Our October Help Night meeting returns!

The meeting is on October 8 at 7 pm at the Bloomfield Township Public Library, 1099 Lone Pine Rd., Bloomfield Township, MI 48032. We will meet in the Community Room.  (Please note the change in location)

Experts in various research field will help you as you build your family history.

We are in the process of firming up our 2024-25 program schedule. Please check back on for further information which will be posted soon.

Attention: Members Interested in Telling Their Stories!

The May 2024 board minutes have been uploaded and may be accessed by logged in members on the Minutes page.

Acorns to Oaks Issue 45-3 is Available

Members may download Acorns to Oaks from the member area of the website. You must be a current member and log in to download this issue and any of the back issues. If you are a current member and do not remember your password, please use the FORGOT PASSWORD link on the right side of the home page in the login box. If you still can’t log in, please email for help: info@ocgsmi.org

Login here: https://ocgsmi.org/member-login/
Download the issue here: https://ocgsmi.org/our-quarterly-acorns-to-oaks/
Join or renew here: https://ocgsmi.org/join-us/
Download back issues here: https://ocgsmi.org/acorns-to-oaks-back-issues/

PLEASE NOTE:
Some email addresses are rejecting our email claiming we are sending spam content. We cannot control how email servers handle our outgoing mail. Please check the website for new content occasionally, and add these email addresses to your whitelist:

list@ocgsmi.org
info@ocgsmi.org

“Finding Courage to Accept the Good, the Bad and the Unexpected in your Family History”

We hope all our local members will join us on June 4 at 7 p.m. at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 5500 N Adams Rd, Troy, MI 48098. We will be “broadcasting” via Zoom for our more distant members.

A case study will be presented by genealogist Karen Batchelor on lessons learned and wisdom gained from over 45 years of researching her unique family history with its many surprising twists and turns.

This will be a  hybrid meeting and we hope to see our local members in person!
Our more distant members may join us via Zoom. This will be a learning experience for all of us.

If you cannot attend in person, register to watch on Zoom here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrcOChqjsqHNKiUeHMsNhzmbkMqJ2g54FH

Our speaker, Karen Bachelor, a Detroit attorney is recognized as the first know black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Quakers were among the earliest settlers in North America and as they moved west, they were often the earliest settlers in newly-opened territory. Quakers were amazing record-keepers. Not only did they record births, marriages, and deaths, they kept extensive records on those who came into their local meetings and those who left. Transgressions by members of the community were publicly discussed and recorded, and as they came to believe that slavery was evil their records on Quakers who kept slaves became extensive. Learn about the history of these pioneering Americans and how to find the rich records they left behind.

Please register in advance for the meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vc-2oqjgqHt3jCf0o_mnoMBS3hnW_AkYb

The handout for the meeting is available to members in the member’s area.

This program is scheduled to be Zoom only. Our June meeting will be hybrid, plan to attend in person if you are a local member!

Our speaker, Annette Burke Lyttle, owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She loves helping people uncover and share their family stories. Annette speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the national, state, and local levels. She has a master’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and is president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Annette has been researching her family on and off since high school, and she has been a full-time genealogist since 2012. Her genealogical education has included the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, the British Institute, the ProGen Study Group, and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly Study Group. She is coordinator of the Virtual Intermediate Foundations course for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). She leads the year-long Best Practices Study Group and is editor of The Florida Genealogist.

Acorns to Oaks Issue 45-2 is Available

Members may download Acorns to Oaks from the member area of the website. You must be a current member and log in to download this issue and any of the back issues. If you are a current member and do not remember your password, please use the FORGOT PASSWORD link on the right side of the home page in the login box. If you still can’t log in, please email for help: info@ocgsmi.org

Login here: https://ocgsmi.org/member-login/
Download the issue here: https://ocgsmi.org/our-quarterly-acorns-to-oaks/
Join or renew here: https://ocgsmi.org/join-us/
Download back issues here: https://ocgsmi.org/acorns-to-oaks-back-issues/

PLEASE NOTE:
Some email addresses are rejecting our email claiming we are sending spam content. We cannot control how email servers handle our outgoing mail. Please check the website for new content occasionally, and add these email addresses to your whitelist:

list@ocgsmi.org
info@ocgsmi.org

Our next meeting is via Zoom on April 2, at 7 p.m.

A historical look at the Michigan lumber industry and the men that worked for it. Available records to locate them will be discussed, and sources identified.

Register in advance for the meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcuGhqTkoG9wUKJLziJqPlLsF0QrYC5Yo

This program is scheduled to be Zoom only. We would like to have hybrid meetings, but we need a volunteer to manage the second computer to do so. Volunteer if you can! email: president@ocgsmi.org.

Our speaker is Derek J. Blount, the Vice President of OCGS.