April 19, Saturday, 8:30 am — Genealogy Seminar with Curt Bryan Witcher
There is an admission fee and there is LIMITED SEATING

Registration is at 8:00 am. The first lecture starts at 8:30 am, Curt B Witcher will give three presentations. After 9:00 am, ring bell for elevator service.

1. Mining the Mother Lode:  Using Periodical Literature for Genealogical Research
   Extremely significant quantities of family and local history data are published in the newsletters, journals, quarterlies, and magazines of the world’s historical and genealogical societies.  Yet, so many genealogists leave periodical literature untouched when conducting their research and investigating secondary sources of data.  This lecture identifies the major types of periodical literature, what indices are available and how they can be most effectively used, and where one can find specific publications. Special attention is given to the Periodical Source Index as the largest and most comprehensive subject index in the genealogical field.
2. Passenger and Immigration Research
   This lecture challenges the student of genealogy to view an ancestor’s travel to this continent as a three step process — leaving, arriving, and settling down — with each of these steps containing the possibility of record generation.  Sample documents are viewed and suggestions provided on how to access immigration related data.
3. More Than Surname Surfing: Best Practices for Using the Internet for Genealogists
   This presentation takes an active look at what types of information are currently available for genealogists on the Internet and how to go about methodically accessing that data.  It is aimed at the beginning to intermediate surfer and is intended to get one beyond just searching large surname databases.  The talk focuses on (1) what resources are available electronically, (2) how to access these resources, (3) a bit on how Internet search engines work and what genealogists can expect from them, and (4) identifying some good sites to use as jumping-off points in maximizing the Internet for genealogical use.

*** Society will provide light refreshments.  Door Prizes ***

Reservations Required:
Cost for Members $5.00 (Must sign-up now)
Non-members $20.00 which includes a single membership through the end of the calendar year.(sign-up starts March 1^st)

Register at a Meeting, on a Library Open date or Send Name and check to:

Baltimore County Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 10085
Towson, MD 21285-0085

Questions send to info@baltimoregenealogysociety.org or call 410-750-9315

Curt Bryan Witcher’s Biographical Sketch
Curt Bryan Witcher is the Senior Manager for Special Collections at the The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he manages The Genealogy Center, serves as general curator for the institution’s Rare and Fine Book Collection, and is the Supervisor for the Lincoln Financial Foundation’s Lincoln Library Collection. Curt is the project lead on the library’s digitization initiatives–initiatives that include partnerships with the FamilySearch International, the Internet Archive, ProQuest, Fold3, and WeRelate–as well as growing a site of free, searchable data files at GenealogyCenter.org. He has worked at Allen County Public Library for more than thirty-four years.

Curt is a member of the Genealogy Committee of the American Library Association, the convener of the Genealogy and Local History Discussion Group, a past chair of the association’s History Section, and a participant in other genealogical and historical committees of that organization.  He is a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society.  He is the founding president of the Indiana Genealogical Society and has memberships in a number of historical and genealogical organizations in the state and country.

In the decade of the 1990s, Curt participated in Indiana University’s Continuing Education Program as an adjunct professor, teaching courses on beginning genealogical research.  He is the coeditor of the 1987 through 2013 editions of the Periodical Source Index, the largest and most comprehensive subject index to historical and genealogical periodical literature published by the Allen County Public Library Foundation.  He has served on the Advisory Board for Ancestry.com as well as on the FamilySearch Advisory Council.  From 2002 through 2006, Curt served on the review committee for The BYU Family Historian.  He was a research consultant for both the PBS Series, Ancestors.  He is currently the co-chair of the Genealogy Publications Committee of the Indiana Historical Society and a member of Indiana’s State Historical Records Advisory Board.  In addition to the more than five hundred record and methodology articles he has penned for local, state, and national genealogical periodicals, in 2000 Curt authored, African American Genealogy: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources.  That publication turned into The Genealogy Center’s online African American Gateway. He served for eight years as the National Volunteer Data Input Coordinator for the “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System,” building a free, online database that has basic information on the service records of 6.3 million Civil War soldiers <www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/>.  He is now working with a team of volunteers to raise $3.4M to fund the digitizing of, and free access to, the War of 1812 pension files. Curt has chaired eight national genealogical conferences—four in Fort Wayne, two in St. Louis, and one each in Baltimore, MD and Richmond, VA. He remains a frequent presenter at local, regional and national genealogy seminars and conferences.

Curt was distinguished in 1995 as a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association (FUGA) and received the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ highest honor, the Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern Humanitarian Award.  In 1997, he was one of the Kellogg Foundation’s “Expert in Residence” scholars.  He is the 2002 ALA-RUSA History Section Genealogical Publishing Company Award winner and in 2003 was honored by the Indiana Historical Society as that year’s Willard Heiss Memorial Lecturer.  Curt was recognized in 2006 by being named the first fellow of the Indiana Genealogical Society.  He was honored in May of 2007 with the National Genealogical Society’s P. William Filby award for outstanding, life-time contributions to genealogical librarianship.