Indiana Historical Society Offers Ancestry Research Workshops

INDIANAPOLIS­­ – The Indiana Historical Society is offering two workshops in February that will help people discover their family lineage.

“If you do your family history and family research, you start realizing that you and your ancestors have been apart of history, and it makes it more personal, and it brings it more alive,” said Allison DePrey Singleton, who will offer one of the workshops.

Singleton’s workshop, on Feb. 26, will walk visitors through the basics of genealogy. Singleton, a genealogy librarian at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, considers her workshop to be a beginner’s course or a refresher course for more advanced genealogists.

“I hope they gain a better idea of either how to get started or how to break through those brick walls, so they can further their genealogy research,” said Singleton. “I love doing genealogy research and nothing makes me happier than to help someone else figure out their own. To figure out those puzzle pieces, and see them get so excited.”

Deborah Abbott, a genealogist specializing in African American research, genealogical methodology and manuscript collections, will host another workshop on Feb. 20. She is also the past president of the African American Genealogical Society of Cleveland.

This workshop will teach participants how to use death announcements and oral history to identify the records needed to solve the mysteries of their ancestry. The class will also emphasize on where to find those records, how one document can lead to another, and how to analyze the documents.

Both workshops will be held at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center and are open to the public. The workshops cost $10 each, or $8 for IHS members. More information about these workshops can be found by calling the IHS at (317) 232-1882 or on www.indianahistory.org.

Jasmine Otam is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.