Heritage Seekers

The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Then & Now
2023-03-27 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom Virtual Meeting
The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Then & Now

presented by Mary Russell-Evans with Autumn & Rebecca Russell, Heritage Seekers

MMM Handout! The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

Family Tree Maker: Introduction to Update 24.1
2023-03-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Family Tree Maker: Introduction to Update 24.1
by Mark Olsen, Family Tree Maker Ambassador
Mark Olsen is the Family Tree Maker Ambassador to historical and genealogical societies around the world working to support their members as they use Family Tree Maker. Mark is a graduate of Brigham Young University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Family History with a Spanish records emphasis. He has been working in the genealogy industry since 2007 and has been the Family Tree Maker Ambassador since 2016.
Handout
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:26:15 Meeting
0:43:20 Presentation
1:28:40 Questions and Answers
2:12:07 End

The 1950 Census: One Year Later
2023-02-27 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
The 1950 Census: One Year Later
presented by Steve Morse
The 1950 Census was released on April 1, 2022, after being sealed for 72 years. Since the release date, many of us have tried to find records in the census and have run into various quirks. This presentation will discuss the things that we have learned since opening day.
The specific topics covered are searching the census by name and what was involved in creating a searchable name index, searching the census by location and the various websites that have tools to support this, confusion between census sheets and census pages, transient handling and the Individual Census Reports, and the cross-referencing that was done if nobody was home when the census taker came to call.
Stephen Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies.
In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today’s Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution more than 40 years ago.
handouts_1950 b

Genealogy as Story: Turning Dry Genealogy Findings into Narrative
2023-02-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Genealogy as Story: Turning Dry Genealogy Findings into Narrative – Some Whys and Wherefores from a Family History Blogger
by Dr William Lindsey, Heritage Seeker Member
Drawing on his experience of maintaining a family history blog that takes years of genealogical research findings and turns them into narratives about his ancestors, Bill Lindsey will talk about the importance of narrative to genealogy, and how to find and write stories of our ancestors based on the data we discover as we research.
William D. (Bill) Lindsey is a Little Rock native who holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University, an M.A. in English from Tulane University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College of the Toronto School of Theology. Among other published works, he’s the author of Fiat Flux: The Writings of Wilson R. Bachelor, Nineteenth-Century Country Doctor and Philosopher, which won the Booker-Worthen prize in 2014; and (with William L. Russell and Mary Ryan) A Family Practice: The Russell Doctors and the Evolving Business of Medicine, 1799-1989.
Bill maintains a genealogical blog in which his goal is to place online his research of nearly fifty years. The blog is called Begats and Bequeathals: A Southern U.S. Family Documented and is found here: https://begatsandbequeathalsasouthernusfamilydocumented.com
Genealogy as Story2
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:26:15 Meeting
0:43:20 Presentation
1:28:40 Questions and Answers
2:12:07 End

Arkansas Angles on the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812
2023-01-23 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Arkansas Angles on the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812
by Jonathan Todd Hancock, Associate Professor of History at Hendrix College
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:26:15 Meeting
0:43:20 Presentation
1:28:40 Questions and Answers
2:12:07 End

Uncover Your Family's Story Using the Periodical Source Index (PERSI)
2023-01-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Uncover Your Family’s Story Using the Periodical Source Index (PERSI)

by Elizabeth Hodges, Allen County Public Library

Recently made free to the public, the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) is the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals and is produced by the staff of The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library. Join Genealogy Center senior librarian Elizabeth Hodges to learn how to make PERSI your new favorite tool in your family history toolbox!
Elizabeth Hodges, MA, MSLIS, is a historian, former museum educator, and Senior Librarian in the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After receiving her BA in History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she pursued a Master’s degree in Irish and Irish American Studies at the New York University while working as an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. As a museum educator, Elizabeth’s love for family history grew exponentially through sharing the stories of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who once resided in a historic tenement in lower Manhattan. Upon graduating from NYU, she began working for the New York Public Library in the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division as a page while working to obtain an MSLIS from St. John’s University in New York. Since 2020, Elizabeth has worked as a Senior Librarian at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center where she has assisted countless patrons discover their family stories. While her specialties and interests lie in Irish migration/immigration, house history, the experiences of immigrant women, and local history, she is always eager to learn and help others find their family’s story.

Handout_Uncover Your Family’s Story Using the Periodical Source Index (PERSI)

Virtual Holiday Potluck
2022-12-12 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Annual Show-N-Tell
Holiday Potluck chat

Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

Ancestor Match Bingo!
2022-11-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Ancestor Match Bingo!
by Rhonda Stewart, Genealogy & Local History Specialist
Central Arkansas Library System/ Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
Find five common life experiences or biological traits between you and/or your parent(s) and a distant ancestor!
Examples: Pandemic? Geographic location? Number of children? Education? Siblings? Occupation? Marriage(s)? Eye color? Hair color? Flood survivor?
A native of the “South End” neighborhood of Little Rock, Arkansas, Rhonda C. Stewart graduated from Parkview Senior High. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a Public Relations emphasis at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro. She has a Master’s in Public History from UALR. She is the genealogy and local history specialist with the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies for the past sixteen years. She is the daughter of Edward & Louise Stewart Shields and Louis Villery of Lake Charles, Louisiana, the granddaughter of Willie and Lillie Toombs. Her family roots date to 1895 in the city of Little Rock and 1825 in the state of Arkansas. She is a sixth-generation female born to Arkansas soil.
Ancestor Bingo Chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

Tent Graves of East Tennessee & Some Creepy Genealogy
2022-11-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Tent Graves of East Tennessee & Some Creepy Genealogy
by Linda Moss-Mines, Overton County, Tennessee
Linda Moss-Mines relates the story of the east Tennessee tent graves, their history & locations- linking them to the Arkansas Ozarks. She also talks about some theories of “Why?” – weaving in stories of body snatchers, grave robbers, animal depredations, too many rocks, medical research or outright theft! Maybe some of this could explain why some of our ancestors don’t have tombstones? A nice treat for Halloween.
Linda is a delightful speaker from Overton County, Tennessee.

Tent Graves chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:26:15 Meeting
0:43:20 Presentation
1:28:40 Questions and Answers
2:12:07 End

Hell & Health: What You Should Know in Doing Family History
2022-11-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Hell & Health: What You Should Know in Doing Family History
by Michael B Dougan; Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arkansas State University
“Hell and Health” will focus on medical issues in Arkansas history, starting from before the Civil War, including the death rates and causes during the War, and then the aftermath, looking especially at the great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and how it relates to medical issues today. All of this will be tied to possible genealogical issues relating to family research.
Michael B. Dougan holds the title of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arkansas State University. He grew up in Neosho, Missouri, and earned his bachelor’s degree from what was then Southwest Missouri State College. He then attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he began his studies in Arkansas history, first writing about the Little Rock press during the Civil War for his master’s degree and then surveying the state for his doctorate. Confederate Arkansas: The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime was published in 1976.
He joined the faculty of Arkansas State University in 1970 and retired in 2003 during which time he wrote a comprehensive history of the state, Arkansas Odyssey: The Saga of Arkansas from Prehistoric Times to Present, published in 1994. In 2003 he authored Community Diaries; Arkansas Newspapering, 1819-2002. He has authored numerous entries for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, presented Professional Development presentations for public school teachers, and done Continuing Legal Education for the Arkansas Bar Association. He lives in the 1895 National Register, J.V. Bell House in Jonesboro.
Hell and Health Chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

The Blue and the Gray: Researching Your Civil War Ancestors
2022-10-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
The Blue and the Gray: Researching Your Civil War Ancestors
presented by Russell P Baker
The Civil War 1861-1865 was one of the most important events in U.S. History. Millions of men served in the armies of the North and of the South. The records of military service and service pensions created during and after this great conflict often contain a goldmine of American genealogical and family history information.
RUSSELL P. BAKER, archivist, lecturer, historian, teacher, and author, is a native of Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received a B. A. in History in 1967. In 1985 he earned a M. A. degree in Public History by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 2009, he retired after nearly 40 years with the Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock, where he was that institution’s Archival Manager. When he retired, he was Arkansas’s senior archivist. Over the years, he has taught history and archival courses at several local colleges and universities, including UALR and Pulaski County Technical College.
Mr. Baker is the author of several award winning historical and genealogical publications. His Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832 – 1971 and Arkansas Township Atlas are modern classics. During his professional career, he has contributed articles on genealogy, southern history, and religion to local, regional, and national publications. He is also the author of a number of articles for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Over the years, he has been a frequent lecturer on modern family history research theory at regional and national genealogical conferences. He is a life member of the Arkansas Genealogical Society and has served on its board of directors for five decades. He is a past president of that organization and he has been editor of the society’s quarterly publication, the Arkansas Family Historian since 2013.
He is member of the Vimy Ridge Missionary Baptist Church in Alexander, Arkansas, where he has served as a Sunday school teacher and church organist for over thirty years. Currently, he is that congregation’s church clerk.
Baker Chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

HistoryGeo.com Map-Tools: Finding your Ancestors, their Neighbors, and their Homeplaces
2022-09-26 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
HistoryGeo.com Map-Tools: Finding your Ancestors, their Neighbors, and their Homeplaces
presented by Greg Boyd, Arphax Publishing/ History Geo
Heritage Seekers is thrilled to welcome Greg Boyd! HistoryGeo.com produces the largest map of U.S. first-landowners (12.5+ million among 30 states). Greg Boyd will demonstrate both the First-Landowners and the new Place-finder+Topos tools. You will learn to use both of these to answer questions and to raise new ones in your research.
Greg Boyd is designer of the award-winning HistoryGeo.com service. He is an avid genealogist and cartographer and operates Arphax Publishing Co. alongside Vicki Boyd, his wife of 42 years. He is a native Texan and an attorney, with degrees from the University of Oklahoma.
HistoryGeo Handout Heritage Seekers Sep 2022
History Geo Chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

How to Find and Plat Your Ancestor’s Land in Arkansas
2022-09-12 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
How to Find and Plat Your Ancestor’s Land in Arkansas
Presented by Caroline Shultz, Heritage Seeker member
Researching land transactions is part of any genealogy research. As you put together your family’s history, you may want to include where they lived or where they originally settled. If you want to add more than the paper trail, visual interpretations and/or locations are a great way to make that story come alive.
Using the BLM records gives you the original transactions and some consequential transactions as well. Adding the Arkansas Surveyor information gets you to the actual piece of land. Then, using the maps and coordinates, you’ll really see where they live.
Caroline Shultz has been researching her family history since 1998 when a tiny magazine article inspired her to see if she could find any of her Cohoe ancestors. Within a few months, she had connected with another researcher who had already taken the Cohoe family back to circa 1720 in Pennsylvania. She has been busy filling in the gaps since then!
Through the years, she has made many research trips to ancestral homes and locations, discovering the long and rich history of her family. Through her treks, she was given the original 1838 marriage certificate of her Quaker ancestors in Canada. Recently adding DNA, much of that paper trail has been confirmed.
Caroline has her Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University (2017), and has attended SLIG, RootsTech, and IGHR multiple times. She has been a member of Association of Professional Genealogists and several other Genealogy Societies. Calling All Cousins Genealogy Research is her business endeavor for the last 7 years. Caroline is also a long-time member of Heritage Seekers & is responsible for the website & Facebook..
Caroline was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but only lived there a short while. She has lived all over the US and has visited almost every state except North Dakota. She has also lived in Panama and South Korea and has visited many foreign countries. She moved to Arkansas in 2011 as a birthday present for her sister. This is the longest time she has ever been in one location in her entire life.
land platting chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

Butterfield's Overland Mail Company & Stagecoach Trail Across Arkansas: 1858-1861
2022-08-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company & Stagecoach Trail Across Arkansas: 1858-1861
Presented by Bob Crossman, Author
Bob’s topic today is the Butterfield Overland Trail that passed through the Arkansas River Valley almost 350 times between 1858 and 1861. The Overland Mail Company stagecoaches carried passengers and mail west from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco through Arkansas. The Overland stagecoaches and stage wagons traveled day and night, completing the 3,293-mile journey is less than twenty-five days.
His presentation will pay special attention to each of the twenty Overland Mail Company stations spread across Arkansas. The stations were typically located about fifteen miles apart. The stagecoaches or stage wagons would stop for ten minutes at each station for the quick change of horses. Twice a day the stage would stop at a station for about forty minutes, allowing the passengers to have a moment of rest and purchase a quick meal while the driver obtained a fresh team of horses or mules.
Dr. Bob Crossman graduated from Russellville High School 50 years ago and has lived in Conway the past 35 years. His wife, Marcia Swain, is a native of Morrilton. They will celebrate their 50th anniversary this winter. Dr. Crossman received a B.A. from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and received graduate and post-graduate degrees from SMU in Dallas, Texas.
Bob is the author of three books published in the past three years on Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company. He now has eight books that are now in print and has sold over 35,000 copies of his books on Amazon and through dozens of other booksellers. He is a member of the Arkansas Historical Association, Faulkner County Historical Society, and the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.
Zoom Meeting Chat BOB
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

Brick Wall Challenge
2022-08-08 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Brick Wall Challenge
Brick Wall Challenge
Get busy NOW! Dig out your toughest, wildest, craziest, confusing, most dysfunctional, oldest, newest, dead-end, forgotten family secrets, genealogical challenges! Let’s put our heads together!
Genealogical Serendipity!
You can’t do genealogy very long without genealogical serendipity. You parked right next to the very tombstone you were looking for. The exact book you needed fell off the shelf. Something made you take the next exit. Ever feel like your ancestors are guiding you? Tell us about it! We promise our eyes won’t glaze over!
INSTRUCTIONS!
Remember time will be limited…. make your time count! Be organized.
Feel free to share a screen with a Power Point , show some pictures or simply ask a question.
You do not have to sign up ahead of time and there is no deadline to sign up.
>>> People are already reserving a spot. <<<
If you know you have a brick wall to present- please sign up now (at Mary’s email below) Something of a head count would be nice.
Listen to other challenges- they will all be of interest.
Be considerate of time so others can ask questions.
Any questions? Mary argardengoddess@att.net
Zoom Chat: Zoom Chat Brick Wall
Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting
0:02:30 Presentation
Questions and Answers
1:37:29 End

[/um_member_video]

Finding Your Roots in African American Genealogy
2022-07-25 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Finding Your Roots in African American Genealogy
presented by Carla Hines-Coleman
“I will talk about how I matched verbal information John gave me and went to the internet to match information he had grown up with. There was little knowledge he had of his Coleman family. So, I decided to help him with his ancestry.”
Carla is a charter Member of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. (AAHGS) Arkansas Chapter; a charter Member of Preservation of African American Cemeteries (PAAC); a board member of the Arkansas Black History Advisory Committee; Chairperson on the Black History Commission of AR; Chairperson on the Oakland/Fraternal Cemetery Board.
Carla is a genealogical and historical researcher. In addition to doing research for others, she has conducted personal genealogical and historical research in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky including courthouse records, cemetery records, census records, church records, burial records, family history records and oral history interviews. She is the principal Researcher for Black Cemeteries Uncovered, PAAC. Carla is on the board of the Arkansas Genealogical Society.
Carla has conducted research and documentation on historical African American cemeteries; compiled and conserved funeral home and historical records in preparation for microfilming; repair, clean and preserve archival material, books and artifacts; archival Conservation Volunteer at the Arkansas History Commission; Union Cemetery Project, PAAC; Outstanding Achievement in Preservation Advocacy: Preservation of African American Cemeteries, Statewide; Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas.
It is fair to say that Carla knows a little bit about black cemeteries & preservation in Arkansas. We are proud to have her as a board member of Heritage Seekers. (Where does she find time for all this?)
Zoom Meeting Chat 25 Jul
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting
0:03:46 Presentation
0:45:26 Questions and Answers
1:32:54 End

Sorting out Problem Families in Colonial Virginia Records: A Set of Tools and a Case Study
2022-07-11 18:30 - 20:00 | Online, United States
Sorting out Problem Families in Colonial Virginia Records: A Set of Tools and a Case Study
Presented by Dr. Bill Lindsey
The goal of this presentation is to offer researchers a problem-solving approach when they trace a family back to Virginia in the 1700s and discover that the ancestor they’re tracing is one of several people (usually men) found in the records of a colonial Virginia family at the same time. How do you sort those men with the same name out and identify the one who is, documents tell you, your ancestor?
Why Virginia?
• Unlike some other colonial states (especially in New England), its records are very spotty,
• And those that do exist have often suffered tremendous damage in the two wars fought on Virginia soil.
• So special techniques have to be developed to piece together Virginia families prior to 1790, especially in counties with partial or absent records.
The presentation focuses on a case study of a Thomas Thomson living in Louisa County, Virginia, in the middle of the 18th century at a point when there are multiple men named Thomas Thom(p)son living in Louisa County — men that have gotten confused with each other in published accounts.
William D. (Bill) Lindsey is a Little Rock native who holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University, an M.A. in English from Tulane University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College of the Toronto School of Theology. Among other published works, he’s the author of Fiat Flux: The Writings of Wilson R. Bachelor, Nineteenth-Century Country Doctor and Philosopher, which won the Booker-Worthen prize in 2014; and (with William L. Russell and Mary Ryan) A Family Practice: The Russell Doctors and the Evolving Business of Medicine, 1799-1989.
Bill maintains a genealogical blog in which his goal is to place online his research of nearly fifty years. The blog is called Begats and Bequeathals: A Southern U.S. Family Documented and is found here: https://begatsandbequeathalsasouthernusfamilydocumented.com
Sorting Colonial VA Families
LINDSEY CHAT-1
LINDSEY CHAT -2
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:01:50 Meeting
0:04:00 Presentation
1:07:49 Questions and Answers
1:23:52 End

The Apple Blossom, The Underappreciated Career of Vada Shield and the Titan II Missile Explosion
2022-06-27 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
The Apple Blossom, The Underappreciated Career of Vada Shield and the Titan II Missile Explosion
Presented by James L. ‘Skip’ Rutherford III
Ever wonder about things that happened, OR things that didn’t happen that affected ALL Arkansans? Well, Skip Rutherford has had a front row seat to his share of some of the biggest events in recent Arkansas history.
Skip Rutherford is Dean Emeritus of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, the nation’s first to offer a Master of Public Service (MPS) degree. Rutherford served as Dean from 2006-2021. Prior to becoming Dean, he coordinated the planning, construction and opening of the Clinton Presidential Library and Park in Little Rock.
A graduate of the University of Arkansas, he received the Journalism Department’s first Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has an extensive private sector background in communications and public relations. He has served as a visiting professor at Lyon College, University of Arkansas, University of the Ozarks, and the University of Central Arkansas and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from Hendrix College.
He serves on the Board of Trustees at Lyon College, the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) and the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital System. He was the founding chair of the advisory board of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts in Hot Springs.
He has been named “Headliner of the Year” by the Arkansas Press Association; “Arkansan of the Year” by the Arkansas Broadcasters Association; “Arkansan of the Year” by the Arkansas Times; and was recognized as “Tourism Person of the Year” at the Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism.
He and his wife, Billie, are the parents of three adult children and have two grandchildren. They are members of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church where he co-teaches a young adult Sunday School class, is a past chairman of the Board of Stewards and co-chaired the church’s centennial. Skip co-owns and manages two family farms in Independence and Jackson counties.
Skip Rutherford chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
Meeting
Presentation
Questions and Answers
End

History of Oakland Cemetery
2022-06-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
History of Oakland Cemetery
Presented by Mike Hood
Michael Hood, Civil Engineering Manager for the City of Little Rock, will present a program June 13th for the Heritage Seekers Club virtual lecture series on the history of the State Hospital and a real-life Halloween ghost story of the fate of the old State Hospital Cemetery.
Michael Hood has been a regular program participant for the Pulaski County Historical Society since 2010. Past presentations include In Search of the Little Rock Maumelle and Western Railroad; Westward from Little Rock, Early Roads and Places; Tour of Western Pulaski County, Halstead, Pleasant Grove and Walnut Grove; Historical Firsts for the Town of Little Rock; and a Tour of the Oakland and Fraternal Cemetery. (Stay tuned for an event including Mike at Oakland in the spring)
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting
0:00:20 Presentation
1:09:00 Questions and Answers
1:12:33 End

What Can You Find in the 1950 Census - and HOW?
2022-05-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Online, United States
“What Can You Find in the 1950 Census – and HOW?
presented by Diana Crisman Smith
We’ve been anxiously awaiting the 1950 U.S. Federal Census. Now it’s here – do you know what to do with it? We’ll look at how to figure out who you want to find; how to locate them in the census; the differences between the various sites hosting the census; what’s in the census; where to find more information and help; and answer some questions that you may have already encountered.
Diana Crisman Smith has been researching since childhood and has served as a lay librarian at her local Family History Center for more than 20 years. She has been active as a researcher, speaker, writer and teacher since the 1980s.
Since 2010 she has written online courses on a variety of topics including: Land Records, Civil War Pension Records, Military Records, Death Records, RootsMagic, Danish Research Basics and Scandinavian Research. She currently has two courses at Lisa Alzo’s ResearchWriteConnect Academy; Using City Directories and Vital Events 101, with more to come. She has also done crash courses on her favorite Midwestern states.
She has written for numerous genealogical publications, including current regular columns in the National Genealogical Society News Magazine and the Association of Professional Genealogists’ APG Quarterly and contributions to a wide range of local and national periodicals). Diana penned a genealogy column that ran for two years in the 27 editions of the Cleveland (Ohio) Sun Newspapers and is the listed author of Finding Your Danish Ancestors: A Primer for Research & History from Heritage Productions, Toronto, Canada.
Diana and her late husband enjoyed speaking at conferences around the country (and at sea) for the past 30+ years and she is now expanding her genealogical endeavors—speaking, writing, teaching and researching—after concluding a career in software consulting. She hopes to get back to sea for another genealogy cruise one of these days.
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting
0:00:00 Presentation
1:09:29 Questions and Answers
1:11:36 End

WHAT CAN YOU FIND IN THE 1950 CENSUS AND HOW

Genealogy for Genealogists: "A Refresher Course”
2022-04-25 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Beginning Genealogy for Genealogists: “A Refresher Course”
by Russell Baker of Heritage Seekers
Today we literally live in a new world. What old skills do we need to refresh and what new ones do we need to learn, as we decide what new information to believe and what to be skeptical of?
RUSSELL P. BAKER, archivist, lecturer, historian, teacher, and author, is a native of Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received a B. A. in History in 1967. In 1985 he earned a M. A. degree in Public History by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 2009, he retired after nearly 40 years with the Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock, where he was that institution’s Archival Manager. When he retired, he was Arkansas’s senior archivist. It’s not uncommon to have a “Russell sighting” at the archives. Over the years, he has taught history and archival courses at several local colleges and universities, including UALR and Pulaski County Technical College.
Mr. Baker the author of several award winning historical and genealogical publications. His Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832 – 1971 and Arkansas Township Atlas are modern classics. During his professional career, he has contributed articles on genealogy, southern history, and religion to local, regional, and national publications. He is also the author of a number of articles for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Over the years, he has been a frequent lecturer on modern family history research theory at regional and national genealogical conferences. He is a life member of the Arkansas Genealogical Society and has served on its board of directors for five decades. He is a past president of that organization and he has been editor of the society’s quarterly publication, the Arkansas Family Historian since 2013.
He is a member of the Vimy Ridge Missionary Baptist Church in Alexander, Arkansas, where he has served as a Sunday school teacher and church organist for over thirty years. Currently, he is that congregation’s church clerk. Russell is also a long-standing friend of Heritage Seekers and a favorite guest speaker.
April 25 chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:23 Meeting
0:03:40 Presentation
0:49:24 Questions and Answers
1:31:41 End

Preparing to Write
2022-04-11 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Preparing to Write
by Craig Roberts Scott
This discussion deals with the situation, the environment, the psychology and setting the mood in order to write. There is no one solution that fits all, but there are questions that you can determine the answers to, that will help you figure out why sometimes you can and sometimes you just can’t. Writing is a social activity. We write for others. Usually in solitude. Isn’t that a contradiction? Sometimes we might write for us and us alone.
Craig Roberts Scott, MA, CG, FUGA is the author of seventeen books and several articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy and other genealogical publications. He is the President and CEO of Heritage Books, Inc., a genealogical publishing firm with over 8,500 titles in print. A professional genealogical and historical researcher for more than thirty-five years, he specializes in military records, problem-solving, Quakers, and publishing. He is a member of the Company of Military Historians and on the editorial board of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. He is a former Treasurer and Director of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
He has been a faculty member or coordinator of research tracks in the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh. He became a Fellow, Utah Genealogical Association in 2014. He is currently the Coordinator of the SLIG Guided Research and Consultation Track, helping students solve their brick wall problems. SLIG also hosts Craig as the subject (willing victim) of a lively discussion called, “Stump Craig.”
April 11 Chat
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting
0:00:50 Presentation
0:49:05 Questions and Answers
1:26:47 End

Two Topics: GEDCOM and Calendar Confusion!?
2022-03-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Two Topics: GEDCOM and Calendar Confusion!?
by Scott Lee of Heritage Seekers
#1 GEDCOM – Short for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, GEDCOM is a file format used to transfer family tree data from one system to another. It was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). It is the universal method of transferring a family tree database from one program to another or to and from websites. Few people realize that it is a simple text file that is human-readable. This presentation will demystify this file type and teach you how to read it and even how to make simple edits.
#2 Calendar Confusion!? – Why was Thursday, October 4, 1582, followed by Friday, October 15, 1582, but only in some countries? Pope Gregory XIII did not invent the Gregorian Calendar, who did? George Washington was born on February 11, 1731/32. So, was he born in 1731 or 1732? Why does the date of Easter shift around, sometimes before Passover, sometimes after Passover, but rarely coinciding with it? October is derived from octo, Latin for eight, so why is it the 10th month? Did the Russian “October Revolution” really occur in November? Why does the Hebrew calendar sometimes have 13 months? These questions and more will be answered.
Scott is a retired software engineer who has been researching his family history since 1979. He has served as an officer in several genealogical societies and lectures on genealogical topics. Currently, he is a board member of the Arkansas Genealogical Society and President of Heritage Seekers. In 1995, he helped design the GEDCOM 5.5 standard for transporting genealogical data, improving its syntax to be more easily read by software and fixing several issues in date specifications. He created the calendar conversion website rosettacalendar.com and his date manipulation library is used by many software packages including PHP which is used in more than half of all websites. Scott grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, but his work took him to Indiana, Oregon, North Carolina, and New York City. In retirement, he, and his wife, Deirdre, have returned to their families in Arkansas.
His career included the medical field, engineering computer graphics, and consulting in the process of building reliable software. In retirement, he is working in the design of deep learning neural networks and software for genealogy. In his spare time, he enjoys writing science fiction, studying ancient calendars, writing free open source software, keeping up with the latest advances in physics and astronomy, and of course, researching his family history.
2022-03-28-chat
2022-03-28-calendars
2022-03-28-gedcom
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:02:00 Meeting
0:06:09 Presentation
1:42:09 Questions and Answers
2:07:04 End

Using Kinship Networks to Solve Genealogical Problems
2022-03-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Using Kinship Networks to Solve Genealogical Problems
by Dr Bill Lindsey
Historians as diverse as Peter Laslett, Gary Mills, and Carolyn Earle Billingsley have proposed that historical researchers should breach the artificial barrier between genealogy and “real” history.
In her book Communities of Kinship, Billingsley demonstrates the significance of family history by showing how a Southern plantation family, the Keesees, and their kinship network extended the cotton frontier west, moving step by step in a planned process involving back-forth communication.
In their book Plain Folk, Planters and the Complexities of Southern Society, Ricky and Annette Pierce Sherrod confirm Billingsley’s thesis and apply it to the movement of a number of families to the Red River valley region of Louisiana in the 19th century and then into Texas.
In his talk, Dr Lindsey will show how the kinship network approach of Billingsley and the Sherrods can be used to solve genealogical problems in our ancestral research.
William D. (Bill) Lindsey is a Little Rock native who holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University, an M.A. in English from Tulane University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College of the Toronto School of Theology. Among other published works, he’s the author of Fiat Flux: The Writings of Wilson R. Bachelor, Nineteenth-Century Country Doctor and Philosopher, which won the Booker-Worthen prize in 2014; and (with William L. Russell and Mary Ryan) A Family Practice: The Russell Doctors and the Evolving Business of Medicine, 1799-1989.
Bill maintains a genealogical blog in which his goal is to place online his research of nearly fifty years. The blog is called Begats and Bequeathals: A Southern U.S. Family Documented and is found here: https://begatsandbequeathalsasouthernusfamilydocumented.com
March 14meeting_saved_chat
Zoom meeting video:
0:00:55 Meeting
0:01:25 Presentation
0:53:09 Questions and Answers
1:26:24 End

[/um_member_video]

Zoom Meeting – The Role Cemeteries Play in Recording Our Community Histories
2022-02-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
The Role Cemeteries Play in Recording Our Community Histories
by Carla Hines-Coleman & Tamela Tenpenny Lewis
The “Dynamic Duo of Black Cemetery Preservation”
This presentation demonstrates the historical significance of documenting the important roles of the enslaved, descendants of slaves and free people of color within the communities of Hensley, Woodson, Wrightsville, and Sweet Home in Pulaski County, Arkansas. It will also encourage people to protect forgotten or abandoned African American cemeteries by connecting their communities to the past through research methods using cemetery transcriptions, slave narratives, oral history, and obituaries.
Preservation of African American Cemeteries, Inc. (PAAC) was started in January 2003 by Tamela Tenpenny-Lewis and Carla Coleman, along with six other dedicated individuals throughout the state. Tamela is the current president. The desire of PAAC at the time of inception was to be a leader in preserving undocumented African American cemeteries, to work with preservation societies, cemetery associations, cemetery caretakers, etc. This goal was quickly met within the first years of operation.
In Arkansas, Tamela and Carla are passionate about endangered African American cemeteries. They have worked tirelessly over the years spreading the word about African American cemeteries and their need for preservation. The pair were featured in a documentary entitled, Silent Storytellers, featured on AETN. The Documentary explores the history, culture and importance of preserving Arkansas’s cemeteries. The documentary also demonstrates Tamela and Carla’s vast knowledge about historical preservation and the importance of documenting history. With a membership base that spans Arkansas and across the US, one would have to speak with each organization affiliated with PAAC to get a full understanding on how the efforts of these two women has changed the culture of cemetery preservation and created a renewed awareness about African American heritage in Arkansas.
Tamela Tenpenny-Lewis is co-founder and president of Preservation of African American Cemeteries, Inc. (PAAC). She has served as the national president of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and was also a charter member and first chapter president of the Arkansas Chapter. The recipient of the AAHGS James Dent Walker Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, Tamela is also the recipient of the (AGS) Association for Gravestone Studies; Oakley Certificate of Merit and an Outstanding Achievement in Preservation Advocacy Award presented by the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas.
Currently, she serves on the boards of the Arkansas Humanities Council and Friends of the Arkansas State Archives. She serves as the Scholarship Chair for the ASU- Strong Turner Alumni Association. Tamela is a 41-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She resides in Little Rock, AR, is the daughter of Samuel & Evelyn Tenpenny, wife of Judious Lewis, and proud parent of Student Doctor, Taylor Lewis.
Carla is a retired production associate from Avaya Inc. She is a (private) genealogical and historical research consultant. Carla also serves on the boards of Oakland & Fraternal Cemeteries, the Arkansas Genealogical Society and Arkansas’ Black History commission. She is also affiliated with the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society, Union Cemetery Project, PAAC. Black Cemeteries Uncovered, PAAC, Compiler, African American Funeral Homes + more.
PAAC also (pre-Covid) took regular road trips to Civil Rights historic sites, etc. Both are members of Heritage Seekers.
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:03:34 Meeting
0:10:50 Presentation
1:52:33 Questions and Answers
2:20:11 End

Copy of Chat from the meeting

Brick Wall Challenge PART TWO! Stump Craig!
2022-02-07 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Brick Wall Challenge PART TWO! Stump Craig!
by Craig Roberts Scott
“Stump Craig” is an opportunity to interact with a bonafide know-it-all, genealogically speaking. He is willing to help solve any genealogical problem. He won’t find your great-grandfather, but he can help YOU find him!
Get busy NOW & dig out your toughest, wildest, craziest, confusing, most dysfunctional, oldest, newest, dead-end, forgotten family secrets, genealogical challenges! Especially military questions! (Any war or National Archives questions)
You will be able to speak with Craig and show him your problem.
INSTRUCTIONS!
Remember time will be limited…. so make your time count! Be organized.
Feel free to share a screen with a Power Point or simply ask a question.
You do not have to sign up ahead of time and there is no deadline to sign up.
>>> People are already reserving a spot. <<<
If you know you have a brick wall to present- please sign up now (Mary’s email below) Something of a head count would be nice.
If you require coaching on Zooming, etc- contact Mary (email below)
Listen to other challenges – they will all be of interest.
Be considerate of time so others can ask questions.
This is going to be fun! Bring on your toughest questions as it is impossible to “Stump Craig!”
Any questions? Mary argardengoddess@att.net
Zoom meeting chat text
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:02:52 Meeting
0:05:18 Presentation
2:28:25 Questions and Answers
2:39:49 End

Find-A-Grave: How does all that information get in there?
2022-01-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Find-A-Grave: How does all that information get in there?
by Richard Theilig
While we can’t possibly go over all of the ways you might use this free online resource, we can hopefully cover at least the ways you can help yourself and fellow researchers, the next time you are at a cemetery, to locate the final resting place of their ancestors and loved ones. We will try to cover how you can search, add and update grave records and photos to the database to make it easier for everyone to find a grave.
Richard has been doing genealogy for his family for the better part of the last 35 years. Much of his family tree was passed down to him from grandparents on both sides of his family. All of his extended family knows that if they have births, deaths, family documents, photos, etc… that they want preserved, they make sure it finds its way to Richard. He digitizes it and make it all available to everyone via Ancestry on a shareable online space.
Richard does a lot of volunteer work in cemeteries. He finds them to be peaceful, reflective places full of history and memories. His family has often gone on vacations specifically to visit cemeteries, whether they contain relatives known to them or not. In fact, he has been known to stop at a seemingly abandoned cemeteries along some lonely county roads just to make sure the cemetery has been recorded in the Find-A-Grave database. Most often, at least some of the markers are recorded, sometimes with photos, sometimes not. He makes it his mission to make sure these “lost” souls are recorded with the hope that their families can now find them.
Richard is a member of Heritage Seekers and associate director at Laman Library in North Little Rock.
Meeting Files:
Zoom meeting chat text
Sorry, the video of this meeting did not record correctly and is not available.

Zoom Meeting - Black and White and Read Online: Using Newspapers for Genealogical Research
2022-01-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Black and White and Read Online: Using Newspapers for Genealogical Research
by Diana Crisman Smith
Have you enhanced your research by using newspapers? Have you found those “lost facts or people” in newspapers? Our ancestors used them extensively to keep everyone up on the latest information – births, deaths, arrests, marriages, and many other items. This presentation will discuss where to find newspapers online, with a few tricks for maximizing your time and efforts.”
Diana Crisman Smith currently lives in Cape Coral, Florida and has been researching since childhood and has served as a lay librarian at her local Family History Center for more than 20 years. She has been active as a researcher, speaker, writer and teacher since the 1980s.
Since 2010 she has written online courses on a variety of topics including: Land Records, Civil War Pension Records, Military Records, Death Records, RootsMagic, Danish Research Basics and Scandinavian Research. She currently has two courses at Lisa Alzo’s ResearchWriteConnect Academy; Using City Directories and Vital Events 101, with more to come. She has also done crash courses on her favorite Midwestern states.
She has written for numerous genealogical publications, including regular columns in the National Genealogical Society News Magazine and the Association of Professional Genealogists’ APG Quarterly and contributions to a wide range of local and national periodicals). Diana penned a genealogy column that ran for two years in the 27 editions of the Cleveland (Ohio) Sun Newspapers and is the author of Finding Your Danish Ancestors: A Primer for Research & History from Heritage Productions, Toronto, Canada.
Diana and her late husband enjoyed speaking at conferences around the country (and at sea) for the past 30+ years and she is now expanding her genealogical endeavors—speaking, writing, teaching and researching—after concluding a career in software consulting. She hopes to get back to sea for another genealogy cruise one of these days.
Meeting Files:
Zoom meeting chat text
Handout: Black and White and Read Online

Arkansas State Insane Asylum and Cemetery
2021-12-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Arkansas State Insane Asylum and Cemetery
by Mike Hood
Michael Hood, Civil Engineering Manager for the City of Little Rock, will present a program December 15th for the Heritage Seekers Club virtual lecture series on the history of the State Hospital and a real-life Halloween ghost story of the fate of the old State Hospital Cemetery.
The state insane asylum was first known as the Arkansas Lunatic Asylum in 1873. The asylum treated individuals suffering from mental illness, epilepsy, birth defects, learning disabilities, and the effects of old age. Many had committed criminal offenses. All were there through a judge’s order. In those days, the treatment of the mentally ill and handicapped persons was crude by modern standards. In most cases, sedation or electric shock therapy was the only medical treatment available. Most patients remained there for the rest of their lives and many were buried on state property.
Michael Hood has been a regular program participant for the Pulaski County Historical Society since 2010. Past presentations include In Search of the Little Rock Maumelle and Western Railroad; Westward from Little Rock, Early Roads and Places; Tour of Western Pulaski County, Halstead, Pleasant Grove and Walnut Grove; Historical Firsts for the Town of Little Rock; and a Tour of the Oakland and Fraternal Cemetery. (Stay tuned for an event with Mike at Oakland in the spring)
Meeting Files:
Zoom meeting chat text
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:09:12 Presentation
0:51:35 Questions and Answers
1:27:04 End

Zoom Meeting – Show 'n Tell
2021-12-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom Virtual Meeting
Show ‘n Tell
Meeting Files:
Zoom meeting chat text
Members, please login to see the video:Zoom meeting video:
0:00:00 Meeting Starts
2:01:57 End
