The first meeting of WCAGS for 2013 is Saturday, January 19, at 10:00 am in the Walker Meeting Room at the Fayetteville Public Library.
The meetings topic will be Beginning Genealogy. This is going to be a workshop type format in which there will be a short introduction that explains the first steps in genealogy and then those present who are new to genealogy will be guided along the first steps of their genealogy journey! So if the ancestry commercials have intrigued you or the recent holiday gatherings have sparked an interest in finding out about your family history, come and get help starting the journey of a lifetime.
Bring some information about your family to get you started.
- Your parents names and birthdates and birthplaces
- Your grandparents names and birthdates and any places you know they lived
- Names and dates and places for any aunts or uncles
Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the info, the rest is what we are going to start finding.
If you have a laptop computer bring it and someone will help you setup some genealogy software for your use. there are free genealogy programs as well as others that will require some payment (usually in the range of $30) but you can get started with either a trial version or a free software and many people continue to use the free software.
There are also genealogy apps for tablets. Most of the apps work in conjunction with the other software or with the Ancestry Family Tree.
It helps if you know the names and approximate locations for some of your family in 1940 or 1930 to give you a good starting point. However, bring what you know about your family and we will give you some places too start looking for more information!
Don’t worry about the format of the information or documenting where you found it or any of the other details of genealogy information just bring a few notes of the information and you will learn about how to use the information and citing your sources at the workshop.
The next two meetings will also be workshops where we will build on your beginning information and continue to grow your family tree!