The FamilySearch Catalog is an underused resource by many genealogists.  Learn tricks and tips on using this tool to its full potential for finding records within the collection.

 

Cheri Hudson Passey is a professional genealogist, instructor, writer, speaker, and owner of Carolina Girl Genealogy, LLC. She hosts the YouTube genealogy chat show GenFriends and is a genealogical researcher subcontracted by Eagle Investigative Services, Inc., for the US Army Past Conflict Repatriations Branch. She is involved in many genealogy societies and organizations and is on the National Genealogical Society board. For over ten years, Cheri has written the blog “Carolina Girl Genealogy,” sharing genealogy tips, methodologies, family stories, and her research adventures in South Carolina.

 

SOMERSET PUBLIC LIBRARY
1464 County Street
Somerset, MA 02726
 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon. 
 
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/BristolJan26

The new Writing Special Interest Group (SIG) will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, January 20th at 7:00 PM (via Zoom). This kickoff session will focus on introductions and a candid discussion of the common challenges that keep our research from making it onto the page - along with practical ideas for getting started.

 

Going forward, the group will meet monthly to share works-in-progress, exchange constructive feedback, and help one another stay accountable as we work toward our writing goals for 2026 and beyond.

 

The meeting is open to all MSOG members in good standing.  Registration is required.  You must be logged in as a member to register for the meeting.  Once logged in, you will see Event Registration under the Members Only section.  You will also find a link there to sign up for the mailing list.   

 

We look forward to seeing you there.  

 

 

Why did our ancestors leave their homes?  Why did they settle where they did?  Using unexpected records, social history, the law, and more, we'll discover the secrets our ancestors’ migrations can reveal as we track them from place to place, across the ocean, across the country, even across town! This talk is about migration across the ocean, across the country, and across town, and although it does not focus on New England, the strategies and records are applicable to anyone studying the topic.

 

 

 

The official inside story of the life, death and remarkable discovery of history's most controversial monarch. On 22 August 1485 Richard III was killed at Bosworth Field, the last king of England to die in battle. His victorious opponent, Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII), went on to found one of our most famous ruling dynasties. Richard's body was displayed in undignified fashion for two days in nearby Leicester and then hurriedly buried in the church of the Greyfriars. Fifty years later, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, the king's grave was lost - its contents believed to be emptied into the river Soar - and Richard III's reputation buried under a mound of Tudor propaganda. Its culmination was Shakespeare's compelling portrayal of a deformed and murderous villain, written over a hundred years after Richard's death. Now - in an incredible find - Richard III's remains have been uncovered beneath a car park in Leicester. The King's Grave traces this remarkable journey. In alternate chapters, Philippa Langley, whose years of research and belief that she would find Richard in this exact spot inspired the project, reveals the inside story of the search for the king's grave, and historian Michael Jones tells of Richard's fifteenth-century life and death. The result is a compelling portrayal of one of our greatest archaeological discoveries, allowing a complete re-evaluation of our most controversial monarch - one that discards the distortions of later Tudor histories and puts the man firmly back into the context of his times. (Amazon Review)

 

 

 

Register in advance for this meeting:

 

 

 

SOMERSET PUBLIC LIBRARY
1464 County Street
Somerset, MA 02726
 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon. 
 
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/BristolFeb26 

 

 

 

Analyzes evidence unearthed during excavations at Jamestown, specifically at James Fort, to shed light on the daily lives of the colonists, their relationship with Native Americans, and the hardships they endured. (Amazon Review)

 

 

 

 

Face it: most genealogists never get around to publishing that family history book based on their genealogy research. How about a different approach: producing short 3-5 page “sketches” about an ancestor? You’ll learn how to include a cover, photos, facts, family stories, source citations and more! And guess what, once you get a few of these ancestor sketches done, you can compile them together for one big book!
 
Thomas MacEntee is a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community.
 
"This program has applied for support from the Somerset Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency."

 

SOMERSET PUBLIC LIBRARY
1464 County Street
Somerset, MA 02726
 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon. 
 
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/BristolMar2026

Discover how to navigate the unique challenges and rewards of researching black sheep ancestors — those family members whose lives were marked by controversy, scandal, or crime. Using Canadian resources, attendees will learn strategies for uncovering records, interpreting data, and understanding the historical context of their ancestors' lives.

 

 

A native of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, Kathryn Lake Hogan, UE, PLCGS, is a professional genealogist and educator with deep roots in Canada through her five Loyalist ancestors. Since founding Looking4Ancestors in 2007, Kathryn has helped family history researchers uncover their Canadian ancestry, combining her expertise with an approachable and insightful teaching style. Kathryn graduated from ProGen 4 and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, where she earned professional learning certificates in English and Canadian genealogy. Kathryn has written articles featuring Canadian genealogy for CrossRoads, Family Tree Magazine, The In-Depth Genealogist, and the APG Quarterly. Having held leadership roles within notable organizations such as Ontario Ancestors, the Association of Professional Genealogists, and the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, she continues to advocate for greater accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity in family history. Kathryn is a sought-after speaker who captivatingly engages audiences at genealogy society meetings and regional and national conferences. As a course coordinator and instructor of Canadian and Ontario courses at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), the National Genealogical Society GRIP, and the Applied Genealogy Institute (AppGen), she helps family history researchers sharpen their skills and dive deeper into their Canadian family history.

 

 

 

In Person

 

Karin Wulf Presents: Geneaology in Ancient Times

 9:30 AM EDT    Socializing
  9:45 AM EDT    Business meeting

When Peggy Shippen, the celebrated blonde belle of Philadelphia, married American military hero Benedict Arnold in 1779, she anticipated a life of fame and fortune, but financial debts and political intrigues prompted her to conspire with her treasonous husband against George Washington and the American Revolution. In spite of her commendable efforts to rehabilitate her husband’s name, Peggy Shippen continues to be remembered as a traitor bride.

 

Pension records are a fun way to learn more about our families and their military service. Discovering your ancestor’s service can help you discover their life events and new connections in their FAN club.  This program will focus on pension records available to researchers online and strategies for finding records after 1900. 

 

Catherine "Casey" Zahn is a retired teacher. Born in CT, she began the Central Jersey Genealogical Club and was a past trustee for the Genealogical Society of New Jersey. She wrote two books on teaching children genealogy and served as the program chair for the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Philadelphia. She often speaks throughout the region for genealogical societies and libraries. Casey currently serves as a governor for the Connecticut Society of Genealogists and works daily on her New England roots. 

 

SOMERSET PUBLIC LIBRARY
1464 County Street
Somerset, MA 02726
 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon. 
 
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/BristolApr2026 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Villa Presents: Holy Cross Library / Dinand Library

A discussion of records available at the Holy Cross Library.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

 

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

 

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

 

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

 

700 Boylston St.

 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
 

The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world but also one of the most difficult to amend. Jill Lepore, Harvard professor of history and law, explains why in We the People, the most original history of the Constitution in decades―and an essential companion to her landmark history of the United States, These Truths.

 

Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding―the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions―We the People offers a wholly new history of the Constitution. “One of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change,” Lepore writes. “Another was to allow for change without violence.” Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside its doors, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. More troubling, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without recourse to amendment, she argues, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential or judicial fiat.

 

Challenging both the Supreme Court’s monopoly on constitutional interpretation and the flawed theory of “originalism,” Lepore contends in this “gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past” that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. The framers never intended for the Constitution to be preserved, like a butterfly, under glass, Lepore argues, but expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution through an orderly deliberative and democratic process.

 

Lepore’s remarkable history seeks, too, to rekindle a sense of constitutional possibility. Congressman Jamie Raskin writes that Lepore “has thrown us a lifeline, a way of seeing the Constitution neither as an authoritarian straitjacket nor a foolproof magic amulet but as the arena of fierce, logical, passionate, and often deadly struggle for a more perfect union.” At a time when the Constitution’s vulnerability is all too evident, and the risk of political violence all too real, We the People, with its shimmering prose and pioneering research, hints at the prospects for a better constitutional future, an amended America.

 

 

Location TBA
 
Business Meeting   11:00-11:30 am
Member Sharing     11:30-11:55 am
Presentation Begins at Noon. 
 
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 TBA