The next meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group will focus on "Navigating your Family History at the Vermont State Archives" & "Exploring the Digital Public Library of America," on Saturday,December 2, 2023, from 11am to 1pm, Zoom only.
Free and open to all. Please register at the online link. A Zoom link will be sent at least one week before the meeting.
Reference Archivist Mariessa Dobrick at the Vermont State Archives will share genealogy resources through stories in her pre-recorded presentation, "Navigating your Family History at the Vermont State Archives."
The Vermont State Archives consists of records that have continuing value to the State of Vermont and its citizens. The holdings document Vermont state government from crown colony to the present. Because many of these records reflect the interactions of individual citizens with their government, the State Archives is a useful resource for genealogists and family historians with Vermont connections.
Records often used by genealogists include vital records, court records, records of state institutions and newspapers. The Manuscript Vermont State Papers documents the names of thousands of Vermonters between 1777 and 1865 that had interactions with government, from petitions to grand lists and beyond.
Wayne Blanchard, co-founder of Windham County Genealogy Interest Group and genealogy volunteer at Rockingham Public Library, will take us on a virtual tour of The DPLA (website- https://dp.la) through his talk, "Exploring the Digital Public Library of America."
The DPLA provides a way to search the collections of a wide range of partner institutions: libraries, archives, and government offices. This online library does not have its own collection but gives a way to search across many other collections in one place. Although not focused specifically on genealogy, many of its free materials are helpful for doing family research. The website contains links to photographs, family bibles, correspondence (for example from the Civil War letters), local maps, yearbooks, military records, oral histories, family history and genealogy books. As its website proclaims, the DPLA is totally free to use and open to all--no library card, subscription, or sign up required.
What We Do: The Windham County (VT.) Genealogy Interest Group is an informal organization whose members are dedicated to genealogy education, research, and best practices. Meetings are held every other month on Zoom. Many of these sessions were recorded and are available on the WCGIG YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnDZOgRIhTVRWysbesYpzA, which cover topics as: improving your search results in FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com; using family tree software; navigating the crowd sourced cemetery database, Find A Grave; using land records for genealogy research; using AmericanAncestors.org, the database of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; finding people in the newly released 1950 U.S. Census.
Our Partners: WCGIG is also supported by Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, VT. and Rockingham Free Library in Bellows Falls, VT. with use of their Zoom accounts, publicity, and use of their facilities.
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