What drives a person to become involved in researching their family genealogy? It can be like Sandy, who realized that upon the death of her sister, she was now the last family member alive of her generation to undertake this task; or Doug who was curious about his dead namesake uncle who died in WWII; or Beth, who had stories told to her by her grandmother, about her immigrant grandmother (Beth’s G.G.Grandmother) resonating in her head, and was curious to see where they led. 

Where these very personal drives lead can take you on fascinating, sometimes very surprising journeys. For Sandy, it was the discovery of “cousins”, Jennifer and Dave, within our own F.C. genealogy club, but even more startling, the discovery of a relation from Sweden who traveled to America aboard the ship Kalmar Nyckel in 1640, who later was instrumental in forming New Sweden in Philadelphia! Doug’s namesake uncle led him on an American journey extending back to long before the Revolutionary War, and in the process, revealing that his 5th great-grandfather fought with the New York Regiment in the Revolution. As for Beth, what surprised her was how many New England ancestors she has. Some founded the colony of Connecticut, and within that group, were some who founded the city of Hartford. She also discovered one who was accused of being a witch! 

From the introduction of personal computers, global interest in genealogy has sky-rocketed. Enter the internet, and demand for digitization of all manner of historical and lineage-based records has exploded exponentially, with no end in sight. Archives worldwide are expanding their websites, with many offering English language versions (sorry – actual documents, books, …, are still in their native language). Genealogy websites (many multi-language groups) focusing on the smallest geographic areas can be found. Today, DNA technology has eased and sped the pace with which family trees take form, and even more recently, AI is dissolving the barriers that language translation (modern and old, print, and increasingly script) once posed. It is now possible to feed in all manner of documents and instantly receive a translation. 

I can almost promise that during this week, somewhere in this world, some piece of information is being digitized, be it from a church or city archive, a census report, a naturalization record, a DNA report, a ship log, … that has a bearing on your family. Everyone has a story. Join us in discovering yours. We meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month. Mornings at 10 a.m. feature an Ancestry User’s Group, whose agenda is audience-led. At 7 p.m., our formal meetings offer some in-house speakers, some outside paid experts in person or via Zoom, and some pre-recorded presentations by nationally recognized experts, all focused on expanding the scope of your knowledge and your research. Beyond that, we include time in each meeting to interact individually before hand, and later as a group, to bring up problems that you are encountering, so-called brick walls, that anyone can offer possible solutions to. Don’t hesitate to just show up, to say that you’re just dropping in to see what we’re like. You’ll never know where it may lead you!