Time Travelin' Genealogy Guild to begin at PCPL

The Putnam County Public Library will be hosting instructional genealogy workshops starting in February.

The first class is titled Getting Started with Genealogy. If you have always wanted to research your family history and don't know where to begin, this is the class for you. If you have lots of photos and documents in a shoebox, but don't know how to organize and preserve them, this is the class for you. Even if you already have research skills in this field and want to go further, you can join in and become "charter members" of the Time Travelin' Genealogy Guild.

Each month PCPL will have two sessions of the same subject. The first classes are scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. There will be a short presentation followed by time to research and work on your presentation book.

As apprentices, participants will start with filling out ancestral charts and family group sheets, which will be provided. The focus will be on gathering and organizing the information and supporting documents and finding resources to gather the missing data.

To get the most out of the first class, participants should bring documents or notes, a three-ring binder and plastic sheet protectors. This is a hands-on class using the Ahnentafel order, the 4-H presentation book style and collecting primary sources as proofs.

Emphasis will be on using valid online data and public records. The library edition of Ancestry.com is available to access with a laptop or one of the library's (first come, first served).

Computer research literacy will be an underlying and ongoing part of the course. Therefore, your ancestors do not have to be from Putnam County.

There is no charge, unless you choose to print pages, which are 10 cents each.

Coffee will be provided at break; bring cookies to share, if you like.

The coach will be Diana Brumfield, PCPL genealogist and registrar of the Washburn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.