Sessions:

BLM Land Records: A Trail to Our Ancestors

Have you ever visited the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) website? Did any of your ancestors homestead or receive military bounty land? Learn how to navigate the web site and see two case studies that used information from the BLM. (B,I)

Julie Berglund

I consider myself an amateur who fostered a relationship for all things genealogy. I obsessed researching the Orphan Train Movement to Minnesota and how it pertained to my maternal Grandmother. My genetic genealogy interest peaked with DNA testing. I'm a retired educator, a member of New York Orphan Train Riders of Minnesota, Pine City History Association, Pine County Genealogical Society, Swedish Genealogical Society of Minnesota and a granddaughter who has revealed her roots.

Sessions:

Clara, Orphan Train Rider, Roots Revealed Through Genetic Genealogy

The Orphan Train movement of children to the Midwest between 1854 and 1929 is a topic that until recently, was little known, undocumented in American history sources. Using DNA matches to form a hypothetical tree, documents, genealogy platforms, history centers, and meeting distant cousins, we revealed the Swedish roots of Clara, Orphan Train Rider from New York to Minnesota. (B)

Patricia Coleman

Patricia Coleman is a professional genealogist who specialized in DNA and Irish research. A graduate of ProGen58, Patricia has a PhD in Chemistry. She is moderator for Facebook user groups for DNA Painter and Genetic Affairs, and writes a blog at https://patriciacolemangenealogy.com. 

Sessions:

AutoLineage: DNA Matches, Trees, and Common Ancestors

Recently introduced AutoLineage from Genetic Affairs does it all. After collecting your DNA matches and shared matches from all the sites, you can make clusters for each of them. Add gedcom trees for your matches, and you can find common ancestors across all the trees. (I)

Jay Fonkert

Jay Fonkert, CG, specializes in 19th-century Kentucky and Midwest family history research. Editor of Minnesota Genealogist (now Generations), he has published five articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ). He is Coordinator for the Midwest course for the NGS GRIP institute.

Sessions:

Where There’s a Will or Not: The Riches of Probate Records

Death is a record rich event! Widows, widowers, and heirs all had a stake in the property, “real and personal” of the deceased. Learn how to find and use wills and probate records to prove family relationships and get a birds-eye view of your ancestor’s social and economic relationships. We will focus on the 19th-century Midwest. (I,A)

The Name Game: Merging and Separating Identity Fragments

Certain identity is a key for successful family history research. Names matter, but same-named individuals can be confused, and an individual’s name can shift or change over a lifetime. A name in a record is only an identity fragment. Learn how to logically merge or separate identities to make sure you are following the right character. (I)

Jessica Fontana

Jessica Fontana is a genealogist with over fifteen years of experience and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She has a Master of Science in Education from Ohio State University. She previously worked as a researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists and now has her own genealogy consulting business, Ancestral Path Genealogy Services. She specializes in U.S. research, with experience in the Southern, Mid-West, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as research in African- American family history.

Sessions:

Enhancing Your Research with Periodicals: PERSI and JSTOR

Learning to use the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and JSTOR (a digital library of over 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources) will give you access to materials you may not know existed. We will learn to conduct effective searches in PERSI and JSTOR to find treasures in periodicals. (B,I,A)

Lisa Minogue

Lisa Minogue was a software architect, then a computer science professor. She started doing genealogy in the 90s. Now retired, she is able to spend more time on her family history. She loves to find creative ways to use old maps to solve genealogy problems. She's been published in Nase Rodina.

Sessions:

Did Grandpa Live on a Freeway? Digitally Merging Old and New Maps

Do you wish you could find where your ancestor lived on a current map? Freeways, large buildings and city replanning can make it hard. Over time, neighborhoods change or disappear, roads get renamed or rerouted. Using case studies, we'll look at techniques to locate those old addresses on current maps - even when the old addresses no longer exist. (B,I,A)

Chelley Brekke McLear

Chelley grew up in England and lived in Northern Ireland for 25 years. She regularly presents at the DNA Interest Group and coordinates the MGS Writing Interest Group. A volunteer search angel, her specialist area is in England and Northern Ireland. She recently registered her business, Family Tree Trails.

Sessions:

Siblings and Spouses: Indirect Solutions to Direct Mysteries

We will explore research techniques and tree-building for collateral lines and spousal lines to generate hypotheses with traditional and genetic genealogy. This workshop will provide tips for resolving recent and distant ancestral mysteries using available documents for other known or potential family members and or/genetic clusters. (B,I)

Paula Stuart-Warren

Paula is an educator, researcher, and consultant on manuscripts, methodology, analysis, Native Americans, WPA, & railroads. She is a course coordinator for GRIP and taught for Ancestry Academy, SLIG, & TIGR. She also is a former Board member of MGS, FGS, former officer of APG and is a board-certified Genealogist http://genealogybypaula.com.

Sessions:

Researching Midwestern and Plains States Native Americans

Many Native Americans in these areas are well-documented and inter-connected but where to find records? Learn resources, repositories, and methodology to determine tribes and records. Documentation comes from missionaries, ministers, individuals, military, tribes, local, state, and the federal governments. (I,A)

An Anytime Library FREE From Your Home

Research a "zillion" books at 1:00 a.m. without breaking into the library. This presentation shares a variety of websites, including some obscure ones, that have digitized, photocopied, OCR’d, and indexed books you can find right from your home.  The handout contains all the URLs. You may be surprised at some of these online locations! (B,I)

Mica Anders

Mica L Anders is a professional genealogist and artistic placemaker who uses her passions for history and art to reintroduce clients to their ancestors and to create community history exhibits focused on putting the stories and contributions of under-represented communities back into local history.

Sessions:

Ancestral Enslavers and the Enslaved

Do you suspect your ancestors were enslavers or benefited financially from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? Have you found documents identifying enslaved people in family records? Learn how to re-examine census records, probate files, and property records for clues. Get tips on researching the descendants of the enslaved people you find. (I,A)

Susan Weinberg

Susan is a writer, artist, researcher, and public speaker. She serves as president of the MN Jewish Genealogical Society. Susan developed an oral history project out of which she authored the book We Spoke Jewish: A Legacy in Stories focusing on three groups of Jewish immigrants spanning the 1900s.

Session:

Mining the Manifest: Finding New Family

Pre-1906 manifests offer less information, but 1891-1906, can still prove fruitful. We will work back from documents, follow immigrants through Canada, trace who they were going to in NY and follow them to the Midwest. We will address name changes, variable spellings, and resolve conflicting data. (B,I)

Edward Swierczewski

Ed has been a professional educator and genealogist for over 30 years, and completed multiple courses from GRIP & SLIG, and is a ProGen alum. He founded Integrative Genealogy LLC and is an award-winning genealogical writer and Scholarship recipient and has presented webinars locally and nationally.

Session:

Enriching Genealogical Writing with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the newest tool available to genealogists; there are several use cases, that is, specific contexts where AI can be used to enhance our writing. We will use AI to generate new content, summarize documents, and translate text, using a variety of examples; use AI to determine if the Genealogical Proof Standard was met; explore other applications to assist in writing our genealogical stories. (B,I,A)

Unveiling the Past: St. Paul City Directories in Research

With a specific focus on St. Paul, city directories are powerful information tools for developing correlations between diverse record sets and developing proof statements or arguments to test hypotheses and advance research goals. A case study will be presented. There are many hidden gems that are just waiting to be discovered. (B,I,A)

Mia Sierra Patton

Mia Sierra Patton is a cemeterian and serves on the Board of the Minnesota Genealogical Society as Secretary. She is a graduate of the Boston University Certificate Course in Genealogical Research.