Morning Segment - Two Free Talks at the Library

10 am, Chicopee Public Library, 449 Front St., Chicopee

• One-Step Website: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools

• Case Study: Genealogy of Renee Kaufman

Afternoon Segment - Two Talks & Lunch at Munich Haus

12:30 pm, Munich Haus, 13 Center St., Chicopee

• Luncheon & Raffle Prizes

• The History of the Geography of New York City

• Getting Ready for the 1950 Census: Searching with & without a Name Index

The PGSMA is thrilled to have Stephen Morse back as the speaker at our multi-talk fall event. Some members will remember our day with Steve Morse in 2015 fondly for the wealth of information we learned. This fall Steve will present four talks - two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Mid-day we will enjoy a Polish lunch at Munich Haus as a group. There is no better way to spend a Saturday in November than with your genealogy colleagues learning from an expert.

More about the Talks:

One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools

The One-Step website started out as an aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes about 300 web-based tools divided into 16 separate categories ranging from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to last-minute bidding on e-bay. This presentation will describe the range of tools available and give the highlights of each one.

Getting Ready for the 1950 Census: Searching with and without a Name Index

When the 1950 census will be released in April 2022, it will not have a name index. So finding people in the census will involve searching by location instead. Even when a name index becomes available, there will still be many reasons for doing locational searches. The census is organized by Enumeration Districts (EDs), so the location needs to be converted to an ED before the census can be accessed. The One-Step website contains numerous tools for obtaining EDs. This talk will present the various tools and show circumstances in which each can be used.

The History of the Geography of New York City

New York City has undergone numerous changes in its geographical boundaries over the years. An understanding of these boundaries is important in order to know what archive to search in when looking for vital records. This talk shows the changes to New York City's geography, and describes the difference between New York City and the City of New York. The origin of the counties and their changing boundaries, along with the early geographies of Brooklyn and Queens are presented. And finally the consolidation of 1898 that created the City of New York and defined the five boroughs is discussed.

Case Study: Genealogy of Renee Kaufman

This lecture presents a case study using the One-Step Webpages as well as other websites to develop a family history. It illustrates how, with a minimal amount of initial information, an entire genealogy can be obtained. It also shows how to obtain records in spite of name misspellings, and how to avoid accepting wrong information.

About the Speaker: Stephen Morse, PhD is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, the first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies! In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 35 years ago.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Chicopee Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.