Government Gazettes as a Genealogical Resource

Birth, Marriage and Death information provides the bones of our family history skeleton from which we hang the rest of our research about a person. Learn more about the New Zealand records that give your research structure.

This lecture will discuss the institution of apprenticeship – documents, laws, and resources relating to free people of color before the Civil War.

This is a case study based on five years worth of research into the family of Lorenzo White of Pickering, Ontario. Janice will walk the audience step by step through a very difficult research project that ultimately revealed both a fascinating story and important lessons learned. Audience members will learn about a wide range of Ontario records and strategies for overcoming seemingly impossible research roadblocks.

Identify push factors to emigration (internal issues influencing emigration): Identify pull factors to emigration (external forces encouraging emigration) • Discuss factors and resources for each time period • Emigration pre-1717 • Scots-Irish (1717 - 1783) • Revolutionary War to the Famine (1783-1845) • Famine years and after • How to use to find places of origin

Locating and using former slave owners’ bible records can reveal slave families as well as their birth, ages and deaths. These records are valuable and can predate statewide vital statistic records. In addition, these records can show enslaved persons were listed with their enslaved families.

If you have already worked out that ‘Mc’ and ‘Mac’ surnames are the most complicated British surnames, you must listen to this webinar. And if you haven’t already worked this out, you must absolutely listen to this webinar. ‘Mc’ surnames are double the trouble because they can suffer distortions at the beginning, middle and end of the ‘Mc’ prefix as well as at the beginning, middle and end of the rest of the surname, the root word. Sound glides are a particular problem, in which the ‘k’ sound at the end of the ‘Mc’ prefix distorts the first letter of the root word (e.g. McCue/McKew/McHugh, McLachlan/McGloughlan). Transcription errors can also produce a non-‘Mc’ surname (e.g. Mackever/Markever) which can prove a trap for the unwary. This seminar will help you keep you sane when you encounter the complexities of these mad Scottish-origin surnames.

Montana has 56 counties, and there’s a plethora of sources available across this 4th largest state. You’ll get a quick tour of Montana genealogy treasures online. Also, a tour of Montana sites and their specific genealogy databases available from archives and local history societies, along with a site-specific guide telling of the latest archives, museums, libraries and historical/genealogical societies open to aid in your search for ancestors, and ghost towns and mining camps, too! We’ll experience historical Montana maps available online, learn how to plan a specific trip to maximize the archives and local historical sites where other records (taxes, poll taxes, road taxes, poor taxes, boulevard districts, real estate additions, types of directories available per area, etc.), and note the specific genealogy and history societies/museums available to provide local helps. You’ll have access to a 30+ page (online) of the resources and references noted in the presentation.

Learn about the different types of census records and substitutes that can place your ancestors in New Spain or Mexico. This class will discuss why the records were created, where to find them, and what type of information they contain.

Government Policy in Australia, particularly from Federation until the 1980s, meant that many Australians with indigenous roots have lost connection with family and community. Between adoption, state foster care, missions, hiding ethnicity, and relocation, it is often difficult to know where to start and haw to analyse records. This webinar will present how to start your research, looking at repositories, institutions, and community records that will assist, both indigenous specific and general, in compiling a genealogy or family history.