Getting Started in Family Genealogy

On Tuesday, July 9, at 4pm, at the West Tisbury Library, join us for a genealogy workshop with Carl Kaplan. Are you interested in your family history, but don’t know where to start? This talk is intended to be a first step, and will cover, at a basic level, how to get started in your family’s genealogy. It will give some basic terminology, along with examples of effective research to construct your family tree and discover family you never knew existed. Learn how genealogy can be a fun hobby. Topics covered include Family Tree software, census records, and DNA research. Along the way, Carl will share some amazing things he found, to give you an idea of what is possible. No sign up required to attend. Free and open to the public.

Carl Kaplan, who lives in Winchester, MA, is an amateur genealogist, and member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston. Carl has been researching his family history for the last 6 years, starting with a hand-typed family tree from his uncle, to a tree of over 2500 relatives, finding dozens of “new” cousins all over the world, along with tracing his family back almost three centuries. During his research, Carl has employed various research tools. Most of all, Carl has learned some amazing stories from his family. Carl is a volunteer caseworker for The Together Plan, a non-profit organization that conducts searches in the archives of Belarus. Besides his family research and volunteering with The Together Plan, Carl is also a certified historical tour guide in Boston, learning American Sign Language with his wife, and participates with his dog, Buster, as a therapy dog team, visiting hospitals and schools.