The recording of today's webinar by Kathryn Lake Hogan, "Researching Canadian Nurses, Pilots and Sailors in the First World War" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour and 1 minute recording of "Researching Canadian Nurses, Pilots and Sailors in the First World War" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

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• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,519 classes of genealogy education)
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The recording of today's webinar by Michael L. Strauss, AG, "Deeds Not Words: Finding Your Merchant Marine Ancestors" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 42 minute recording of "Deeds Not Words: Finding Your Merchant Marine Ancestors" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,392 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,381 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

The recording of Wednesday's webinar by Jill Morelli, CG, "Dissecting a Civil War Pension Packet--Union and Confederate" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 31 minute recording of "Dissecting a Civil War Pension Packet--Union and Confederate" is now available to view in our webinar library for free. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,336 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,238 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

The recording of today's webinar by Craig R. Scott, "Using Fold3.com to Your Advantage” is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour and 31 minute recording of "Using Fold3.com to Your Advantage" is now available to view in our webinar library for free. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

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Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,213 classes, 1,456 hours of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 4,957 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them! This Friday enjoy "The Fromelles Genealogy Project: Reuniting WW1 Soldiers with their Families" by Michelle Leonard. 

The Fromelles Genealogy Project: Reuniting WW1 Soldiers with their Families

In May 2008, 250 WWI soldiers were uncovered in a mass grave in France and this led to the instigation of a ground-breaking project to uncover their identities via DNA testing, anthropological data and genealogical research. This presentation tells the story of the Fromelles Project with a specific focus on how genealogical detective work has so far helped to identify 166 of the Fromelles soldiers and give them named graves in the first military cemetery to be built in France since WWII. It also tells the stories of some of the fallen soldiers, introduces the "Commemorating The Missing" Project and gives a brief explanation of how to research WW1 soldiers and trace DNA appropriate relatives.

About the Presenter

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy "Tracing a World War One Soldier from US to Europe and Back" by Craig R. Scott, CG, FUGA. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

Tracing a World War One Soldier from US to Europe and Back Again

This lecture focuses on tracing an American soldier from recruit camp, his ship journey to England or France, his time in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and his return to America and demobilization. Using readily downloadable information from the publication offerings of the U.S. Army Military History Center and other works found on Google Books the research can trace their soldiers unit for before the war through the end of the war and occupation.

About the Presenter

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy two new webinars "Crossing the 38th Parallel: Researching Your Korean War Ancestors" and "Modern Military: Researching Your Vietnam War Ancestors" by Michael Strauss, AG. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

Crossing the 38th Parallel: Researching Your Korean War Ancestors

Sometimes referred to as the twentieth centuries “Forgotten War” The Korea War has been overshadowed by the larger conflicts both before and afterwards-namely World War II and Vietnam. This lecture focuses on numerous genealogical records covering this military conflict including Official Military Personnel Files, Morning Reports, after action records, and records of casualties and prisoners of war. Although only lasting 3 years where communist and capitalistic democratic forces staged war against each other; this conflict would not be forgotten as it caused tensions between the participants for decades after the fighting stopped.

Modern Military: Researching Your Vietnam War Ancestors

The conflict of the Vietnam War sometime referred to as the Second Indochina War pit the communist supported area of North Vietnam against the United States backed region that would become South Vietnam. This conflict would follow the earlier First Indochina War that witnessed fighting between the French and their neighbors in North Vietnam. The Vietnam War is recognized as being waged in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975 with the fall of Saigon and the United States officially removed from the fighting. This lecture focuses on genealogical and historical materials to finding ancestors who fought during this conflict.

About the Presenter

Michael L. Strauss, AG, an Accredited Genealogist and forensic investigator, is a native of Pennsylvania and a resident of Utah. He holds a BA in History and is a United States Coast Guard veteran. He is a licensed Private Investigator and qualified expert witness in Surrogate Court and Circuit Court in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. Michael is an approved genealogist with the United States Army to locate DNA qualified persons MIA from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II. He is a national genealogical lecturer and instructor for military courses at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), and Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research (VIGR). He was the film historian for the 2015 Academy Award nominated movie "Finding Vivian Maier".

 

See all the webinars by Michael Strauss in the Legacy library.

 

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Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides genealogy education where-you-are through live and recorded online webinars and videos. Learn from the best instructors in genealogy including Thomas MacEntee, Judy Russell, J. Mark Lowe, Lisa Louise Cooke, Megan Smolenyak, Tom Jones, and many more. Learn at your convenience. On-demand classes are available 24 hours a day! All you need is a computer or mobile device with an Internet connection.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy a special release of four webinars in a Civil War series by Michael Strauss, AG. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

House Divided - Prelude to War

This opening session brings into the lecture some of the causes and effect of why the Civil War was fought. As the United States moves from Compromise towards war after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to the opening guns at Ft. Sumter in South Carolina in 1861. This session also focuses on an introduction to the many genealogical records during the war including the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) for both the Union Army and Confederate Army. Also covered will be Union Draft Records and their Confederate Counterpart which will include Confederate draft criteria.

Pension Files and beyond

This second session will be broken into two groups of records that relate to your ancestors who fought in the Civil War. The first section will spend time between reviewing pension files and applications for the both the Union and Confederate veterans as a primary source of documenting their lives during the war. The remainder of this session will focus on additional records including sources ranging from the Federal Census that include Civil War veterans, National Cemetery records, Civil War soldiers homes, Court Martial proceedings on both sides, and though conscientious objector records.

Researching Beyond the Army

This third session will cover genealogical and historical material that relates to organizations outside of the United States and Confederate Armies. Focus is placed on genealogical records on the United States Navy, Confederate Navy, United States Marine Corps, Confederate Marine Corps; and other smaller organizations that served including United States Coast Survey Service and the Revenue Cutter Service in addition to the United States and Confederate Lighthouse Service during the Civil War.

Reconstruction Era and Post War Society

This final session begins with the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction in 1865. Numerous genealogical records are readily searchable in the years following the end of hostilities including; Provosts Marshal records Confederate Amnesty records, United States Sanitary Commission, Southern Claims Commission, and Freedmen’s Bureau and back home with the passage of the 1867 United States Bankruptcy Act. This lecture will conclude with as Federal troops are withdrawn from the south in 1877 and the beginning of the gilded age.

About the Presenter

2018 marks the 100^th anniversary of the end of World War I. This four year war claimed over 8.5 million lives and wounded over 21 million.[1] On November 11, 1918 an armistice was reached ending the war.

What were your ancestors doing during the Great War? Even if your family did not count soldiers in its ranks, those left behind on the home front were also impacted. This anniversary year is a good time to document your family’s World War I story. The links below can help your write that narrative.

Internet Archive search on the “Great War” [2] 

Internet Archive has so many great resources from texts, to microfilm, to movies. Searching on the keywords “Great War” can help point the way to histories, poems, and personal accounts. It's important to keep in mind when searching for period accounts of World War I  to not search by the keywords “World War I.” This designation would not be used until 1939 when World War II was underway.

Two Thousand Questions and Answers About the War 

This book whose full title is Two Thousand Questions and Answers About the War: A Catechism of the Methods of Fighting, Travelling and Living; of the Armies, Navies and Air Fleets; of the Personalities, Politics and Geography of the Warring Countries. With seventeen new War Maps and a Pronouncing Dictionary of Names by the Review of Reviews is fully digitized on Internet Archive. Full color maps will be welcomed by family historians looking to learn more about the sites important to the war including a United States map marked with the locations of military training camps and schools. Written for Americans, the majority of the book is a Q & A about aspects of both the battle front and the home front and the countries involved. This is a must for learning more about the war and what your ancestor’s experience might have been.

National WWI Museum

When I think of the best museums I’ve had the pleasure to visit, the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri is at the top of that list.  The exhibits I saw on my visit provided a real example of what life was like during the Great War. The Museum has a research library as well as a digital collection that you may search or browse from their website. “The National World War I Museum and Memorial's online collections database allows you to search digital records of our global collection that began in 1920.” The images in this online collection are just a small part of the Museum’s overall collections. A search for my great-grandfather’s navy ship, the USS New Mexico, produced only one image of the ship but a visit to the library would produce more information. Randomly browsing images will provide you an idea of the diversity of this image collection, even uncovering a photograph of identified American POWs .

It should also be mentioned that other World War I museums exist worldwide. One hyperlinked list of such museums can be found on Wikipedia.

American Ancestors World War I & World War II U.S. Veteran Research 

This list of links compiled by David Allen Lambert of the New England Historic Genealogical Society provides resources including how-to guides, draft records, service records and websites. This is a good reference for starting your research for your American World War I (or World War II soldier).

National Archives – Researching Individuals in World War 1 Records 

This US National Archives web page on World War I gets you started researching your US soldier and includes information about service records, draft registration cards, deaths, and veterans homes. There's also a few links about African Americans in World War I. Service records for World War I will have to be ordered but draft registration cards are available online through a variety of genealogy websites. Because the United States didn't enter the war until 1917, some American men went to Canada and joined the military there. If your family member joined the Canadian military, make sure to check out the Library and Archives Personnel Records of the First World War database.

Researching your family during the First World War is much more than accessing military records. Finding images including maps, learning about life on the home front, and the history behind the war can help you tell the story of your family during this time. Other topics that could be woven in include the Influenza Pandemic, the women’s suffrage movement, and the aftermath of the war.

[1] “PBS: The Great War,” University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/henson/188/WWI_Casualties%20and%20Deaths%20%20PBS.html: accessed 14 May 2018).

[2] Special thanks to Twitter account Century Past History (https://twitter.com/lienhart85) for posting these 2 first links from Internet Archive.

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.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy "Researching Your Mexican War Ancestor" by Craig R. Scott, CG, FUGA. If you're not a member, remember the webinar previews are always free.

Researching Your Mexican War Ancestor

The Mexican War was of short duration. Yet records like muster rolls, payrolls, enlistment records, medical records, and history were created during the war. More records were created after the war in pension and bounty land records. Each record leads to another as the story of your ancestor is unraveled in these military records.

About the Presenter