Monthly Meetings
(Due to COVID-19, Meetings will be conducted via ZOOM until further notice.)
Meeting Schedule
Meetings are the second Monday of the month at 7:00 PM, September - May.
7:00 pm ~ Featured Speaker
8:00 pm ~ Society Business Meeting
Guests are invited to attend a meeting to learn more about our group before joining our society.
12 October 2020
Mind the Gap: Using Timelines to Succeed in Family History
Gaps, brick walls, missing details, unsolved mysteries, slippery relatives - we have all encountered the challenges that come with the joys of family history. Discover the power this heavy-lifting tool has to generate clues, identify missing information, knock down obstacles and add depth to your efforts.
Kristine Hansen
Kristine Hansen is a passionate amateur family history explorer. Her own family tree has taken her east to Maine, West to California and South to Texas. Her true joy lies in helping others uncover their own Family History gems.
9 November 2020 (via Zoom)
Organizing Your Genealogy Using Spreadsheets
We will use Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet to label and organize your photographs, letters and various documents in order to keep track and make storage and retrieval easier. We will also go over how to create a timeline and use it to verify or discard family history theory. This is a beginning class but some knowledge of using computers and Excel is recommended.
Daniel Sample
Daniel grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Tech University. He received a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. He has worked at the Plano Public Library, and the Houston Public Library. He is the manager of the Genealogy & Local History Department in the Fort Bend County Library system.
14 December 2020 (via Zoom)
Christmas Projects
Learn a number of unique ideas (over 40) for turning your Family Research into a wonderful gift for Christmas or any holiday. This will engage your other family members into your world of Genealogy. There will be at least one idea that you will want to pursue this year and others that may take longer and can be planned for the future. Some projects are free and some will cost a little money. We will also explore ideas that you have.
Lynn Baker
Lynn runs an active Genealogy Club on Seabrook Island / Kiawah Island and Kiawah River Estates called “Digging into Roots Together (DIRT)”. He is a frequent speaker at the NSDAR, Summerville Genealogy Club, Charleston Chapter of the South Carolina Genealogical Society and the Charleston Family History Center. He has just completed the certification course through Boston University. He has a passion for genealogy and started his research in 1980 and continues to learn new ways to explore family history. He enjoys sharing with other genealogists, whether a beginner course, DNA, on-line, or using various tools like Family Tree Maker, Ancestry or FamilySearch.
11 January 2021
Genealogy research, I’ve surfed the Internet, now what?
Genealogy research existed long before the advent of personal computers and the Internet. Today, research seems to be centered mainly on information found on Internet genealogy megasites, digitized archival collections, or digitized book sites. This presentation will show how to find information off the Internet to enhance your family history.
Irene Walters, Clayton Library for Genealogical Research
Irene Walters came to Houston’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research from New York in 1997 after receiving her Master of Library Science degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over the years she has been in charge of volunteers, periodicals, cd-roms, computers, and cataloging. Currently, she coordinates Clayton’s involvement in the digitization project with the LDS Library in Salt Lake City.
8 February 2021
"What is the answer to all my genealogy prayers?"
WOW, you are not going to believe what you have been missing!! FamilySearch has a hidden resource that will blow your sox right off. I am going to show you the Wiki and just a few of the many things that it can help you find. It would take hours and days to go over all the “toys” in the Wiki. It can lead you to sites that are not on any of the “Big Box” sites, like the actual digitized English will of an ancestor that left everything to her granddaughter but explained why she skipped her daughter. It can help you write a letter in French/German/Spanish etc to the archive holding your record. If you find a digitized document, you want to attach to your family tree just push one button and it will attach it and site your sources accurately.
Sue Yerby
For over 49 years, Sue Yerby has been a Family History Consultant. She has taught continuing education classes in genealogy as well as developing and orchestrating several full day genealogy workshops. Currently, she is a volunteer for FamilySearch.org.
She holds memberships in many area genealogy societies as well as being a member of the Daughter of the American Revolution. She has served on the Board of Clayton Library Friends in three different capacities. She is also a member of the National and Texas Association of Professional Genealogists.
8 March 2021
Revisiting the Three R’s: Ready Reference Resources for Genealogy
This presentation will explore some of the greater-and-lesser-known titles that should be part of every genealogical researcher’s Reference Desk. Examples will include a variety of bibliographies, directories, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, as well as general how-to guidebooks for beginning-to-advanced genealogy, record-specific research, ethnicity-specific research, and international research. This course will also explore which of these titles can be found online so that you can add them to your “Virtual Reference Desk”.
Steven Bychowski
Steven Bychowski has been on staff at the Clayton Library since 1999. His areas of genealogical research interest and specialization include the Midwest (where he has roots in Illinois and Wisconsin) as well as Central and Northern Europe (where he has roots in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, and Norway). He enjoys the challenge of navigating records written in German, Spanish, and Latin, although his favorite activity still remains working with new researchers who are just excited about getting started in genealogy. Steven also manages the library’s volunteer program as well as its email reference program. When not solving genealogical puzzles, he enjoys outdoor activities such as playing soccer and visiting the National Parks.
12 April 2021
The Hidden Messages in City Directories And Where to Find Them.
How to using City Directories to find your hidden and missing information. Directories can be used for finding occupations, wife's names, other families living in the same building or neighbors, and much more. Since this information can be helpful, where can you find city directories. Many are on line at large genealogy web sites, but some can be found by searching for rural and county sites also. This talk will give you other places to look for city directories.
John Coyle
10 May 2021
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing: Abraham Lincoln, Genealogy, and the American Civil War"
How geographical origins and migrations influenced American attitudes prior to the American Civil War. He will focus on criticism of Lincoln's background by the president's enemies.
John Barr
John Barr is a Professor of History at Lone Star College-Kingwood, Texas. Previous to his appointment at Lone Star in 2008, he taught middle school for six years and was a high school history teacher and Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at Kingwood High School for eighteen years. He was named “Teacher of the Year” by the National Honor Society in 2007 and was inducted into the Gulf Coast Track & Field Coaches and Texas Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame in 2013.
He received his B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1984, his M.A. from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1988, and doctorate from the University of Houston in the fall of 2010.
