The Van Buren County Regional Genealogical Society will host a presentation on some of the latest tools that can be used as part of genealogical research next month.
Group President Joyce Beedie tells us they’ll welcome Jerry Happel, director of the Digital Information Department for Van Buren County, on August 16 at the Hartford Public Library.
“What it will give the audience is the opportunity to learn what is available online free of charge,” Beedie said. “This does really help not only people who do genealogy, but people who just are interested in local history, specifically their family.”
Beedie says Happel’s department specializes in the preservation, digitization, and the use of technologies that offer the public better access to historical and current property information. These can include things like artificial intelligence that can sift through large amounts of data.
Working at the society, Beedie says she often gets requests to identify things like buildings that someone remembers visiting.
“When we can help someone find that location, they’re so happy and I get responses from them. Some of them will even say, ‘We want to know where the local one-room schoolhouse was,’ because that’s where an ancestor had gone to school. And we can direct them there.”
Beedie says the August 16 presentation will start at 11 a.m. at the library and will be free. She notes between 650 to 700 people come to the genealogy office at the Hartford Public Library each year seeking information that could help them trace their roots.
