*Registration is closed for this event. 

* Please note that these workshops are limited to patrons who have previously attended Linda MacIver's beginner genealogy classes at the Concord Free Public Library. The classes will be held on Zoom.

This Concord Council on Aging and the Concord Public Library collaboration brings back genealogist, Linda MacIver, to Concord. Provided for members of the COA Genealogy Club and former beginner students at CFPL, seats are limited for each group. All classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. with Q&A. Register early!

Class 1 -  January 17, 2024 Review of basic research skills and techniques, and freely available genealogy databases including Family Search, Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuest and MyHeritage Library Edition. There will an opportunity between the class meets to experiment with newly learned information and some time for discussion during the following Q&As.

Class 2 - February 7, 2024 Pick and Choose: How do I know which database(s) to use? Guided by questions submitted by the Genealogy Club, what are some of the content categories and features that make each resource stand out. Some search examples included.

Class 3 - February 21, 2024 Geared to Concord examples, a special presentation of:

Demystifying the “Big Three” Free Digital Sites for Massachusetts Genealogists: The Internet Archive and Beyond!

As genealogists grumble about the ever-increasing costs of the paid subscription commercial databases, do you sometimes admit to yourself that you don’t value free sites as much as you should? Has it been at least a year with a whole truckload of formerly copyright protected, now freely available, materials out there since you stopped to search I.A. or the Digital Commonwealth or the Digital Public Library of America? Let’s revisit these three amazing free resources, how they came about and what the future looks like!

      Linda B. MacIver is an educator, lecturer, librarian and genealogy researcher. She retired from a 27-year career at the Boston Public Library where she inaugurated the BPL patron genealogy classes. She taught the multi-week beginners genealogy course, organized two extremely popular seasons of the Local and Family History Lecture series and developed the Intermediate Genealogy Summer Lecture series. Linda is the past Secretary and Director for Federal Records of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC), a member of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (MSOG), the Essex (MA) Society of Genealogists (ESOG) and the Essex (Eng.) Society for Family History (ESFH.) She serves as the New England Representative for the Essex (England!) Record Office. Linda has a BA in History from the University of New Hampshire, an MEd from Boston University and earned her MLIS at Simmons College. Linda was presented the 2018 Lackey Scholarship award for attendance at the week-long Genealogical Institute for Federal Records (GEN-FED) at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Linda was also the inaugural recipient of the 2019 “Senior at the Center of Excellence Award” sponsored by Xerox Corporation and the City of Boston.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library, a patron-supported non-profit organization.
Learn more and support the Friends’ work.