PORT ANGELES — A “Genealogy Boot Camp” seminar, “Got Canooks, eh? Searching for Canadian Ancestors,” “Preserving Your Family Treasures” — these are a few of the free classes offered during the second annual Family History Jamboree this Saturday.
The public event, at the Port Angeles Family History Center inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 591 Monroe Road, will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It will start with registration and an invitation to post your family name on the Surname Wall, said Kathy Fotens, director of the center.
Surname Wall
The Surname Wall is a connection point for people searching for information about the past.
“You put up a 3-by-5 card with the surnames of your ancestors and your contact information,” Fotens explained.
Then, if other Family History Jamboree participants have, in the course of their research, seen those names, they can get in touch with you.
The jamboree’s classes, each an hour long, include local experts as well as speakers at the FamilySearch.org headquarters in Salt Lake City, which will be linked to Port Angeles via a live Internet connection.
The material from the sessions also will be available on CDs to take home, Fotens added.
“The discs are $3.50 each, “and they have the class handouts and everything,” she said.
“So if you want to go to three classes in the same hour and you can’t clone yourself, you can get the CD.”
Schedule of free sessions
The day’s schedule of free sessions is as follows:
• 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: A Family Search.org expert from Salt Lake City discusses “Now and the Future” of genealogical research.
• 10:10 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.: “English and Welsh Parish Records” with Kathleen Barrett; “Ulster Ancestry: Searching for Scotch-Irish History” with Virginia Majewski; “What Public Libraries Can Offer” in doing family history with Mardell Lloyd; “Going to the Well” of the FamilySearch.org Library Catalog with Norman E. Rees.
• 11:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.: “A Source, A Source! My Kingdom for a Source” with Norman Rees; “Preserving Your Family Treasures,” such as birth and marriage certificates, with Kathy Monds, director of the Clallam County Historical Society; “Naturalization” with Fotens, which tells how to navigate immigration and naturalization records; “FamilySearch.org Research Helps” with Linda Rees.
• 12:20 p.m. to 1 p.m.: lunch break.
• 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.: “Genealogy Boot Camp” webinar with author Thomas Kemp.
• 2:10 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.: “Got Canooks, eh? Searching for Canadian Ancestors” with Majewski; “Wills, Deeds and Other Pieces of Paper” with Jim Hays; “Scrapbooking” with Julia Golding; “The Portal — It’s Here and Free” with Linda Rees, a seminar on the FamilySearch.org service that provides access to libraries, newspaper archives and other genealogy resources
• 3:20 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.: “England and Wales Non-conformist Church Records” with Barrett; “Emigration & Immigration” with Fotens; “Follow the Land” with Hays, a class on how to use land records in family history research; “Personal Ancestral File” research with Nola Judd.
• 4:20 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Tours and demonstrations of resources at the Port Angeles Family History Center and Surname Wall.
Fotens emphasized that www.FamilySearch.org makes genealogical research possible for people all over the world, all the time.
“People don’t realize all this help is at their fingertips,” she said. “You can do research in Wales or England,” for example, “in your jammies.”
Saturday’s Family History Jamboree is hosted by the Port Angeles stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which runs the Family History Center.
Researchers are welcome to use the center at no charge from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays. For more details, phone the center at 360-565-8322.
A box lunch can be reserved with preregistration to the jamboree.
Registration forms can be picked up at the Family History Center; the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.; the Clallam County Genealogy Society, Eighth and C streets behind Lincoln School; and the Clallam County Historical Society, 933 W. Ninth St.
For more information about the jamboree, phone Fotens at 360-565-8322 or e-mail pafhcjamboree@gmail.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
