Upcoming Activities of the Fairfax Genealogical Society

Upcoming Genealogy Events and Presentations

October and November 2015

 

Saturday, October 10, 9:00 a.m. at Clover Hill High School, 13301 Kelly Green Lane Midlothian, VA, J. Mark Lowe will present a series of lectures at the Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia Fall Conference. His presentations will include early census records, tax record, insolvent estate settlements and developing research plans. Information about the conference can be found on their web site at https://grivagenealogy.wordpress.com.

 

Saturday, October 17, 1:00 p.m.
at the Daughters of the American Revolution Library, 1776 D St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20006, Maureen Taylor will speak about her work, The Last Muster Project, Volumes 1 & 2, a collection of rare nineteenth-century photographic images, and accompanying biographies of those pictured, of the Revolutionary War generation, assigning faces to and telling the stories of our nation's founding fathers and mothers. The event is free to the public. To register for the event you can call the DAR Library at 202-879-3287, or can register online at http://daron17.eventbrite.com.

 

Saturday, October 17, 9:30 a.m.
Charles Howard will speak on the subject of City Directories at the Washington DC Family History Library, 10000 Stoneybrook Dr, Kensington, MD. City directories can offer more than just an address and his presentation will demonstrate the many hidden clues found in this record collection.

 

Tuesday, October 20, 1:00 p.m. at Hollin Hall Senior Center, 1500 Shenandoah Ave., Alexandria, VA, Jim Bartlett will be the guest speaker at the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society. He will present an overview of the three types of DNA tests, the results and how to use them.

 

Thursday, October 22, 7:30 p.m. at the Kilmer Middle School Lecture Room, 8100 Wolftrap Road, Vienna, VA, Sharon MacInnes will present a program on Taxes: The Gift that Keeps on Giving…to Genealogists! Reviewing tax records can often provide a year-by-year snapshot of a family within a neighborhood, show the changing economic situation of the family, indicate when a son comes of age, and show when a taxpayer dies or moves.  Since taxes were levied as soon as the government realized there were enough people in a frontier area to generate more income than a tax collector was paid, these records often precede the 1790 census and allow you to reconstruct settlements as they established themselves. 

 

Saturday, October 24, 10:00 a.m. at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Station, 2148 Gallows Road, Vienna, VA, Rebecca Koford will speak about How I Built My Own Brick Wall and the Sledgehammer of Experience. This lecture identifies ways that researchers have built their own "brick wall" through inexperience, lack of organization, and incorrect assumptions.

 

Saturday, November 7, 9:00 a.m. at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Station, 2148 Gallows Road, Vienna, VA, Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, will speak at the Fairfax Genealogical Society Fall Fair, making three presentations.

 

That First Trip to the Courthouse (9:00 a.m.)

If there is one home truth in genealogy research, it’s this: not everything is available online. Sooner or later, every genealogist has got to make that first trip to the courthouse to check out the original records available there. How to prepare for that trip, the rules of the road, what to expect, what to ask for and how to be sure you’ll be welcomed back the next time are explored in this lecture.

 

Dowered or Bound Out: Records of Widows and Orphans (10:30 a.m.)

Widows and orphans have always had a special place in the law. But it’s not always the place that 21st century researchers might expect. An orphan in the early days wasn’t a child whose parents had died, but rather a child whose father had died. The law didn’t care much about the mother. She was just the widow, entitled to her dower rights and generally not much more. Learn more about how the law treated widows and orphans, and what the records may tell us about them.

 

Finding the Law (1:30 p.m.)

Time and time again, we’re told as genealogists that we need to look at records in the context of the law at the time and in the place where the records were created. Easier said than done! With 50 states and the federal government all passing laws, how do we find the laws we need?

 

Registration for the fall fair is available both online and by mail. Registration before 10/15 includes a boxed lunch (sandwich, chips and drink). A vegetarian option is available; please indicate during registration. Registrations after this date will include lunch only if extras are available. The cost of this year's fair is:

•FxGS Member: $35.00

•Non-Members: $40.00

Late Registrants (After 10/15): $45.00

 

Tuesday, November 17, 1:00 p.m. at Hollin Hall Senior Center, 1500 Shenandoah Ave., Alexandria, VA, Craig Scott will speak on Researching Your World War I Ancestor. Craig’s presentation will focus on researching individual people, as well as their divisions in the Regular Army, National Guard, and National Army.

 

Thursday, November 19, 7:30 p.m. at the Kilmer Middle School Lecture Room, 8100 Wolftrap Road, Vienna, VA, Shannon Combs-Bennett will speak on the topic of Researching Naval History. The Naval History and Heritage Command has been an active archive for the US Navy for 200 years.  It has artifacts, documents, biographies, and other ephemera related to the US Navy.  Located at the Washington Navy Yard it has onsite research facilities and limited online records that cannot be found anywhere else. 

 

Saturday, November 21, 10:00 a.m. at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Station, 2148 Gallows Road, Vienna, VA, Shannon Combs-Bennett will present a talk on Beyond the Obituary: Finding Death Sources. Death certificates and obituaries are the go-to for researchers, but what if you cannot find those. Learn where else to look for death dates and other death tid-bits for your ancestors in this presentation.

 

Saturday, November 21, 9:30 a.m.
Denise Nelson will speak on the subject of Precious Heirlooms, a Voice from the Past at the Washington DC Family History Library, 10000 Stoneybrook Dr, Kensington, MD. Items our ancestors treasured can tell us surprising facts about who they were, who they associated with, their status, their ethnicity, their surroundings and their personal thoughts.  Often neglected as a research tool, examining Gems and Jewelry owned by our ancestors provide us with a rather personal glimpse at our ancestors and their stories.