In Search of Unknown Generations

• Genealogy Conference
  Angelina College (Lufkin, Texas); Thursday–Saturday, July 19–21, 2007
  
  Lufkin is the hub of the East Texas region, located in the beautiful Piney Woods, on Hwy. 59 South, just two miles south of Loop 187.
  
  Featured Speakers include:
  
  CAROLYN EARLE BILLINGSLEY has a B.A. in history, with minors in Arkansas Studies and German, from UALR (University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She then studied at the university in Graz, Austria, for two years on a Fulbright Scholarship. Upon leaving Austria, she enrolled as a graduate student at Rice University in Houston, where she earned her M.A., then her Ph.D. in Southern History (with a field in Anthropological Kinship Theory) in 2001. Billingsley is the Coordinator for Course 3: Research in the South, at Samford University's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research in Birmingham, Alabama; she teaches classes in genealogy and southern history at UALR; and she lectures locally and nationally. Billingsley's Ph.D. dissertation was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2004, and is titled Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier; the book won the Booker Worthen Literary Prize in 2005. She is also the author and compiler of many other books and articles, both genealogical and historical. Billingsley currently serves on the Arkansas Genealogical Society Board of Directors and is the co-editor of the monthly AGS E-zine.
  
  Lectures:
  
• The Formation of Kinship Groups in the South: The South was settled by kinship groups rather than individuals. But these kinship groups took time to develop, beginning with immigration to the South in the 1600s. This lecture provides understanding of how kinship groups form and operate enhance genealogist’s abilities to research their family groups.
• Kinship Theory: A Case Study: Understanding the basics of kinship is key to genealogical research. This lecture demonstrates how kinship theory advances skills in the areas of marriage, politics, economics, migration, and settlement patterns.
• Racial Mixtures in the South: In the Old South, individuals were either white or they weren't . . . and those who weren't (or those who were considered not white by neighbors) faced special problems. Their difficulties introduce problems for researchers trying to trace black, mulatto, dark-skinned, or Native American ancestors. This lecture sheds light on the background of such groups in the South, including Melungeons, Red-Bones*, and other tri-racial isolate groups. * (Lufkin is very near Louisiana Redbone territory.)
• The Real Story on Tracing Your Indian Ancestors in the South: So many southern families had Native American ancestors, but few of those ancestors signed up on the Indian Rolls. This lecture explains that the vast majority are not on those official rolls and how you can dig out the facts about your Native American ancestors when there are no official records recording them as Indian.
  
  
  DESMOND WALLS ALLEN has taught genealogy classes all over the United States, and brings 20 years of teaching experience to the classroom. She holds a B.S.E. in education and her Master's degree is in history. She appeared in Public Television's Ancestor series as a guest expert, and moderated AETN's special on genealogy in Arkansas. She's the owner of Arkansas Research, Inc., a publishing company devoted to making historical information about Arkansas available to researchers. The author/compiler of more than 250 books, she's still a down-to-earth teacher interested in helping students learn.
  
  Lectures:
• Confederate military research - "Which Henry Cook?" Researching men of the same or similar names is difficult enough with traditional genealogical sources, but in Confederate records, it can be especially frustrating. This lecture presents a case study applied to the research technique of keeping a subject with a known group of associates.
• How to get the most out of death certificates. Anyone can read a document, but learning to hear documents speak is a learned skill. We'll learn how to do that using death certificates, a source common to all genealogists.
• Arkansas! Arkansas problems can make you feel like a rat eating a red onion! This lecture will help promote awareness of Arkansas records and repositories.
• Targeting cousins to learn about *your* DNA. Confused about DNA? We'll leave the scientific details to others and talk about why you want to pursue your living cousins, keeping an eye to the future of DNA testing. (This lecture is by the woman who said 15 years ago that we'd be core-sampling grandpa for his DNA sample.)

Imperial Polk Genealogy Society Seminar

Registration
Featuring Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D.
+Kinship Theory for Genealogists
+Kinship Theory: A Case Study

Seminar to be Held in Lakeland, Florida on March 10 » Genealogy Blog

Seminar to be Held in Lakeland, Florida on March 10 » Genealogy Blog, featuring Carolyn Earle Billingsley.