California Genealogical Society blog: Intermediate Records Class! Starts May 29

Have you been researching mostly online at Ancestry and FamilySearch and feel you’ve exhausted what you can from their site using the search feature? Do you want to learn more about your ancestors so you can write their story? Perhaps you have been afraid to tackle land and court records, thinking they were too hard to find and use. Or lastly, you would like to take a road trip and do some research in the counties and cities where your ancestors lived but don’t know how to begin... This Intermediate Records class is for you!

Lisa Gorrell will teach a 5-session course
on how to use records to deepen your research

Well-known teacher Lisa Gorrell, CG, returns with this in-depth five-session class, held Wednesday nights at the Oakland Family History Center (May 29-June 26) from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. It will cover the following subjects in depth:

Court Records. This class will cover wills, probate, guardianship, and other court records. Learn how to used them and how to use the FamilySearch Catalog to find records.

Church Records. The session will cover the types of records created by religious organization such as sacramental, membership, and business records. These records can be found in many places online and off-line.

Emigration, Immigration, and Naturalization Records. The class will cover the records our immigrant ancestors created when they left their home country and came into the United States, as well as those records they created to become citizens.

Land & Property Records. This session will cover the land records issued by the federal, state, and local governments. In-class exercises will aid in the student’s understanding of land description. Also included is how to locate local land records on the FamilySearch Catalog.

Off-Line Research. This class will discuss how to use online sources to prepare for an off-line research trip. These same techniques can be used even if you never leave home but instead make contact with out-of-town repositories by email, mail, or telephone.

Many of these classes have in-class exercises and all have optional homework to support the learning from class. A computer is not necessary. Just come prepared to go further in depth on these intermediate subjects.

Lisa S. Gorrell is a Certified Genealogist® who has been researching her family for over twenty-five years. She leads the research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for CGS. She is a former board member of CGS and current Secretary for the Contra Costa County Historical Society. She enjoys teaching about genealogy and writing about her family on two blogs: “Mam-ma’s Southern Family” and “My Trails into the Past.”