Finding Your Roots Online: The Where and When Fall 2024 Series

Maryland Public Television and the Maryland Genealogical Society offer another beginner-to-intermediate genealogy workshop series this fall. Finding Your Roots Online: The Where and When consists of four (4) two-hour sessions that take a deep dive into online records that locate ancestors in a time and place.

We’ll look at how to find and get the most out of vital records (birth, marriage, and death), census records, church and cemetery records, directories, and local histories. In addition, we’ll explore how to find substitute records when vital and census records don’t exist. Finally, participants will learn to use these critical resources like an expert researcher.

Each session features a combination of lecture, small and large group discussion, question and answer time, and a homework assignment relating to your family search. Handouts are provided for each session. The sessions will be recorded and registrants will have unlimited access to those recordings. While this workshop series extends what we learned in the spring, that course is not a prerequisite for participating.

This series is perfect for anyone looking to better understand the vast offerings of online family research and strategies for overcoming roadblocks.  Your family does not need Maryland ties to benefit from this course; however, the instructor will use some Maryland examples.

Those who attend will receive a one-year MPT Passport membership or membership extension, and a one-year membership to the Maryland Genealogical Society (MGS) — not applicable to current MGS members.

Sessions

Part I – Finding and Using Vital Records—and What to do When They Don’t Exist
Wednesday, September 11, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Vital records – those records of birth, marriage, and death – are essential for our research. We’ll look at how to find them online and how to milk every drop of information from them. But vital records don’t always exist for our ancestors, which can make us feel like we’ve reached a dead end. We’ll also explore how to find records that can substitute for missing vital records and reveal when our ancestors were born, married, and died.

Part II – Church and Cemetery Records – More Ways to Locate Our Ancestors’ Vitals and Locations
Wednesday, September 25, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Our ancestors’ religious preferences can tell us a lot about them and add to their stories, but church and cemetery records also record births or baptisms, marriages, and deaths or burials, substituting for missing vital records. These records also locate our ancestors in time and place, acting as census substitutes. Learn how we can find and use these powerful records to advance our research.

Part III – Finding and Using Federal, State, and Special Censuses – and What to do When They Don’t Exist
Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Federal censuses are basic to family history research, but there are many other censuses that can help us find our ancestors. We’ll look at how to find them online and how to use all the information in them to our best advantage. We’ll look at how to turn those “tick-mark” censuses (1790─1840) into useful information. And we’ll look at a variety of census substitutes that can locate our ancestors in time and place between the censuses.

Part IV – Directories and Local Histories – Even More Ways to Find Our Ancestors’ Vitals and Locations
Wednesday, October 23, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Directories and local histories that include entries for our ancestors are widely available online today. City and county directories are useful to us, but so are business and other special directories. County histories can contain not just vital and location information, but also stories of our ancestors’ lives. We’ll cover how to find and use these terrific resources to locate vital and location information, as well as other important details of our ancestors’ lives.

REGISTER HERE