Scots have been migrating to and settling in America and Canada for centuries. Today, there are an estimated 25 million Americans of Scottish descent. Tracing your Scottish heritage is rewarding, but not without its challenges. Join our genealogist to learn the first steps in tracing your Scottish roots.
By the end of the War of 1812, nearly 35,000 American Regulars and 458,000 militia had served on land and sea. In this webinar, we will discuss the key records and resources to learn more about your veteran ancestor. We will review compiled service and pension records, muster rolls, correspondence from officers, town histories, and a new database from AmericanAncestors.org.
Every family historian wants to visit their ancestral homestead. Changing street names, landscapes, and boundaries can make this task difficult. This online lecture will discuss resources for identifying an ancestor’s address and provide practical skills for finding its current-day location using land deeds, maps, surveys, directories, and other records.
As with any type of family history research, civil and religious records are your first, go-to resource in German genealogy. For many locations in Germany, civil registration began as early as the late 18th century and some church records (Kirchenbücher) date back to the 16th century. Beyond baptisms, marriages, and burials, many churches also kept family registers (Familienregister or Familienbücher). This session will discuss what records exist, what information they contain, and how to access these important resources.
This lecture introduces the participant to the challenges and joys of researching one’s Irish ancestors. Major sources of information as well as strategies for tracking elusive ancestors are presented. Throughout the lecture examples illustrate the principles of genealogical research including learning all you can about your immigrant ancestor.
Lithuanians have been immigrating to America since as early as the 17th century. Yet, rapidly changing boundaries, unfamiliar languages, and late civil registration are just some of the challenges faced by family historians trying to trace their Lithuanian roots. You willl gain a better understanding of the waves of immigration to the United States, what types of records exist, and how to get started in Lithuanian family history research.
In this webinar, we will present tips for getting started researching your Polish ancestry. Topics will include how to locate your ancestral town or village from American sources, how to navigate shifting historical borders, as well as an overview of the types of records that were produced in each region.
Following the Acadian Expulsion from Nova Scotia, an estimated 2,000 families from New England settled Nova Scotia (and parts of what is today New Brunswick) between 1759 and 1768. Largely farmers and fishermen, these Planters marked the first large-scale migration of English-speaking settlers to Canada who had not come directly from England. This webinar will discuss the historical context of the migration and point you to several published and primary resources that can help you trace your New England Planter roots.
With the influx of immigrants to America in the 20th century, many immigrant aid societies were created to assist new arrivals with job placement, medical support, finding lost family, and generally get them acclimated to life in America. Some of these organizations include Traveler’s Aid Society, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Charitable Irish Society of Boston, the Irish Emigrant Society of New York, St. Raphael’s Society, and many others. The records and case files kept by each society can offer a detailed look into the life of your ancestor. This session will provide a brief history of the immigrant aid society movement in America, how they operated, what information can be found in records, and how to locate them.
Beyond the all-important passenger list, immigration to America resulted in the creation of several other records. This presentation will demonstrate how to utilize several records, including: passports (both those from the origin nation and those later applied for by naturalized US citizens), border crossings, C-Files (naturalization certificates, 1906-1956), AR-2 Files (Alien Registration Forms, 1940-1944), WWI Alien Registrations (1918, gathered by each state), Visa Files (1924-1944), A-Files (1944-1951), and the Arolsen Archive database, which documents European refugee arrivals following Nazi persecution.
