Legacy's "Webtember" is an annual event with extra presentations every Wednesday. They are free to watch in real time or at your leisure for the week following. You can register at https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars
Tomorrow's topics: (times listed are MST)
7 AM Novel NYC Records
8:30 5 Ways Tax Lists Can Assist Your Pennsylvania Research
10:00 10 New Tools for Pennsylvania Research
11:30 Top 10 Websites for Ohio Research
There were several members who helped the club in various ways this season. I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone.
Speakers: thanks to Maureen, Diane, Dennis and Dick, who volunteered time to prepare and present topics over the past season.
Table Haulers: thanks to everyone who showed up early in order to help set up tables and chairs: Jay and Camille, Ken and Beth, Rene and Diane, Roger, Skip and anyone I might have missed.
Next Door: thanks to Nancy for faithfully posting the notice of our weekly meetings.
During our final meeting of the season, Dick gave us an overview of Family Tree Maker, the genealogy program we've been using for over 30 years. He described the options on the home page, including sources, adding names and viewing information. We also learned how the program is integrated with FamilySearch. Dick stressed being very careful about adding sources from online sites without carefully vetting the information.
Thanks for an informative presentation, Dick!
News from FamilySearch:
Researching your family’s New York history will soon be a lot easier. Thousands of records from the state library and archives will be made available in digital format through a collaboration with FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world.
MORE: https://www.news10.com/.../nys-expanding-ancestry
This past week we heard a review of basic DNA concepts from Diane. She talked about the types of DNA tests, recommended using Ancestry and uploading results to other sites. She showed us the locations and matches from her family on Ancestry.
Diane demonstrated tools that can be used on Ancestry, My Heritage and DNA Painter. Thanks for another educational presentation, Diane!
This past week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by listening to a presentation on Irish Genealogy. Dennis covered some early Irish history and explained that the county and townland were the two most important geographical locations to know. And there are some 50,000 townlands!
The Poor Law Unions, Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith's Valuation will also be helpful resources.
During the Great Famine (1845=1852) Ireland lost 25% of its population due to death or emigration.
Dennis included some photos of a recent trip to his townland, as well as maps of the area.
If you missed this presentation, the handout included a long list of helpful websites.
Thanks, Dennis, for increasing our knowledge of research in Ireland.
Several members met at the local Family Search Center last week to use their subscription sites and collaborate with personal research. We had two or three breakthroughs during the morning. And a few of us learned that Fold3 is not particularly user-friendly! On the whole it was a successful visit.
It was great to have Pam Ingermanson back this week for another class about Family Search. She gave us a great overview on the home page before moving on to the tree.
Don't forget to try the AI suggestions on the home page which will help you to add information to some of your ancestors.
Pam explained the items on the tool bar on a person's Detail page and showed us how to contact someone who is adding information to our ancestors' story. We looked at the variations on a person's pedigree and the area where new information is listed.
We also reviewed how to add Memories to each person's page.
Finally, we used the Family Tree App on our phones to learn who in the room was related!
Thanks, Pam, for an interesting presentation.
The final February workshop concentrated on websites. We looked first at PhotoTree.com where you can learn about the types of early photographs and get some help deciding when your ancestors' photos were taken.
How to use Ancestry to locate photographers in the 1870-80 and 1900 censuses was explained, as well as a few links to learning more about those early photographers.
Annie also suggested taking a look at VintageAerial.com for photos of farms taken all over the country mainly during the 1970s.
We viewed a second group of websites to help in locating passenger lists. Ellis Island has updated its holdings and we can now access arrivals from the 1850s. Steve Morse's one-page websites can be helpful as well as another called German Roots.
As always, the FamilySearch Wiki page is a great help for any subject matter.
Here are all the opportunities for adding to your knowledge in March.
March 3: FamilySearch Night
March 5-7 RootsTech2026
March 10: Family Tree Maker Features
March 12: Field Trip -- Family Search Center
March 17: Land Records in Ireland
March 21: Arizona Genealogy Day
March 24: DNA Revisited
March 31: Summer Sendoff
Last week Diane presented ideas for preserving and cataloging photographs. She provided several examples to help in deciding whether to keep or discard family photos. There were also techniques we could use to identify when photos might have been taken.
Diane included a handout for photo inventory and analysis that will be extremely helpful for making decisions about your family pictures.
Thanks, Diane, for that educational presentation!
ARIZONA GENEALOGY DAY
Saturday, March 21, 2026 8:30 - 3:00 FREE
9:00 Honoring Ancestors: Native American Genealogy
10:15 Finding Family: Genealogy in the Arizona Memory Project
11:30 Add a Snapshot to Research
12:45 Liberate Your Research: Using Collaborative Family Trees
2:00 How the Weather Affected Your Ancestor
Google "Arizona Genealogy Day" to register for this free online event.
The main topic this week was a comparison of the three main cemetery websites: Find A Grave, Billion Graves and Interment. Since Find A Grave is the largest, we suggest trying that site first. They are all free and have different goals and perspectives. One other idea is to use the "cemeteries" selection under the Search tab in FamilySearch.
This workshop also included a trip "down the rabbit hole" of research. We used one family name in each cemetery website to compare results and then followed different sources such as death records, census pages, marriage records, etc. to discover more information.
This week Maureen told the story of her research into her grandfather's ancestors. We heard first about the extensive resources she had used to locate records for Frederick and his mother. When the brick wall continued to expand, Maureen decided to try DNA testing. It was quite a surprise to learn that no Crittenden appeared in the results.
She showed us the DNA results and the work she has done to analyze the two surnames that seem to be connected to her grandfather's family.
Thanks for sharing your interesting story and good luck with further research, Maureen!
This week's meeting was in roundtable form. We were asked to share a new or unusual research discovery or present a current brick wall problem.
We learned that John's grandmothers both wrote their own histories. Roger found that a middle name turned out to be a female ancestor's maiden name. Diane got started in genealogy because her mother didn't know much about her ancestors.
Some of the puzzles included a great grandmother who changed her name and an obituary that did not include enough information about the female survivors listed. Another problem was a father who was raised by grandparents. One member is just beginning to try to locate villages in Europe.
Other topics included suggestions for newspaper websites, "the formidable genealogist" on Facebook, full-text searching, visiting the Family History Library for specific help in researching foreign locations and various immigration ports.
Last week's topic was "Clusters and Collaterals." Basically, this is looking for information about friends, neighbors and "shirt tail" relatives to locate facts that aren't available in our direct ancestors' records.
There was also a case study about three men with the same surname who settled in the same county in Wisconsin after traveling there via very different routes. Could they be related?
Weather and Family History
Maureen discussed how weather events such as droughts, dust storms, floods, etc. impacted our ancestors. These examples caused immigration, migration and sometimes deaths. Her handout included a list of historic weather events in both the U. S. and Canada for us to consider.
She also demonstrated several websites where we could learn more about specific conditions for a particular time period.
Very interesting, Maureen! Thanks for the presentation.
During our first meeting of 2026 we explored many online resources for adding to our knowledge of genealogy research.
FamilySearch: find your ancestors using the "find" selection under "Family Tree"
Webinars: Legacy Webinars, BYU YouTube and RootsTech all provide free videos
Genealogy on Facebook: Google the term to find a long list of links
Cyndi's List: another resource for links to all sorts of genealogy-related information
Blogs and Podcasts
Google: Use a name or location "+genealogy"
U.S. GenWeb
