Events
Presenter: Sara Cochran
“Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Is this Genealogy or the Cha-Cha?”
Revisiting and reevaluating our early research and home sources of information might seem like a waste of time, but often, it’s the key to getting past a roadblock in our research. We’ll discuss techniques for finding new clues in records we already have, and look at several small case studies to see the value of taking the time to go backwards in order to go forwards.All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here.
The DNA Special Interest Group meeting will precede the general meeting from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Zoom. Contact the webmaster to be added to the invitation list.
Presenter: Carla Cegielski
“Mining for Treasure in the Internet Archive”
The Internet Archive is not just the Wayback Machine! It also contains audio, movies, images, software, maps, and texts. Discover everything you can do at the Archive and learn search strategies for accessing its genealogical treasures.Presenter: John P. Schmal
“Santa Barbara and Ventura During the Spanish Period (1783-1821)” (Mexican American SIG)
John P. Schmal will discuss the Spanish settlements of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, including the establishment of the five missions in the area between 1772 and 1804. He will explore the growth and challenges of the communities in the early decades of the Spanish period. The Chumash who inhabited the area long before the arrival of the Spaniards will also be discussed with emphasis on their numerous languages and transportation networks. At the end, there will be discussion of genealogical research for the Spanish, Mexican, and Indian inhabitants, with emphasis of the Huntington Library’s Early California Population Project (ECPP).In June 2018, he was a recipient of the Conference of California Historical Societies Award of Merit in the Scholarship Award and was recognized for “proliferate historic studies in the area of Mexican, Mexican-American and indigenous research.”
All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here.
There is no DNA Special Interest Group meeting this month. Our members are encouraged to attend Conejo Valley Genealogical Society’s DNA SIG this month. Contact webmaster@venturacogensoc.org for more information.
Presenter: Tina Beaird
“Old McDonald Had a Farm: Using farming Records in Your Genealogy”
Farm records can be an insightful tool for understanding your ancestor’s
place in the world. Were they wealthy, prosperous farmers or scratch farming to survive? Agricultural census, land records and mortgage books, court records, farm directories, newspapers, and personal ledgers and diaries can each provide an additional layer of insight into your family tree.
Tina Beaird is the owner of Tamarack Genealogy and is the Genealogy/Local History Librarian at the Plainfield Public Library in Plainfield, IL. She lectures nationally on military research, Scottish records, and archival preservation. She is First Vice President of the Illinois State Genealogical Society and a Director for the Northern Illinois Historical League and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Tina volunteers her time with several local historical and genealogical societies scanning and indexing historic records. Occasionally, Tina finds time to research her own family tree, which she has been pursuing for over 25 years. She is a baseball fanatic and she and her family have visited 22 out of 30 Major League ballparks.
Presenter:
John Callahan
“What’s New With Snagit?”
All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here.
The DNA Special Interest Group meeting will precede the general meeting from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Zoom. Contact the webmaster to be added to the invitation list.
Presenter: Andrew Fairweather
“Tenement Housing in the Mid 19th Century”
Do you ever wonder who your ancestors’ neighbors were? Are you writing an historical novel and need some inspiration? Join Andrew Fairweather, Librarian at the New York Public Library’s Seward Park branch on the Lower East Side. We’ll be talking about the history of the neighborhood during its decades of peak immigration, as well as looking at a few tips and tricks on how to perform demographic and genealogical research in this area, and elsewhere. Using Land and Buildings records and photographs, we’ll see the streets where your ancestor lived and maybe even a photo of their building. We’ll learn about living conditions in tenements and how to find your family in census records.Presenter: Paul Milner
“Irish Immigrants to North America” (Irish SIG)
Before, During and After the Famine: Learn about the routes taken and the reasons for the emigration from Ireland to the U.S. and Canada before, during and after the famine. Learn how this mass movement of people can affect your research, plus what tools and records are available to trace your Irish ancestor.
All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here.
There is no DNA Special Interest Group meeting this month. Our members are encouraged to attend Conejo Valley Genealogical Society’s DNA SIG this month. Contact webmaster@venturacogensoc.org for more information.
Presenter: Larry W. Thomas
“The Tax Man Cometh”
Do not overlook the wealth of information found in the tax records. As Daniel Defoe is credited for saying in a book in 1726, “Things as certain as death and taxes…,” we simply cannot avoid them. Up until the early 1900s, people were taxed on their land and other possessions and these can help in the research of your ancestors. We will examine several sets of records from around the U. S. and see what we can learn from them.Presenter: Jeanette Sheliga
“Navigating FultonHistory.com”
FultonHistory.com, or Old Fulton NY Postcards, is a free, historic newspaper website that contains archives of over 50 million pages of microfilmed newspaper images (mostly New York State newspapers, along with collections from other states and Canada). This presentation will give an overview of the content and a variety of search strategies.All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here. Please note that we cannot respond to same-day requests.
The DNA Special Interest Group meeting was moved to August 13 this month so as not to conflict with Jamboree. Contact the webmaster to be added to the invitation list.
Presenter: Chris Paton
“British & Irish Newspapers” (British Isles SIG)
Records of births, marriages and deaths provide a fantastic starting point for identifying our ancestors’ names and where they lived, but in terms of trying to understand how those ancestors once lived, there is no better resource to plunder than a good newspaper. Over the last two centuries in particular, newspapers have recorded the daily events that have shaped our forebears’ lives, and in many cases have identified specific tales about them, as well as notices and advertisements directly concerning them and their contemporary communities.Presenter: Karen Fortin
“Creating Google Earth Tours”
Google Earth tours can be a fun way to share your genealogy with your relatives. Tours can be created to visually illustrate the life and travels of one ancestor or the migration of a family over generations.All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here. Please note that we cannot respond to same-day requests.
There is no DNA Special Interest Group meeting this month. Our members are encouraged to attend Conejo Valley Genealogical Society’s DNA SIG this month. Contact webmaster@venturacogensoc.org for more information.
2022 Annual Seminar
Making Sense of the Census:
An In-Depth Look at Census Records
Gena Philibert-Ortega
Saturday, October 22, 2022
8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Zoom Webinar
Join us for this year’s annual seminar, featuring one of the most sought-after speakers in genealogy. Learn how to search census records more effectively. Door prizes will be awarded throughout the day!
For more information and lecture topics and to register, visit our 2022 Annual Seminar page.
[This meeting will be held online with Zoom and an invitation will be sent out by Zoom to those who register once their registration is successfully completed. ]
Presenter: Craig R. Scott
“Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestor”
Follow your Revolutionary War ancestor through available records from enlistment, service, pension and bounty land.Presenter: Baerbel Johnson
“Using Historical newspapers to learn more about your German Ancestor” (German SIG)
Historical newspapers are a wonderful new resource for the family historian!
They may include notices of births, marriages, or deaths, but also property sales, patents given for new inventions, business licenses requested, intentions to emigrate, and much more. Your ancestor may even be mentioned in a news article. Historical information adds color to your family history. This presentation will discuss how to find local and regional newspapers and gives lots of examples of how they can be useful in family history research.
Baerbel K. Johnson, AG, is a professional genealogist and works at the Family History Library as International Research Consultant. She holds degrees in Family and Local History Studies and Sociology from BYU, and has more than twenty years of extensive experience in European family history research with emphasis on Germany. She has published a number of journal articles, contributed material for several books, and lectured at various conferences. Her personal interest is in “putting flesh on the genealogical skeleton” by placing each individual within a proper social and historical context.
Baerbel is a member of NGS, the German Professional Genealogists Association, the German Society for Computer Genealogy, and SGGEE. She is also a member of and commissioner for ICAPGen.
All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here. Please note that we cannot respond to same-day requests.
There is no DNA Special Interest Group meeting this month. Our members are encouraged to attend Conejo Valley Genealogical Society’s DNA SIG this month. Contact webmaster@venturacogensoc.org for more information.
Presenter: Lisa Alzo
“No Easy Button: Using Immersion Genealogy to Understand Your Ancestors”
Family history is so much more than just names, dates, and places, or boxes, lines, and charts. For 21st century genealogists, it is easy to limit our research to the documents or other facts we find online, or to what others tell us to be true. Learn how to take your research a step further to understand your ancestors’ lives through “immersion genealogy”—the process of discovering where they lived, worked, and worshipped, and experiencing those customs and traditions they passed down through the generations. Key resources, methodology, and tips for reaching out to relatives and repositories, and how to make the most out of a trip to your ancestor’s hometown (whether in North America or across the pond) will be discussed.All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here. Please note that we cannot respond to same-day requests.
The DNA Special Interest Group meets on December 3 this month from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Zoom. Contact the webmaster to be added to the invitation list.
Presenter: Diana Elder
“Getting Things Done and Family History: Productivity Tips and Tools”
How do you stay productive when you have numerous genealogy projects? Learn a system to capture to-do items, prioritize projects, and erase overwhelm.Diana graduated from Brigham Young University Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Education. She is the author of the bestselling book Research Like A Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide and creator of the “Research Like a Pro” study group and e-Course. Diana co-hosts the Research Like a Pro genealogy Podcast with her daughter, Nicole Dyer, and writes regular articles on their website, FamilyLocket.com.
Presenter: Laura Hedgecock
“Practical Tools for Family History Writers”
Ready to explore software tools to help you write your stories? This session will show a range of software, smartphone apps, and websites which help writers find context, come up with and develop ideas for family and ancestor stories, and hone writing skills. Participants should have some familiarity with web browsers, word processing, and smart phone apps.
Laura Hedgecock is an author, speaker, freelance writer and GeneaBlogger passionate about helping others tell stories which connect loved ones with their family and ancestry.
Her book, MEMORIES OF ME: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO TELLING AND SHARING THE STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, guides and empowers memory collectors with down-to-earth, practical advice and creative ideas. Her website, TreasureChestofMemories.com, provides pragmatic advice on preserving and sharing memories and family stories.
Laura serves as President of the 3400+ member GeneaBloggers organization and is a member of NGS, Genealogical Speakers Guild, Toastmasters, and Detroit Working Writers. She authored BLOGGING FOR FAMILY HISTORY, which provides a road map for launching a blog and making it successful.
She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and Chicago Tribune.
All our monthly lectures and workshops are free to our members and the public. Non-members should request a Zoom invitation here. Please note that we cannot respond to same-day requests.
There is no DNA Special Interest Group meeting this month. Our members are encouraged to attend Conejo Valley Genealogical Society’s DNA SIG this month. Contact webmaster@venturacogensoc.org for more information.