Conference Workshops 2019

Cyrillic for Beginners Workshop

In this two day afternoon workshop, you will learn the Russian alphabet in both print and cursive Cyrillic. There will be fun, interactive practice in recognizing, reading, pronouncing and writing the Cyrillic characters. By the end of the workshop, you will already be starting to read original Russian genealogical records.

German Document Reading: Bring Your Own

If you have any documents in the archaic German handwriting that you would like to have deciphered or translated, bring it to the workshop. As a group, we will try to read and translate it. Through this, you will learn how to analyze a record and extract the important (or all of the) information. The records can origin anywhere, such as in parishes, in courts, or be personal letters.

Finding the Village of Origin Workshop

It is virtually impossible to do research in Eastern Europe without first knowing the name of the village where your ancestors came from. A country name or even a general area is too broad. Having this village information will enhance your experience during the conference.

This two-day workshop will focus on helping you find the village of origin. Instruction will be given each morning in the use of United States and Canadian record sources that may provide this information as well as methodologies to use when your search has not produced the answer. Each afternoon workshop participants will spend time at the Family History Library using the available records and subscription sites. One-on-one consultation times will be scheduled to provide research assistance.

Note 1: This workshop ends at the point where identification of the name of the village of origin is found. Though highly possible, it is not guaranteed that the village name will be found. Additional research may be needed upon your return home. Please don’t sign up for this workshop if you already know the name of your ancestor’s village of origin. Before the workshop you will be contacted to provide the information that you have found to date on each ancestor/family you wish to track. This will assist the consultants in helping you during your Family History Library research time.

Note 2: This workshop includes optional afternoon consultations. If consultations are desired, please do not sign up for an afternoon workshop.