We are looking for photos our our prior seminars for the years 2007 and older. If you took some snapshots at those events, please consider sending some of the better images to SGGS. Contact SGGS.
2012 Tracking Down Our German Ancestors
Featured speaker: Warren Bittner, C.G.
Topics:
• German Maps and Territories
• German Gazetteers and Levels of Jurisdiction
• Marriage Laws and Customs
• Elusive Immigrants – Proving the German Link
• U.S. Federal Land Case Files – Key Records for German Immigrants
• Welcome to the Library – Reading to Put Your Family into Historical Context
2011 In Search of Our German Ancestors
Featured speaker: Roger P. Minert, Ph.D., A.G.
Topics:
• Church Records in Germany
• Avoiding “Self-Defeating Behaviors” in German Family History Research
• Conducting Family History Research in Europe
• Civil Records in Germany
• Communicating with Agencies and Individuals in Europe
• German Immigrants in American Protestant Church Records
2010 Getting to Know Your Immigrant Ancestors: Federal Records
Featured speaker: John Philip Colletta, Ph.D.
Topics:
• Getting to Know Your Immigrant Ancestors: Key Federal Records
• Passenger Arrival Records
• Breaking through Brick Walls
• Naturalization Records
• Lesser-used Federal Records
2009 Linking Up With Our German Roots
Featured speaker: Kory L. Meyerink
Topics:
• Internet sites: A wide review of sites to explore on your home computer.
• Tips for making use of the new, fast-expanding website – FamilySearch.org.
• Using archives, libraries, civil registration offices and many other repositories in Germany – the information to be used either to make the searches yourself, or to farm out to a professional researcher in Germany.
• Finding the German ancestral home of your immigrant – the many sources that may be searched, based on whatever information you may already have about your immigrant ancestor.
2008 The Seminar: 25 Years and Counting
Featured speakers: Roger P. Minert, Ph.D., A.G. and Marion Wolfert, A.G.
Topics:
• The Lives of German Ancestors
• Beginning German Research
• Using Important Resources
• Immigration
• Locating Records in Germany
• Using the Internet
• Problem-solving
During the Friday evening prior to the seminar, a celebration of SGGS' 25'th anniversary took place at a downtown Sacramento hotel's meeting hall. It featured a German dinner, German band and German folk dancers.
2007 Lost and Found – Your German Ancestors
Featured speaker: John T. Humphrey, C.G.
Topics:
• With genealogical research, obstacles about, but they can be surmounted
• Developing the skills to become proficient in exploring German family history
• Using church records in Germany and the United States to climb your family tree
• Exploring other resources – such as newspapers, Ortssippenbücher, and Ahnentafeln
2006 Seminar/Workshop Combo
Featured speaker: Roger P. Minert, Ph.D.
Other speakers: Charles V. Knuthson, Carol Byers, Ingeborg Carpenter and Shirley Riemer
Three tracks, each with multiple topics:
• Getting Started with Your German Genealogy
• Reading and Understanding German Records
• Problem Solving
2005 Open Doors to German Family History: A Learning Workshop
A Learning Workshop (local speakers, multiple tracks):
• Beginning Your German Genealogy
• Using Legacy FamilyTree Software
• German Handwriting Basics
• Writing Your Family History
• Using a Photo Scanner to Aid Your Genealogy Research
• Finding Your Ancestors' Place of Origin
• Understanding and Using 19th Century German Records
• The Ten Most Common Problems in German Genealogy
• U.S. Census Research: 1790-1930
• The Golden Door: U.S. Immigration, 1820-1920
• Using Gazetteers in German Research
• Finding Your German Ancestor in 18th Century Pennsylvania
• Resources at the Sacramento Family History Center
2004 German Family History SLAM
Featured speaker: Sabine Schleichert
Topics:
• What is Where in German Archives
• Filling the Fame with Color: German Sources Beyond the Church Records
• German Research from Remote: How do I get those Records?
• Question & Answer Session
2003 Making Sense of German Records
Featured Speaker: Roger P. Minert, Ph.D., A.G.
Topics:
• Introduction to the Content and Format of Church and Civil Records
• Reading Vital Records: Strategies and Patterns
• German Names Origins, Practices and Patterns
• German Death and Burial Customs
2002 Germans to the New World
Featured speaker: Trudy Schenk, A.G.
Topics:
• Counties and Principalities of 18th Century Germany
• Finding Ancestors in Germany, with Highlights on Saxony and Thuringia
• Research in Germany, with Primary Records Emphasis
• Utilizing the Speaker's Extensive Emigration Database, with Emphasis on Baden and Württemberg
2001 On the Trail of Our German Ancestors
Featured speaker: Roger P. Minert, Ph.D., A.G.
Topics:
• Welcome to German Family History Research
• How can Tiefendörfer and Diependerper be in the Same Family?
– Introduction to German Phonetics and Spelling
• Locating German Church and Civil Records
• Conducting Research in Archives and Parish Offices in Germany
2000 Seminar
Featured speaker: John Philip Colletta, Ph.D.
Topics:
• Passenger Arrival Records
• Naturalization Records
• Libraries, Archives and Public Record Offices – effective use of record repositories
• Using Primary Sources: The Challenges and the Rewards
1999 Pathways to the German Heimat
Featured speaker: Marion Wolfert, A.G.
Topics: Presented A to Z coverage on all levels of research – advanced, intermediate and beginners.
1998 Building Blocks for German Genealogy
A Workshop with multiple speakers.
Topics: Thirty-six building blocks.
1997 Emigration from Germany
Featured speaker: Trudy Schenk, A.G.
Topics:
• Ship Passenger Lists and Other Sources
• Württemburg Emigration and the Speaker's Indexes
• Ahnenstammkartei des deutschen Volkes
• Emigration from Saxony and Baden
1996 German Resources: New Sources, New Directions
Featured speaker: Henning Schröder
Topics:
• German Research: The Sources
• German Emigration: New Literature and Databases
• German Churchbooks: Their History, Content and Deficiencies
• Genealogical Records Created by the Third Reich
Later in 1996 (Nov. 11), a workshop took place.
Featured speaker: Ernest Thode
Topics:
• German surnames
• Passenger lists for Germans
• Archival Jurisdictions for Church and Civil Records
• Finding the Place of Origin in German Sources
1995 German Empire Seminar
Featured speaker: Larry O. Jensen, Ph. D., A.G.
Topics:
• Northwest Germany
• Northeast Germany
• Southwest Germany
• Southeast Germany
1994 Solving Your German Research Problems
Featured speaker: Larry O. Jensen, Ph. D., A.G.
Topics:
• Determining places of origin
• Research tools
• Locating records
• Resolving research problems
1993 Our German Roots: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Featured speakers: Arthur Flegel and Gwen Pritzgau
Topics:
• Migrations of Germans throughout History (Arthur Flegel)
• What's Happening in the Field of German Genealogy (Gwen Pritzgau)
1992 Workshop
Fourteen Topics including:
• Computer-based language translation
• Use of the Family History Center
• Writing a personal history
• Poland resarch
• Research in several U.S. states including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
• Civil War research
• Keeping records
• Finding villiages in Germany
1991 Seminar
Featured speakers: Daniel M. Schlyter and Shirley Siems Terry
Topics:
• Sources for Genealogical Research in United Germany
• Locating Places in German
• Problem Solving – Eastern Europe
• Ortssippenbücher – Village Lineage Books
1990
(no seminar)
1989 German-American Genealogical Research
Featured speaker: Michael Palmer
1988 Emigration from German-Speaking Areas in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Featured speaker: Clifford Neal Smith
1987 Workshop
Featured speakers: Rev. Phillip Bergstresser, Joyce Buckland, Nephi Hacken, John Krieg, Herta Zimmer, Yvonne Erickson, Evelyn Heim, Ray Fischer and Doris Pike.
1986 (two seminars)
Featured speaker (Feb. 8): Larry O. Jensen
Featured speaker (Oct. 4): Edna Meyer Bentz and John Bentz
1985 Seminar
Featured speaker: Charles M. Hall (author of the Atlantic Bridge to Germany book series)
1984
(no seminar)
