Pinal County Genealogy Workshop

We had a grand time today at the annual workshop. Over 200 people took advantage of the class selection and delicious lunch. It was gratifying to see at least 15 of our club members in attendance. I took something new from each class, as I am sure everyone else did.

Using the Internet from Home gave me some ideas about revising the list of websites for our club folders. We'll be thinking about that for next year.

The class on Finding Women in Genealogical Records reminded me that much of our needed research should be done on site rather than on the Internet! The same speaker, Melanie Sturgeon, suggested that the various court records available would be a useful area of research after you have gleaned what you can from vital records.

After attending the land records class I now have a better understanding of the difference between land grants and patents. I also did not realize that you could search the General Land Office records by land description to locate neighbors (and possible relatives).

Denise Crawford provided a useful list of websites for historical newspapers online. One good tip from the class was to use www.legacy.com, which is an obituary site that is a collaboration between newspapers and funeral homes.

It would be wonderful to see even more of our members in attendance at next year's workshop!



Lunch break at the workshop