It’s a Weekend of Genealogy
How exciting, this weekend I get to immerse myself in genealogy. Count them, 2 different meetings to attend: one at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library and the other at the Irish American Heritage Center.
I have been to only one meeting / lecture at the AHML and that was two years ago for a beginners class, I was going hoping to pick up something new and I think I ended up asking many questions that would have been better suited for an advanced class. But, hey I got out of the house with my SIL and spent some time with like-minded people, all was not lost.
Tomorrow at the AHML they will be having a lecture on Cemetery and Funeral Home Records, given by Tim Kowalski (a licensed funeral director). The AHML website states that Tim will be discussing how the records from the cemetery and funeral homes “can help with genealogy research – what they are, what information they contain and how to access them”.
The reason I am excited about this one is because every time I have tried to get some sort of assistance from a funeral home, I have been told it is a HIPPA violation to do so (even if the death was in 1950). So, I am hoping that Tim will be able to give me some pointers to get past this.
As for the meeting at the Irish American Heritage Center, I try to get to this one as often as possible. Those of you with Irish Ancestors understand how difficult researching the Irish is. With the Center’s recent reception for the Ireland Reaching Out program, I am curious to see what others got out of the program and who has registered with their website.
The regular members of this group are very knowledgeable about Ireland and what records to access on this side of the pond to see what you can find. If you are in the area, we meet the last Sunday of every month (except Dec.) at 1pm in the library. Hope you can join us sometime.