This presentation will provide an overview of DNA testing terminology with highlights of what you can expect to see if you test with each of the major testing platforms. The presentation will also include an updated comparison of the top DNA testing sites and will address recent events regarding privacy concerns with DNA testing. Terry will also show an example on how to use these DNA testing results to identify ancestors when you have exhausted traditional genealogy research methods.   

 

Terry has been a member of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (MSOG) since 2013 and took on the position of Secretary in Bristol Chapter of MSOG.  He was elected President of MSOG in 2022.

 

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/BristolApr2025

 

 

Notarial records are an essential yet often overlooked resource for family historians researching ancestors with roots in Quebec from marriages to estate inventories to labor contracts these records can provide a wealth of genealogical information not found elsewhere. Join us to learn about what types of notarial records exist, how to access them, and how to get the most out of these important resources.

 

Rhonda R McClure, senior genealogist is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer. Before joining American Ancestors/NEHGS in 2006, she ran her own genealogical business for 18 years.  She was a contributing editor for Heritage Quest magazine, Biography magazine, and was a contributor to the History Channel magazine and American History magazine. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of 12 books including the award-winning the Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, Finding our Famous and Infamous Ancestors, and Digitizing Your Family History. She is also the editor of the recently released 6th edition of the Genealogist Handbook for New England Research. Her areas of expertise includes immigration and naturalization, late 19th and early 20th century urban research, New England, Midwest, southern German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and New Brunswick research.

 

 

 

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/BristolMay2025

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.

 

 

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.

Tuscan Grilled Chicken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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)

 

 

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)