Member Jacquie Beveridge suggests viewing: http://blog.geneawebinars.com/
The site provides weekly webinars (online presentations) for the genealogy community.  Speakers present educational topics to help improve methods for genealogy research.

THE WAY IT WORKS

Register (free) for any upcoming live webinar (Wednesdays & Fridays) accessible by internet via your computer or mobile device.  The webinars are also recorded and available (free) for later viewing up to 7 days after the original webinar date.

Paid subscribers have access to speaker handouts, unlimited access to 225 + hours of archived webinars, and a chance to win door prizes during each live webinar.

Rates:  $9.95/month (intro price) or $49.95/yr (intro price)

WEBINAR REVIEW – Debbie Lobey

Taking the plunge, I viewed the recent webinar, Using Newspapers to Reconnect with the Stories of Your Family’s Past.  The speaker was Tom Kemp, Director of Genealogy Products NewsBank.  (www.genealogybank.com)

Unable to ‘attend’ the live webinar, I accessed the http://blog.geneawebinars.com/ site that evening, located the recorded webinar in the Blog Archive list, (left column) and after a few more clicks the presentation began. In his presentation, Mr. Kemp claims newspapers to be a valuable source for compelling stories, images and information about ancestors for anyone doing genealogy research. He displayed slides of great finds  – letters, announcements, and articles from small community newspapers which often reveal accounts of an individual’s military or public service experiences, retirement announcements, and more, that one might never discover otherwise.  Additionally, he recommends ‘casting a wider net’ during research  –  include researching newspapers of surrounding localities of a person’s place of residence for obituaries, letters, etc. He also emphasized adding newspaper links to family trees on-line. (No copyright infringement when linking to the news source (ex. genealogybank.com, etc.).

Mr. Kemp read portions from several of his own ancestors’ stories, and those he serendipitously found. Several letters became the last written words of individuals facing dire circumstances due to earthquake, execution, or war. He also shared an experience of piecing together a story of his ancestor from a newspaper obituary, letter, and cross stitch sampler of her work made in 1813 at age 6, an image of which he found on EBay.

In summary, after viewing this webinar I’m convinced newspapers can be a valuable source for genealogy research.  The discovery of news articles and stories, whether tragic or heartfelt, would be a great find to anyone’s genealogy research.

Next webinar is Wednesday, March 12 – Some Lesser Known Irish Resources
(Judy Wright)
Access the site at http://blog.geneawebinars.com/
to register or check for upcoming webinars