Discover and share your family’s heritage from the comfort of home with a series of virtual programs from our Genealogy Center. During Family History Month this July, online webinars will examine free tools and resources to help you explore your ancestry whether you’re a new or seasoned genealogy researcher!
Beginning or continuing your family history search can be a fun and rewarding experience. Genealogists use many types of records in their research and TCCL’s Genealogy Center, located in the Hardesty Regional Library, offers many of the common tools and resources used to explore your ancestry. The Genealogy Center can also assist with locating books and finding other information that will be of useful to your research. As an Affiliate Library with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT, the Genealogy Center has access to online digitized records from all over the world.
Tips to Starting Your Family History Research:
-
Begin your family history search at home. Take inventory of things that might be useful, such as copies of birth or death certificates or marriage licenses. These documents will help you determine names, dates and places of important events in your family's history.
-
Start with known information and go backwards to unknown information. Most researchers start with themselves and work backwards. As you work with known information, you will be able to discover what facts you actually know and what information you need to locate.
-
Try making a family tree or pedigree chart. These function as worksheets that allow you to start with yourself and record birth, marriage and death information about your family.
-
As you work on the chart or tree, consider talking with older members of your family who may be able to assist you with specific information about earlier generations.
Visit THIS page for more information and links to starting your research.
Find Genealogy Research Databases HERE to start exploring.
Still not sure where to start or how to continue? Virtual Family History Month programs available on YouTube 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.
Additional virtual Family History Month programs from TCCL’s Genealogy Center, available for viewing HERE include:
-
Overview of the University of Tulsa's Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 Archive, 1920-2007, and Other Related Collections, presented by Marc Carlson, Director of Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Tulsa.
-
A series of workshops presented by popular genealogist Mark Lowe, such as Expanding and Exploring Details from Published Resources, Marking Those Early Census Records Talk to You, Finding Your Landless Ancestors and more.
Live Family History Month events include:
-
A live Zoom Q&A with HistoryGeo.com founder Greg Boyd on Tuesday, July 27 at 10:30 a.m. Register here: https://events.tulsalibrary.org/event/5213123
-
A live Zoom Q&A with Genealogist Mark Lowe on Tuesday, August 3 at 10:30 a.m. Register here: https://events.tulsalibrary.org/event/5337373