GCGSI January Meeting: Online Genealogical Research at the Gilmer County Library

The Gilmer County Genealogical Society will hold its January annual meeting on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. in the lower level meeting room of the Gilmer County Library. At the beginning of this meeting, the society’s goals for the new year and a request for project ideas within the community will be given. Following this business, the program Online Genealogical Research at the Gilmer County Library will be given, continuing from the previous week’s January 13 workshop Researching Your Lineage and Heritage. Charlotte Nemec, Gilmer County Library’s Public Service Specialist, will explain the different online research programs that are available to library patrons.

Ms. Nemec will explain the features of Ancestry.com, Library Edition, noting that although it is not as extensive as the paid version, it is available to all patrons within the library. (If you do not have a library card to access the library’s computers, you may request a guest pass from the circulation desk, and although the computers are reserved for a specific time per login, patrons may also go to the circulation desk to request more time if anyone else is not in queue for the computer.)

Other online services available at the library will also be explained by Ms. Nemec. Features of the programs Heritage Quest, familysearch.org, and findagrave.com may be helpful in your genealogical research. Heritage Quest is a more limited version of Ancestry.com, but is accessible anywhere with a library card. The Gilmer County Library is an affiliate library system for FamilySearch.org, providing access to digital resources which would otherwise only be available at a FamilySearch location. And findagrave.com is a free online contributor-sourced service for everyone where searches may be used to confirm the location of ancestors’ graves, birth and death dates and locations, as well as their lineage if it as been uploaded. As with all research services that are contributor-sourced, legal documentation such as marriage, birth, and death certificates, census records, and service records are more accurate sources for confirming genealogical data than an individual’s family tree.

Mark your calendars for the Gilmer County Genealogical Society’s monthly meeting on Saturday, January 20, at 2:00 p.m. in the Gilmer County Library’s lower level meeting room for this presentation by Charlotte Nemec, and start researching your ancestry in this new year.