Learn about the various colonial wars that 17th and 18th New Englanders participated in.  We will discuss published and manuscript resources, and how to "Adopt the Regiment" to learn more about your ancestor through associated records.  

The 20th century was the age of the passenger list. Unlike the previous centuries, ship manifests from this time focused on the individual passengers and provide a goldmine of information for family historians. To fully understand and analyze passenger lists, we need to understand how they were created, what information is included, and what inferences can be made. This presentation will also discuss strategies for narrowing your search when a passenger list can’t be found and piecing together an entire family’s movements to the United States. 

The website of the National Archives and Records Administration (Archives.gov) is your at-home portal to a myriad of records. This lecture will demonstrate how to navigate the online catalog, access or request records from home, and, because not everything is online, discuss tips for planning a research trip. We will also discuss the difference between the National Archives in Washington, DC and the regional branches found across the country. 

With so many records and resources available online, what could possibly be offline at research centers and repositories? The answer: A lot! we will discuss the importance of taking your family history research offline, provide examples of what you might find when you do, and how to prepare for doing research at an archives, library, historical society, or other repository.

Família! Learn the basics of Portuguese family history research. Our expert will discuss some of the common challenges in Portuguese research, review go-to records and resources, and demonstrate key search strategies.

This lecture looks at how to get started in researching your Italian ancestors by examining records generated in the U.S. and Italy and what is most important in effectively researching in Italian records. 

In this lecture, we will walk you through the beginning steps of German research: understanding waves of immigration to America, getting back to the immigrant generation, finding where in Germany your ancestors came from, and understanding the many German border changes pre- and post-unification.

You may know that your ancestor was Christian, but to really make headway in your research, you need to know what denomination(s) they followed. To find that information, you must first understand context. This lecture will provide a brief history and background of Christian denominations in the United States and how geography, time period, community, family artifacts, and more can give you the clues you need to proceed. 

Was your ancestor a Freemason, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Columbus, or a member of another fraternal organization? In this webinar, we will teach you how to identify different fraternal organizations, provide valuable tools for locating a lodge and its records, and discuss how these records can enrich your family history research.

Once you know what denomination your ancestor belonged to and the church they attended, it’s time to find the records. With the understanding that not everything is online, this lecture will discuss navigating online resources, researching manuscript materials at denominational archives, and working directly with the church.