Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society, Inc.

Genealogy Research Clinic
2017-04-20 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-03-23 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-03-16 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-02-23 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-02-16 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-01-26 18:00 - 20:00, 2017-01-19 18:00 - 20:00, 2016-12-22 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) and 8 more dates | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Members have free use of our Ancestry Library subscription and other research sites while seeking assistance from WMGS members with family research experience. Non-members may participate for only $10 per session…or join for $25 per year!
Sessions are held on the third and fourth Thursdays of the month in the computer room of the Agawam Senior Center.

WMGS April Meeting
2017-04-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our meeting in April will be a presentation by Steve Hartwell entitled “Building a Custom Website for your Family History”
Pedigree charts may be an interesting way to share our genealogy, but what about the “rest of the story” – our family letters, photographs, heirlooms, tales, etc.? How can we share our ancestral stories online with everyone in our extended family? Learn how to bring your stories to life by using an easy building-block approach to create a custom website. You will see techniques and examples to give you ideas on how best to showcase your own family history.
Steve Hartwell lives in North Reading, Massachusetts, and has been researching his family for over 30 years. He retired from a long career at IBM in 2014 and has since become a professional genealogist specializing in both ancestral research, particularly in New England, and custom website design. Steve is a graduate of the Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate Program and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and is a board member of the Society of Essex Genealogists. His website can be found at shartwell.com/services.

WMGS March Meeting
2017-03-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our March 2017 meeting features Ta Mara Conde, President of Historic Gravestone Services. Her extensive experience working with cemeteries in general and gravestones in particular. Her presentation will give us an insight into her work and passion for the historic preservation of the memorials to our ancestors.
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WMGS February Meeting
2017-02-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our meeting on February 1st will feature a team of speakers, Sara Campbell and Shari Strahan, with a presentation entitled “Did Gramma Have a Filling Station? Married Women’s Businesses.”
Shari and Sara have been research partners for a variety of projects in Western Mass since solidifying their common interest while working as census takers in 2010. They are relentless in finding the story behind the document and have brought many forgotten families to light with their research. Sara has been active in the Polish Genealogical Society of Mass, while Shari’s ethnic specialty is in French Canadian genealogy, as well as the families of Historic Deerfield, where she lives.
Sara Campbell is a lecturer and educator in Western Massachusetts where she has been active in the genealogical community for 25 years. Her background as a civil engineer sometimes gives her a unique perspective on her research, she blogs about history at http://rememberingancestors.blogspot.com/ and will be presenting this talk at the NERGC 2017 Conference in Springfield, MA.

WMGS January Meeting
2017-01-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Who? What? When? Where? Are these the words of a genealogist researching his family tree or a forensic scientist solving a mystery? Maybe someone who is both!
Join us on January 4th for a presentation from Colleen Fitzpatrick entitled Forensic Genealogy – CSI Meets Roots. Colleen is featured as The DNA Detective in More Magazine, May 2010, is a former nuclear physicist who had designed equipment for NASA to use in its Jupiter projects. She has since turned her analytic skills and data loving drive to the field of genealogy, specifically forensic genealogy. She uses her skills to search for missing persons, living and dead.

WMGS December Meeting
2016-12-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Join us for our annual Pot Luck Dinner and Show & Tell.
It’s the last meeting before the holidays! Come to our “Pot Luck” dinner and enjoy holiday music while you dine. After dinner, we will host an “Open Mic” session for members to share their genealogy tips, ideas, or projects.

Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy
2016-11-10 12:30 - 14:30, 2016-11-03 12:30 - 14:30, 2016-10-27 12:30 - 14:30 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
New! Join us for Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy. Thursdays from 12:30-2:30 p.m. (October 20, 27, November 3 and 10)
Do you have photos you would like to scrapbook? Are you interested in putting together a digital album to document your story or one of an ancestor? Join us for four weekly sessions and learn how to make a digital scrapbook. Completed albums make great gifts, and can be finished in time for the holidays.
Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy will be held in the computer room of the Agawam Senior Center.
Genealogy Research Clinics are free to WMGS members. There is a $10 fee per session for non-members. Annual WMGS membership is just $25.

WMGS November Meeting
2016-11-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Our meeting on November 2nd will be a treat with a return engagement of Melissa Barker, Archivist for the Houston County Tennessee Archives, who will speak about the exact opposite of Dave’s presentation, off-line research: “It’s Not All On-Line: Researching the Archives.”
Ms. Barker is a Certified Archives Manager and Professional Genealogist as well as the founder of Once Upon a Time Genealogy. With over 26 years of researching family histories and 6 years of experience working with archives, her talk will be full of useful suggestions for your next archive visit.

Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy
2016-10-20 12:30 - 14:30 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
New! Join us for Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy. Thursdays from 12:30-2:30 p.m. (October 20, 27, November 3 and 10)
Do you have photos you would like to scrapbook? Are you interested in putting together a digital album to document your story or one of an ancestor? Join us for four weekly sessions and learn how to make a digital scrapbook. Completed albums make great gifts, and can be finished in time for the holidays.
Attendees are encouraged to attend all four sessions, but if that isn’t possible, feel free to join us when you can.
During the first class on October 20th, we will cover the following concepts:

Inspiration and Planning

Plan colors, text, styles, layouts
Establish a Purpose: Life Summary, Wedding, Birthday, Family Tree, Research Summary

File Basics

Establish a new PowerPoint file
Create a new slide
Save file
Insert text and pictures

Colors

Use Letters and Fonts
Create Backgrounds
Add Borders

Graphics

Digital Scrapbooking for Genealogy will be held in the computer room of the Agawam Senior Center.
Genealogy Research Clinics are free to WMGS members. There is a $10 fee per session for non-members. Annual WMGS membership is just $25.

Daytime Genealogy Research Clinic
2016-10-11 12:30 - 14:30 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Special Daytime Clinic: Please join Susan Leverson and Katy Krause for a Daytime Genealogy Research Clinic.
The Daytime Clinic expands on the WMGS monthly meeting topic. During this clinic, we will explore the topic of on-line searching. There will also be plenty of time to access the Library Edition of Ancestry.com and Susan and Katy will be available to assist you.
This event is free for WMGS Members. Non-members may participate for only $10, or consider joining WMGS for just $25 per year. Genealogy Research Clinics are held in the computer room of the Agawam Senior Center.

WMGS October Meeting
2016-10-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Please join us for our monthly meeting, October 5th, at which the guest speaker, Dave Robison (our president) will present a talk entitled On-Line Search Strategies — Fishing in the Biggest Ponds
This presentation and various iterations have been given at several genealogy meetings and classes as well as the 2015 NERGC conference in Providence, Rhode Island. It is designed to assist every genealogical researcher from the proverbial “newbie” to the seasoned professional. Using the philosophy of “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know,” Dave will help you get started from scratch if you’re just beginning or pull you out of your ruts after 20 years of hard-core research! Keep an open mind and bring a notebook!
Key points:

The “Rules of the Internet Road”
So many websites – So little time
The value of subscription sites
The value of free sites
Google your Genealogy
Social Media and why you need it

WMGS September Meeting
2016-09-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Agawam Senior Center, 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA, 01001, United States
Census Reports Lead To…
On September 7, our guest speaker will be Seema Kenney of Seema-ABLE. Seema has been working in the genealogy field professionally since 2010, having completed the Boston University Genealogy Research Program. She is currently the Secretary for NERGC (holding the genealogy conference in Springfield in 2017) and is the president of the Worcester Chapter of the Mass Society of Genealogists.
She will be presenting on the many crossroads one’s research might take after finding a family in the census. This presentation will make connections between data from the different census years and data to look for in twenty-seven other resources. The census gives you location which leads to City Directories. Ages and genders lead to possible military records. Every fact on the census hints at another resource direction.

WMGS August Meeting: Field Trip
2016-08-03 17:30 - 20:00 | Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, 21 Edwards Street, Springfield, MA, 01103, United States
Please join us for our August meeting at the Springfield History Library and Archives. We get the place to ourselves, undivided attention from the archivist, and a private tour of normally off limit areas. But remember, you have to be a paid member to attend!
The library is part of the Springfield Museums and located in the
Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History (lower level)
21 Edwards Street
Springfield, Massachusetts 01103
Parking: Please park in the adjacent parking lot on Edwards Street. Parking is free.
Arrival Time: We have to ask you to arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 PM. A staff member will be available during that time to allow you into building which actually closes at 5:00 PM. So please try to arrive before 6:00 PM.
For a map of the Springfield Museum Buildings, click here: Map
