Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, is an academic librarian, college educator, and tech nerd who has been researching her family history since 1997. She is the Digital Literacy Librarian at California State University, Fullerton, and also teaches an online graduate-level genealogical research methods course for San Jose State University. Colleen is a nationally recognized speaker and educator specializing in methodology, Mexican & Hispanic research, libraries and archives, and technology.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Friday, January 20, 2023 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of Wednesday's webinar by Bernice Alexander Bennett, "Exploring the Records in a Slave Owning Community" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Bernice Alexander Bennett is an award-winning author, genealogist, nationally recognized guest speaker, storyteller, and producer-host of the popular Research at the National Archives and Beyond BlogTalkRadio program. She is also the first recipient of the Ida B. Wells Service Award given by the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage for her dedication to broadcast stories about enslaved and indentured ancestors of African descent. She also received the Elizabeth Clark-Lewis Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Genealogy Award in 2019 for original research in support of African American Genealogy. Bennett is on the Board of Directors for the National Genealogical Society.

Bennett–a New Orleans native and current resident in Maryland–enjoyed a 35-year career in domestic and international public health. She received an undergraduate degree from Grambling State University and a graduate degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

Her genealogical research centers on Southeast Louisiana, and also Edgefield and Greenwood Counties, South Carolina. Her South Carolina journey is chronicled in Our Ancestors, Our Stories, which won the 2018 International AAHGS Book award for Non-Fiction Short Stories. Her second book Tracing Their Steps – A Memoir received the Phillis Wheatley Literary Award from the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage in 2019 and the International AAHGS Book Award in 2020 for Non-Fiction Short Story.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of tonight's webinar by the Board for Certification of Genealogists and Angela Packer McGhie, CG, FUGA, "Document Analysis: Digging into Details" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/BCG for free for a limited time.

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Angela Packer McGhie, CG, FUGA, is passionate about teaching genealogy. She is the Education Director of the National Genealogical Society and a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Angela enjoys coordinating courses for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, as well as teaching at other genealogy conferences and institutes. Angela served as the administrator of the ProGen Study Program for six years and is now on the board of directors. She also serves as a trustee for the BCG Education Fund.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at:

• 8pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 7pm Central
• 6pm Mountain
• 5pm Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Are you Googling Your Ancestors?

When we think about researching our ancestors, genealogical-focused websites come to mind. That makes sense. They are the websites that have the records, indexes, and databases we need. But research requires more than entering search terms in a genealogy website's search engine. It requires us to expand our search and try other resources and search techniques.

Whenever I research, I always try a search on Google. Why? Using the Google search engine, it's possible that I can find mention of an ancestor in resources posted by groups or individuals. I can also focus my search to websites, images or books.

Take, for example, my latest search based on some letters I bought at an antique store. I entered the name of a woman who wrote a few letters, Inez Overell, and received several hits. The most promising was one for the website Heirlooms Reunited by genealogist Pam Beveridge. In a blog post dated May 13, 2013, "1880s Autograph Album of Minnie Kennedy with signers from New York, New Orleans, and Ontario," she mentioned several Overell family member appearing in the autograph book, including Inez. Pam, like many genealogists, tries to reunite orphan heirlooms with family. In doing so, she scans and writes about them for her blog. This 10-year-old post provided me with more clues about a family whose letters I bought at an antique store. I was able to connect with Pam and get more information (thanks, Pam!).

As I Googled Inez's name, I tried searching for an exact phrase by placing quotation marks around the search phrase (for example, "Inez Overell"). I also tried searching just the surname (Overell), and I focused my search results on books to see if I could find her mentioned in older books (including city directories) or magazines.

This type of search isn't always successful. Not everyone is mentioned in an old book or a website. I have had many times where I come up empty checking Google. But in some cases, you may find information that is not available anywhere else, including the names of researchers or families who are researching that person or have valuable family heirlooms.

As you consider your genealogy Google search, go beyond just entering a name in the Search engine.

Try different search techniques like an exact phrase search, an advanced search (available once you conduct an initial search by clicking on the gear icon in the top left corner), or even a wild card (substitute an asterisk for a missing word like a middle name, for example). If you aren't sure how to use Google to find what you need, check out the webinars about Google in the Legacy Webinars Library.

Researching the names I found on these letters has given me a lot of genealogical information about the families involved, but going beyond genealogy websites and generalizing my search to Google has helped to uncover a family heirloom and a researcher I would have ordinarily missed. Take your search to Google and see what you can find.

Let us know your Google search success stories in the comments.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

The recording "Idaho Research: Genealogy Gems Galore" by Sharon Monson, is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

The recording of Wednesday's webinar by Robyn Smith, "Proving Identity: Not Matching Names" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Robyn Smith has been researching her family and others for over 25 years. An engineer by day, Robyn applies those research and problem-solving skills to the field of genealogy. She specializes in Maryland, Court Records, African American and Slavery research. From 2008-2012, Robyn taught an Advanced African American Genealogy class at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD.

Robyn has lectured widely at regional and national conferences, and has taught at the Maryland Genealogical Society, the Maryland State Archives, and the Reginald Lewis Museum.

Robyn writes extensively and for more than ten years has authored a popular genealogy teaching blog called Reclaiming Kin (www.reclaimingkin.com).

In 2015, Ms. Smith published the book version of her blog, The Best of Reclaiming Kin, which was recommended in the syllabus at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. She recently published part 2 of that volume in PDF format.

In addition to writing and teaching, Robyn also has a special passion for documenting the histories of communities and promoting adherence to genealogical standards.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at:

• 8pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 7pm Central
• 6pm Mountain
• 5pm Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of today's webinar by Tal Erlichman, "MyHeritage’s Latest Photo Innovations" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free.