Events - Ventura County Genealogical Society

Lecture – Tina Beaird & John Callahan @ on Zoom

Jun 18 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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.

Second presentation:

Presenter:

John Callahan

“What’s New With Snagit?”

John Callahan will fill us in on new features for SnagIt, the screen capture and graphic editing tool for which VCGS has a site license.

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.

Categories: General Meeting

Jul

16

Sat

Lectures – Andrew Fairweather & Paul Milner @ on Zoom

Tickets

Jul 16 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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.

Andrew Fairweather is a Librarian who works for the Seward Park branch of the New York Public Library in New York City’s Lower East Side. His professional focus has included spreading knowledge about tools that help researchers conduct genealogical and local history research, as well as giving lectures that give people entry-points into classic works of literature. Andrew has worked at the New York Public Library for ten years, and has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Queens College, City University of New York.

Second presentation:

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.

Paul is a professional genealogist and lecturer, with over 30 years experience. Born and raised in northern England, settling in the U.S. in 1975. An internationally recognized speaker for British Isles research and migration. 2018 recipient of Utah Genealogical Association Fellow Award (FUGA). Author of Discover English Parish Records; Discover English Census Records; Buried Treasures – What’s in the English Parish Chest; Genealogy at a Glance: English Research and Co-author of A Genealogists Guide to Discovering your English Ancestors and A Genealogists Guide to Discovering your Scottish Ancestors. Coordinator for English and Scottish research tracks at Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, and coordinator of English Research tracks at Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and British Institute. Former APG, FGS and GSG Board member; past book review editor, FGS Forum.

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.

Categories: General Meeting

Aug

20

Sat

Lecture – Larry W. Thomas & Jeanette Sheliga @ on Zoom

Tickets

Aug 20 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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.

Larry is a retired US Army Captain with 23 years in the field of Aviation, Transportation & Logistics, he has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Maintenance Management, an FAA airplane mechanic license, and earned an MBA in Management Information Systems from Southern Polytechnic State University while working for the US Army Reserves as a Project Manager, earning his Certification as a Project Management Professional from the Project Management Institute in 2013. Larry began his Genealogy Research 30 years ago with his own Thomas Family, Georgia residents since the 1750s. Then adding the rest of his and his late wife’s families before beginning to research for clients in 2008, operating www.AtlantaGenealogy.com. A graduate of ProGen 38 and member of the National Genealogical Society, Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogy Speakers Guild, Gwinnett Historical Society, Serves on the Board of the Georgia Genealogical Society, and past president of the Cobb County Genealogy Society.

Second Presentation:

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.

Jeanette lives in Lockport, NY and has been researching her family tree since 2002. Her career is a public school band teacher which she has done for over twenty years. She began genealogical lecturing at the North Tonawanda Public Library in 2011 and soon after formed the North Tonawanda Library Genealogy Club of which she managed for ten years. In 2013, she became a Board Member for the Niagara County Genealogical Society. She is also the society Vice President, NGS Delegate, and the Program Chairperson. Jeanette became Chairman of the Board on March 2020 and held that position for over a year and a half.

Jeanette has proven her ancestry and joined many lineage societies including the: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, First Families of Pennsylvania, National Society Descendants of American Farmers, and the National Society of Mayflower Descendants. She was elected as Chapter Registrar for her local Niagara Falls DAR Chapter in June 2020 and held that position for a year and a half. In the Fall of 2020, Jeanette became the Virtual Genealogical Society’s (VGA) Corresponding Secretary and was elected to become a member of the Board of Directors for the Western New York Genealogical Society (WNYGS). While serving on the board for WNYGS, Jeanette became a contributing editor for the WNYGS’s quarterly publication, The Journal, and selected as the Programming Chair.

Jeanette officially started Jeanette’s Genealogy in January 2021 by filing a DBA with the local government.

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.

Categories: General Meeting

Sep

17

Sat

Lectures – Chris Paton & Karen Fortin @ on Zoom

Tickets

Sep 17 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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.

Originally from Northern Ireland, but with both Scottish and Irish roots, Chris holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde, and works as a professional genealogist, running the Scotland’s Greatest Story research service. He has been a resident of Ayrshire for almost two decades, but in the past has also been based in the English cities of Plymouth and Bristol, the Scottish city of Glasgow and town of Helensburgh, and the Northern Irish town of Carrickfergus, from where he originally hails.

As well as teaching Scottish and Irish themed courses for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), he has also tutored for the University of Strathclyde’s Genealogical Studies Postgraduate Programme (www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/). Chris is, In addition, a published author of several book titles (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/books.html), a regular monthly and bi-monthly contributor to several genealogy magazines, and to his own daily genealogical news feed, the Scottish GENES blog.

Second presentation:

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.

Karen Fortin received a Bachelor’s Degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. She worked at the Barbara S. Ponce Public Library in Pinellas Park, FL for 30 years before deciding to focus on genealogical research.

Karen’s passion for history and research led her to an interest in genealogy. She began volunteering with the Pinellas Genealogy Society in Largo, FL in 2012, and was the society’s president from 2014-2017. Karen began providing genealogy and history presentations in 2016 and has lectured at various genealogical societies and public libraries, and for other interested organizations. One of her goals is to help people explore historical periods, places, and events so that they can better understand their ancestors and the world in which they lived.

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.

Categories: General Meeting