Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society October Program
I’m pleased to announce that I will be presenting two lectures at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society this coming Saturday, October 17, 2009. The event will be held at the First Presbyterian Church, Constance and State, Santa Barbara, California.
The program begins at 9:30 AM with a lecture on “Genealogy and the Changing Map of Eastern Europe”. This presentation will help attendees understand how the changes in borders, nationalities, and languages affect genealogical research in Central and Eastern Europe.
Finding the place of origin of an immigrant is crucial to finding historic records for that immigrant’s ancestors. Complicating matters are the changing borders in Europe during the past two centuries as the territorial acquisitions obliterated some nations from the map. Border changes in Europe affected not only the map of Europe, but also the records on which genealogists depend to document their ancestors’ lives.
The second lecture begins at 11:00 AM and is entitled “A New Look at Immigrant Passenger Manifests”. This presentation will survey the available US passenger manifests focusing on annotations and markings on the manifests that lead to additional information.
Immigrant passenger manifests provide family historians with important information about the origin, immigration, and destination of their immigrant ancestors. Passenger manifests after 1892 frequently include marks and annotations that can provide additional information about the experiences and activities of the immigrant. Some of these notations were made at the time of immigration; others were made years or decades later. Some describe corrections to the manifest, but other annotations can lead to other records that document the lives of the immigrant.
I’m looking forward to this trip. I haven’t been to beautiful Santa Barbara in many years, and the visit is sure to bring back pleasant memories of my previous two visits there.
If you are in the Santa Barbara area, please plan to attend!
Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko
I’ll be there (provided that no family crisis crops up)! Have a safe trip to lovely SB!