What Do You Want to Learn?

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La Fenice Opera House from the stage. Pietro Tessarin, CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Do You Want to Learn? and from Whom? 

The 2024-5 SKCGS Speaker Series draws to a close Saturday, June 21, 10–11:30 am; Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, AG, FOGS will present "The Scots-Irish in America." Register to attend at SKCGS.org. Doors open at 9:30am.


Your Education team will meet tomorrow, Tuesday June 10 to plan the 2025-6 year, and would love your guidance. Have you heard a speaker who can take what you thought was a complicated subject, and not only make it understandable, but which leaves you eager to try it out?  How about someone who makes a method sing, instead of dread? Tell us! Write to: education@skcgs.org


Looking Back...

In this past educational year, we've heard from both nationally-known speakers, and some of our own. 

Our year began with Steve Little, "Today’s Limits Are Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs." This talk gave us all a taste of what many of us are now using daily, machine learning/ AI. October, Pam Vestal presented "How to Write Family Stories People Will Read," a skill which is vital to passing along to our research work to future generations. Where can we find parts of these stories? In archives! In November, Melissa Barker and Anne Jenner gave us “Archives 101 for Genealogists,” one of my favorites of 2024. 

We began 2025 with “The Invisible Man–Moving through a pre-1840 burned-county brick wall” from our own Dr. Carol Gorman Friedel, presenting a riveting case study in using indirect and DNA evidence. February, Michael Strauss got us ready for the 250th USA anniversary with “The Road to Independence: Revolutionary War Research.” In March, we heard Amber Oldenburg reveal the “Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense Registration Cards: The Largest Census of American Women You've Never Heard About.” She did not oversell that title; most of us have never heard of this record set!

April, Debbie Gurtler presented "FamilySearch 2025: New Tools, New Discoveries." Mind-blowing how powerful the new tools are. This past month, we were honored to hear "The WPA Era: Free Records Boon from the Government" from Paula Stuart-Warren. Another record set that seems inexhaustible!

Below are some of the suggestions we have heard so far; what can you add? What are some of the talks you remember from the recent or far past? All of us start as beginners, so we need a range of topics. 

Is there a particular topic you would like addressed—Irish, Swedish, Quaker, Germans from Russia, Canadian, Southwest United States, Asian Immigration...?  Let us know and we will try to find a speaker.


Some Speakers & Topics

  • Robyn N. Smith: Cluster Research
  • Michael Strauss: Bankruptcy to equity: Using Federal court records
  • Sue Schlichting: Inspiring the Next Generation of Genealogists
  • Diana Elder: Using AI as your Research Assistant
  • Paul J Zak, neuroscientist: The Science of Storytelling
  • Mags Gaulden: Using DNA on WikiTree
  • Michael Strauss: Enemy Aliens: Researching your Immigrant Ancestors
  • Michael Strauss: Finding Genealogical Evidence in military records
  • Michael Strauss: Manifest Destiny: The Mexican War & Territorial Expansion
  • Michael Strauss: A house divided: researching the Civil War
  • Christa Cowan: Pro-tools: How to enhance our DNA evidence & trees
  • Sara Cochran: A Deed in the Hand is Worth Two in the Books
  • Winona Laird: How to re-write a book with the help of AI and publish to Kindle
  • Julia A. Anderson: FamilySearch's Full Text Search
  • Mary Kircher Roddy: Putting Your Learning to Work: Getting The Most From an Educational Opportunity
  • Thomas MacEntee: Creating an Ancestor Sketch
  • Melanie Golden: Writing Your Own Obituary
  • Steve Morrison:  DIGGING UP NEW DIRT – Unearthing the ‘REAL’ New England Immigrant
  • Steve Morrison:  SIMPLY AMAZING – US Quaker Records Online

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Send your stories to m.strickland@skcgs.org


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