Anatomy of a Union Pension File: A Civil War Case Study

So many statutes required notice that someone wanted something done, and the legal notices in newspapers can be priceless sources of genealogical clues.

Before World War II, the FBI had dossiers on many German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, thousands of them were arrested and sent to "temporary detention centers" and internment camps throughout the country. Learn about these men and women, focusing on the Japanese immigrants held at Sharp Park and Angel Island in the Bay Area. Newly digitized documents available online create new opportunities to learn about their stories.

Military maps are an invaluable source of information for determining where our ancestors may have served in a specific conflict. Knowing your ancestor’s military unit or organization can help place his regiment, battalion, brigade, or division on the field to determine the precise footsteps you family trod during a specific engagement. This lecture focuses on those maps that contain valuable military information from the colonial period through the Vietnam War of the mid twentieth century.

African American research can be especially challenging for many reasons. This class will demonstrate sound methodology for tracing your African American ancestors by following the Todd family in a case study.