Calendar

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Upcoming Events

January 19, 2019	Marie Scalisi FamilySearch Features, Foibles, Tips, and Tricks Marie Lollo Scalisi, a professional genealogist and the Forum’s Recording Secretary, will show you how to maximize your use of the free and essential genealogical website FamilySearch. Scalisi, a researcher, consultant, speaker, and writer with more than thirty years’ experience, has written for NEHGS Register, the American Genealogist, and other journals. She is a graduate of the National Institute for Genealogical Research and a former contributing editor for the NYG&B Record. Marie belongs to the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and numerous other societies. As a volunteer librarian at the Plainview Family History Center, Marie has helped hundreds of patrons find their ancestors.
February 16, 2019	*Annual Show-and-Tell* Members will share interesting research experiences, suggestions, family heirlooms, letters, photos, stories, etc. If you have something you would like to share with your fellow Forum members email Patricia Phelan at programs@ifhf.org.
March 16, 2019	Terrry Koch-Bostic *City Directories: Finding Ancestors In Between the FederalCensuses* National Genealogical Society education chair, our member Terry Koch-Bostic, will discuss using city directories in genealogy research. Often ancestors seem to be missing from a particular census or can’t be found in those long ten-year gaps. City directories can help establish where your ancestors lived, worked, married, and went to church, as well as their surname variants. Learning how to fully use city directories as a resource may even help you to find vital records or their substitutes. Koch-Bostic, a professional genealogist, served for seven years on the NGS board of directors, most recently as vice president. As education chair, she works to bring more howto resources to family historians and to offer free help for all levels of expertise. She is a contributing author for the NYG&B’s award-winning New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer and has written for the New York Researcher, The Record, and Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine
April 20, 2019	Joan Koster-Morales *Behind the Institutional Walls of 19th-Century New York City* What’s to Be Found? Joan Koster-Morales will discuss how to access institutional records, when available, online and in archives. She will also talk about the impact of the Health, Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on records access and current New York State Freedom of Information law.
May 25, 2019	Michael Carragher Missing Boyles of Drumcrew What do you do when a great-grandfather disappears, his siblings abandon their farm and emigrate for destinations unknown, and the paper trail turns up no firm answers? Michael Carragher, Past President of the Forum and of the DNA Genealogy Group of LI, will explain how DNA matches and genetic genealogy can provide the clues to solve the riddle.
June 15, 2019	Cecily Dyer Holdings of the Brooklyn Historical Society Founded in 1863, the Brooklyn Historical Society is dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn’s extraordinary 400-year history. The Library and Archives department has one of the most comprehensive collection of materials related to Brooklyn’s history and culture. Reference librarian Cecily Dyer will discuss the holdings, which include books, archival collections, oral history interviews, photographs, maps, artifacts, paintings, and more. 10:00 AM Kathleen McGee Genealogy Tips and Tricks 10:45 AM Refreshment Break 10:45 AM Ask the Experts 11:15 AM Featured Speaker: Cecily Dyer
September 21, 2019	*Finding Irish Place of Origin in U.S. Records* Everyone on this side of the Atlantic who researches an Irish ancestor hopes to discover the place in Ireland where he or she was born. It’s a search that starts, not with Irish sources, but with U.S. records. Our Education Director Kathleen McGee will kick off the Forum’s fall season with a lecture about American sources that show birthplace, such as draft registration records; birth, marriage, and death records; gravestones; probate records; death notices; some census records; and more. McGee, a librarian at the Plainview Family History Center and a frequent genealogy speaker, is the longtime presenter of our monthly Genealogy Tips sessions.
October 5, 2019	*Reclaim the Records* Forum member Alec Ferretti will discuss the accomplishments of Reclaim the Records, a nonprofit that seeks to restore public access to genealogical documents. RTR has succeeded in obtaining and publishing, for free, decades of vital records indexes from New York City, New York State, and New Jersey and is currently working on projects across the country. He will also explain the many ways to access these newly available collections. Ferretti, a member of the RTR board, is a dual degree master’s student at NYU’s Archives and Library Science program and works as genealogist-in-residence at the Wells Fargo Family and Business History Center. *** The date of the October meeting has been changed from Oct. 19 to Oct. 5**
November 16, 2019	*Maureen Taylor, Webinar: Identifying and Dating Family Photographs* Maureen Taylor, aka the Photo Detective, is an internationally renowned expert in historic photo identification, preservation, and genealogical research. First we’ll see her webinar on Identifying and Dating Family Photos, and then via Skype Maureen will analyze a few old photos for us and answer any questions.
December 14, 2019	*Annual Christmas Luncheon, to be held at Irish American Center in Mineola*

Upcoming Meetings & Events

October 5, 2019

Alec Ferretti

Reclaim the Records

Forum member Alec Ferretti will discuss the accomplishments of Reclaim the Records, a nonprofit that seeks to restore public access to genealogical documents. RTR has succeeded in obtaining and publishing, for free, decades of vital records indexes from New York City, New York State, and New Jersey and is currently working on projects across the country. He will also explain the many ways to access these newly available collections. Ferretti, a member of the RTR board, is a dual degree master’s student at NYU’s Archives and Library Science program and works as genealogist-in-residence at the Wells Fargo Family and Business History Center.