Celebrate Family History Month at the Caribbean Genealogy Library

Caribbean Genealogy Library

October is Family History Month. People can celebrate their ancestors by learning about them. The Caribbean Genealogy Library (CGL) will offer a Beginners Genealogy Workshop at 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12.

The workshop is free and open to any and all interested in learning how to get started tracing and documenting family history. Some of the topics to be covered include: Charting your family, Virgin Islands Census Records, Virgin Islands Church Records and Internet Resources including Danish West Indies Records available at www.virgin-islands-history.org and www.Ancestry.com and Family Search. Genealogists will also discuss other family and cultural resources available at CGL that can help with family research, including the funeral booklets collection and St. Thomas Graphics Collection.

If anyone is just beginning, the library encourages the individual to do a little homework and bring it to the workshop. Where to begin: take a sheet of paper and start with yourself; add your parents; if you know your grandparents, add them too. Ask the elders in your family for additional names that they may remember; also, write down dates such as birthdays (even if you have just the year, that’s a helpful start), religion of your ancestors, and where they were born or lived.

These facts are important for getting started with genealogical research. If a person has done a little family history work already, bring along whatever has been started plus any research questions.

Get started with genealogy at this beginners’ workshop