WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-02-05 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our February 5th monthly meeting will feature Kathryn Lake Hogan, live from Ontario,
Canada. Kathryn Lake Hogan, UE, PLCGS is a Canadian professional genealogist who
revels in teaching people how to find their ancestors in Canada. She is the founder and
owner of the Canadian-based genealogy business, Looking4Ancestors. The author of
research guides featuring Canadian genealogy, Kathryn has written articles for Family
Tree magazine, The In-Depth Genealogist, and the Association of Professional
Genealogists journal, APG Quarterly. Kathryn is the past Dominion Genealogist of the
United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC), a past board member of the
Association of Professional Genealogists, and the past virtual chat coordinator of
Canadian studies with National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Most recently,
Kathryn was the producer, host, and presenter of the weekly webinar series, “Genealogy with a Canadian Twist.” Recognized for her knowledge of Canadian genealogy, Kathryn is a popular speaker and instructor at regional and national genealogical conferences and institutes throughout North America.
Kathryn’s presentation is titled, “What’s in Your Canadian Genealogy Toolbox?” Explore the top websites for researching your ancestors in Canada. Learn where to find the best online resources for Canadian and provincial record groups, history, newspapers, maps, photographs and more to help you fill your Canadian toolbox.
You might be surprised to discover that many of our ancestors spent time in Canada. Do you have Loyalist ancestors? Or provincial, Eastern Townships, or ancestors who immigrated through Canadian ports? Did your American ancestors go back and forth across the border for employment or to get married? If so, you won’t want to miss Kathryn’s presentation.

WMGS Board Meeting
2020-02-10 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-03-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
WMGS Board Meeting at the Agawam Senior Center. Open to
Members!

Training: Genealogy Writing Workshop
2020-02-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Interested in writing about your ancestors, but not sure where to start? Or are you
thinking about writing your own story to pass down to your family? Join us for
an evening of writing exercises designed to get your pen moving (or fingers
typing). Host Joanne Mason will guide us through several audiovisual prompts,
including photographs and music, to see where our thoughts take us on paper.
After each prompt, we’ll write for 10 minutes, then share what we’ve written.
(Note: Sharing is not required! You are more than welcome to just listen.) The
goal of this workshop isn’t to complete a story or polish the grammar and punctuation. Instead, we’ll be working on nuggets to take home.
Please bring a notebook and pen. If you prefer typing on a laptop or tablet, that’s fine too.

Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian
2020-02-27 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our February 27th Irish SIG (Special Interest Group) has been postponed. We will now feature a webinar entitled, “Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian” with Lisa Louise Cooke. Lisa, a nationally known genealogist and owner of Genealogy Gems, will also be our speaker at our March 4th monthly meeting.
This is a recorded webinar, not a live presentation. We will watch the recording, and then have time for hands-on practice and Q&A. It should be a fun night!
Remember, Trainings and SIGs are Members-Only events!

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-03-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Lisa Louise Cooke is CEO of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy education company
featuring The Genealogy Gems Podcast, available at iTunes, and the Genealogy Gems app. Her books include Mobile Genealogy, The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox Second Edition, How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, and she has published 100+ videos at the Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel. She also produces The Family Tree Magazine Podcast, regularly writes for the magazine, and teaches for Family Tree University.
Lisa will be our featured speaker at our Wednesday, March 4, 2020 meeting. Her presentation is titled “Get the Scoop on Your Ancestors with Newspapers.” Yearning to “read all about it?” Newspapers are a fantastic source of research leads, information and historical context for your family history. Learn the specialized approach that is required to achieve success in locating the news on your ancestors. Lisa’s presentation includes 3 Cool Tech Tools that will get you started.
Everyone will want to check the incredible resources available at Lisa’s website at https://lisalouisecooke.com.
Mark your calendars and plan to join us for an exciting presentation!

Training: Institutional Records Research Methods
2020-03-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
From schools and orphanages to prisons, hospitals, asylums, workhouses, and more, there’s a good chance one or more of your ancestors might be found on record in one of the many types of institutions. In this video we will cover some of the methods for finding institutional records that may contain information on your ancestors.

Training: Google Earth for Genealogy
2020-03-26 18:00 | Online
In this video class you will learn how to unlock mysteries in your research, from unidentified photographs to pinpointing homesteads.
And there’s good news: Google Earth Pro is now available for free. Everything covered in this class can be accomplished in both versions of the program. The main difference is that Google Earth Pro can print and save HD quality images. Today, the current “Pro” version of the software is now simply called “Google Earth.”

Census Day 2020
2020-04-01

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-04-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
At our April 1st monthly meeting, we’ll be welcoming back Sara Campbell. Sara is a popular lecturer and educator in Western Mass where she has been active in the genealogical community for over 25 years.
Sara is the author of a recently released book, Six Generations in Otsego, the story of the Colman family, spanning 150 years from the early years of the Republic in the late 1700s, to the mid-twentieth century. She maintains a blog about history and genealogy at http://rememberingancestors.blogspot.com.
An expert on maps and their historical significance for genealogists, Sara has a background as a civil engineer, which gives her a unique perspective on her research. Sara will be presenting “Historic Massachusetts Maps” to our society at our Wednesday, April 1st meeting. Mark your calendars for an interesting presentation!

WMGS Board Meeting
2020-04-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States

Training: The Big Picture in Little Details
2020-04-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
April 16 – 7 pm – “The Big Picture in Little Details”
Oftentimes the road to assembling the big picture in your genealogy is paved with lots
of little details. In this video webinar class, we’ll explore examples of how to inspect
the big picture genealogical problems we face and identify the little clues that we can
use to move our research forward. (Length: 43 minutes)

Training: Beginning Evernote
2020-04-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
April 23 – 7 pm – “Beginning Evernote”
Evernote is a free tech tool that enables you to instantly capture and retrieve
everything that is important to your research. Cloud storage of your notes allows you
to access them from any computing device, no matter where you are. And OCR
(optical character recognition) adds another level of searchability. (Length: 50
minutes)

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-05-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
Our May 6th monthly meeting will feature a live webinar with genealogist and author
Michael John Neill. His topic will be “Researching the Entire Family.” Focusing only
on a direct line can cause significant information to be overlooked and larger patterns to
go unnoticed. Michael discusses, via examples, the importance of researching the
siblings and at least first cousins of a direct ancestor.
Michael has been an active genealogical researcher since the early 1980s and has researched his or his children’s families in most states east of the Mississippi River and several European countries. He has lectured nationally, gives day-long seminars, and regularly leads research trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
Michael has a master’s degree in mathematics and has been on the math faculty of
Carl Sandburg College in Illinois since the early 1990s. His research interests
include methodology, land records, the immigrant experience, chain migration,
and researching female ancestors.
In addition to hosting several blogs and Facebook sites, including Rootdig and Genealogy Tip of the Day, Michael has recently published a collection of his most popular daily tips titled Genealogy Tip of the Day. It’s a must read for all genealogists – guaranteed that you’ll learn something new.

WMGS Board Meeting
2020-05-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-06-08 08:00 - 20:00, 2020-08-17 19:00 - 20:30, 2020-09-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Online

Training: Genealogical Cold Cases: A Step-by-Step Process
2020-05-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Apply principles used by cold case detectives to your genealogical brick wall
“cold cases” in this vital video session. You’ll learn to track ancestors like a
bloodhound, sniffing out holes in your research and getting missing information
on the record.

Training: Time Travel Technology
2020-05-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
In this video you will explore the innovative and technological advancements that
can help you in your genealogy research today! You’ll discover ways to find
content that can immerse you in the past to explore the cultural and historical
events, places, and people that affected your ancestors’ lives. Then you’ll dip into
some of the exciting new technological frontiers that can help bring the past to
life. You’ll explore interactive timelines, advances in video, and geographic tools
that can dramatically impact your understanding of your family history. The
handout will include links to all the websites mentioned in this presentation so that you can put what you learn
into action.

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
We’re looking forward to bringing back nationally- and internationally-known genealogist, Thomas MacEntee, Founder and CEO of High-Definition Genealogy,
LLC to our June 3rd virtual meeting.
Thomas is the author of over 10 genealogy books and editor of over 100 publications.
After spending over 25 years in the information technology field, Thomas branched off into genealogy education and marketing. Known as one of the most generous genealogists in the field, he shares many of his articles and videos for free through his Abundant Genealogy.com website and Facebook groups. He also runs the popular GenealogyBargains.com and DNABargains.com websites to keep us updated on the latest in genealogy offerings and bargains in the marketplace. Some of you may also remember Tom as he was a keynote speaker at NERGC 2017 in Springfield.
Tom will be presenting “Genealogy Pit Stop: Research in 15 Minute Increments.” Tom will teach us what race car driving teams already know: you can accomplish important, detail-oriented work in a short amount of time. You’ll learn how to leverage to-do lists, research logs, tracking systems, clue-gathering tricks and more to actually do genealogy research every day! No more saving that research for when you have a large block of time . . . which never seems to happen.
Join us for our virtual monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 3rd at 6 PM.

Training: All About Google Drive
2020-06-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Google Drive is a free service packed with tools to make your genealogy life easier. Learn what it’s all about and how to use it in this 30 minute session with Google expert Lisa Louise Cooke, author of the book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox. Learn how to create, manage, retrieve, and export your research documents. Then find out why Google Drive and its companion tool Google Docs just might convince you to consolidate your files (and efforts) and make the switch from services like Evernote and Dropbox. Update August 2018: Google Drive has been renamed Google One, although the cloud storage piece is still called Google Drive. Some of the new features include:

The “Family Plan” – the ability to share your storage quota with up to 5 family members
free one-tap access to live expert help (now available with any Google product) In the US, support will be available 24/7 over chat, email, and phone. Options vary in other countries.

Training: Google Books: The Tool You Should Use Every Day
2020-06-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Here’s what you’ll learn in this Premium video class:
– the best techniques for finding fully digitized book FAST
– search secrets for locating genealogical data
– how to translate the foreign language volumes
– how to go track down free historical maps, images, photos and more.

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-07-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
Our July 1st monthly meeting will feature John Putnam, who will join us live from Colorado!
A Southwick native, John is a UMass graduate with a degree in government/political science and a past president of the Pikes Peak Genealogical Society. His interest in genealogy started at a young age when his two grandmothers would tell family stories. As John is a twelfth generation New Englander, there were many stories to be told. John’s Putnam ancestors lived in Salem/Danvers, MA where they were very involved in the Salem Witchcraft incident. Both his parents were active in their local historical society and frequently added to John’s interest in Western Massachusetts’ local history.
The title of John’s presentation is “Untangling Your New England Roots: An Overview from Settlement to the Seven Years War.”
John will discuss the history and migration patterns that our ancestors experienced during pre-Revolutionary times. Many present-day Americans can trace their ancestry back to the Great Migration. John will share the importance of understanding New England’s history, its settlement patterns, and its town structure to improve your chances to tackle New England brick walls. It’s often difficult to know where to look for records unless you know the area’s history, not to mention the formative activities that our ancestors undertook, which provide rich stories for your family histories.

WMGS Training: Using iPads for Genealogy
2020-07-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
An iPad isn’t just for email and Facebook. In this Zoom training, Hillary Schau will show you how to use iPad apps for researching, documenting, and organizing your genealogy information. You’ll also learn more about apps to help you communicate with others.
If your tablet isn’t an iPad, you might still be able to download these valuable apps to your device through other app platforms. If not, you will likely find apps that are comparable. Most apps are free or low cost.
Join us for this informative session on July 16th at 7 pm!

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-08-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
At our August 5th monthly meeting, we will be welcoming back Sara Campbell for a new presentation –“Using Land Records in Genealogical Research.” Sara is a popular lecturer and educator in Western Mass where she has been active in the genealogical community for over 25 years. As many of you know, Sara’s background as a professional civil engineer provides her with a unique perspective on her research.
Sara is the author of a recently released book, Six Generations in Otsego, the story of the Colman family, spanning 150 years from the early years of the Republic in the late 1700s, to the mid-twentieth century. She maintains a blog about history and genealogy athttp://www.rememberingancestors.com.
Sara describes her presentation as follows: “Land records take us a step beyond the top two sources we search when beginning genealogical research: vital records and census records. Deeds can help us understand our ancestors’ movements when buying and selling land, identify neighbors, and sometimes uncover an elusive spouse. Digging into these records should not be any more intimidating than any other source. The terminology may sound confusing, but we can get through it together. We will review a variety of deeds and explore what can be found online as well as in person in repositories.
“I find that some of the institutes and national webinars focus on ‘platting’ and land in the west that was based on ‘ranges’ and everything is square. That is not the case in New England.”
Mark your calendars, as you won’t want to miss Sara’s presentation on Wednesday, August 5th at 6 PM.

WMGS Training Session: Using Ancestry.com (A Peek Behind the Curtain)
2020-08-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Join us for this informative training by Ed Strickland on how to get the most out of Ancestry.com, one of the world’s largest online genealogical databases.
Learn what’s available beyond the Search box, how to find records in the extensive
Card Catalog, how to find helpful webinars, and how to use family trees, message
boards, and your Shoebox. Even though you may not have a current subscription,
you may be able to access Ancestry from your home using your library card. And
there are free databases available as well.

WMGS Monthly Meeting
2020-09-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
Stephen Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, the Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, the first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies.
In his other life, Steve is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical
engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions,
authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents.
He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today’s Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution nearly 40 years ago.
The One-Step Website started out as an aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve, and today it includes about 300 web-based tools divided into 16 separate categories ranging from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to last-minute bidding on eBay. Steve’s presentation will describe the range of tools available and give the highlights of each one.
Whether you’re looking for passenger lists, census records, information on Soundex or phonetic matching to find elusive ancestors, searching for living relatives, or even converting script written in several other languages to English, Steve’s One-Step Webpage is the place to find tools to help you.
Steve will be presenting, “One-Step Website: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools,” live on Wednesday, Sept. 2nd at our 6 PM meeting.
*Note: This lecture will be live and will not be recorded. If you miss this presentation, the handout will be available in the Members Only section of our website.

WMGS Training Session: All About VividPix RESTORE
2020-09-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Dave Lapierre, WMGS Vice President & Website/Technology Coordinator, will host a presentation entitled “VividPix RESTORE: The Basics and Beyond”. Plan to attend to learn:

what VividPix RESTORE is
what it can do
how it can help with old photos and documents
how to save Metadata as part of your restored images
how to use it to transcribe documents
how to get a free trial version,
and how to purchase it with a WMGS Member Discount

WMGS Training Session
2020-09-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Stay tuned as we finalize our topics for September.
