Zoom Registration required:    https://tinyurl.com/vnjj2w75

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/    

Zoom Registration required:   https://tinyurl.com/mpvh964c

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/    

Zoom Registration required:   https://tinyurl.com/3mz3a7nn  

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/    

Eastside Genealogical Society

Genealogy Interest Group

When: Friday, October 4, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required:  https://tinyurl.com/5a66t9nu

Topic:  Finding Females in US Naturalization Records, 1790-1952
Whether you’re missing a naturalization record or finding an unexpected one, this webinar helps you discover how female ancestors — both foreign-born and birthright — gained, lost, or regained citizenship in the United States between 1790 and 1952.

US citizenship and attendant rights for women could be fragile, depending on marital status, prevailing laws, social norms, and other shifting factors. Examples of US naturalization and citizenship records, and search strategies for finding these records are featured in this presentation.

Presenter:   Nancy Loe

Archivist, librarian, and genealogist Nancy Loe has been helping researchers with their family trees since 1977. She specializes in US and European family history research, presenting at webinars and conferences in the US, Canada, and Australia, including NGS and Rootstech.

Nancy’s genealogy e-books and free monthly newsletter are available at www.sassyjanegenealogy.com.

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/  

German Interest Group

When: Friday, September 6, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/4rj86chu

Topic:  A Day in the Life of Your German Ancestor
Most family history researchers are interested in the daily events in the lives of their ancestors. This presentation deals with the common activities of families on the farm and in the trades. The details provided represent the culmination of the presenter’s reading on the topic over the last two decades, from hard-to-find literature available only to the German audience.

Presenter:   Roger P. Minert  

Roger P. Minert received his doctoral degree from The Ohio State University in German language history and second language acquisition theory. He taught German language and history for ten years, and then became a professional family history researcher. Accredited by the Family History Library for research in Germany and Austria, he worked for twelve years as a private genealogical researcher. From 2003 to 2019, he served as a professor of family history at Brigham Young University. The author of more than 200 publications, he directs the research program German Immigrants in American Church Records [GIACR], the series now consists of 40 volumes. In 2019, Minert was recognized for his years of service to the Palatines to America Society and also received the “Shirley Riemer Lifetime Achievement Award” from the International German Genealogy Partnership. In 2020, he was named a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association. From his home in Provo, Utah he continues to write articles on Germanic genealogy, compile new GIACR volumes, and participate in conferences nation-wide.

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/   

When: Friday, June 7, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/3748pjb9    

Topic:  Is this the End? Taking Your German Brick Walls Down Piece by Piece 
What do you need to look for once you have reached your brick wall? What is available and how do you find it? Leam how to think like a German and understand how to assess the needs of your German research to get the most out of it, from both sides of the ocean. You will understand how a typical German lived and made decisions. A case study will show you step by step how to overcome a typical brick wall.

Presenter:   Luana M. Darby, AG®

Luana M. Darby, AG® is a professional genealogist, author, and consultant. She has a bachelor’s degree in Family History and Genealogy from Brigham Young University and a master’s in library and information science from San Jose State University. Luana has been actively involved in the genealogical field for over thirty-five years. She specializes in Palatine German, US Canadian, and Western European research and forensic genealogical research for probate firms. She frequently travels to Europe for genealogical research onsite in archives and repositories and is a frequent lecturer at local and national conferences and institutes. Luana has served as past president and director of the Utah Genealogical Association, on the Association of Professional Genealogists board, and as a director of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. 
She is currently a board member of ICAPGen and the Utah State Society of DAR as state registrar. She also served as the chair for the NGS 2020 Virtual Family History conference and is a past online adjunct faculty member of the Family History department at BYU-Idaho. Luana M. Darby is accredited for research in the United States Midwest region.

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/   

The German Interest Group

of The Eastside GenealogicalSociety (EGS)meeting

When: Friday, May 3, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/mrwca3bd

(This presentation will not be recorded.)

Topic:  National-Socialism – “Euthanasia” and family research
During the Nazi era, people were transferred from hospitals and homes for the disabled to various institutions in the German Reich and in the annexed territories and murdered there. This took place in 2 phases.
Based on the speaker’s own relative, it is possible to follow his path in today’s Poland and the Pomeranian institutions until he was murdered in Meseritz (today Międzyrzecz) in Brandenburg. There will be an overview of the history surrounding the forced sterilization of mentally ill and disabled people and their murder (“euthanasia”).

Presenter:   Inga Guttzeit

Inga Guttzeit, is a Citizen Scientist and Genealogist residing in Lübeck, Germany. She has been doing genealogical research for more than 20 years. She is a volunteer on several projects such as “Transkribus for Hanse-Documents” where she is helping to train the Transkribus AI Software platform, building the “Hanse-Recess Model” enabling better transcriptions of handwritten and printed documents of the Hanseatic League. Inga is a member of the “Working group for research into Nazi-“euthanasia” and forced sterilization” ( www.ak-ns-euthanasie.de ) which was founded in 1983 and she is a member of the group “Researching Lübeck 20th Century”. She has spoken several times in person and online about genealogy and Euthanasia. In June 2023, she began working on a remembrance book (Gedenkbuch) for victims of National Socialist-“Euthanasia” who were born in, deported from, or lived in Lübeck. Inga’s areas of research are Silesia, East Prussia, Thuringia (South), Schleswig-Holstein (near Kiel) and the Salzburg Protestant Expulsion. 

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/

When: Friday, April 5, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required:  http://tinyurl.com/mrz2hzw3

Topic: “Germanic Genealogy on Facebook: Prussia, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Denmark, Swiss & more!”   

This Facebook group was established to provide a forum for those that had ancestors from ANY region where German was, or is, spoken to include Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, etc… and all the areas where those Germanic people emigrated to around the world.  The group is entirely a volunteer-based group, although we have many professional genealogists that are members and donate their time as they are able.

We cover a variety of topics in the group:

·         Genealogy/Family Tree Building

·         Geography of the regions

·         History of the regions including immigration/emigration

·         Cultures/Traditions from the regions

·         Record searching and sources

·         Languages of the regions & translations of records, postcards, letters – mostly German, but also Polish, Russian, Danish, Latin

·         DNA Matching via GEDmatch Ancestor Projects

Presenter:  Laura Kaatz

Laura Kaatz is a semi-retired international business development exec and an avid hobby genealogist who started on genealogy in 1990.  She has traveled extensively throughout Europe for business & pleasure (including genealogy-focused trips) and has a special interest in the former Prussian provinces now in Poland where her husband’s ancestry is from – including Brandenburg, Pommern, Posen & West Prussia.  She and her partners (Native Germans & Americans) who are admins for the Facebook group belong to many other Germanic Facebook groups, but they felt there was a need to cover multiple geographies due to migration of Germanic people and unknown “German” locations for those doing genealogical research.

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/    

The German Interest Group

of The Eastside Genealogical Society (EGS)meeting

When: Friday, February 2, 2024 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm PT

Note: This meeting begins 2 hours earlier than normal.

Zoom Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/2kt7v52h

Topic: “Practical Advice for Family Research in Pomerania – tips and tricks to find what you are looking for –“

Learn how to find where your ancestors lived, which records have survived and where to find them both in archives and online.

This seminar will cover the tools provided via the website of the Pommerscher Greif and how they will lead you to sources in various archives and demonstrate what and where to find on the internet or how to contact organizations holding the original records.

The focus of the presentation will be on (Protestant) church books and civil registers and explain the organizational structures of the Protestant church and the civil administration in Pomerania until 1945.

Presenter:  Dr. Klaus-D. Kohrt

Dr. Kohrt was born and raised in Flensburg, Germany. He received his high school diploma in Great Britain and was a temporary soldier in the German Navy. After studying mathematics and computer science in Kiel, Germany, he worked at Siemens for 25 years in Munich. An avid traveler, he worked abroad both in the U.S. and the U.K.

Residing in Eckernförde, Germany since 2009, he has been an active family researcher for 14 years. He is an active member of the following organizations:

• Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Genealogischer Verbände e.V. (DAGV) – vice president

• Pommerscher Greif e.V. – past president and current contact person for the district of Greifenberg

• Schleswig-Holsteinische Familienforschung e.V. (SHFam) – president

• Heimatgemeinschaft Eckernförde – initiator/organizer of the family research working group – “IGeFF”

• Association for Computer Genealogy (CompGen)

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/