One Incredible Genealogy Seminar Coming In Santa Barbara on April 9

The Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society is offering One Incredible Genealogy Seminar, Saturday 9 April 2011 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at Goleta Presbyterian Church, 6067 Shirrell Way in Goleta 93117. 

There are two research tracks – one for German genealogy and an alternative for U.S. research.

The German Focus speaker is Dr. Roger P. Minert of BYU, who will give four Germanic genealogical research presentations:

• German Immigrants in American Church Records. This is a major project of Dr. Minert and his Germanic Family History students at BYU over the past several years. Eight volumes of midwestern USA immigrants, by name and German birthplaces, have resulted from this project, from church records in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska. The SBCGS library on Castillo Street currently has 3 of these 8 volumes.
• Marriage and Courtship in Germany, 1500-1800. Social and religious customs, associated with courtship and marriage, are discussed in detail. Illegitimate children, inheritance, and property acquisition are an integral part of this presentation.
• Church Records in Germany. The most valuable records containing data on our Germanic ancestors are religious baptism/christening, marriage, and burial/death records, considered as Vital Records prior to Civil Registration in Germanic countries.
• Conducting Family History Research in Europe. The emphasis in this talk is on preparation, communication, avoiding and or solving problems, and will include contacting resources in Germanic countries from here in the U.S.

For non-German researchers, the alternative track is on U.S. research, presented by Lloyd De Witt Bockstruck, award-winning professional genealogist, librarian, author and columnist who served as Supervisor of Dallas Public Library's Genealogy Section for 30 years. His topics:

• Revolutionary War, Patriots and Tories. Americaąs first civil war took place during the Revolution, an ultra violent, family-splitting, and often vindictive conflict between patriots and loyalists (Tories). It became a conflict between Americans as well as a struggle for independence. Lecture will focus on demographics of both groups, migrations after the war, and available records for genealogical research.
• Early U.S. Migrations: from Trans-Appalachia to the west bank of the Mississippi, 1763-1850. Lecture will focus on push/pull reasons for migrations and the rich sources of records available in various states.
• U.S. Probate Records and Deeds. Information accessible via ancestral and collateral wills, intestate proceedings and land deeds can solve some of your most bricked-up problems. Learn new search techniques, sources, and clues.
• Huguenots and Quakers in America. Learn about your immigrant Huguenots, i.e., French Calvinists or members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, and about your Quakers, i.e., members of the Society of Friends. Learn what about them? Their lives in the new country, their courtship and marriage customs, their persecutions, their burial customs, their records, and where to find them.

Register and pay online here or by clicking on the home page link on their Web site at http://www.sbgen.org/.

See you there!