Thomas Jones will present: "Building a Credible Lineage, Despite Missing Information, Conflicting and Incorrect Records, and Undocumented Publications" A case study teaches how to establish credibility of undocumented genealogies, merge seemingly separate identities, remedy record errors, resolve conflicting evidence, and separate same-named men.

 BAGS Annual Conference. FREE! Online via Zoom  To register for any or all sessions send an email to Treasurer@BayAreaGenealogicalSociety.org 
BAGS is offering three webinars:9-10:30 a.m. CDT 
Jello Molds, Peacocks andTurtle Soup, History of Food & Genealogy by Gena Philbert-Ortega. My ancestors ate What? My ancestor ate what?! What our ancestors ate was very different from the food that we eat today. Learn more about how food history interacts with your family history including food availability, food during war time, and what our immigrant ancestors ate.
11-12 p.m. CDT  THE 1849 WISCONSIN ASIATIC CHOLERA EPIDEMIC AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH, BY JEAN WILCOX HIBBEN
Americans took awhile to get familiar with how diseases were spread, what precautions could be taken to minimize exposure, and why vaccinations were so important. While the medical community promoted sanitation and healthy lifestyles and the US government got involved in encouraging the eradication of diseases, in 1849 and lasting about two years, Wisconsin was overtaken by a cholera epidemic that was quickly at pandemic level. Did your ancestor die of the disease? So many did that a lot of deaths escaped being recorded. Many statistics were disguised so that public panic would be minimized. Learn the facts surrounding the outbreak as well as the effect politics and economics had on how the pandemic was handled; it just might solve one of your family history dilemmas.
1-2p.m. CDT THE ROLE THE GREAT LAKES PLAYED IN WISCONSIN’S INVOLVEMENT IN PROHIBITION, BY JEAN WILCOX HIBBEN 
If your ancestors lived in Wisconsin anytime between 1920 and the early 1930’s, there is a chance that their lives were impacted by Prohibition, specifically if they lived in Milwaukee or Green Bay. During those times, the Great Lakes were a virtual thoroughfare of illegal liq- uor transportation and the state’s access points on Lake Michigan became destinations for those transporting, obtaining, and stopping the movement of alcohol, most often imported from Canada. Learn more about how the state’s resi-dents were affected, including how the state’s beer industry, on a large scale, survived the dry period (1920-1933).

Join us for our spring conference held virtually this year which includes four lectures by well-known genealogists on a variety of military research topics. VGS members: $30; Non-members: $40.

Register at: https://vgs.org/cpage.php?pt=31

If you can’t attend in person, no worries! The recordings will be available for 90 days after the conference.

 Researching Your World War I Ancestor in Virginia – Craig Scott, CG^®, FUGA – Researching military service after 1900 is problematic because of record loss in a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. The purpose of this lecture is to provide an introduction to World War I research and to get started on an efficient and productive research strategy. 

Records of the Forgotten: War of 1812 – Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG^®, CGL^SM – The War of 1812 is often called the Forgotten War.  Genealogically though, it can be one of the most relevant to finding ancestors pre-1850. Its records are many and cover multiple generations, producing many research clues. We explore useful federal military records and some non-federal records.

Soldiers’ Homes—A Lasting Legacy – Rick Sayre, CG^®, CGL^SM, FUGA – Soldiers’ homes were operated from 1865 to 1930 by the federal government. There were also homes operated by the states and private organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Over 400,000 individual records exist for just the federal homes. Learn about the genealogical riches buried in these records.

Finally Remembered: Black Revolutionary Patriots of Central Virginia – Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy – There is limited information and resources about the Blacks who served during the Revolutionary War. This session will provide some insight about the Revolutionary War and the lives of the Patriots, their challenges, and their service.

One day virtual seminar on the use of DNA in genealogy. There will be four beginning to intermediate level lectures by leading genetic genealogy specialist Diahan Southard. Videos of the lectures will be available to attendees for two weeks following the event.

The Colorado Genealogical Society is pleased to announce that Angie Bush has accepted our invitation to be the speaker at the CGS seminar on 23 April 2022 as a hybrid meeting – in-person and virtual via Zoom - 9am - 4:30pm. In-person event will be at Hampden Hall, 1000 Englewood Parkway, Englewood, CO.  The fee for this event is only $35. Ms. Bush will give 4 sessions: Building a Detailed Family Tree; First Steps for Evaluating Your DNA Test; Latest Developments in Company Tools for DNA; Meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard with DNA.

US Immigration & Naturalization Correspondence Files 1890s-1950s: Overview & Update 

1 pm via Zoom

Presenter, Marian Smith, will provide an overview of US Immigration Service Correspondence Files, 1891-1957, and US Naturalization Service Correspondence Files 1906-1946, both of which have become more accessible to researchers in recent years.  In addition to describing the different file series, she will explain all the old (and new!) finding aids available to identify a specific correspondence file and request it from the National Archives.  Throughout, correspondence file examples will demonstrate the breadth and depth of these rich record resources.

Marian  Smith retired in 2018 after thirty years as an historian for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS,) later US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS.)  She now occasionally speaks to groups on US immigration and nationality records and anxiously awaits returning to research at the National Archives.

(Non-members of CDGS may register for this free program starting on the 16th of April)

9:45 am Eastern Time - 2:30 pm

Featured speakers:

• Sara Cochran, "From a Box in the Closet to a Treasurered Family Heirloom" and "Disaster-Proofing Your Research"
• Kelli Bergheimer, "How to Clear the Mess on Your Desk"

Great door prizes from Census Tools.com, Collectionaire, Family Chartmasters, Gaylord's, Genealogical Publishing Company, Genealogy Bank, Internet Genealogy Magazine, Legacy Family Tree Webinars, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Newspaper Archive, RootsMagic, Vivid-Pix, and more!

8 PM - Free and Open to the Public (GSNJ Members have access to the recording for a limited time).

Are you utilizing search techniques to their potential? Do you know what “Boolean” means? Learn how to optimize your searches to find new genealogical treasures.

The Ventura County Genealogical Society presents

Free Family History Presentation

Online with Zoom

Saturday, April 16, 2022, 1:00-4:00 pm

https://venturacogensoc.org/this-month/

1:00 pm Presenter: Sara Cochran

“Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Is this Genealogy or the Cha-Cha?”

Revisiting and reevaluating our early research and home sources of information might seem like a waste of time, but often, it’s the key to getting past a roadblock in our research. We’ll discuss techniques for finding new clues in records we already have and look at several small case studies to see the value of taking the time to go backward in order to go forwards.

Sara is a full-time professional genealogist with over twenty-five years of experience. Her research has taken her into nearly every State in the USA as well as Ireland, Italy, Austria, and Britain. She holds a Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate, a Bachelor’s Degree in Library Science and is an alumnus of the ProGen Study Group. She especially enjoys breaking down brick walls for her clients, discovering the stories of black sheep ancestors, and helping individuals preserve their photographic legacy.

All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here https://venturacogensoc.org/request-invitation-to-lecture/

The DNA Special Interest Group meeting will precede the general meeting from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Zoom. To be added to the invitation list, contact the webmaster at

webmaster@venturacogensoc.org.