Learn or Refine Your Genealogy and Family Research Techniques

We're starting a new year at the Chicopee Public Library.  In addition to the "Research Clinics" we run every Thursday from 9 AM to 4 PM, I will conduct a variety of classes on the "art" of genealogy and family research.

The upcoming series will be 2 sessions on Monday evenings February 3rd and again on February 10th.

We'll be talking about what to look for, what to expect, what is "free" and what is not, web sites (and there are HUNDREDS!) and how to use them, research strategies, tips and tricks to find what you're looking for and, most importantly "IT'S NOT ALL ON THE INTERNET"!!  Where to find those documents you need that are not available just by clicking through sites such as Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org.  Even how to use Google to "Google your ancestors"!  And a crash course in DNA.

Alternately, another genealogist, Alan Doyle Horbal of Adams, MA, will conduct classes as well in a clinic format.

These classes are designed for beginners to intermediary researchers and have been very well received by all who have attended in the past.

If you're nearby and would like to attend, call the Reference Department at (413) 594-1800 ext 108.

See you there!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1590"] English: Image of Chicopee Public Library (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Related articles

• More than 80 Million Professional and Amateur Genealogists around the World!


• Genealogy, Ancestry.com, and (you probably already stopped reading)...


• Genealogy: A Sense Of Self And The Past


• Autosomal DNA Ancestry Testing: Open Your Past and Discover Your Future

The 11 Nations of the United "States"

Posted at Facebook by a fellow genealogist, Deborah Lee Stewart, I found this article intriguing to say the least.  Click "Continue reading" to activate the links to this article and others.

See, my paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish and settled in "Greater Appalachia" and many of those descendants still live there!  My English maternal lines have, in large part, been in the "colonies" from Mayflower days (John Howland...he's the one that fell overboard and had to be rescued) and my most direct ancestor William Bassett who arrived in the Fortune in 1621.  And there are many others, legions of others, all of whom occupied "Yankeedom" at some point in the history of the US.

Here's the link to the NPR article.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"] English: Mayflower_1920_Issue-1c.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Related articles

• If America is made up of 11 'nations,' where does Wisconsin fit in? (host.madison.com)


• Forget The 50 States, U.S. Is Really 11 Nations, Says Author (wnyc.org)


• Which of the 11 American nations do you live in? (washingtonpost.com)


• Scots-Irish? Irish? Scotch? (jillallyson.wordpress.com)


• Local history: Scotch-Irish heritage significant (timesreporter.com)

First Cousins? Second Cousins? Once Removed? Always Removed!!

In my class on genealogy research, I try to spend some time on relationships.  Truthfully, I have family tree software that calculates how I'm related to the 39,700 people in my data base.  Really?  39,700???  Yes, really.  Many of my maternal lines go as far as Plymouth Colony (Yes, there's a Mayflower or two in the mix) And you know those folks from way back before TV and the internet....they had kids, lots of kids!  So those fecund families spread their names far and wide across this country.  That also holds true for my paternal lines.  My direct great grandfathers were mostly in Alabama and Tennessee but their progenitor, I believe, was an early 1700's Scotch-Irish immigrant who may have settled first in New England and then gradually migrated south.  (Oh...."fecund"...it's not a bad word but I challenge you to look it up...I just never get a chance to use it!!)

But I digress.  Archives.com has published an excellent article that describes in simple terms what those simple terms mean: First cousin, once removed, third cousin 4 times removed and so forth.  I won't get into "Mother-In-Law of the 7th cousin twice removed of the grandson of the 3rd cousin three times removed" but they're out there.

Anyway, click the "Archives" link above and see if that's a  description you can live with.   I also have a chart  by Alice J Ramsey that you might like to look at.  I can e-mail that to you by you requesting it at dave@oldbones.info.

Have fun!