I’ve been working from home this week and have had the opportunity to participate in some interesting and insightful FREE genealogy webinars. I will now share some of what I learned with all of you!
Telling the Stories of Our Lives: Talking with Family Members about Their History
On Tuesday, I attended a webinar presented by the Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center about their oral history project, Life Stories. Their website has everything you need to conduct a successful family history interview, from questions to ask from StoryCorps, advice on better listening and communicating techniques, and even suggestions for equipment and apps to use for recording your interview. The webinar was conducted via Zoom and it was my first experience with that platform.
Betty Jean’s Story: Forensic Genealogy, DNA, and Adoption
I spent April Fools’ Day listening to Betty Jean’s Story This Legacy Family Tree webinar about using DNA to find an adoptee’s birth family was presented by genetic genealogy expert, Mags Gaulden of Grandma’s Genes. A big takeaway from this webinar was learning about WikiTree, a collaborative website used for forensic genealogy. They have a Genealogist-to-Genealogist forum where anyone can ask questions. There are people called “Search Angels” who volunteer to help adoptees with their genealogy search.
Resources of the DAR: Beyond Revolutionary War Soldiers
Friday’s webinar was about the amazing online databases from the Daughters of the American Revolution, presented by D. Joshua Taylor from the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. With the Genealogical Research System, you can search for DAR Patriots and as well as their descendants. They have an Ancestor Child Search for when you have someone who was too young to participate in the Revolutionary War, but suspect their father might be a patriot. You can order DAR applications and supplemental documentation, which can include information you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, such as family bibles and information from gravestones that might now be illegible.
Take advantage of the many FREE live webinars available this month while we are all practicing social distancing and sheltering in place. A great place to find information on upcoming webinars is the GeneaWebinars calendar.
GeneaWebinars features a handy, dandy calendar with links to genealogy webinars, hangouts, meetings, podcasts, livestreams, and virtual workshops. A lot of them are free webinars presented by Legacy Family Tree, DearMyrtle, and many state and county genealogical societies. The calendar makes it easy to find online learning opportunities without having to spend time searching all over the World Wide Web. Each entry includes everything you need to know about the event and lets you copy the information to your personal calendar. Check out the GeneaWebinars calendar for upcoming FREE online learning opportunities.
(posted by Cristina)
