January 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Presenter: Claire Kluskins is a Senior Reference and Projects Archivist at the National Archives (NARA) in Washington, D.C. since 1992 and a genealogical researcher since 1976. She specializes in census, immigration, military, and other records of high genealogical value.
Presentation Description: Claims against the U.S. Federal Government (or against foreign governments) would be an afterthought, at best, for most researchers. Yet, they can contain valuable data. Civil War Claims against the Office of the Quartermaster General could be another source.
THE JANUARY MEETING WAS CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
February 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Presenter: Bruce deGrazia is Director and Program Chair of the Cyber Security Management and Policy Program at University of Maryland University College (UMUC).Before joining the university, Bruce held positions at the US Environmental Protection Agency, Cummins Engine Company, and United Technologies.
Presentation Description: Personal information isn’t so private these days. Many genealogy research websites require users to register personal information even for site free areas.
Click HERE to view his presentation.
March 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
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Presenter: Angela Packer McGhie serves as a trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists and on the board of the ProGen Study Group. Following her passion for genealogy education, she teaches in the Boston University Genealogy Research certificate program and at four genealogy institutes.Presentation Description: Preserving your research and your family heritage by writing biographical sketches of your ancestors. This can be done by documenting family stories or pulling details from records where there are few family stories for an ancestor.
Angela's presentation was not recorded.
April 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Presenter: Carol Kostakos Petranek serves as an assistant director of the Washington, D.C. Family History Center where she coordinates classes, conferences and community outreach projects. She is a Citizen Archivist at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and volunteers as a genealogy aide in the Research Room. Carol is the volunteer coordinator for the FamilySearch/Maryland Archive digitization project of probate and estate records and a volunteer for Greek records preservation at MyHeritage.Presentation Description: As descendants of immigrant ancestors, it is simply a matter of time before our U.S. research ends and we must continue our quest in our ancestral village. Depending on your country/countries of origin, it may be impossible to research successfully in "the old country" if you do not know your original ancestral surname and village of origin. This presentation will explore which U.S. records can be used to find this vital information. Click HERE to view her presentation.
May 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Presenter: James M Beidler is considered a go-to person for German genealogy articles and lectures. He has written two books on researching the genealogy of German-speaking peoples. He also has expertise in the genealogy of the people of his native Pennsylvania, newspapers, and land records. He has been the editor of Der Kurier , the MAGS quarterly journal, since 2004.
Presenter: John Philip Colletta is one of America’s most popular genealogical lecturers. Knowledgeable, experienced and entertaining, he resides in Washington, D.C. For twenty years, while laying the foundation for his career in genealogy, he worked at the Library of Congress and taught workshops at the National Archives. He received his Ph.D. from Catholic University.
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Presenter: Sharon Hodges is a teacher and lecturer. She is the author of several articles for the NGS Magazine as well as being a speaker at monthly meetings for various genealogical societies in the Mid-Atlantic region. In 1997, Sharon completed the National Genealogical Society Home Study Course for which she was a grader for almost ten years.
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Presenter: Sharon MacInnes is a Certified Genealogist with over forty years of family research experience focusing on Pennsylvania and land records. She is the author/compiler of eight volumes in a series covering the earliest landowners of various Pennsylvania counties. She is CEO and maintains a website at http://ancestortracks.com on which is posted 19th-Century Pennsylvania landowner maps and atlases as a service for researchers.
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Presenter: Eric G. Grundset, MLS joined the staff of the DAR as Library Director in 1983 and retired in 2018 after 35 years service. He has served as a former board member and vice president of the National Genealogical Society, as well as a board member and president of the Virginia Genealogical Society.
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Presentation Description: Show researchers how to trace their German roots online and explore their Germanic heritage from the comfort of their computer. This lecture highlighted important German genealogy resources on popular websites, including Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org as well as lesser-known sites like Archion.de. Attendees learned how to use each site to its fullest potential for German genealogy, including how to get around language barriers and navigate the various German states that have existed throughout the centuries. Additionally, they learned the best websites to consult to help answer key German genealogy questions, from unpuzzling
place-names to locating living relatives in the old country. Click HERE to view his presentation.
place-names to locating living relatives in the old country. Click HERE to view his presentation.
June 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Presenter: John Philip Colletta is one of America’s most popular genealogical lecturers. Knowledgeable, experienced and entertaining, he resides in Washington, D.C. For twenty years, while laying the foundation for his career in genealogy, he worked at the Library of Congress and taught workshops at the National Archives. He received his Ph.D. from Catholic University.Dr. Colletta is the author of several books, many articles, and a 15-lesson genealogy course. His books were available for sale after the lecture.
Presentation Description: In 1860 close to one out of every four residents of the District of Columbia was a man, woman or child of African descent. Of these people of color, about three-quarters were born free, the others were born into lifelong servitude. Discovering their stories poses peculiar challenges, but may result in a surprise ending. Philip Reid assisted Clark Mills in casting the Statue of Freedom in bronze for the dome of the U. S. Capitol. When the casting process began, Philip Reid was enslaved to Clark Mills; by the time Freedom was secured in place Philip Reid was a free man, married, with a baby girl. Two families whose legal status changed from chattel property to free citizens demonstrate a variety of public records for identifying and tracing 19th-century people of color in the District of Columbia.
Dr Colletta's presentation was not recorded, but his helpful handout may be found HERE.
July 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Presenter: Sharon Hodges is a teacher and lecturer. She is the author of several articles for the NGS Magazine as well as being a speaker at monthly meetings for various genealogical societies in the Mid-Atlantic region. In 1997, Sharon completed the National Genealogical Society Home Study Course for which she was a grader for almost ten years.Presentation Description: As researchers we download census records, but do we fully understand what the record says? Learn about the instructions given to the census takers and discover some little-known census records.
Sharon's presentation may be seen HERE.
August 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Presenter: Sharon MacInnes is a Certified Genealogist with over forty years of family research experience focusing on Pennsylvania and land records. She is the author/compiler of eight volumes in a series covering the earliest landowners of various Pennsylvania counties. She is CEO and maintains a website at http://ancestortracks.com on which is posted 19th-Century Pennsylvania landowner maps and atlases as a service for researchers.Presentation Description: The one and only thing that is shared by every American is that we are either an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant. If you descended from an early British or Irish ancestor, he/she might appear in a land record as a “headright”? or does he/she appear on an indentured servant or convict list? How about a German ship list? If your ancestor came after 1820, have you checked the Customs Lists? Do you know how to find immigrants who came through Castle Garden and Ellis Island, Galveston and San Francisco? If you haven’t been successful with U.S. records, have you checked Canadian border crossings? Do you know what the dreaded “L.P.C” and “SI” notations on ship manifests meant? And, finally, do you know where your ancestors’ naturalization records might be?
Sharon's presentation may be seen HERE
September 2019 Meeting
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Presenter: Eric G. Grundset, MLS joined the staff of the DAR as Library Director in 1983 and retired in 2018 after 35 years service. He has served as a former board member and vice president of the National Genealogical Society, as well as a board member and president of the Virginia Genealogical Society.Presentation Description: An avid genealogist, he reviewed the eleven books the Daughter's of the American Revolution published including "Research in Virginia" for the National Genealogical Society, "African American and American Indian Patriots of the Revolutionary War" (2001) and with Steven B. Rhodes "Genealogical Research at the DAR, Washington, D.C., 2nd edition" (2004).
“Our field’s most important bibliographic work to appear in the past decade is Eric G. Grundset’s series of source guides to the American Revolutionary era. To say that Grundset’s work is comprehensive is an understatement. His lifetime of study, across a career as Library Director and Director of Publications for the National Society Daughters of the American"
Eric's preseantation may be seen HERE
October 2019 Meeting
Tuesday 15 October 2019
Presenter: Gary Petranek retired from IBM after 41 years. He has been the Co-Director of the Washington DC Family History Center in Kensington, MD for the past 13 years. He has been doing genealogy research for 20+ years and has been an avid photographer “my whole life.” Gary hosts a RootsMagic user group once a month at the Family History Center.
Presentation Description: The photographic portion of this presentation covered such topics as understanding DPI and Resolution; where can you get photos of relatives from the past? scanning and printing photos; how to get good images from a computer screen; how to get good pictures using a cell phone from a photo in a picture frame; copying documents using your cell phone; how to scan large documents and photos; and how to get good tombstone pictures. Gary also presented an introduction to RootsMagic.
The presentation may be seen HERE
November 2019 Meeting
Tuesday 19 November 2019
Presenter: Shannon Combs-Bennett is an award-winning author, presenter and lecturer on topics ranging from genealogy methodology to DNA. Shannon has a BS in Biology with an emphasis in genetics from Indiana University.
Presentation Description: Whether you are adopted or simply do not know the parentage of an ancestor there are strategies for using DNA with your genealogy to bring greater success in these cases. In this lecture you will learn tips for successfully incorporating your DNA results into traditional genealogy research, how to reach out to matches, plus learn about the pitfalls and setbacks which can come with this type of research.
Her presentation may be seen HERE
December 2019 Meeting
Tuesday 17 December 2019
MVGS Annual Christmas Party - Good Time was had by all.