Lectures
General Lecture Topics
Flesh on the Bones: Putting Your Ancestors into Historical Perspective
After gathering the names, dates, and facts about your ancestors, you may want to reconstruct their lives by placing them into their historical time period. This presentation focuses on the type of research that is necessary to accomplish this task, the sources that will yield the historical information you need, and the key to blending your genealogical research together with relevant social history events. Choose from the following focus: general U.S., Italian-American, Irish-American, Jewish, New England, the South.
From Yawner to Page Turner: Writing a Compelling Family History
Turn the “nuts and bolts” of research into a readable story of your family’s history using creative writing techniques. This presentation, based on Sharon’s book You Can Write Your Family History, will discuss characterizing an ancestor, describing a setting, outlining a plot, and utilizing sensory perception to “show” rather than “tell” a story.
Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard
If there is any one place genealogists like to “chill,” it’s in the cemetery. Here we are the closest to our ancestors, physically and spiritually, walking on the ground where they’re buried and where they, too, once walked and visited loved ones. This lively presentation, based on Sharon’s book Your Guide to Cemetery Research, discusses overlooked clues in cemetery research, such as identifying the type of cemetery, looking at grave decorations, analyzing the composition of the stone to date it, and interpreting the art and symbols on tombstones.
The Silent Woman: Bringing a Name to Life
Too often, our female ancestors end up being just a name on a pedigree chart or as the neglected half of a family history. This presentation, based on Sharon’s book, A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors, will feature sources created by and about women and will instruct researchers on how to breathe life into their female ancestors by using women’s social histories in conjunction with primary genealogical sources. Choose from general U.S., Italian-American, Irish-American, or Jewish examples.
Painless Organization
Based on Sharon’s book, Organizing Your Family History Search, this presentation discusses organizing every aspect of your genealogy, from your files, to your research, to correspondence, to books and journals.
Interpreting American Tombstone Art and Symbols
Also based in part on Sharon’s book Your Guide to Cemetery Research, you’ll find that tombstone inscriptions are more than just names and dates. The art work and symbols are often overlooked and reveal many clues about our ancestors. Examples of art work from colonial times to the present are featured. NOTE: This lecture requires two slide projectors and screens.
Oral History: Use It or Lose It
This presentation discusses the art and technique of oral history interviewing, the importance of recording family stories, people to interview when older family members are no longer living, and how to put the information into a broader social history context.
Love Letters, Diaries, and Autobiographies:
Let’s Leave ‘em Somethin’ To Talk About
No other person can relate our thoughts, feelings, and daily lives like we can. This presentation will inspire and suggest to all levels of researchers how to painlessly leave an account of their own lives, making it interesting and readable for their descendants. Available as a full-length presentation or a shortened after-meal presentation.
The Immigrant Experience: From Steerage to Ellis Island
Told in vivid, dramatic detail, this slide presentation illustrates what it was like to travel in steerage and be processed at Ellis Island. The presentation recreates the journey during the peak years of immigration, 1880-1920, and is based in part on Sharon’s book, The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors.
Give Me Your Tired and Poor, But Not Your Sick:
Passing the Medical Exams at Ellis Island
While nothing can beat the thrill of finding your ancestor’s name on a passenger list and knowing that he or she came through the Golden Door, this lecture reflects on an aspect of the processing that would determine if your ancestor would be admitted to America’s shores or not—the medical examinations. This presentation will discuss the medical exams that took place on board ship and on Ellis Island, the fate of sick arrivals, what medical records were generated in the immigrant receiving process, and how to locate surviving records.
Start Climbing Your Family Tree
Ideal for anyone interested in learning how to get started researching their family history. Learn what is and what isn’t available on the Internet, where to find information on your family, and how to obtain records, such as births, marriages, and deaths.
Before You Publish:
What Every Genealogist Needs to Know About Copyright, Fair Use, & Getting Permissions
You’ve done years of research and uncovered all types of sources for your family history. Now you’re ready to publish and distribute it. But are you accidentally infringing someone else’s copyright by copying or quoting too much from one source? Do you need permission to reprint that obituary or family photograph? Is that illustration or clip art you downloaded from the Internet really in the public domain and free for you to use however you want? How do you get permission to reprint something that is protected by copyright? These questions and more will be answered. This presentation is essential to any genealogist who plans to write and publish a family history.
Ethnic-Specific Lectures
Flesh on the Bones: Putting Your Ancestors into Historical Perspective
[Choose from Italian-American or Irish-American examples]
After gathering the names, dates, and facts about your ancestors, you may want to reconstruct their lives by placing them into their historical time period. This presentation focuses on the type of research that is necessary to accomplish this task, the sources that will yield the historical information you need, and the key to blending your genealogical research together with relevant social history events.
The Silent Woman: Bringing a Name to Life
[Choose from Italian-American, Irish-American, or Jewish examples]
Too often, our female ancestors end up being just a name on a pedigree chart or as the neglected half of a family history. This presentation, based on Sharon’s book, A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors, will feature sources created by and about women and will instruct researchers on how to breathe life into their female ancestors by using women’s social histories in conjunction with primary genealogical sources.
Starting Your Italian-American Research
In this introductory lecture on researching Italian ancestry, an overview of the sources and repositories in America and Italy will be discussed, as well as tips for researching in Italian records without going to Italy.
Italian-American Character:
Understanding Your Ancestors for Research Success
By understanding the motivations behind your ancestors’ actions, you can get more out your research. Learn how studying Italian-American social history and customs will aid your research. This lecture is based on Sharon’s book, Italian-American Family History: A Guide to Researching and Writing About Your Heritage.
After-Meal Presentations
(20-30 minutes in length)
Love Letters, Diaries, and Autobiographies:
Let’s Leave ‘em Somethin’ To Talk About
No other person can relate our thoughts, feelings, and daily lives like we can. This presentation will inspire and suggest to all levels of researchers how to painlessly leave an account of their own lives, making it interesting and readable for their descendants.
Primetime’s 20/20 Dateline:
Sharon Carmack Interviews the World’s Oldest Living Genealogist, Ole Smirnoff Bernatelli
(joint with James W. Warren)
Ole Smirnoff Bernatelli shot to fame when his column, “Bringing Up the Rear,” appeared in the NGS NewsMagazine in 2004. Learn the sage advice he has for genealogists of all research levels.
Lectures for Professional Genealogists
Understanding Publishing Contracts
This lecture, presented by a contract advisor for the National Writers Union, explains parts of standard journal and book contracts so genealogical writers will understand what their rights are, how to negotiate better terms, and what the fine print means. Audience members are encouraged to bring questions for discussion.
Get Published! From Proposal to Publication
There’s no better time to be a genealogical writer. Scholarly journals, popular magazines, online sites, and book publishers are looking for material. All reach a different audience, all of them need writers, and almost all of them pay you for your submission. After defining each type of market, learn how to identify the right publisher for your article or book idea, then how to pitch your idea to an editor. Should you send the completed manuscript or a query or proposal? Can you send your idea to more than one editor at a time? How do you write a query or book proposal? What are the going rates for genealogical writers? This presentation will answer all of these questions, plus provide you with an overview of publishing contracts, and what to expect during every phase when working with an editor or publisher.
Research Methods & Sources
Ancestors Hanging on Your Family Tree: Using Court and Institutional Records
All families had their tough times and problem people. Locating and carefully researching these underutilized records can help solve family mysteries, provide valuable health history, and add rich detail to your ancestral families.
Writing Your Family History in Small, Manageable Pieces
The process of researching your family history is fascinating and fun. Most of us, however, don't think of ourselves as writers, and may accumulate boxes of research results without putting much into print. This session offers ideas, inspiration, and lots of practical formats and methods to help “non-writers" preserve and share their research using small blocks of time. Write your family history as you research it, not after you’re "finished" researching!
Finding Your Family in the National Archives
Among the most important resources for genealogists are the U.S. census, passenger arrival records, and military service and pension records. However, these are but a fraction of the wealth of records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration. This session uses a wide range of examples from this treasure house of genealogical riches to introduce the NARA nationwide system, it collections, and how to access its holdings.
Research On-Site: The Fun of Finding the Records You’ll Never Find Online
Whether to the ancestral "old country" or just to a nearby courthouse, a research trip can be one of the delights and rewards of genealogy. And there are many cases where the only real way to find the richest part of your family history is to research on-site in the many records that aren’t online, microfilmed, or published. This session provides tips and steps to help you plan, determine where the records are, organize, find effective help before you go, and work effectively at repositories during the trip. It can help make your "on the road" work yield both research results and an enjoyable travel experience.
Salt Lake City! Using the Resources of the Family History Library From Near or Far
Salt Lake City - home the world’s largest genealogical collection, the Family History Library! Whether or not you travel to Salt Lake City, you can make use of its amazing genealogical treasures. This session introduces you to the rich resources of the FHL and how you can make use of them. This session offers current information, including recent changes, for using online sources, nearly 4,000 worldwide Family History Centers, and the Library in Salt Lake City. The steps outlined can lead to research success, even if you never actually take a trip to Salt Lake.
Getting the Most Mileage from Your Trip to Ireland
(Joint lecture with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)
Ready to make the trip to the Emerald Isle to trace your ancestors for find their home site? Sharon and Jim offer tips and suggestions for making your trip successful.
The Most Priceless Heritage:
Practical Family Health History Steps
There are simple, practical steps that every genealogist can take to compile and share family health history information. This non-technical presentation shows you how to provide your family members with important, useable information for today’s cousins and future descendants.
Vital Records and Substitutes: Fundamental Tools for Family History
Birth, death, and marriage records are important basic resources for researching family history. This session can help you streamline your research, presenting sources and methods to identify whether records exist, where they are now located, and what access restrictions may apply. Information on access to growing online indexes will be presented. Analyzing the information in these records and using alternate sources for that information are also discussed.
Researching American Indian Ancestors: Basic Strategies
Whether you’re trying to prove a family story of an Indian princess great-great-grandmother, or track records for reservation-affiliated family, this session will present basic methods for using the abundant and rich sources available to research American Indian family history. Many types of records and the likely repositories will be covered, including oral history, census records, private sources, county courthouse and legal records, religious and public manuscripts and archives material, and tribal records. The importance of understanding the historical context of the records, and the lives they reflect, will be discussed. This session is designed to share the basics of ancestral research for those with Indian ancestry. It does not provide instructions on how to enroll with specific tribes.
Researching American Indian Ancestors in the Records of the National Archives
Between 1880 and the 1940s, American Indians affiliated with recognized tribes are among the best-documented individuals in the country. A survey of the varied and voluminous records created by the U.S. government, including Indian census and annuity rolls, Indian school records, probates, and BIA reports and correspondence files, will be discussed. Strategies for researching these materials, including available guides, indexes, and inventories will be presented.
Special Topics
You Can Write Your Family History Seminar!
[All-day (or two half-days) workshop conducted jointly with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack] Enjoy a hands-on workshop that combines writing, learning, and sharing. You’ll receive expert guidance from Sharon, one of genealogy’s best-known and respected editors and authors. And Jim’s “writing in small manageable pieces” philosophy helps make it manageable instead of intimidating. Their combined light approach keeps the workshop lively and fun. You’ll find that you can write your family history.
After-Meal Presentations
Primetime’s 20/20 Dateline: Sharon Carmack Interviews the World’s Oldest Living Genealogist, Ole Smirnoff Bernatelli
(25-30 minute joint luncheon, banquet or end-of-seminar presentation with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack)
Ole's been around since 1897. But it wasn't until his column, “Bringing Up the Rear,” appeared in the NGS NewsMagazine in 2004 that Ole shot to fame. Join us to howl at the sage (and strange) advice that results when genealogy's brightest star questions it's most unusual senior citizen.
If Our Ancestors Had E-mail
(25-30 minute luncheon, banquet, or end-of-seminar presentation.)
What would our ancestors have to say to us if they could send a message as easily as we send an E-mail? Would they talk about the past, the present, or the future? Would they answer the questions we have about those elusive genealogical mysteries? What might they say about their lives, their descendants, and the connections between the two? Jim will tell a few of the things he thinks that ancestors, including some of his notorious ancestors, might have to say!
Book Jim as a Speaker
.
Book Sharon as a Speaker
