WINDHAM COUNTY, Vt. – The next meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group (WCGIG) will cover the topics “Researching a Grandparent” and “Strategies for Finding Problem Ancestors,” on Saturday, May 18, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., on Zoom only. This meeting is free and open to all. Please register at forms.gle/janUysG1cEaaPGwB9. A Zoom link will be sent before the meeting. Pose any questions that you may have for the presenters when you register.
Using sources such as census records, vital records, city directories, archives at the New England Conservatory and Framingham State University, Sanborn maps, photos, an autograph book, and a family genealogy, WCGIG member Michael Bosworth will present the why and how – including the occasional serendipity – of his research into his paternal grandfather William Ezra Bosworth Sr. of Willimantic, Conn., and Holyoke, Mass. He was a piano tuner, and later a restaurateur, and weighed 300 pounds. Michael never knew his grandfather, but through this process gained much appreciation of his high and low points. The review will focus on the first half of William’s life, 1877-1910.
Then, Wayne Blanchard, cofounder of Windham County Genealogy Interest Group and genealogy volunteer at Rockingham Public Library, will give us his insights applied to “Strategies for Finding Problem Ancestors.” As anyone who has done some genealogy knows, unraveling one’s family history involves overcoming roadblocks. Recently, someone contacted the library for help finding out about the life of a man named Ralph Parker Smith, who was born in Vermont in 1795. He married a woman named Ruth, and they had four children, all born in Stockholm, N.Y.: Darius H., 1821-1910; Albert E., 1829-1898; Hiram C., 1834-1890; and Myron Walter, 1838-1917. They moved to Cleveland, Minn., where he died in 1879. The challenge is to find out where he was born, who his parents were, what Ruth’s maiden name was, and who her parents were. Wayne will share his strategies to try to answer the questions, but those attending are encouraged to see if they can solve the problem also. No prizes, but anyone with an answer will have genealogy bragging rights.
The Windham County Genealogy Interest Group is an informal organization whose members are dedicated to genealogy education, research, and best practices. Meetings are held every other month on Zoom. Many of these sessions were recorded, and are available on the WCGIG YouTube Channel, www.bit.ly/WCGIGVIDEO, which cover topics such as improving your search results in www.familysearch.org and www.ancestry.com; using family tree software; navigating the crowd sourced cemetery database Find A Grave; using land records for genealogy research; using www.americanancestors.org, the database of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; and finding people in the newly released 1950 U.S. Census.