Catalog of Lectures

Virginia was not only the largest and most populous of the American colonies, but its population was also highly migratory within Virginia’s borders and beyond. Little wonder then that so many family historians need to research Virginian ancestors. In this webinar, we will share go-to Virginia-based resources within five categories: genealogies, journals, land, taxation, and history. Learn about essential published sources that discuss family groups and help us to trace Virginian ancestors through time and place. NOTE: West Virginia (up until its separation from Virginia in 1863) will be included in this presentation.

There are at least 44 million descendants of enslaved individuals alive today, but slavery separated families, erased names, and obscured facts. The 10 Million Names Project, recently launched by American Ancestors and its partners, aims to connect the family stories of these descendants to the 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. prior to emancipation and to restore their names to history. Join us as we share the scope of this project, the objectives, and our methodology.

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.

Throughout history, there are individuals who find it difficult to live within the rules of a society, often turning to criminal, illegal activities. While some criminals can skirt the law, more often they are caught, leaving a paper trail documenting their activities, whereabouts, and other valuable information that can be used in tracing family history. We will provide an overview of key resources that can be used to research the criminals in your own family tree, including newspapers, jail registers, prison records, court records, and more.

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.

City and rural directories can be incredibly useful resources for genealogists. They can help you pinpoint a time and place for ancestors on the move, offer occupational information, and even help give clues to death and marriage dates. You will learn how these resources were created, what information is generally provided, where to locate these sources online or in print, and how to use these records effectively in your family history research.

Was your ancestor a Freemason, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Columbus, or a member of another fraternal organization? In this webinar, we will teach you how to identify different fraternal organizations, provide valuable tools for locating a lodge and its records, and discuss how these records can enrich your family history research.

Do you have ancestors from the Deep South? In this webinar, we will address key challenges in researching families from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and offer tips and solutions for getting ahead. Topics include migration and settlement patterns, what to do when vital records are not available, how to leverage land, probate, and tax records, and finding confederate records. The session concludes with tips for conducting African American research in the region.

This class will include the different types of record sets that enslavers may name enslaved persons (including probate records, land deeds, court records, and more). A brief case study will be discussed.
 

If your ancestor had the right to vote, you can find a wealth of information in their voting records. These records can help you to verify the exact years your ancestor lived in a certain location, locate your ancestor on a state census, identify when your ancestor was naturalized, and more. Join our expert as they discuss where to find voting records, the information they contain, and how to use them to advance your family history research.