Bring your questions, bring your laptops, and bring your friends as we have our inaugural meeting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Experienced researchers will be available to answer your questions whether they are about sources in a specific locality or that one item that might crumble your brick wall.

Dan Fantore, “Italian Genealogical Research”. Dan will present an overview of Italian immigration to the United States, Michigan, and Detroit. For those who do not know their Italian ancestral hometown, sources will be identified that aid in the location of the Italian hometown. Italian sources will be presented and explained including civil registration and church records for births, marriages, processetti, and deaths. Italian naming practices, Italian genealogical vocabulary, and Internet resources for Italian research will be reviewed. Audience members may present Italian challenges or brick walls for case studies.

Julia Hanneman-Schoenbach, “Germanic Research--Making the Connections”. An introduction to finding your Germanic ancestors, covering crossing the ocean, a brief history of German-speaking areas, introduction to German language and writing, German resources to continue your German hunt.

Gigi Bott VanderWeele and Susan Carroll. “Introduce Yourself to Your Descendants” Have you ever wished you could read the journal, diary or memoir of an ancestor? Wondered why they made the decisions that they made or what life was like for them? Now is your chance to help future genealogists do just that! In this workshop they will detail the many reasons for saving your stories, share some examples and give tips for getting started.

Derek J. Blount, “Scotch-Irish Research”. Derek Blount will review some of the records now available after the fire and explosion in 1922 destroyed 700 years of records. Derek will do a review of online records and records still not digitized and how to find them.

Cathy A. Dailey, MBA, “Cemetery Symbolism & Imagery: Grave Markers, Headstones, Tombstones, Stelae”. The images engraved on your great-grandparents' headstone may be pretty but do they hold a special meaning? Do shapes of markers or the architecture within the cemetery have significance? In addition to the name, birth and death dates listed on a tombstone, symbols may be another hint to your ancestor's life story. Join Cathy as she "wanders" through the cemetery in search of the meaning of the various symbols, images, and designs used on headstones, monuments, mausoleums, and obelisks.