Our guest speaker will be: Melissa Baker, AKA, The Archive Lady

Description:

Learn from an archivist the best practices to preserving your ancestor’s textiles and handmade items. Everything from Grandma's quilt, that old Christening gown, your Dad's letterman jacket and military uniforms. These textiles and handmade items need special care and consideration when it comes to preservation and storage.

Presenters Bio: 

Our guest speaker will be: Sharon Hoyt, CG

Description:  One day in the early 1900s, August Lawrence left his Minnesota home for a job and never returned. More than a century later, genealogy research solved the mystery of his disappearance. This talk covers strategies that can help you break down even long-standing brick walls, including researching friends, family, associates, and neighbors; researching others with the same name; and using a wide range of records.  

Presenters Bio: Sharon Hoyt, CG, is a genealogy researcher, speaker, and author from California’s Silicon Valley. Her primary research areas include New England, New York, the Midwest, Canada, and England. She is the winner of the National Genealogical Society 2017 Family History Writing Contest and the 2016 Michael Clark Family History Writing Award from the Minnesota Genealogical Society. Her research has been published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and Minnesota Genealogist. Sharon holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science.

Our guest speaker will be: Alec Ferretti

Description:  Learn how state and federal Freedom of Information (FOI) laws work, and how genealogists can use them to uncover novel records. Alec will discuss how to make FOI requests in various states, and will outline case studies in which he used FOI laws to obtain specific types of records pertaining to an ancestor.  These diverse records range from alien files held by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, to burial permits held by local town clerks, to occupational licensing applications held by the State.  Discover records previously thought to be locked away from the public forever!   

Presenters Bio: Alec Ferretti serves on the Board of Reclaim the Records, a non-profit which seeks to restore public access to records which have been illegally withheld by the government.  He has worked for the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center and is the President of the NY Genealogy and Technology Group, an informal organization which meets bi-monthly to discuss genealogy topics.  He specializes in Italian Genealogy and 20th century genealogy.