2024 Genealogy Webinar Series – Your Roots Pursuits
The Your Roots Pursuits live virtual presentations are free and open to the public. Recordings of the presentations are available to GSNJ Members Only as a member benefit for a limited time.
Schedule
Each webinar is scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard or Daylight Savings time (depending on the date) for approximately one hour.
All 2024 webinars will have the ability for attendees to utilize Zoom’s Closed Captioning feature. The webinar host will explain how to select this option at the beginning of each monthly webinar.
January 17 – Pam Vestal – Genealogical Pits I Have Fallen Into and How to Avoid Them!
Genealogy is a great treasure hunt, but sometimes the clues are easy to misunderstand, or to miss altogether. Learn eight practical strategies to overcome obstacles that may be preventing you from breaking through your brick walls. Here’s your chance to learn from my mistakes without making them yourself!
February 21 – Paul Woodbury – Using DNA to Explore Cases of Adoption, Unknown Parentage and Misattributed Parentage
While DNA testing and genetic evidence are certainly useful for breaking down challenging historic brick-walls, the implications of DNA testing can also hit closer to home and closer to the modern era. In cases of adoption, unknown parentage and misattributed parentage, genetic genealogy methodologies enable identification of close biological ancestors whose identities might otherwise remain unknown, and which represent immediate brick walls for any genealogist dealing with such a scenario in their immediate family tree. In this presentation, we will explore these research scenarios and methodological considerations for each in the context of genetic genealogy.
March 20 – Sydney F. Cruice – Why Should Anyone Believe Your Research – How to provide Genealogical Proof and Write a Genealogy Proof Argument
Whether you are a casual family history hobbyist or on the professional genealogy track, everyone needs to know how to provide solid genealogical proof. How you support your family research findings is the difference between genealogy and mythology. We will demystify the Genealogy Proof Standard and discuss its five components. You will learn how to put together evidence to provide a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion. We will explore the different types of written conclusions and how the complexity of the genealogy research dictates which type of written conclusion is necessary for true genealogical proof. Lastly, we will look at several case studies to see how to build genealogy, proof statements, proof summaries, and proof arguments. Make sure you know what to do to guarantee your genealogy research findings will be taken seriously for generations to come.
April 17 – No webinar scheduled
May 15 – Mary Risseeuw – Genealogy of a Neighborhood: Urban and Rural
June 19 – Jessica Conklin – Searching for the Smiths: A Case Study
July 19 – Annette Burke Lyttle – Maps Galore: Finding and Using Online Maps from the Library of Congress
August 17 – Bryna O’Sullivan – From Connecticut to New Jersey: The New Haven Colony
September 18 – TBD
October 16 – Margaret McMahon – Using AI for Genealogy
November 20 – Kate Townsend – Beyond the Computer Screen: Planning for Repository Visits
December 18 – Deanna Korte – Unlocking and Researching Your Swedish Family History
Note: The schedule and speakers are subject to change.
Registration and System Requirements
The Zoom platform will be used for the webinars. A working internet connection is required to access the webinars.
Click on the Click Here to Register button for each webinar to register. You may register for each webinar until the webinar ends.
Each attendee will receive an email with the webinar link. A reminder will be sent prior to the webinar. To cancel, click on the cancellation link provided in the email received at the time of registration.
Handouts
The handout for each webinar will be provided during the webinar.
Speaker Biographies
Sydney F. Cruice is a professional genealogy researcher, writer, teacher and international lecturer with over 25 years of experience. She has lectured at many institutes and conferences including: SLIG, IGHR, IAJGS, IGGP, RFIPA. For over seven years she developed the curriculum and taught the genealogy courses at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She also served as the President of the Association of Professional Genealogists for the Greater Philadelphia Area Chapter for the past 6 years. Sydney’s article, “A Family Secret: Desertion, Scurvy, and President Lincoln” was the featured cover story for NGS Magazine in October of 2018.
Pam Vestal is a professional genealogist and speaker who turned her focus to her longtime love of genealogy after a 20-year writing career. Her articles have appeared in the National Genealogical Society Magazine and The Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, and her lectures take her from coast to coast. Pam specializes in conducting genealogical research and then transforming that information into illustrated stories that even non-genealogists can enjoy.
Paul Woodbury, AG, MEd., is a Research Team Manager at Legacy Tree Genealogists where he has helped solve hundreds of genetic genealogy cases. He graduated from Brigham Young University where he studied Genetics and Family History. He also holds a master’s degree in Instructional Design and Educational Technology. In addition to genetic genealogy, he loves research in France (for which he has received accreditation through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists).
Contact
If you have questions, please contact GSNJ at programs@gsnj.org.
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