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MCGS General Meeting

  • January 25, 2018
  • 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
  • Marin Family History Center, 220 North San Pedro Rd., San Rafael

General Meeting:
"Discovering your German Roots"
"Part 1 - The Great Migration: 1815-1914"
Presented by Robert Jackson, Ph.D.

German-Americans are America's largest single ethnic group. Even today,
after waves of later immigration, more than twenty percent of all Americans
claim primarily German descent, and many more have at least one German
ancestor.
In this, the first of two presentations, we'll discuss the challenging task of
discovering the hometown of your German ancestors, even if they arrived
150 years ago. The documentary sources available in Germany, many of them
now available in the U.S., facilitate the assembly of family trees of great age
and depth, often back to the 1500s, even for simple peasant stock.
In a second presentation, later this year, we'll explore techniques for accessing
and using original German documents to build your family tree and to prepare a truly engaging family history.

Robert Jackson holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. After several years’ teaching at the college level, he pursued a professional career in international and corporate finance. Since retiring he has assisted a variety of not-for-profit and community organizations. He lives in Berkeley and lectures frequently on genealogical subjects .

The share and tell segment of the meeting will focus on German ancestors.