FGS 2015 Program Spotlight: Digging Deeper

Solving those difficult genealogical problems requires digging deeper. Sometimes that involves looking for lesser-known records. Sometimes it means asking yourself new questions. These tracks at FGS 2015 will help you do both.

Friday, February 13, 2015

The Most Useful Records Hidden in Plain Sight

• America's early justices of the peace served up ground-level justice and local governance. Gentlemen Judges: The Justices of the Peace created records unparalleled for genealogists. Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, will introduce you to those records. 

• City directories provide more than just a name and address for a particular year. Join Melissa C. Tennant, MLS for City Directories: More than Basic Facts to discover the stories held within these volumes.  

• Fraternal memberships are an often overlooked part of our ancestors' lives. Kris W. Rzepczynski, MLS, MA, explores these secret societies and their records in Fraternal Organizations: Records and Resources.

• Tax records are seldom utilized, and dismissed as boring and insignificant. Hear Michael Lacopo, DVM, explain why they are a primary source to utilize in Using Tax Records for Genealogical Problem Solving. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Answering Difficult Questions with Leading Questions

• We all have an ancestor from nowhere. View the Genealogical Proof Standard in action to solve an "impossible" case! Michael Lacopo, DVM, will present She Came from Nowhere... "A Case Study Approach to Solving a Difficult Genealogical Problem."

• What happened to your ancestor in the decades between the censuses? Melissa C. Tennant, MLS, will explain how census responses can lead to records created in these intervening years in Hurdling the Census Chasm. 

• How to research the impact of the First World War? Audrey Collins will take you through a case study of an English town starting with the names on a war memorial in The War Memorial — Reconstructing a Community. 

• Not all our ancestors were naturalized. The ones who didn't suddenly became suspect when war divided their native countries from their new residences. Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, explores the records that created, the kinds of records genealogists love, in Martha Benschura: Enemy Alien. 

Check out the full program for FGS 2015 scheduled for February 11–14, 2015, in Salt Lake City, Utah and register today.