Discover and share your family’s heritage from the comfort of home with a series of virtual programs from Tulsa City-County Library’s Genealogy Center. During July, Family History Month, online webinars will examine free tools and resources to help you explore your ancestry, whether you’re a new or seasoned genealogy researcher.

   All of the Family History Month programs will be available on the Genealogy Center’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/tulsagenealogycenter/, and website page, https://www.tulsalibrary.org/genealogy-center, as well as TCCL’s YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/TulsaLibrary.

   Family History Month programs from TCCL’s Genealogy Center include:

  • “Beginning Genealogy.” Learn how to start your family research and discover the steps, strategies and records useful for beginning your search.
  • “Researching Genealogy.” Explore genealogy sources to enhance your research. We will look at the Genealogy Center website and some free websites available for research.
  • “Free Online Resources for Genealogists.” Genealogy research can be expensive, but there are many free resources online. This program covers free genealogy-specific websites as well as a few general sites useful for family history research.
  • “DIY Personal Digital Archiving.” Organizing your digital photos and documents can be confusing. Join us as we explore best practices for organizing and storing your digital assets.
  • “Online Legacies and Digital Estate Planning.” Do you know how the priceless memories stored on your computer and social media accounts, in your email and phone will be passed along to your loved ones? Join us as we cover the basics of digital estate planning.

   The following workshops are presented by popular genealogist Mark Lowe and will also be made available on the library’s YouTube channel, as well as on the Genealogy Center’s Facebook and website pages.

  • “Southern Migration Routes and Stories: From the Colonies to the Civil War.” Discover what prompted our ancestors to follow the trail and continue southward or westward. Learn to find the paths they followed and the process for finding those elusive travelers and their crucial steps.
  • "Tools Needed to Study Southern Migration." Maps, atlases and gazetteers provide information relevant to nearly every genealogical search. We will add emigrant guides and travel manuscripts to our toolbox to make our way clearer.
  • "Defining Potential Migration Routes and Crucial Steps." Discover what prompted our ancestors to follow the Migration Triangle and continue westward. Learn the paths they followed and the process for finding those elusive travelers.
  • "Neighbors, Friends and Court Records." Using census records, manuscripts, land and court records, learn details about your ancestor’s neighborhood and the people with whom they worked, prayed, fought and traveled.
  • "Tying Up the Loose Ends (With a Family Like Yours)." Let’s pull all the things we have learned together so that we are ready to discover more about our ancestors, their neighbors and the people and places they encountered.
  • "Expanding Details from Published Local Histories." Using the basic tools of family history research, discover additional family information with these records and writings. Learn the importance of analyzing the information you find and realizing how vital collateral and cluster line research is in helping you succeed in the genealogical process.

   In addition to these virtual events, databases such as Ancestry.com can be used remotely for a limited time. Ancestry.com offers access to more than one billion names in primary-source document images, detailed color maps and other genealogical research resources. TCCL cardholders can login to this database at https://www.tulsalibrary.org/research/databases/a with their last name and card number.

   For more details about the Family History Month workshops or Genealogy Center, go to https://tulsalibrary.org/genealogy-center or call 918-549-7691.

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