Upcoming presentations
Rabbit rabbit rabbit!
Believe it or not, it’s July already yet! We’re in the midst of the summer institute season, having finished GRIP’s virtual session and looking towards MAAGI’s virtual courses, then GRIP’s in-person session, then IGHR’s virtual sessions, then Gen-Fed, then… Not to mention the individual talks for societies and libraries and …
It’s always a busy time of year but a great one, particularly for genealogical education, As always, The Legal Genealogist wants to invite you to come along, to the extent possible, on the trip.
I do want to particularly remind folks that there are often seats left in some of the institute courses. There are always last minute cancellations as real life interferes with genealogy, and often an instructor will agree to take the one or two people remaining on a wait list. So if you’ve been dithering at all, it’s worth reaching out to see what’s still open.
Just for example, registration is open through this coming Saturday, July 5, for the August virtual courses at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), taking place July 28-August 1. There’s likely at least one seat available in just about every course. And there are some that are simply not to be missed. If you’re planning on taking my course, Course 3: Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis, in the future, this year would be the perfect time to take Course 2: Intermediate Genealogy and Historical Studies to be sure you meet the prerequisites for Course 3. And there are the wonderful courses that may not be offered every year — like Course 6: Japanese Genealogy: From Japan to the Americas, Course 7: Tracing Your English Ancestors, Course 11: Building an African American Research Toolbox, and Course 12: DNA as Genealogical Evidence: Advanced Case Studies. You can read more about all the classes and find registration information at the IGHR website.
So… what’s coming up next for me?
July 2025
• Tuesday-Thursday 8-10 July: The Midwest African American Genealogy Institute is hosting its virtual institute courses, focusing on researching African American families. These classes are fabulous for those who descend from the enslaved, the enslavers, free people of color and/or all those whose lives crossed path with any of them — in other words, for just about anybody. Registration is closed for 2025, but for the future, see the MAAGI website.
• Monday-Friday 14-18 July: The GRIP Genealogy Institute is hosting its in-person week of institute courses in new digs at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. I’m looking forward to my own course, Legal Landscapes: Mapping Family History Through Law Library Records, co-coordinated with Rick Sayre, plus teaching in other courses on Pennsylvania land records and on coal mining. Registration is technically closed for this in-person week, but if there’s a course you reaaaaaally want you can email grip@ngsgenealogy to see if you can still get in with a manual registration. And to get an idea of the range of courses offered so you can start planning for the future, see the GRIP website.
• Monday, 21 July, 7:00 p.m. EDT: The New Bern-Craven County Public Library in New Bern, NC, is hosting the virtual presentation “No Person Shall … Gallop Horses In the Streets” – Using Court Records to tell the Story of our Ancestors’ Lives. For more information and to register, see the the Kellenberger Room page on the library website.
• Thursday, 24 July, 7:30 p.m. EDT: The new Southeast Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists is hosting a members-only virtual panel discussion on advocacy for records access specifically in support of library, archives and other relevant research repositories. For more information and to register, see the APG Calendar of Events page.
• Monday-Friday 28 July-1 August: The Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) of the Georgia Genealogical Society is hosting its virtual institute courses. As noted above, registration closes this Saturday, 5 July, for this summer camp for genealogists. Check out my course, Course 3: Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis, and all the other offerings.
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, Personality, 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 insitute 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.
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: July-August 2025,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/ : posted 1 July 2025).
