From tracing ancestors on the move to understanding boundary changes to just becoming acquainted with the landscape of your ancestors' lives, maps are an incredibly important resource in your family history research. In this lecture, we will explore various ways in which maps can help broaden your genealogical horizons.
This lecture will discuss how to determine if your ancestor fought, review a veritable timeline of colonial wars in New England, Atlantic Canada, and Quebec during the 17th and 18th centuries, and provide the historical context for these conflicts.
Since its founding in 1630, the City of Boston has kept records pertaining to its citizens, including several unique resources. Join us to learn what records exist for Boston, tips for using them in your research, and where to find them. Special attention will be given to records from the 17th through 19th centuries.
Before the Revolutionary War, geography, topography and a strong indigenous people presence shaped migration patterns. This lecture covers the dominant push-pull forces and challenges for colonial migration. Using maps and other graphics, the major migration routes by region will be described: New England, mid-Atlantic and southward from Virginia. Famous paths such as the Kings Highway, the Great Valley Road, and the Fall Line Road as well as less well-known paths such as the Greenwood Path and the Forbidden Path will be covered. Using a set of examples, the process of locating clues in local histories, land records, and maps will be discussed.
The military records at the National Archives detail service given between 1775 and 1916. We will discuss how to locate, access, and utilize compiled service records, pension applications, and other resources that detail your veteran ancestor’s service. We will also discuss briefly more recent records available through the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis (WWI–present).
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of court cases and accusations of witchcraft across colonial America, yet the most famous series of prosecutions from this period are the Salem witch trials between 1692 and 1693. In that short period, more than two hundred were accused, thirty found guilty, and 20 executed. In this online lecture, we will discuss how to verify your lineage from someone accused of witchcraft in Salem during the Hysteria. We will point you to key records, resources, and references for proving your line of descent.
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.
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.
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.
For anyone with 17th-century New England colonists in their family tree, the Great Migration study project is a go-to resource. Created and researched by Robert Charles Anderson, FASG, the series provides authoritative genealogical and biographical sketches for more than 20,000 individuals who immigrated to New England between 1620 and 1635, and detailed references for many more who immigrated between 1635 to 1640. Many of these sketches are available as searchable databases on AmericanAncestors.org. Join us to learn more about these important resources and how best to search the databases.
