We had a GREAT speaker for September – our very own 2nd Vice-President and Pioneer Trails editor, Mary Taylor. Mary’s topic was “History vs. Genealogy”.
Mary encouraged everyone to look at the events that shaped an ancestor life – wars, weather events, religion, epidemics, economic depressions, etc. She reminded us to use newspapers and journals from the time and place that your ancestor lived to bring life to his/her story. I have heard another speaker refer to this as putting “flesh on the bones.”
For religious sources, locally she referred the audience to Samford University for Baptist Church records and to Birmingham Southern for Methodist Church records.
