The Birmingham Public Library’s Southern History Department has been busy this summer helping patrons across Jefferson County gain knowledge on how to research their family tree.
Last week marked the return of one of its popular Beyond the Basics of Genealogy workshop series, One for the Record Books: The English Census.
Below is a list of upcoming workshops the Southern History Department will host:
• Mind Your Own (Family) Business – Saturday, Aug. 12 at 10 a.m.
Did your ancestors own a pharmacy, furniture shop, or other business? Many genealogists know that their ancestors owned or started a business. This workshop will show you how to use city directories, government websites, newspapers, and other sources to learn more about the history of the family business or the company your ancestors worked for.
• Family Tree DNA Services and Website – Saturday, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m.
Explore the offerings of Family Tree DNA, a company that offers hundreds of different DNA tests and that supports them with the most detailed website in the industry.
• Ancestry.com – Saturday, Sept. 23 at 10 a.m.
Participants will be introduced to the Ancestry.com Library Edition database in which you can research your family history as well as learn how to search this database to locate your ancestors.
• Google Your Peeps – Saturday, Oct. 28 at 10 a.m.
What do you want to know about your ancestors? Everything. The Internet is a great tool for genealogy, but are you using it to its full potential? This workshop will teach you how to create a research template and look for details that will help you discover more about your ancestors using search engines, genealogy databases, and a few other, perhaps surprising websites.
Workshops are free of charge, but registration is requested. To register, contact the Southern History Department of the Birmingham Public Library at 205-226-3665 or askgenlocal@bham.lib.al.us.
For more information about BPL’s Southern History Department, click here, or like its Facebook page.
‘Using Google’
Also, the Central Library is hosting a three-part monthly seminar series for small business owners titled “Using Google to Grow Your Business.”
Each seminar will cover a different topic related to Google applications that can be used by small business owners to improve their online performance.
The seminars begin today, Thursday, June 29, with “Let’s Put Birmingham on the Map with Google.” The second part is Thursday, July 20, with “Google Insights and Analytics” and concludes Thursday, August 17, with “Getting Started with Social Media and Email Marketing.”
Times are 12-1:30 p.m. at the Central Library, Linn-Henley Research Library, Regional Library Computer Center, 4th floor. The seminars are free but registration is required.
The workshops are being sponsored by the City of Birmingham’s Office of Economic Development and Zeekee, a Birmingham-based digital marketing agency.
