ESGR Board Member Mary Jane Koenig joins us with other speakers to give a presentation on the forthcoming book, Answering The Call: Erie County, Pennsylvania in World War One."  Produced by the Erie County World War 1 Centennial Committee, the book is organized into five sections: At War; The Homefront; Sketches; Bios of the 200 Men From Erie County Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice; A List of 2300+ Men and Women From Erie County Who Served. The book will become available on May 25 at a special event at the Hagen History Center.

 

 

Did you know that DNA Painter is not just for people who have had their DNA tested?  ESGR’s DNA Special Interest Group leader Helen Shimek will give a presentation via Zoom on May 12 at 6:30 p.m. to demonstrate how to use DNA Painter in your genealogy research. This presentation will take you through the “Ancestry Trees” feature on dnapainter.com.  Learn to make colorful pedigree charts, how to easily identify and visualize gaps in your ancestral line, and how to create dimensions that display countries of birth, decades of birth, or customized layers such as city of birth, age at death, etc.  This class is free and open to the public.  If you are not an ESGR member, please email the ESGR Web Editor (webeditor@genealogyerie.org) for the Zoom link before 4 p.m. on May 12, to receive the Zoom link.  The handout will be available to ESGR members in the Members area of this website.  

The annual National Genealogical Conference will be held online only this year, from May 17 to May 21. The in-person conference in Richmond, Va. has been cancelled due to Covid issues. Anyone interested in registering for the conference can do so here. There is a membership rate (which would require joining NSG as an individual member), and a non-member rate.

 

 

Are you ready to explore the information in the 1950 United States Census? The Census report is released 72 years after it was taken. In 1950, Census Day was April 1, so it will be released on April 1, 2022. Come hear speaker Thomas MacAntee on the types of information and resources you can expect to tap when all of that data is released next year. On Zoom. Link will be posted in the Members Area shortly before the date.

Speaker Ari Wilkins on the valuable genealogical information often available in the information that funeral homes collect. Funeral home records often contain extensive information on the family's genealogy, church affiliations, business activities and other topics valuable to family history researchers. Wilkins, a graduate of Louisiana State University, has been researching family history for more than 20 years. She works at the Dallas Public Library and teaches genealogy classes there. She specializes in African American research, and has spoken at the National Genealogical Society, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, Roots Tech, the American Library Association and many local societies.