Events Calendar

Date: December 17, 2024 Time: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Annual Members Share Program

Our Annual Member Share meeting is an opportunity for Members to share what they have been working on. Have you broken through a brick wall? Have a research technique to share? We'd love to hear your story. 

Date: November 16, 2024 Time: 10:30 AM to 02:00 PM

Annual Joint Program and Luncheon with the Falmouth Genealogical Society

Guest speaker: Michael LeClerc

The Annual Joint meeting with the Falmouth Genealogy Society features Certified Genealogist, Michael Leclerc who will give two presentations. At 10:30 A.M., Michael will present: Probate Records and Beyond. 

We will break for lunch at 11:30 A.M. – you may preorder a Lobster Roll ($25) or Chicken Salad Roll ($15), served with chips, brownie, and a beverage. (Please contact Judy Fenner at bfennerpgm@comcast.net or 508-776-9401 no later than Thursday, November 7 by 8:00 P.M.

 At 12:30 P.M., Michael will present How to Read Old Genealogical documents.

Date: October 15, 2024 Time: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

An Artifact Breaks Down a Brick Wall

Guest speaker: Susan Feinberg

A treasured family memoir led me to search the internet for a piece of a religious sculpture my great-grandfather created in the early 20th century in Lithuania that supposedly ended up in an unnamed synagogue in Canada. While I never found any evidence of that particular sculpture, I did discover that his “masterwork” survived the destruction of the Jewish Lithuanian community during World War II and was on permanent display in a museum in his home country. This presentation describes the research tools and processes I used to verify that the artist whose work I found was indeed my great-grandfather and includes an interesting twist that happily resulted in an expansion of my family tree.

Date: September 17, 2024 Time: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Using and Evaluating Mug Books for Family Research

In the 19th century, hundreds of towns and counties across the United States published biographical histories—or “mug books.” These can be valuable resources for family historians—providing a great deal of genealogical data and images—however, because the sketches are unsourced and arguably biased, the information should always be taken with a grain of salt. Join us to learn how to identify, access, evaluate, and use mug books responsibly.
 

Date: August 20, 2024 Time: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Bathsheba Spooner: A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy

Guest speaker: Andrew Spooner

 What possessed a woman from the elite society of eighteenth-century New England to conspire with an American soldier and two British run-away soldiers to murder her husband at the midpoint of the American Revolution? The story of Bathsheba Spooner (1746-1778) is the most sensational “true crime” tragedy of the American 1700s. She was the first woman in American history to be executed following the Declaration of Independence. She was just 32 years old and her penalty for “inciting, abetting and procuring the manner and form of murder” was death by hanging. Along with her three conspirators, this was carried out in Worcester’s Washington Square before a crowd of 5,000 spectators on July 2, 1778.