Finding Your Ancestors in the Archive of Americana Databases

The Archive of Americana is a suite of databases containing books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over three centuries. There is a wealth of genealogical information covered in these databases, all searchable by personal name and many other parameters. These databases are free to all Massachusetts residents who have a Boston Public Library card. You can even search Archive of Americana from your home or school.

Come see some of the contents of these far-ranging databases and learn some tips for finding out more about your ancestors from current members of the Boston Public Library staff. Gail Fithian is the Boston Public Library's curator of Social Sciences and Government Information. Henry Scannell is the curator of Microtext and Newspapers. Both Henry and Gail have years of experience assisting library visitors in researching their ancestors.

Beastly Boston: Episodes in the 100-year History of the Franklin Park Zoo

Rory Browne will give an illustrated talk beginning with the early attempts to found a zoological garden in Boston and the eventual successful establishment of the zoo in Franklin Park. Dr. Browne will review the zoo's hundred-year history from its founding in 1912-1913 to its present renaissance in the context of the history of Boston and the world-wide development of zoos. Rory Browne has taught history at Oxford, Paris (Nanterre), Yale, Harvard, and Boston College. He has offered courses on the history of zoos and of human-animal relations at Harvard and Boston College, and has lectured and broadcast widely on these topics in America and overseas. Although London-born, he has made his home in Massachusetts for the past twenty years and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Zoo New England, the nonprofit that runs the Franklin Park and Stone Zoos.

Discovering Immigrant Voices through House History Research

House history research in larger urban areas provides for fascinating results. Two-family and multi-family homes often provide a picture of the waves of immigrants that have passed through a city in different generations. Learn to celebrate different types of housing and all the secrets they can reveal.

Marian Pierre-Louis is a house historian, lecturer, and writer. She specializes in the histories of New England homes. She frequently speaks at libraries, societies, and conferences throughout New England on house history and genealogical topics. Her monthly column "Old House Secrets" appears in the Medway & Millis Local Town Pages. She is also the author of the popular blog, the New England House Historian at NEHouseHistorian.blogspot.com.

Dr. Joseph Warren – On Fame and Forgetfulness

Sam Forman will provide an illustrated lecture on Revolutionary-era Bostonian Joseph Warren. He will focus on his life and the posthumous arc of Warren's legacy from national fame to near-total obscurity and perhaps back again. Joseph Warren is now dimly remembered as the person who dispatched Paul Revere on his famous ride, and as the hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Through his research, Forman reveals Dr. Warren as a humanist, devoting his career to improving health care for all, while making real the concepts of liberty and representative government. Samuel Forman is an historian, Harvard University adjunct faculty member, businessman, and physician. He is the author of the just-released definitive biography, Dr. Joseph Warren – The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty.

Researching Family and Local History at the City of Boston Archives

Are you a genealogist or local history enthusiast? Learn what can be found at the Boston City Archives. Archives staff will discuss the City Archives' holdings and address how best to use them to uncover family or local history. Marta Crilly holds an M.A. in History, an M.S. in Library Science and is an Assistant Archivist at the City of Boston Archives. Since its inception in 1988, Boston's City Archives has served as the repository for all official records documenting both the history of Boston's municipal government and the legal rights of its citizens. As the repository of one of the United States' oldest and most historic cities, the City Archives is an invaluable resource for local, regional and national historical research.

Author talk with Glenn Stout, author of Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year

Fenway 1912 tells the incredible stories of Fenway, from the architect whose creativity has helped Fenway Park remain relevant, to the long winter when local laborers poured concrete and erected history, to the notorious fixers who then ruled the game, to the ragtag team who delivered a world championship, Fenway's first. Drawing on extensive research, featuring never-before-seen blueprints, baseball historian Glenn Stout delivers a remarkable story of innovation, desperation, and perspiration, capturing Fenway Park as no other author has.

Glenn Stout has written and edited more than eighty books. He has served as Series Editor of the prestigious Best American Sports Writing series since its inception in 1991. A native of Ohio and graduate of Bard College and Simmons College, Stout lived in Boston and worked at the Boston Public Library for many years. He now lives in Vermont. Co-presented by the Author Talk and Local & Family History Lecture Series

Oral History and Family History

Sarah Boyer will discuss her experience compiling oral histories and address how to use oral history techniques to enrich family history. Her methods and tips help get more than "yes," "no," and "why do you want to know that" as answers from your relatives. Sarah Boyer began her work in oral history as a literacy teacher at United South End Settlements in Boston. Her method of teaching reading involved asking the students to tell her a story about their lives and having them read the story after she wrote it down. Her first book, a compilation of stories from Tip O'Neill and his neighbors, titled, In Our Own Words: Stories of North Cambridge, was published in 1997. In 1998, she became the oral historian at the Cambridge Historical Commission and has authored three other oral history books on Cambridge.

Cooks, Cookbooks, and Cooking in New England: From Colonies to Colonial Revival

Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald, the authors of Northern Hospitality, offer an illustrated, gastronomic tour of New England's first three centuries, highlighting the most influential cookbooks, profiling major figures in the region's culinary tradition, and showing how they prepared some of the almost 400 historic recipes included in their book. Arguing against the stereotype that New England cuisine has consisted of little more than "cold baked beans and stale brown bread," the talk will demonstrate the surprising complexity of the region's food history. Stavely and Fitzgerald have written two books together about New England food history: Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England and America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking.

Using Colony and State Records to Trace Your Native American Ancestors in Massachusetts

This workshop will guide participants in the location and use of a variety of records created by the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. These records can be used to trace often-elusive Native American genealogy in Massachusetts. Cheryll Toney Holley, proprietor of PastTense Genealogy, is a professional researcher and writer specializing in African-American and Native American peoples in New England. For over ten years, she has compiled genealogies and written family histories for descendants of New England's communities of color. A trained historian, she also directs the Hassanamisco Indian Museum in Grafton, Massachusetts.