A Visit to Genealogy Help Night

I spent yesterday at the nearest cross-stitch shop which is about 1.25 to 1.5 hours away. On Facebook, there's a society up in that area (but on my way home) that was hosting a "Genealogy Help Night" yesterday evening. I thought I'd drop in since I was in the area. I've gone to a few of their meetings. I had not taken my own laptop with me because I didn't want it in the car all day while I was stitching in the cross-stitch shop. A man came in who wanted help. He didn't know where to start. A couple of people were trying to make suggestions, but I quickly assessed this man needed someone to show him how to research. This man didn't have a computer. He did have paper and a pencil (and a book on Windows 11). I asked the society's president if they had some pedigree charts. He didn't have that but he had a fan chart so I used it. He said he didn't have Ancestry at home but had done the DNA test. He was adopted, but he did know his birth mother. As I began working with him, he also knew his birth father. I started with FamilySearch since he could use that at home. Then I went to Ancestry Library Edition which he could use at the library without subscribing at home. I showed him how to use it and talked about writing down the information about the records so he could get back to them. He was so shocked at how much he learned in a short time. There are a lot of unanswered questions he needs to resolve in the part we researched--such as how his grandmother was born in England when both parents were born in America and ended up in America. I suggested he might see if she was adopted (or possibly evacuated and then adopted). I told him if he didn't have DNA matches to her parents' lines, she was probably not their child. I also think her parents divorced in the 1920s, and we didn't find it. (Her mom showed up in the 1930 census as wife of another man--and the father was still alive.) We did check the microfilmed records at FamilySearch for the most likely county, but we didn't have time to check other things. There is a birth date conflict in another ancestor that needs some resolution, but I suspect the gravestone is wrong. I didn't have time to check a census that would have helped resolve it. I think he'll go back next month to the help night. It's on a night when I can't go, but if I can snatch enough time to write up the documentation for what we researched and pass it along to the society president, I will do so. That will help the local people work with him.

PS - Did I mention how excited the man was?

He had the interest already, but fast results like that will be a great boost. I think you won a genealogy convert! That would be a different experience, to begin uncovering this whole side to his identity that he didn't know anything about before. It would be far different than having grown up around older generations telling all the stories, like I did.

That is such a nice message. Good for you.