MSOG, Inc. PO Box 215 Ashland, MA 01721-0215 |
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Saturday, May 31
Bring Family History Alive in Bite-Sized Projects (Merrimack Valley & Middlesex)
10:00 am to 12:00 pm Hybrid - Georgetown Peabody Library and Via Zoom
Middlesex and Merrimack Valley Chapters are joining together for this meeting.
Presented by Marian Burk Wood
Bring Family History Alive in Bite-Sized Projects - Get fresh ideas for documenting family history in engaging, practical, bite-sized projects that can be shared with relatives and posted on genealogy websites for the sake of future generations. Like a sprint rather than a marathon, each project takes a short time and allows you to be creative in spotlighting one specific aspect of family history to share. Learn why and how to narrow your focus to one ancestor or family, occasion, heirloom, photo, or place. Presentation includes how-to examples of projects such as brief ancestor bios and booklets, heirloom background stories, ancestor coloring books, photo books, and audio/video-based family history.
Born in the Bronx and transplanted to Connecticut, Marian Burk Wood is the author of the popular genealogy book Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past and a long-time blogger about family history methodology, issues, and discoveries (at https://ClimbingMyFamilyTree.blogspot.com). She earned an MBA from Long Island University and a BA from the City University of New York. Marian has been researching her family tree for 27 years, with a special interest in documenting, sharing, and safeguarding family history for future generations.
Georgetown Peabody Library
2 Maple St,
Georgetown MA
This program is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Those who wish to attend virtually, can pre-register at: MVMXMAY2025
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Tuesday, June 3
King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
By Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias
King Philip's War--one of America's first and costliest wars--began in 1675 as an Indian raid on several farms in Plymouth Colony, but quickly escalated into a full-scale war engulfing all of southern New England.
At once an in-depth history of this pivotal war and a guide to the historical sites where the ambushes, raids, and battles took place, King Philip's War expands our understanding of American history and provides insight into the nature of colonial and ethnic wars in general. Through a careful reconstruction of events, first-person accounts, period illustrations, and maps, and by providing information on the exact locations of more than fifty battles, King Philip's War is useful as well as informative. Students of history, colonial war buffs, those interested in Native American history, and anyone who is curious about how this war affected a particular New England town, will find important insights into one of the most seminal events to shape the American mind and continent.
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
July 1, 2025 - The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani
August 5, 2025 - The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust by Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa
September 2, 2025 - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
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Saturday, June 7
From Records to Revelations (Worcester)
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm In person - O'Connors Restaurant
Bonnie Croteau presents:
From Records to Revelations: Enhancing Your Genealogy Research with the Daughters of the American Revolution Database and FamilySearch Full-Text Search.
Whether you're tracing your family history or preparing a lineage society application, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) website provides a vast and ever-expanding collection of genealogical resources. Join me as we explore these valuable tools and discover how they can support your research. You'll also learn my key strategies for finding elusive records on FamilySearch, including a review of the FamilySearch Experimental Labs Full-Text Search and how it can enhance your genealogical discoveries.
Bonnie Croteau is a professional genealogist with over thirty years of experience researching family histories in the United States and Ireland. She specializes in New England research and lineage society applications. Bonnie is a DAR member and chairs the Volunteer Genealogists Committee for her Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. She also serves as Treasurer for the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and its Merrimack Valley Chapter.
This will be our Annual Luncheon meeting.
O'Connors Restaurant
1160 W Boylston St
Worcester, MA
11:30 am EDT Restaurant opens
12:00 noon EDT Luncheon
1:00 pm EDT Presentation
Pre-registration and payment is required through our website and is available until May 31st. Click on the link below or go to the Public Store on the left side of the website main page. You do not need to be logged in as a member to make your selection. The Pay Pal link allows you to pay via credit card or Pay Pal. If you are unable to use the website, please email worcester@msoginc.org.
Luncheon is $33 per person and includes rolls & butter, choice of entree, ice cream, and coffee, tea, or soft drink.
Entree choices:
Tuscan Grilled Chicken
Baked Boston Haddock
Beef, Mushroom & Guinness Pie
Chop-Chop Salad
This meeting is open to the public. All are welcome.
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Saturday, June 21
Genealogy Certificates vs Genealogy Certification (Merrimack Valley)
10:00 am to 12:00 pm In Person Only Georgetown Peabody Library Georgetown MA
Genealogy Certificates vs. Genealogy Certification
Making Informed Choices for Your Genealogical Journey
Are you curious about the difference between earning a genealogy certificate and achieving professional certification? While both offer valuable pathways for learning and career growth, they serve distinct purposes. This presentation will break down the key differences, helping you decide which option best aligns with your educational goals or professional aspirations. We'll also explore valuable resources available for each path, empowering you to take the next step with confidence.
Bonnie Croteau is a professional genealogist with over thirty years of experience researching family histories in the United States and Ireland. She specializes in New England research and lineage society applications. Bonnie is a DAR member and chairs the Volunteer Genealogists Committee for her Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. She also serves as the Treasurer for the Merrimack Valley Chapter.
Refreshments and Social Time with the Chapter after the meeting.
Georgetown Peabody Library
2 Maple St
Georgetown, MA
This program is FREE AND OPEN to the public |
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Saturday, June 21
Bristol Chapter Annual Meeting: Freetown Historical Society Tour (Bristol)
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Attend in Person or Virtually via Zoom
Presented by Members of the Freetown Historical Society
Freetown Historical Society
1 Slab Bridge Rd.
Assonet, MA 02702
Business Meeting 11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing 11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon.
Member Lunch Included.
This program is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
For more information contact: bristol@msoginc.org
Schedule of Events Available at: https://msoginc.org
Those who wish to attend virtually, can pre-register at https://tinyurl.com/BristolJun2025 |
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Tuesday, July 1
The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past.
Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi―her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant―who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible. (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
August 5, 2025 - The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust by Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa
September 2, 2025 - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
October 7, 2025 - American Jezebel by Eva Laplante
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Tuesday, August 5
The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
By Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa
World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the astonishing unknown story of “Countess Janina Suchodolska,” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland’s Nazi occupiers, becoming “a heroine for the ages” (Larry Loftis, author of The Watchmaker’s Daughter).
Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the “Countess” persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned in Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US.
Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is a “riveting…stunning” (Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Citizen 865) account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty. (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
September 2, 2025 - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
October 7, 2025 - American Jezebel by Eva Laplante
November 4, 2025 - Squanto: A Native Odyssey by Andrew Lipman
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Tuesday, September 2
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
October 7, 2025 - American Jezebel by Eva Laplante
November 4, 2025 - Squanto: A Native Odyssey by Andrew Lipman
December 2, 2025 - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
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Tuesday, October 7
American Jezebel by Eva Laplante (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
In 1637, Anne Hutchinson, a forty-six-year-old midwife who was pregnant with her sixteenth child, stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts General Court, charged with heresy and sedition. In a time when women could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, the charismatic Hutchinson wielded remarkable political power. Her unconventional ideas had attracted a following of prominent citizens eager for social reform. Hutchinson defended herself brilliantly, but the judges, faced with a perceived threat to public order, banished her for behaving in a manner "not comely for [her] sex."
Written by one of Hutchinson's direct descendants, American Jezebel brings both balance and perspective to Hutchinson's story. It captures this American heroine's life in all its complexity, presenting her not as a religious fanatic, a cardboard feminist, or a raging crank—as some have portrayed her—but as a flesh-and-blood wife, mother, theologian, and political leader. The book narrates her dramatic expulsion from Massachusetts, after which her judges, still threatened by her challenges, promptly built Harvard College to enforce religious and social orthodoxies—making her the mid-wife to the nation's first college. In exile, she settled Rhode Island, becoming the only woman ever to co-found an American colony.
The seeds of the American struggle for women's and human rights can be found in the story of this one woman's courageous life. American Jezebel illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech, and showcases an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era. (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
November 4, 2025 - Squanto: A Native Odyssey by Andrew Lipman
December 2, 2025 - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
January 6, 2026 - TBA
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Tuesday, November 4
Squanto: A Native Odyssey by Andrew Lipman (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
American schoolchildren have long learned about Squanto, the welcoming Native who made the First Thanksgiving possible, but his story goes deeper than the holiday legend. Born in the Wampanoag-speaking town of Patuxet in the late 1500s, Squanto was kidnapped in 1614 by an English captain, who took him to Spain. From there, Englishmen brought him to London and Newfoundland before sending him home in 1619, when Squanto discovered that most of Patuxet had died in an epidemic. A year later, the Mayflower colonists arrived at his home and renamed it Plymouth.
Prize-winning historian Andrew Lipman explores the mysteries that still surround Squanto: How did he escape bondage and return home? Why did he help the English after an Englishman enslaved him? Why did he threaten Plymouth’s fragile peace with its neighbors? Was it true that he converted to Christianity on his deathbed? Drawing from a wide range of evidence and newly uncovered sources, Lipman reconstructs Squanto’s upbringing, his transatlantic odyssey, his career as an interpreter, his surprising downfall, and his enigmatic death. The result is a fresh look at an epic life that ended right when many Americans think their story begins. (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
December 2, 2025 - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
January 6, 2026 - TBA
February 3, 2026 - TBA
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Saturday, November 15
Annual Meeting 2025 (Annual Meeting)
8:00 am to 4:00 pm Marlborough Country Club
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Tuesday, December 2
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Book Club)
7:00 pm Virtual
From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life―from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience. Here is an American classic that "cuts right to the heart of life," hails the New York Times. "If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you will deny yourself a rich experience." (Amazon Review)
Upcoming Book Club Readings:
January 6, 2026 - TBA
February 3, 2026 - TBA
March 3, 2026 - TBA
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