Catalog of Lectures

This program introduces the viewer to American Ancestors – New England Historic Genealogical Society (American Ancestors) - who we are, what we do, and how we can help you. With a focus on what is available to virtual viewers, this program talks about navigating our website, exploring our databases, finding subject guides, research templates and more. Our online accessible collections cover a wide range of genealogical records from the 17th to 21st century and span geographic locations from New England, the rest of the United States, as well as Canada and Europe. Our services include online courses, AncesTrees-our tree platform, online chat as well as Research for hire. Join this program to learn how American Ancestors can help you accomplish your genealogic goals. 

When most family historians think about the census, we think of the population schedule—the enumeration of individuals living within a household. But there is so much more to the Federal Census that many researchers overlook! We will discuss how mortality, agriculture, manufacturing, business, and other social statistics schedules can be used in your genealogical research. We’ll review what data was collected for what years, how to access these non-population schedules, and how to leverage this information in your own family history.

Financial records can help fill in the timeline of your ancestor’s movements and explain motivations behind migrations. Deeds, pension, town, probate, tax, and employment records may exist when vital records do not. This class will demonstrate why financial records should be your go-to for tracing ancestors on the move, discuss what information is included in each, and where to find them. 

Whether your ancestors lived in New England in the 17th century or the 21st century, this presentation will give you the basic information to begin—and advance—your research into New England records. In preparation for the release of the Sixth Edition of Genealogist’s Handbook for New England Research, this presentation will give you the basic historical context, general organization of records, go-to resources, and unique strategies that will give you a good foundation to succeed in tracing your New England ancestors. NOTE: New England includes the present-day states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

In researching your family history, you quickly become inundated with physical copies, email and other electronic files, handwritten notes, photographs, research logs, and more. We will discuss various systems on how to organize your files, so you can easily return to your work, find what you need on a particular person or family, and not duplicate your efforts. 

Today there are an estimated 7.6 million Jewish Americans living in the country, the majority of whom descend from diaspora Jewish populations from Central and Eastern Europe. Learning how to trace your Jewish ancestry is not without its challenges: changing surnames, locating your ancestor's home village or shtetl, and access to overseas records are just the tip of the iceberg. This webinar will discuss the historical context of your ancestor's arrival in the United States, review American records that can be helpful in your research, and provide basic strategies for uncovering your ancestor's exact origins in the old country.

The choice of a genealogical software program may be one of the more personal decisions in genealogy. This lecture reviews the essential features of a smorgasbord of programs currently available to the family historian.  Programs differ in how they handle names, dates, places, sources and merging duplicates. The talk highlights key features of each with a focus on data entry, importing data, ability to tailor citations, reporting capabilities, chart generation, and reliability checks. By the end of the program, the attendee should have a good sense of which program might suit their needs and research habits. 

Família! Learn the basics of Portuguese family history research. Our expert will discuss some of the common challenges in Portuguese research, review go-to records and resources, and demonstrate key search strategies.

With so many records and resources available online, what could possibly be offline at research centers and repositories? The answer: A lot! we will discuss the importance of taking your family history research offline, provide examples of what you might find when you do, and how to prepare for doing research at an archives, library, historical society, or other repository.

Unclear as to what date “21 1mo 1708/9” refers to? What about “4 Mary”? While dates are foundational to your family history research, they’re not always straightforward in the record or follow a modern calendar system. This online lecture will go over common calendar systems that you may encounter in your research, discuss how to interpret and record them, and suggest several online conversion tools to understand these dates in familiar terms.