YCGS meetings are the 1st Saturday of the month
9:30 social time, auction, business – 10:00 Educational Presentation
All Meetings are hybrid:  In-Person at our Library and/or via Zoom

November 2, 2024  •  Finding Descendants in Your Family Tree
Speaker:  Diane Henriks, Know Who Wears the Genes in Your Family (Website)

**Free to Members; $10 non-members (purchase here). **ZOOM ONLY**

Known as The Descendant Detective, Diane breaks down those pesky brick walls with this process of fanning out to find descendants and living people in your family tree!

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December 7, 2024  •  The 12 Days of Genealogy Christmas – Finding Ancestors in Holiday Records
Speaker:  Lisa Lisson, Are You My Cousin?  (Website)

Merry Christmas! The holidays are coming and despite all the busyness of the season, Christmas (and holidays in general) is a fantastic time of year to research your genealogy and family history. Discover the types of holiday resources and records to include in your search for your ancestors. You could be one Christmas pageant away from finding your ancestors!

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January 4, 2025  •  Oregon’s Black History: 450 Years in 45 Minutes
Speaker:  Zachary Stocks, Black Pioneers (Website)

**Free to Members; $10 non-members (purchase here)

People of African descent have lived and worked in Oregon since before the founding of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the Americas. Despite this, the popular narrative of our state’s history excludes the experiences of African Americans before the mid 20th century. This erasure is the result of historic legal and social marginalization that contribute to the ignorance of Oregon’s Black heritage, as well as influence contemporary disparities in housing access, community investment, and policing. Zachary Stocks of Oregon Black Pioneers will attempt to correct the record by highlighting key individuals and events that characterize Oregon’s unique and centuries-old Black history.

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February 1, 2025  •  FamilySearch — What’s New!
Speaker:  Jamie Lee McManus Mayhew, PLCGS (Website)

**Free to Members; $10 non-members (purchase here)

FamilySearch is continuously updating and improving its website. FamilySearch Labs has experiments with new tools to help you with your research. We’ll look at “Full Text Search” which uses artificial intelligence to find keywords in over one million records, including U.S. land and Probate Records from 1630-1975, Mexico, Notarial Records, 1600-1909, and U.S. Plantation Records, 1700s to 1865.  We’ll take a look at Image Search and the FamilySearch Catalog. Finally, we’ll look at the FamilySearch Tree and investigate the FamilySearch Labs “Merge Analysis Tool.” If you are not a FamilySearch user, this is an opportunity to see what you are missing.

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March 1, 2025  •  The Genealogist’s Google Search Methodology
Speaker: Lisa Louise Cooke, Genealogy Gems (Website)

**Free to Members; $10 non-members (purchase here)

It’s a new decade, so if you think you know how to Google, think again! Technology changes rapidly and keeping our search skills updated and sharp is key to search success. Come learn the latest Google Search Methodology for Genealogy. You’ll hear about the latest and best search innovations, and learn the process that will dramatically improve your genealogical search results. These skills can be used with all associated Google tools. (Form Nominating Committee)

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April 5, 2025  •  Navigating Newspapers: The 5 W’s of Research
Speaker:  Doris Cruikshank, YCGS Librarian

**Free to All – Non-members email info@ycgsociety.org for Zoom link 

Discover the Who, What, When, Where, and Why in historic newspapers, many of which are online, that hold a wealth of information that may not be found anywhere else.  Find out how to search for newspapers for your area of research in the United States and Canada.
(Announce Nominations)

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May 3, 2025  •  Mining Minnesota:  Discovering Henry
Speaker:  Dawnette Bowlin, YCGS President

**Free to All – Non-members email info@ycgsociety.org for Zoom link 

Travel to Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, to walk in the footsteps of a long deceased ancestor, discover who his biological parents were, and visit the ancestral lands of Dawnette’s maternal great grandfather’s beginnings.  This boots-on-the-ground research trip broke open a branch that had long been a brick wall. (Election)

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June 7, 2025  •  YCGS Annual Meeting – Installation of Officers, Officer Reports

Summer Break (July-September) No Meetings