NEW! The Meyers Brother’s Mystery: Using a FAN network to rediscover an extended family
Brothers, Phillip and Charles Meyers never appear in a census in the same household in the United States. This family mystery was solved by leveraging a family cluster to fill in incomplete records for 1830s immigration from Germany to New York City and eventually to Chicago. We will be discussing how to work around missing census records, incomplete indexing of church records, and encourage you to examine all FAN network family members. Clustering of data from adjacent family members gave us the “clue” to what region of Germany to explore and led to successfully locating this family in 1790s to 1820s Rhineland-Pfalz. This case was challenging due to the time period, lack of existing records, and the death of the parents of Phillip and Charles, likely in their childhood. This class with describe some methods, tricks, and tips you can use in breaking down brick walls in your family immigrant research.
Audience: Intermediate or Advanced; though beginners will also benefit from learning about genealogical methods they can employ as their research advances.
Jessica Fontana
Instructor
Jessica Fontana previously worked as a researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists and now has her own consulting business. She has a M.S. degree in Extension Education from The Ohio State University, with specialized study in Adult Education Methods; she has taught age groups from middle school to senior adults and designed training for technology companies. Jessica specializes in U.S. research, with experience in the Southern, Midwest, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as African American family history. Outside the U.S., she is comfortable researching in English, German and Hungarian records, as well as work on dual-citizenship applications in Luxembourg and Canada. Jessica is a member of EMBER - Early Midwest Black Experience Research; this collective focuses on early Black pioneers in Upper Midwest States (1830s-1900s).
W505-3
Instructors:
- Jessica Fontana
| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Mon, Apr 19th 2027 | 6:00 - 7:15 PM | Diamondhead Education Center |
