Wednesday, January 8
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Citations. Why Did it Have to Be Citations?
Presented by Sara Cochran
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Citations are a necessary part of genealogical research. With the right approach, they don’t have to be the scary part!
Wednesday, January 15
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
EXPLORING – The Gilbert Cope Collections on FamilySearch
Presented by Steven W. Morrison
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Gilbert Cope was “father of genealogical research in Pennsylvania.” His surname collection – scrapbooked records on thousands of surnames. He prepared the first accounts on many early families and twice traveled to the British Isles to abstract English Friends records. In America, Cope saved numerous Quaker meeting records from destruction. Explore FamilySearch to discover if Cope also researched – YOUR Quaker ancestor.
Wednesday, January 22
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Black Civil War Veterans in Washington State
Presented by Cynthia Wilson
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
In the late 1800s, the new state of Washington promised peace and prosperity to new settlers. At least thirty-three African American men who had served during the Civil War answered the call. Paul Barrows, a former legislator from Mississippi, established the Calvary Baptist Church of Spokane. Gideon H. Stump Bailey became the first African American justice of the peace in Franklin. Allin Alfred Hawkins, born into slavery, became one of the wealthiest African American farmers in the Yakima Valley. In her presentation, author Cynthia A. Wilson will tell the stories of these men and other courageous African American veterans who settled in Washington State after the Civil War. Ms. Wilson’s book, “Black Civil War Veterans in Washington State” was published recently in June 2024.
Wednesday, January 29
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Jumping the Pond: Connecting Immigrants to Their Homeland
Presented by Mary Kircher Roddy
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Are you and your ancestors tired of hanging out in US records? Ready to get back to Europe? In this presentation Mary Roddy will cover a methodology for finding your ancestor’s place of origin. You’ll learn about a host of records that might provide a location or clues toward finding one. Mary’s got a spreadsheet trick for squeezing the most out of passenger lists and a couple of ideas for when all else fails. Finally she’ll present a couple of case studies where she connected immigrants back to their home in Europe.
Wednesday, February 5
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Meet Your New Research Assistant: AI for Genealogists
Presented by Sara Cochran
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Discover how AI can act as your personal research assistant. This class will introduce you to AI tools like ChatGPT and FamilySearch’s full text search, offering practical tips and techniques to save time, find hidden records, and enhance the accuracy of your family history research.
Wednesday, February 12
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Ten Things Every Eastern European Genealogist Should Know
Presented by Lisa A. Alzo
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Learn how to maximize your Eastern European genealogy research with the ten key things to know before you even begin. Topics to be addressed: Tips for planting your family tree online, determining names and places, pinpointing places, the best online databases for getting what you need and practices for citing sources and recording information, and what to expect when you cross the pond.
Wednesday, February 19
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
A Demographic Study of Siroke, Slovakia in the 1800s
Presented by Mike Kocsik
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Censuses and Church records are great sources to find ancestors, but taken as a whole, these documents can provide a wealth of statistical information about a population. I have collected such data for one of my ancestral hometowns, Siroke in Eastern Slovakia, to build a picture of the daily life my great-grandfather knew as a boy before he came to America: occupations, family sizes, at what age people married, how long they lived and causes of death, etc. Lacking any direct stories about my older ancestors, this is a good way to present a picture of their world. Although it is one small farming town in a small country, the picture of peasant life is probably similar to towns all across Europe just before the Industrial Revolution.
Wednesday, February 26
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
Using Irish Naming Convention to Discover the Family of Thomas Delaney in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ireland
Presented by Susan McKee
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
Thomas Delaney was the father of Catherine “Kate: Delaney who married Henry Burge on 5 November 1878 in Dublin, Ireland. Catherine was born about 1860-62 in Queen’s County (present day County Laois) in Ireland and died 24 March 1909 in Dublin. To learn more about Thomas, evidence was gathered from researching the life and family of his daughter, Kate and her husband Henry. This evidence identified a specific geographical location to focus the search for records for Thomas. This case study shows how Irish naming convention can be used as a powerful tool to analyze and predict family names and aid in the search for family units in Irish records in the mid to late 1800s.
Wednesday, March 12
10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)
YOUR ANCESTOR’S OCCUPATION – Exploring the 1821 Irish Census
Presented by Steven W. Morrison
For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org
In Ireland all of our ancestors had an occupation. While some might later change their name, few changed their trade or means of making a living. When used in combination with other factors, an occupation can be a powerful tool to help identify OUR ancestor, among the hundreds of same named Irish immigrants. Explore the occupations outlined in Irelands’ 1821 Census for the town of Ballyhaise in County Cavan. It’s records are among a handful of remaining census fragments, which were not destroyed by the Public Records Office fire in 1921.
