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Don’t see what you are looking for? I am happy to discuss customizing a lecture or workshop to fit your specific needs. Email me at colleen.e.greene@gmail.com.
Genealogy Instruction
I am passionate about teaching people how to research their family history, tell their family stories, and discover tools that help with both.
Genealogy Lectures
These are 60 minute presentations, which include Q&A time.
Lectures Focusing on General Genealogy
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
Academic libraries provide access to digital and physical collections that often go unnoticed by genealogists, yet are invaluable for researching U.S. and international family history. This academic librarian and college instructor will walk you through those key collections, explain the discovery tools that make finding those collections and specific materials easier, and will cover what you need to know before you go to prepare for a successful academic library research visit.
Many individuals who research World War I and World War II U.S. military ancestors encounter a significant road block, due to record loss from the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. So how does one hurdle this research obstacle? This methodology lecture will use several case studies to demonstrate strategies and alternative types of record collections that can help reconstruct a World War I or World War II service member’s history despite a destroyed personnel file.
Genealogists often incorporate digital content created by others into our personal, society, or professional work. What can you freely use without violating U.S. copyright law? This presentation explains public domain and Creative Commons-licensed works, and the terms and conditions under which you can freely use these materials. We will also walk-through different websites where you can find this type of digital content.
The GPS is the recognized standard for ensuring accurate research. This standard is not just for professionals. It is for any family historian who wants to make sure that the facts you have collected and conclusions you have reached are correct. A case study will introduce you to the GPS and how to start applying it to your research.
This overview discusses key record collections for tracing African American ancestry, challenges and strategies for working with enslaved ancestors, and how DNA testing can help connect to African origins. The strategies for doing this type of research will benefit family historians doing any type of U.S. research.
This lecture provides an overview of key record collections and strategies for researching the U.S. This lecture provides an overview of key record collections and strategies for researching the U.S. military service history of your veteran ancestor or relative. We will review the most common types of records available, discuss what can be found online, and examine what types and time periods of records require in-person research visits to the U.S. National Archives or to other archives and libraries.
The 1963 obituary for Mexican-immigrant Aurelia Compeán reads, “Matriarch Dies at 105; 21 Children.” Extended family members knew little else about their family. At first glance, this treasured obituary lacks concrete genealogical information. But its rich clues, combined with research in mostly online sources, revealed a couple of centuries of family history. This case study demonstrates how to dissect an obituary to investigate each clue, the types of records and strategies used, and an analysis of the evidence discovered.
This robust digital repository, underutilized by many genealogists, is packed with digitized publications from academic and research institutions that are relevant to your family history. This lecture walks you through HathiTrust’s discovery and access tools, showcases U.S. and international collections that are particularly relevant to genealogists, and demonstrates search strategies to help you find those valuable sources.
Lectures Focusing on Mexican or Hispanic Research
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
The southwest is rich in records pertaining to the Spanish, Mexican, territorial, and statehood eras. Learn about key finding aid portals to locate specific repositories and collections to visit in-person, as well as key portals to consortia-shared digitized collections that can be accessed online for free. We will briefly cover key archival terminology before a walk-through of how to search, browse, and analyze these finding aids and digitized collections.
These records are often described as the best family history records in the world due to the wealth of genealogical information typically included in these records. Learn how to find and analyze Mexico civil and church registration collections to build out your Mexican family history. Even a non-Spanish speaker can be successful at this research.
This overview lecture covers foundation concepts common to those with ancestors from countries colonized by Spain, and key U.S. records and strategies for identifying their Latin American hometown. It also reviews the main online record collections for conducting Hispanic research. Even non-Spanish speakers can be successful at this research.
This overview lecture covers key U.S. records and strategies for identifying when and where your Mexican ancestors immigrated, and for identifying their hometown in Mexico. It also reviews the main record collections for tracing those family lines further back in Mexico. This class is ideal for anyone new to researching their Mexican lines, as well as those still relatively new to genealogy in general. Learn how even a non-Spanish speaker can be successful at this research.
This lecture provides an overview of the key record collections available online to research your Mexican and Mexican-American ancestors. We will dig into a case study to demonstrate how to weave these records together to build out a robust life story. Learn how even non-Spanish speakers can be successful at this research.
Our ancestors’ lives did not consist of just the facts we typically look for in historical records. Cultural customs and conventions, political and economic factors, and the different communities in which they lived, worked, and worshipped impacted their everyday lives as well as the major decisions in their lives. Social history helps us develop a more holistic approach to research.
The 1963 obituary for Mexican-immigrant Aurelia Compeán reads, “Matriarch Dies at 105; 21 Children.” Extended family members knew little else about their family. At first glance, this treasured obituary lacks concrete genealogical information. But its rich clues, combined with research in mostly online sources, revealed a couple of centuries of family history. This case study demonstrates how to dissect an obituary to investigate each clue, the types of records and strategies used, and an analysis of the evidence discovered.
Did your Mexican ancestors immigrate to the United States in the 20th century? This period of history witnessed significant waves of Mexican immigration to the U.S., both permanent and temporary. The types of immigration records introduced or refined during this era, provide a wealth of information and clues for digging deeper into the lives of your Mexican family. This presentation also discusses situations unique to families whose Mexican ancestors came to the U.S. during the 20th century.
The Mexican federal civil registration system dates back to 1859, recording births, marriages, and deaths. However, it yields much more biographical and kinship information than we encounter in U.S. vital records. Learn how to find and analyze these collections. We also discuss situations to watch out for, strategies for building out your family tree, and tools for learning more about your ancestral place names.
Mexican Catholic parish registers are extent back to the 16th century in the colonial era, and record births, marriages, and burials. These records are rich in biographical details and multi-generational kinship clues. Learn how to find and analyze these collections. We also discuss situations to watch out for, strategies for building out your family tree, and tools for interpreting Spanish terms and handwriting.
Historical records and social history paint a rich picture of the lives of our Mexican ancestors who were in the U.S. after the mid-19th century. A new border, new laws, a violent revolution, two world wars, and changing economic and political conditions significantly impacted your Mexican ancestors who came to or were born in the United States. Sharing a border, and sharing a long common history in certain regions of the U.S. has presented situations unique to those of Mexican descent compared to other immigrant and ethnic groups.
Lectures Focusing on Tech & Social Media
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
Adobe Spark is a cloud-based suite of applications for creating rich visual and multimedia content with little-to-no design expertise. It is an excellent tool for visual storytelling. Create digital or print graphic project, such as: social media graphics, website or blog graphics, flyers, postcards, newsletters, infographics, business cards, etc. Create multimedia stories with videos or web pages. We will walk through navigating around the browser interface and features, review the various design libraries, and demonstrate some genealogy use cases.
Make sure that your valued website, blog, ebooks, videos, syllabi, and reports provide equal access and opportunity to people with disabilities. Genealogists with physical, mental, degenerative, and situational impairments struggle to read, hear, and interact with online content, including your genealogy content, unless you have created or updated it to meet accessibility best practices. Creating your content in an accessible manner allows everyone to enjoy, learn from, and engage with your work. This lecture will walk you through a handful of core concepts and skills that will become second nature to you.
Canva is a freemium model cloud-based graphic design app that allows even the most design-challenged genealogist to create attractive digital and print products. I use it frequently to create visuals for my blogs, social media posts, videos and reports, and for family celebrations. We will walk through navigating around the browser interface and features, review the various design libraries, and demonstrate some of my regular design use cases. We will discuss free personal Canva, premium Canva Pro, and Canva’s Nonprofits program for your society. I will also discuss how I manage my brand kits and branded templates, which I share with my work teams.
Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. Launched in 2004, 69% of all U.S. adults use Facebook (Pew Research Center). This reach in terms of geography, demographics, and usage makes it a powerhouse tool for genealogists. And it is free! Learn more about how individuals, societies, and professionals can get the most out of Facebook. The practical everyday uses cases presented will benefit those who are skeptical of Facebook, those still figuring their way around using it, and those with years of experience. Colleen Greene has been using Facebook personally and professionally since 2005 and has been teaching classes on it since 2006.
This introductory presentation discusses the general concepts behind cloud computing, and why it matters to genealogy. It highlights genealogy-specific tools as well as general products that are useful to family historians, and showcases specific examples. We will discuss the benefits and risks associated with cloud computing, and take a look at trends that have a direct impact on genealogy.
Snagit is my go-to tool for capturing screenshots and converting those into compelling visual aids to enhance my family history narratives and genealogy instruction materials. It is particularly useful for creating annotated images and privatizing sensitive visual information before sharing or publishing. We will walk through navigating around the desktop application interface and using its various features, demonstrate some of my regular use cases, learn how to back up your Snagit Library, and discuss my workflow for accessing projects on multiple computers.
Cloud applications relevant to genealogists are constantly growing and changing. This presentation evaluates cloud-based tools useful for storing, organizing, preserving, sharing, and collaborating on genealogy research, professional work, and society operations. We discuss strategies for selecting the right tools to fit your needs, and demonstrate suggested workflows to improve productivity.
Keeping track of and organizing our research materials can be overwhelming. Genealogists use a wide variety of sources and reference tools to discover and dig deeper into our family history: historical records, books and periodicals, photos, maps, videos, articles and web pages, reports, databases, digital archives, etc. Zotero is a free research and citation management system heavily used in academia, but it can also be extremely valuable for genealogists whether for their family history research, or for professional publishing and presentations. It is available for both Mac and PC users. Zotero can integrate well with your existing research workflow and organization tools.
Lectures Focusing on Libraries, Archives & Online Repositories
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
Academic libraries provide access to digital and physical collections that often go unnoticed by genealogists, yet are invaluable for researching U.S. and international family history. This academic librarian and college instructor will walk you through those key collections, explain the discovery tools that make finding those collections and specific materials easier, and will cover what you need to know before you go to prepare for a successful academic library research visit.
The southwest is rich in records pertaining to the Spanish, Mexican, territorial, and statehood eras. Learn about key finding aid portals to locate specific repositories and collections to visit in-person, as well as key portals to consortia-shared digitized collections that can be accessed online for free. We will briefly cover key archival terminology before a walk-through of how to search, browse, and analyze these finding aids and digitized collections.
This robust digital repository, underutilized by many genealogists, is packed with digitized publications from academic and research institutions that are relevant to your family history. This lecture walks you through HathiTrust’s discovery and access tools, showcases U.S. and international collections that are particularly relevant to genealogists, and demonstrates search strategies to help you find those valuable sources.
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Lectures Focusing on DNA
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
This introductory lecture will help you decide if DNA testing is right for you, or help those who are still somewhat new to genetic genealogy gain a more solid understanding of its concepts and applications. It includes an overview of the 3 types of DNA tests used for family history research, how each type of DNA is inherited from our ancestors, examples of how DNA can help solve genealogy research problems, and privacy and ethical considerations.
Trying to determine which family members to test and which company to test with can be confusing. You want to make smart choices that best address your genealogy research goals. This lecture includes an overview of the main companies who do consumer testing for family history, a brief look at results and analytical tools for each type of test, deciding who to test and why, and privacy and ethical considerations.
Genealogy Workshops
These workshops vary between 2 to 4 hours and allow for more in-depth or hands-on exploration at a slower pace than a 1-hour lecture. I customize the length and scope to fit your event needs.
These are arranged in alphabetical order.
Make sure that your valued website, blog, ebooks, videos, syllabi, and reports provide equal access and opportunity to people with disabilities. Genealogists with physical, mental, degenerative, and situational impairments struggle to read, hear, and interact with online content, including your genealogy content, unless you have created or updated it to meet accessibility best practices. Creating your content in an accessible manner allows everyone to enjoy, learn from, and engage with your work.
The 2-hour workshop format allows us to slow down those explanations and demos, and dig into a deeper discussion about why and how. The 4-hour format allows us to also have hands-on time learning to use some of my recommended free accessibility tools.
Canva is a freemium model cloud-based graphic design app that allows even the most design-challenged genealogist to create attractive digital and print products. I use it frequently to create visuals for my blogs, social media posts, videos and reports, and for family celebrations. We will walk through navigating around the browser interface and features, review the various design libraries, and demonstrate some of my regular design use cases. We will discuss free personal Canva, premium Canva Pro, and Canva’s Nonprofits program for your society. I will also discuss how I manage my brand kits and branded templates, which I share with my work teams.
This 2-hour workshop format allows us to slow down the explanations and have hands-on time learning to use the main design tools offered in Canva.
Mexican civil registration and church parish registers are often called the richest genealogy records in the world. We review various strategies to find and analyze these collections, as well as tools and tips for translating and interpreting old Spanish handwriting and terms and identifying Mexican place names. Even a non-Spanish speaker can be successful at this research.
This 2-hour workshop combines my two separate 1 hour lectures that focus more closely on these collections.
Academic Instruction
This semester-long course presents an overview of research methods and resources for conducting genealogy in the United States, and it will equip students with a strong foundation for providing library services to genealogy patrons. While genealogy is an incredibly popular hobby, we will also look at genealogy as a scholarly pursuit and as a profession.
Many of my instructional offerings can be customized as guest lectures or workshops for your college courses, further developing your students’ information and digital literacy skills. I am happy to map these to your assignment or course learning outcomes.
These lectures and workshops are particularly applicable to the following disciplines: History, Chicano Studies, Latin American Studies, African American Studies, and American Studies.