilized records can help solve family mysteries, provide valuable health history, and add rich detail to your ancestral families.
Writing Your Family History in Small, Manageable Pieces
The process of researching your family history is fascinating and fun. Most of us, however, don't think of ourselves as writers, and may accumulate boxes of research results without putting much into print. This session offers ideas, inspiration, and lots of practical formats and methods to help “non-writers" preserve and share their research using small blocks of time. Write your family history as you research it, not after you’re "finished" researching!
Finding Your Family in the National Archives
Among the most important resources for genealogists are the U.S. census, passenger arrival records, and military service and pension records. However, these are but a fraction of the wealth of records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration. This session uses a wide range of examples from this treasure house of genealogical riches to introduce the NARA nationwide system, it collections, and how to access its holdings.
Research On-Site
The Fun of Finding the Records You’ll Never Find Online
Whether to the ancestral "old country" or just to a nearby courthouse, a research trip can be one of the delights and rewards of genealogy. And there are many cases where the only real way to find the richest part of your family history is to research on-site in the many records that aren’t online, microfilmed, or published. This session provides tips and steps to help you plan, determine where the records are, organize, find effective help before you go and work effectively at repositories during the trip, It can help make your "on the road" work yield both research results and an enjoyable travel experience.
Salt Lake City! Using the Resources of the Family History Library From Near or Far
Salt Lake City - home the world’s largest genealogical collection, the Family History Library! Whether or not you travel to Salt Lake City, you can make use of its amazing genealogical treasures. This session introduces you to the rich resources of the FHL and how you can make use of them. This session offers current information, including recent changes, for using online sources, nearly 4,000 worldwide Family History Centers, and the Library in Salt Lake City. The steps outlined can lead to research success, even if you never actually take a trip to Salt Lake.
Getting the Most Mileage from Your Trip to Ireland
(Joint lecture with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)
Ready to make the trip to the Emerald Isle to trace your ancestors for find their home site? Sharon and Jim offer tips and suggestions for making your trip successful.
The Most Priceless Heritage:
Practical Family Health History Steps
There are simple, practical steps that every genealogist can take to compile and share family health history information. This non-technical presentation shows you how to provide your family members with important, useable information for today’s cousins and future descendants.
Vital Records and Substitutes: Fundamental Tools for Family History
Birth, death, and marriage records are important basic resources for researching family history. This session can help you streamline your research, presenting sources and methods to identify whether records exist, where they are now located, and what access restrictions may apply. Information on access to growing online indexes will be presented. Analyzing the information in these records and using alternate sources for that information are also discussed.
Researching American Indian Ancestors: Basic Strategies
Whether you’re trying to prove a family story of an Indian princess great-great-grandmother, or track records for reservation-affiliated a family, this session will present basic methods for using the abundant and rich sources available to research American Indian family history. Many types of records and the likely repositories will be covered, including oral history, census records, private sources, county courthouse and legal records, religious and public manuscripts and archives material, and tribal records. The importance of understanding the historical context of the records, and the lives they reflect, will be discussed. This session is designed to share the basics of ancestral research for those with Indian ancestry. It does not provide instructions on how to enroll with specific tribes.
Researching American Indian Ancestors in the Records of the National Archives
Between 1880 and the 1940s, American Indians affiliated with recognized tribes are among the best-documented individuals in the country. A survey of the varied and voluminous records created by the U.S. government, including Indian census and annuity rolls, Indian school records, probates, and BIA reports and correspondence files, will be discussed. Strategies for researching these materials, including available guides, indexes, and inventories will be presented.
Special Topics
You Can Write Your Family History! [All-day (or two half-days) workshop conducted jointly with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack] Enjoy a hands-on workshop that combines writing, learning, and sharing. You’ll receive expert guidance from Sharon, one of genealogy’s best-known and respected editors and authors. And Jim’s “writing in small manageable pieces” philosophy helps make it manageable instead of intimidating. Their combined light approach keeps the workshop lively and fun. You’ll find that you can write your family history.
After Meal Presentations
Primetime’s 20/20 Dateline: Sharon Carmack Interviews the World’s Oldest Living Genealogist, Ole Smirnoff Bernatelli
(25-30 minute joint luncheon, banquet or end-of-seminar presentation with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)
Ole's been around since 1897. But it wasn't until his column, “Bringing Up the Rear,” appeared in the NGS NewsMagazine in 2004 that Ole shot to fame. Join us to howl at the sage (and strange) advice that results when genealogy's brightest star questions it's most unusual senior citizen.
If Our Ancestors Had E-mail
(25-30 minute luncheon, banquet, or end-of-seminar presentation.)
What would our ancestors have to say to us if they could send a message as easily as we send an E-mail? Would they talk about the past, the present, or the future? Would they answer the questions we have about those elusive genealogical mysteries? What might they say about their lives, their descendants, and the connections between the two? Jim will tell a few of the things he thinks that ancestors, including some of his notorious ancestors, might have to say!
