Upcoming presentations
We are right in the Dog Days of summer in the United States these days, aren’t we? Long hot sultry days, flashy afternoon thunderstorms, humidity enough to curl straight hair and straighten curly hair.
Hard to believe it’s already August, the summer institute season is starting to wind down, and we’re beginning to look forward to fall (even a — gasp — personal vacation to tally those last two states to make it to all 50 as an adult with at least an overnight stay…).
So what’s up next? A lot! And, as always, The Legal Genealogist wants to invite you to come along, to the extent possible, on the trip.
August 2025
• Tuesday, 5 August, 2:30 p.m. EDT: The Connetquot Public Library in Bohemia, NY, is hosting the virtual presentation The Ethical Genealogist. For more information and to register, see the library’s calendar page.
• Fri-Saturday, 8-9 August: The Missouri State Genealogical Association (MoSGA) is hosting its in-person Annual Conference in Jefferson City at the Missouri State Archives. There’s great stuff — a workshop on lesser-used Missouri county-level records, a presentation on Missouri special censuses, a case-study presentation by Michelle Spencer and four presentations by me: Advertising the Law: The Gems in the Legal Notices; Polls, Personalty, and Property – Making Sense of Tax Lists; Doing Time – Prison Records as Genealogy Resources; and Linking the Generations with Court and Land Records. For more information and to register, see the MoSGA website.
• Monday-Friday 11-15 August: The Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed) is hosting its in-person institute in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. National Archives. I’m honored to be presenting two sessions on federal courts and their records on Friday: Making a Federal Case Out of It and Busted, Bankrupt, Banged Up: The Stories in Federal Court Records . Space is HUGELY limited for this institute so if this is something you want to do in 2026 or later, start now to plan by checking out the Gen-Fed website.
• Saturday, 16 August, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. EDT: The Augusta Genealogical Society in Augusta, GA, is hosting its Annual Genealogical Symposium in hybrid format, hosted at the Georgia Room at Brandon Wilde. The day begins with a presentation on Finding Our Fathers (and Mothers): Using Artificial Intelligence in Genealogical Research, presented by Erick Montgomery. Then I’ll join in with three topics: NARA Mythbusters: Your Family IS in the Archives; When Worlds Collide: Resolving Conflicts in Genealogical Records; and Linking the Generations with Court and Land Records. For more information and to register, see the society’s event page.
• Tuesday, 19 August, 8:00 p.m. EDT: The Board for Certification of Genealogists, together with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, will host the virtual presentation From Statutes to Stories: Finding the Law for Family History. For more information and to register, see the webinar page.
• Thursday, 21 August, 7:30 p.m. EDT: The Family History Academy will host the virtual SnapShot discussion, The SnapShot Interview: A Conversation with Judy Russell. Among other things, we’ll discuss my upcoming FHA course, When Death Demands Answers: Understanding Historical Coroner’s Records (coming up in October). For more information and to register, see the SnapShot Interviews page.
• Saturday, 23 August: The Maine Genealogical Society is hosting its in-person 2025 Annual Conference at the Randall Student Technology Center University of Maine at Augusta. My presentations will be: Putting Those Records to Work; Linking the Generations with Court and Land Records; Courting America: Using Court Records for Genealogy; and “Don’t Forget the Ladies” – A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law. For more information and to register, see the society’s Events page.
September 2025
The start of this month will be out west, in the Dakotas, and while there will be some genealogy involved (my grandfather’s brother John and his family were from South Dakota), there won’t be any speaking gigs out there. But then…
• Thursday, 18 September, 7:00 p.m. EDT: The Ford’s Colony (VA) Genealogy Club is hosting the virtual presentation Landing the Ancestors: Federal and State Land Records. For more information, see the society’s meeting schedule page.
• Saturday, 20 September, 1:00 p.m. PDT/4 p.m. EDT: The DNA Interest Group, North San Diego County Genealogical Society is hosting the virtual presentation DNA Doesn’t Lie, But Should We? Ethics and 21st Century Genealogy. For more information, keep an eye on the DIG calendar page.
Come on out and join us, if you can, for one or more of the upcoming events and note, in some cases, that registration will be free or at a reduced cost to members of the host society — and some are limited to members only… There are some reaaaaaaally good reasons for joining genealogical societies… Just sayin’…
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Coming up: August-September 2025,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/ : posted 1 August 2025).
