Tracing Immigrant Origins - Historical Immigration & Naturalization Records with DearMYRT

For those of you who know or are familiar with "DearMYRTLE, your friend in genealogy," you'll know that she is responsible for a veritable stream of genealogical education broadcasts during the course of every week. Monday at noon eastern time, there's "Mondays with MYRT" a one and a half hour of a group of genealogists from around the world get together and discuss a wide variety of genealogical subjects.

Wednesdays have been the Google Hangout equivalent of classroom education at noon and "Wacky Wednesday" at 9 pm eastern. Both cover specific subjects, with "Wacky" being a little bit more fun and light hearted.

Occasionally, DearMYRT will host other specific subjects on Fridays at noon and once a month is "Genealogy Game Night" on a Saturday evening. "Game Night" is a modern twist of the old "What's My Line" TV program.

The Hangouts can be viewed by anyone. Simply ask to be added as a member of DearMYRTLE's G+ Community by clicking here and making the request. You will be able to watch the program live or, once you "get the hang of it," you may be interested in joining the panel. Panelist are active participants who appear live to the international broadcast.

Wednesday's class is the 3rd of 5 sessions on "Tracing Immigrant Origins - Historical Immigration & Naturalization Records." And the panelists won't just be watching, there's homework for us!! Here's my assignment: To post a document referencing an immigration or naturalization event in an ancestor's history. And below are the documents I'll be talking about on Wednesday, 4 November 2015 at noon eastern. Tune in!

This was my grandfather's 1919 "Declaration of Intention" to naturalize. There is a bounty of genealogical information here. He was single at the time and in spite of the filing, he never went through the final process. The document is only valid for 7 years so...

...he had to file again, this time in 1933. By now, he was married with 2 children. He lists Hazel, my grandmother, Beatrice my mother and Clement Jr, my uncle.

Once again, he never complete the process and died in Westfield, Massachusetts, a Canadian citizen in 1955 and veteran of "The Great War" having served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.

Lots happening

Last night was Session 2 of a 4 part class I'm holding at the Wilbraham Public Library on the basics of genealogy and family research. The first session went very well and everyone in attendance seemed to get a lot out of it. Well, I guess it was a good session because last night, about twice as many people as the first session showed up!! A wide variety of participants in the group: Some have done a substantial amount of research but most have only dabbled or are just beginning. We spent most of the night discussing web sites and went to a few so I could show them some shortcuts to their research. Lots of great interaction and we actually went over by about 45 minutes in the Q&A!!

Next, I finally registered to attend NERGC, the New England Regional Genealogy Conference. Karen and I went to the last conference which was held down the road in Springfield. Next year's conference will be in Manchester, NH. I really got a lot out of the last one and I'm looking forward to this one. Many speakers, many subjects covered and much to learn. The easy part is registering; the hard part is trying to pick the sessions to attend. There are probably 5 or 6 different subjects being covered in each time frame such as DNA/genetics, the National Archives, immigration and naturalization, writing and publishing your work, advanced on-line research techniques and many more. I'll also be leading one of the discussion groups at a luncheon on Saturday sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

And at last, I was able to register for the on-line “Certificate in Genealogical Research” course at Boston University. It begins January 16, 2013 and runs for 15 weeks. When that's complete, I'll begin the official certification process through the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). As I get deeper and deeper involved in specific areas of research, I discover that I don't know what I don't know! Basically, it ain't easy!