Highlights Archives
Genealogy Workshops Coming This Fall
Wisconsin Historical Society staff will offer five Saturday morning workshops for genealogists in coming months. Each workshop runs from 9 a.m. to noon in room 126 of Memorial Library (the main library on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus), directly across from the Society's headquarters. The workshops will enable researchers to gain skills in specific types of family history work suggested by previous years' participants. All will combine lectures, questions and answers, and hands-on exercises.
- Metes, Bounds, Ranges and Towns: Deciphering the Foreign Language of Property Research (October 13, 9 a.m.-noon) — From the survey systems of eastern colonies to the rectangular survey of the Northwest Territory, property research can be confusing. Taught by Rick Pifer, director of reference and public services for the library and archives, this session will focus on the value of property research for genealogy and family history, available sources, and the terminology used in land records. Participants will learn how to find and interpret plat maps and other cartographic sources, deed and tax records, probate and court records, and the agricultural census. The registration cost is $25 for Society members and $30 for non-members.
- Ancestry.com (November 17, 9 a.m.-noon) — With more than 800,000 paying subscribers, Ancestry.com is the Web's most popular genealogical research tool. It provides hundreds of databases and an ever-expanding number of digital collections for family history research. This hand-on workshop will provide instruction on the various collections found on Ancestry's complex site using the company's "Library Edition," which is available free to Wisconsin Historical Society visitors. This session will be taught by Lori Bessler, microfilm librarian and outreach coordinator for the library. The registration cost is $35 for Society members $40 for non-members.
- Tracing Your Immigrant Ancestors: Naturalization Records and Passenger Lists (December 1, 9 a.m.-noon) — Unless we're Native Americans, we all have immigrant ancestors, and one of the most difficult genealogical tasks is making that jump across the ocean to the old country. Naturalization records and passenger lists provide key evidence documenting that jump and also often provide clues to immigrant origins. Jim Hansen, the library's reference librarian, will give this presentation, which will describe the records, where to find them (especially the new indexes and more easily available records), and suggest how they can best be used to make that leap a successful one. The registration cost is $25 for Society members and $30 for non-members.
- It's All Online! Or Is It? (December 8, 9 a.m.-noon) — There are hundreds of genealogy Web sites that provide access to databases and digital collections. This hands-on workshop will provide instruction on how to use the most valuable sites, how to tell good sites from bad sites, how to search the Web in the most effective way, and how to organize your online research. It will be taught by Lori Bessler, microfilm librarian and outreach coordinator for the library. The registration cost is $35 for Society members and $40 for non-members.
- Writing Your Family History (December 15, 9 a.m.-noon) — Learn how to transform your notes, photocopies, and fragments of data into a clear prose narrative. Michael Edmonds, deputy director for the library and archives, will lead this session, which covers how to organize your family history into chapters, when and how to integrate information about a broader historical context, the conventions for citing and documenting sources, writing techniques that will keep a reader's attention, and simple methods to lay out, print, duplicate, and bind copies. Participants will also do some individual and group writing exercises and examine successful models of published family histories. The registration cost is $25 for Society members and $30 for non-members.
For more information about any workshop, please contact Lori Bessler via email or call her at 608-264-6536.
:: Posted August 24, 2007
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