Fourth Wednesday

The Hopkins County Genealogical Society invites members and nonmembers who want to learn more about doing genealogical research to join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month for a lunch and learn. Bring your sack lunch, salad or drive-through meal and meet with us from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the genealogy library, 611 N. Davis St., Sulphur Springs, Tx. Coffee, tea, water, and soft drinks will be available for purchase.

Each month various speakers will present topics intended to advance your genealogical research skills. Advanced registration is not required. Note that the group does not meet in November or December. For questions about this or other HCGS events, please contact us at hcgstx@suddenlinkmail.com

2025 Lunch & Learn Topics

May 28 – Rhonda Bechhold

Lunch & Learn will be held next Wednesday, May 28, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at 611 North Davis St., Sulphur Springs, TX. The Hopkins County Genealogical Society invites anyone who wants to learn more about doing genealogical research to join us. For this month’s session you are encouraged to bring your laptop or tablet, and your sack lunch, salad or drive-through meal. We do have some snacks and drinks available for purchase.

Rhonda Bechhold is going to lead us in a deep-dive of the HCGS website. Many of our members and even some of our volunteers are not completely comfortable with navigating the website and may be missing out on some of the research tools it has to offer. Please join us for Rhonda’s presentation and bring along a friend. We’re sure you will find something new and enlightening to improve your genealogical research.

Apr 23 – Sandy Noe
Our own volunteer and long-time member, Sandy Noe, will be introducing us to an often overlooked asset to our research when she talks to us about FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries, of which we are one. Thousands of FamilySearch affiliate libraries are helping extend FamilySearch’s services to millions of patrons worldwide. Affiliate libraries have access to FamilySearch digital genealogical collections that are otherwise accessible only through a FamilySearch center.

Please join us for Sandy’s presentation and bring along a friend. Every month people leave commenting on how much they learned and we know you will too.

Feb 26 – Donna Toups
Donna Toups’ topic will be “Digging for Answers & Answering Questions” through the use of familysearch.org. Whether you have a laptop to bring or not, you are sure to take away some helpful tips and information from this FamilySearch expert!

Donna is a native Texan and has been living in Van Zandt for about 17 years. Her career includes teacher, college and career advisor, and employment specialist. Within her church she has the calling as a Family History Consultant and works at the Will Point Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Center each week.

Donna is a wonderful speaker and instructor, so we hope you will join us and bring some other folks with you. There is no charge and members and non-members are welcome!

Jan 22 –
We are excited to have our society president, John A. Sellers, as our speaker to start out this new year. John’s topic will be “Our Library’s Lesser-Known Records.” We are absolutely sure you will be surprised to hear about some of the records we have available you didn’t know about. You all know what a great speaker John is so we hope you will come and bring some other folks with you!

2024 Lunch & Learn Topics

Nov & Dec – no meeting

Oct 24 –
Last month we viewed a FamilySearch virtual presentation on how to create a family tree and how to read a fan chart. This month we are going to return to Amy Johnson Crow with Generations Connections and her class on “Vital Records Substitutes.” This class has 4 Lessons: 1. Intro and Substitutes for Many Types of Records 2. Birth and Marriage Records Substitutes 3. Death Records Substitutes 4. Substitutes for Veterans; Evaluating and Finding Substitutes. We have all really enjoyed Amy Johnson Crow in the past and she always provides wonderful handouts with her presentations. We should be able to complete all four lessons in the hour allotted. We hope that you will join us and bring a friend!!

Sep 25 –
Last month we viewed a presentation by Amy Crow Johnson of Generations Connections, entitled “Understanding Land Records – Using Land Records Effectively.” We learned a lot about land deeds and other legal land documents and how to apply them to our genealogical research.

However, the past few weeks we have been consistently asked questions about creating and managing a family tree on familysearch.org, which is the website that allows you to do that for free. Plus there appears to be some confusion about how to interpret the Generation Genealogy Fan Chart. So this month we are going to see a virtual presentation on how to create a family tree and how to read a fan chart. We are particularly excited about this month’s lessons because they answer so many of our questions about our family trees.

We hope you will take the time to join us!

Aug 28 –
The Fourth Wednesday Lunch & Learn will be held this coming Wednesday, August 28, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at 611 North Davis St., Sulphur Springs, Tx. The Hopkins County Genealogical Society invites anyone who wants to learn more about doing genealogical research to come on in. Bring your sack lunch, salad or drive-through meal and your tablet or laptop, if you wish.

Last month our society president, John A. Sellers, presented the “FamilySearch Experiment,” during which he showed us how to maneuver through this new test site for FamilySearch, what it consists of and what is included. Much of his talk involved searching for people using property descriptions and land records, but how do you use them once you have found them? This month we will view a presentation by Amy Crow Johnson of Generations Connections, entitled “Understanding Land Records – Using Land Records Effectively.” There is so much to be learned about land deeds and other legal land documents and how to apply them to your genealogical research.

We hope you will join us!

Jul 24 –
We are excited to have our society president, John A. Sellers, as our speaker this time. John will be using his laptop and the projector for this presentation. The topic of his talk is “FamilySearch Experiment,” in which he will show us how to maneuver through this new test site for FamilySearch, what it consists of and what is included. You all know what a great speaker John is so we hope you will come and bring some other folks with you!

Jun 26 –
We did not have time last month to learn about the Periodical Source Index (Persi), so we will prioritize that this month. The Periodical Source Index (PERSI) is. an index compiled by the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have the largest collection of genealogy and local history periodicals (Newsletter, journals, quarterlies, etc.) in the world. We will learn how to use it.

In addition to this we will learn about the WANDER method for genealogy research:

Research is more than just finding more and more records. It also usually doesn’t run in a straight line. Lets learn about the WANDER method for genealogy research.

What do you want to find?
Analyze what you already have
Note what is missing
Discover new records
Evaluate everything
Repeat as necessary

Don’t miss out on this free and casual opportunity to increase your research skills. See you then!

May 22 –
This month we are going to show you a video from the Family Search Library called “5 Search Strategies Every Genealogist Should Know.” Also one of the topics brought up during our seminar was the “Periodical Source Index,” also known as “PERSI.” We didn’t have a lot of time to examine this research asset at that time, so we will show you another video from the Family Search Library covering that topic in more depth. Both of these videos are compliments of HCGS Librarian Emerita, Jan Stovall, who is sharing her subscription to this service with us. We hope to see you then!

Apr 24 –
This month during “Lunch & Learn”, long-time HCGS and DAR (The Captain David Phillips Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution), member and volunteer, Sandy Noe, will be presenting “So you want to join DAR?” She will also talk about other heritage organizations, such as the War of 1812 and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Even if you are not actually interested in joining one of these organizations (for instance, if you are a man) Sandy will offer many tips on the research process required to join, which can be applied by everyone to all areas of family research.

Mar 27 –
This month during “Lunch & Learn”, HCGS Librarian, Silvina Epperson, will be presenting “Where in the World? Tackling a New Research Location.” Please join us as Silvina walks you through this topic.

Feb 28 –
HCGS Librarian, Silvina Epperson, will be presenting “Preserving Articles and Photos.” Please join us as Silvina walks you through this topic. We always have an interesting and fun time!

Jan 25 –
Cancelled

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