Massachusetts Genealogical Council

"The Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) is an umbrella organization representing genealogists, historical researchers, and all those concerned about records preservation and open access to public records."

Karen and I participated in the annual meeting of the MGC yesterday, Saturday, July 20, 2013. We actually had a pretty good time with the help of VERY effective air conditioning at the Hogan Center on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. The featured speaker was a nationally known lawyer/genealogist, Judy G. Russell, CG, CGL owner of "The Legal Genealogist". You can find her at The Legal Genealogist

Judy presented 3 programs through the course of the day. She's far from boring! Intelligent and very knowledgeable in the field of genealogy, the first program was "Breaking Through the 20th Century Brick Wall---Building a Family Through Circumstantial Evidence." Great stuff! She pointed out a number of time saving strategies that could help just about anyone who has hit their genealogical "brick wall."

Second, she presented How Knowing the Law Makes Us Better Genealogists." She strongly advises checking the laws in the state in which you're researching. For example, based on her experience in one particular town clerk's office, she brought copies of the legislation that allowed public access. The town clerk stated emphatically, "You can't see that. It's the law." She immediately pulled out "the law" and asked to be shown which part of "the law" prevented her from doing her research. It took about a half hour of the clerk and her staff studying Judy's copies, but she ultimately prevailed.

Finally, she presented "No Person Shall...Gallop Horses in the Streets: Using Court Records to Tell the Story of Our Ancestor's Lives." Among all the information she provided, here's a bit of interesting data: So, you think that checking the voter's list in the early 1800's Virginia for a female ancestor is a waste of time? Believe it or not, sometime between 1805 and 1807, the Virginia legislature allowed it!! It wasn't long before they legislated against it, but it happened.

We also heard from Kimberly Toney representing the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. They are the repository foor an amazing amount of early American history in the form of millions of documents, books, leaflets and loose paper from "first contact" to about 1876. Worth a look!

Great program, great venue (it was actually TOO cold!!) and great to see a number of people that I usually only communicate with in blogs, webinars and other internet venues.

We took the scenic drive home and stopped at the "Steaming Tender" in Palmer, Mass for dinner. All in all, a long but productive day.