Genealogy Seekers – Cyber Sleuthing Your Family Tree

Emily Sienkiewicz

There is a colossal amount of information available on the Internet. Tina offers methods for evaluating web sites for reliable sources of information. Learn how to use subscription databases in tandem with free genealogy websites to trace your family tree. Plus, find out what’s new in the online genealogy community. Join us at 7:00 Central Time in-person or online.

Using Historical Literature to Explore Your Ancestor’s Lives

Emily Sienkiewicz

Historical literature, both fiction and non-fiction, can help us to better understand the world in which our ancestors lived and the events that shaped their lives. This presentation looks at how to use historical literature to flesh out the stories of our ancestors and provides examples to show what can be learned. Presented by Karen Fortin. This hybrid meeting will be held in-person in the Local History Room (2d Flr) of the Largo Public Library, 120 Central Park Drive, Largo, FL 33771 AND online via Zoom. Registration is only required for Zoom attendees. For details see us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvdemoqTIsGdXLx9qs32q0w5Kv1BB99vsR

Project Recipe: Weaving a Grandmother’s Letters into a Story

Emily Sienkiewicz

Insight from a published author about a book in progress This very special event features Kathryn Graven, acclaimed author of “Memoirs of a Mask Maker” as she discusses a new project in progress. This is a bit of a diversion from our usual Project Recipe events that focus on completed projects. There’s a special reason. Kathy’s recently published “Memoirs,” honors the women who helped her stitch her life back together after tragic loss. This deeply personal book pulls a narrative thread from Kathy’s personal story to share insight about tending grief and reclaiming joy. With decades of experience as a journalist to inform her process, Kathy is a pro. As you’ll read in “Memoirs of …

Beyond Names and Dates: Filling in the Stories of Our Female Ancestors with Pam Vestal

Emily Sienkiewicz

Register Free (Virtual or In-Person): gsbcfl.org/eventListings.php?nm=71 For most of recorded time, women didn’t leave much of a paper trail, but they have remarkable stories to tell. Deeper research into underutilized records often lead to a better understanding of the women in our family trees. In this talk, we’ll explore a variety of records, and also look at local history, the law, politics, and the cataclysmic events that confronted women to help us bring their hidden stories to light. Speaker, Pam Vestal, is a Portland-based genealogist at Generations Genealogy. Published in top genealogy journals, including the National Genealogical Society Magazine, Pam specializes in Family History Research, and she’s a seasoned speaker at conferences nationwide. Formerly a …

How to Build an Archive, One Story at a Time.

Emily SienkiewiczEveryone's An Archivist, Legacy Lab, Preservation Leave a Comment

Why are stories important? Since the dawn of human civilization, stories have been created to help us make sense of the world around us. These stories captured anything from explanations of why the sun rose every morning to harrowing escapes from animal predators. Until written languages were developed and recorded onto sheets of papyrus or clay tablets, oral histories reigned supreme. Like a game of telephone, stories told orally from person-to-person are susceptible to change as people forget, embellish, or invent new parts to the story as they pass them along from person to person. Historically, not everyone has had access to sheets of papyrus or clay tablets to record their stories. In fact, many …

Contemporary Fashion through the Decades – How to Identify Our Ancestors’ Timelines by What They Wore

Emily Sienkiewicz

A visual review of clothing styles and historical influences unique to each period – late 1700s through mid-1900s. Learn how to identify the year that your ancestor wore the clothing and determine their dates. Bring photographs, pictures, or historic clothing for me to analyze afterwards, if you wish. ​ Vicki Ruthe Hahn, President of Stateline Genealogy Club, LLC, is a Retired Librarian with a BA and MLIS from University of Illinois. A Genealogy Presenter and Consultant, she founded the Beloit Public Library “Stateline Genealogy Club” in 2012, and created the “StatelineGenealogyClub.Wordpress.com” BLOG in 2014. She has a background in history, anthropology, clothing history, research, writing, and teaching. Vicki sorts out mysteries, rediscovers histories, weaves stories, …

Reconstructing Communities Using Sanborn Maps, Census Records, and City Directories

Emily Sienkiewicz

Recreating neighborhoods can provide rich and insightful details about an ancestor’s life and surroundings. In this lecture, genealogist Ari Wilkins will demonstrate ways to build a map using Sanborn Fire insurance maps, census records, and city directories in Google Maps. For details see eapl.libnet.info/event/8889306

Family History Project Ideas

Emily Sienkiewicz

These special brainstorming sessions will allow anyone with a story to tell to bring their tale to this open lab to sort through the best way to tell it as a family history project. Today’s digital storytelling tools are so wide and deep that they can be intimidating. As a community, we’ll brainstorm and share ideas for tips, techniques, and tools that might make your storytelling effort easier. The idea for this program is to keep it to just an hour so that we can be efficient with time and generous with ideas. See the Event Archives for recordings of previous sessions. (Accessible to Projectkin community members only. It’s free, just join here.) We use …

Using Social History for Genealogy

Emily Sienkiewicz

“Using Social History for Genealogy” will be presented by Noel Ferre in a free online class at 1:00 p.m. MT on Tuesday, Jan. 23. Guests are welcome. Our ancestors have stories to tell beyond their vital records. Learn how to bridge that gap by incorporating Social History into research. Gain insights about where to search and how to utilize that information to breathe life into their legacies. Noel Ferre fell in love with genealogy 24 years ago when she found a stack of letters from 1842 that belonged to her Dutch great grandmother. She has researched her past ever since to learn that her roots in New England date back 12 generations and her direct …

Family History Project Ideas

Emily Sienkiewicz

These very special brainstorming sessions will allow anyone with a story to tell to bring their tale to this open lab to sort through the best way to tell it as a family history project. Today’s digital storytelling tools are so wide and deep that they can be intimidating. As a community, we’ll brainstorm and share ideas for tips, techniques, and tools that might make your storytelling effort easier. The idea for this program is to keep it to just an hour so that we can be efficient with time and generous with ideas. Your host, Barbara Tien, is one of the co-founders at Ponga.com and the “ring leader” here in our Projectkin.org community. We …