Recordings Have Been Posted

All recordings of classes have been posted. Visit the member corner to watch!

Military Records

Immigration & Naturalization

Organizing Research

Maps

https://www.gsgmfl.org/gsgm-member-corner/home

Legacy Family Tree Webinars

Save 10%

Top 10 Webinars of February 2025! We’ve crunched the data and unveiled the Top 10 most-watched webinars of February 2025! Did your go-to genealogy gurus make the cut? Ready to discover fresh insights? This list is your passport to new learning adventures! Read more >>

Upcoming MDPLS Genealogy Programs

March 15th, 2025

2:00pm - 3:00pm

Finding Our Abuelitas

Learn the strategies unique to Hispanic Genealogy that make it possible to learn more about our female ancestors. In this presentation Latina Professional Genealogist, Irisneri Alicea Flores will cover: 1. The societal roles that were expected of our Abuelas. 2. Life circumstances that our Abuelas experienced that you see reflected in documents. 3. The Spanish Last Name: how does it work? when does it not apply? and how it can help us find our female ancestors. 4. Multiple case studies.

Register

March 29th, 2025

2:00pm - 3:00pm

Encontrando a Nuestras Abuelitas

Aprende estrategias específicas de la genealogía hispana que permiten descubrir más sobre nuestras antepasadas femeninas. En esta presentación, la genealogista profesional latina Irisneri Alicea Flores abordará:

Los roles sociales que se esperaban de nuestras abuelas.
Las circunstancias de vida que marcaron a nuestras abuelas y cómo estas se reflejan en los documentos históricos.
El sistema de apellidos hispanos: ¿cómo funciona?, ¿cuándo no se aplica? y cómo este puede ayudarte a rastrear a tus antepasadas femeninas.
Casos de estudio prácticos.

Register

Upload Your DNA to MyHeritage for FREE – Enjoy Advanced Features for Life!

We have great news of a limited-time opportunity from MyHeritage: from March 2nd through March 9th at 11:59 P.M., you can upload your DNA data to MyHeritage and enjoy advanced DNA features for free, forever!

Upload Now

Putting your DNA on MyHeritage can open a whole new world of discoveries. For each NEW* DNA file that you upload this week, you’ll receive free access to MyHeritage’s full suite of advanced DNA features, saving you the usual $29 unlock fee per file.

RootsTech FREE!! March 6-8 2025

Join the world’s largest family discovery event • 6–8 March 2025 • Plus an on-demand learning library available anytime • Brought to you by FamilySearch.

• 200+ new online sessions in over 26 languages

• Join keynote sessions live from the comfort of your own home

• Chat online with other attendees worldwide

Register Today! https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/registration

Get Tips for Researching Female Ancestors on the NGS UpFront Blog

The NGS blog, UpFront, features an excellent post that will help you research records to learn more about the women in your family history so their legacies can be preserved and shared.

RECEPTION + TOUR The Golden Age of the Jews of Al-Andalus

FREE

An exhibition that invites visitors to explore the daily life of Jews in the 11th-century Iberian Peninsula through detailed facsimiles, virtual reproductions, images, and re-creations

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2025

Reception 4:30 p.m.
Program 5 p.m.


Kislak Center at the University of Miami
Otto G. Richter Library
1300 Memorial Drive
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
 

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-golden-age-of-the-jews-of-al-andalus-tickets-1219545446259?aff=oddtdtcreator

Travel Your Tree: Walking in Your Ancestor’s Footsteps

The recording of this presentation will only be online until March 4th. Please visit the member corner to watch. https://www.gsgmfl.org/gsgm-member-corner/home

Volunteers Needed

GSGM will be participating in the Scottish Festival again this year!

Saturday, March 1, 2025
9am - 7pm
Heritage Park, Plantation, FL

We need volunteers to help with a variety of tasks, including:

• Table Sitting: Assist with managing our table and promoting GSGM during the event. No need to stay all day. Come and table sit for an hour or two.

• Assist with materials PRIOR to event: Make copies of flyers, contribute information to share with visitors, etc.

Click Here to Sign Up to Volunteer

Join RootsTech Online for FREE! Online Worldwide – March 6–8, 2025

It’s never been easier to learn from global genealogy experts!

Join us online to experience:

• 200+ new online sessions in over 26 languages

• Join keynote sessions live from the comfort of your own home

• Chat online with other attendees worldwide

• Get digital syllabi and class handouts

Register Now for FREE

The U.S. National Archives Preserves and Provides Access to 250 Years of U.S. History by NARA Archivist Claire Kluskens

February 6, 2025 clairekluskens NARAancestry, archives, family history, genealogical research, genealogy, history, NARA, National Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, research

The National Archives is much more than the iconic Greek-revival style building situated on Pennsylvania Avenue near the National Mall.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds in trust for the American people the permanently valuable records of the U.S. federal government that show our shared history over the past 250 years. NARA preserves and provides access to documents about the decisions and actions of government, rights of individuals (such as citizenship), or otherwise have sufficient historical or other value to warrant continued preservation. Genealogists, military veterans, historians, lawyers, and other researchers find the records essential to their research. Information about newly digitized records in the National Archives Catalog can be found at “What’s New in the National Archives Catalog.”

NARA preserves:

• 11.9 billion pages of historic textual (paper records);

• 10 million maps, charts, and architectural and engineering drawings;

• 40 million still photographs, digital images, filmstrips, and other graphics;

• 40 million aerial photographs dating to the 1930s;

• 448 million feet of motion picture film;

• 992,000 video and sound recordings; and

• 837 terabytes of electronic data

The National Archives does this at different and necessary facilities that each hold unique records found nowhere else:

• National Archives Building (Archives 1) and National Archives at College Park, MD (Archives 2) in the Washington, DC, area

• 12 regional archival facilities in or near major cities

• 17 presidential libraries (14 physical, 3 virtual) for 20th century presidents since Herbert Hoover

• 17 federal record centers for some temporary and some permanent records, and the

• 2 National Personnel Records Centers (Military) and (Civilian)

NARA has a staff of about 2,800 persons who are dedicated to serving the American people. Staff who work with the public develop expertise in specific bodies of records. Other staff have technical experience and knowledge that supports our mission to preserve the records and provide the public access to them. Learn more by reading a few employee profiles.

Congress established the National Archives nearly 90 years ago by a law known as the “The National Archives Act of 1934” that was signed on June 19, 1934. Since April 1, 1985, NARA has been governed by the “The National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984” that was signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Come explore the records!

Genealogy Meets AI: Panel Discussion

Dive into the intersection of cutting-edge AI technology and traditional genealogy methods. Our panel of experts will discuss practical applications, ethical challenges, and the future of AI in family history research, empowering you to harness its potential responsibly. Panelists include

• Andrew Redfern

• Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D.

• Diana Elder, AG, AGL

• Mark Thompson

• Steve Little

• Thomas MacEntee.

Wed, Jan 8, 2025: 8:00 pm EST

Link to register

Dual Citizenship: Ireland and Italy

January 7, 2025, 7:00–8:00 p.m. ET | Online via Zoom

Join us for an online webinar led by genealogical educator Melissa Johnson to learn more about Irish and Italian dual citizenship, including its benefits, the laws governing citizenship, records needed to apply, and other information necessary for compiling a successful dual citizenship application.

This is a free webinar, but registration is required. 

The MDPLS Community Memory Project: Understanding and Utilizing Community Archives

https://www.mdpls.org/dc-blog-twentyfour-sep

Puerto Rican Farmworkers in the Garden State, 1950s-1970s Thu Sep 19th

Presented by New Jersey State Library
(Free) (VIRTUAL)
9:00am PT / 9:00am AZ(MtnStd) / 10:00am MT / 11:00am CT / 12:00pm ET / 5:00pm UK

New Jersey has a rich history of agriculture and is renowned for many types of crops, from peaches, to blueberries, to corn. Those who committed their efforts to the cultivation of those crops tell as rich a history, especially those migrants who came from Latin America and the Caribbean in the Twentieth century. Please join us for Hispanic Heritage Month as Professor Ismael García-Colón discusses the experiences of Puerto Rican farm workers in New Jersey and how those experiences inform us of the larger Hispanic experience in America in the second half of the Twentieth century.

Ismael García-Colón is a Professor of Anthropology at the College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center. He is a historical and political anthropologist with a focus on immigration and colonial migration, guestworkers, farm labor, U.S. empire, Puerto Rico, and U.S. ethnic and racial histories. García Colón is the author of Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire: Puerto Rican Workers on U.S. Farms (University of California Press, 2020), and winner of the 2020 Frank Bonilla Book Award from the Puerto Rican Studies Association. His research explores the Puerto Rican experience in U.S. farm labor and its relation to U.S. colonialism and immigration policies, and how government policies formed and transformed modern subjectivities in Puerto Rico.

For details see www.njstatelib.org/event/virtual-author-talk-puerto-rican-farmworkers-in-the-garden-state-1950s-1970s/

Resources for National Hispanic Heritage Month

Join the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month (15 September–15 October) honoring the "histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America."

Below are resources that may be helpful to anyone researching Hispanic/Latino family histories.

• Hispanic Family History Resources page on the FamilySearch Wiki

• Documentary Relations of the Southwest from the University of Arizona Institutional Repository

• Early California Population Project by the Huntington Library

• Research Resources from the New Mexico Genealogical Society

• Mission 2000: Spanish Mission Records by the National Park Service

• Texas Colonial Period Subject Guide by the Briscoe Center for American History

• Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España y sus posesiones de Ultramar by Pascual Madoz

• Guia de los Archivos de la Iglesia de España by the Diocesan Archive of Barcelona for the Association of Church Archivists in Spain with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports

• Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) / Spanish Archives Portal

• Diccionario geográfico, histórico y biográfico de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos by Antonio García Cubas

• Guadalajara Dispensas includes names from the archives of the Catholic Diocese of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

• Valladolid Dispensas with indexes to the FamilySearch microfilms related to the "Antiguo Obispado Catolico de Michoacan"

• Mexican Genealogy Resources by Moises Garza

• Resources and Links from the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, Fl., Inc.

• Great New Mexico Pedigree Database from the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico

Early Migrations Into and Out of New England

New England has long been a common stop and destination along popular migration routes throughout history. As a result, many of us with early roots in the United States have New England ancestors! In this online lecture, Chief Genealogist David Allen Lambert will discuss common 17th, 18th, and 19th-century migration patterns into and out of the region, key record sets for tracing these migrations, and more.

Learn More and Register

30% off an All Access or World Explorer Subscription

Enter your AARP membership number on the Ancestry website, or mention it by phone.

Members save 30% on the first year of an All Access or a World Explorer subscription and get access to records and online tools to search, save and share their family history.  If you’re new to Ancestry, you’ll receive the discount on the first year of your subscription only. If you already have an Ancestry account, you’ll receive the discount when you renew your subscription for a year.

Get Started with Your FREE National Genealogical Society Membership!

Have you claimed your FREE National Genealogical Society membership from Grouper yet? If not, now's the perfect time to join other NGS members who enjoy this exclusive benefit!
 

Why Participate?

• Grouper reimburses you for your National Genealogical Society membership.

• Stay active and connected with our vibrant genealogy community.

• Elevate your membership experience and stay socially fit.

Ready to Sign Up? Just visit groupergroups.com/NGS and check your eligibility.
 

Take advantage of this opportunity to enhance your genealogy experience with the National Genealogical Society and Grouper.

FREE 20-minute consultation with a research specialist at FamilySearch

If you need help with your own family history research, please schedule a FREE 20-minute consultation with a research specialist. 

Click here to sign up for your consultation!