Upcoming presentations
Mayday!
Well, at least May Day.
The first of May 2026 already.
And lots of things coming up that, as always, The Legal Genealogist invites you to come along on.
First and foremost, we headed towards the start of the summer institute season. Whether virtually (GRIP in June, IGHR in August) or in person (GRIP in July), there’s likely a course that’s tailor-made for you.
And one that’s come up virtually in June that I’m particularly fond of is the course I coordinate for the GRIP Genealogy Institute. Running June 22-26, it’s Women and Children First!: Research Methods for the Hidden Half of the Family.
I’ll be joined by a stellar faculty — Blaine T. Bettinger, Catherine Becker Wiest Desmarais, Alec Ferretti; Michael S. Ramage, Richard G. Sayre and Ari Wilkins — as we examine all the ways to find and document the women of our families—mothers, sisters, wives—and the children they bore and raised. From the obvious topics of school and work records to the way these family members were disguised behind tick marks in the census, from clues hidden away in manuscript collections to the clues hidden away in our very genetic code, the resources and skills highlighted by this course will answer the question of why we should—and how we can—research women and children first and help us recreate our family trees far beyond the father-to-son-to-son bloodlines of genealogy past.
It’s a fun course, it’s an important course, and it’s a course where — every single time it’s offered — students make breakthroughs in their research that give them amazing insights into their own families.
For more information, see the course page at the GRIP website, and use this link to register for virtual courses.
And of course there’s more coming up:
May 2026
• Saturday-Sunday, 2-3 May: The Genealogical Society of Nova Scotia is hosting its 2026 Virtual Conference with a terrific line-up of speakers covering a wide variety of topics ranging from AI to genealogical methodology. I’m honored to be included, presenting Dowered or Bound Out: Records of Widows and Orphans at 1:45 p.m. AT (12:45 p.m. ET) on Saturday. For more information about this event and to register, see the the conference website.
• Wednesday-Saturday, 27-30 May: The National Genealogical Society is hosting its 48th annual Family History Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This year, as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the theme of America at 250 will focus on understanding the nation’s past and preserving its records for the future. I’ll be presenting twice: on Friday, 29 May, at 9:30 a.m., on Twenty-Eight Volumes of Gold: U.S. Territorial Papers; and on Saturday, 30 May, at 11 a.m., on Occupants, Owners or Nations: Native Rights to Land. For more information about this event — which does include a virtual option for access to session recordings, see the the conference website.
June 2026
• Saturday, 13 June, 11 a.m. EDT: The Hudson County (NJ) Genealogical & Historical Society is hosting the virtual presentation Doing Time – Prison Records as Genealogy Resources. For more information about this Members-Only event (and to join!), keep an eye on the Upcoming Society Events page.
• Monday, 15 June, 11 a.m. EDT: The North Hills (PA) Genealogists are hosting the presentation From Blackstone to the Statutes at Large – How Knowing the Law Makes Us Better Genealogists in a hybrid setting (I’ll be virtual, but you can be there virtually or in person!). For more information and to register for either format, see the Meetings & Events page.
• Monday-Friday, 22-26 June: As explained above, the GRIP Genealogy Institute holds its first session of the summer in a virtual format, and my course, Women and Children First!: Research Methods for the Hidden Half of the Family, will be part of that week. For more information, see the course page at the GRIP website, and use this link to register for virtual courses.
Come on out and join us, if you can, for one or more of these 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: May-June 2026,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 1 May 2026).
