Register for Getting Started in Irish Family Research

Date & Time:
June 3, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Getting Started in Irish Family Research
Learn how to get started uncovering the stories of your Irish ancestors! In this lecture, Melanie McComb, genealogist with American Ancestors and the New England Historic Genealogical Society, will show you how to take the first steps in tracing your genealogy back to Ireland. Learn about the key records and resources available to you for uncovering your family’s history.

Melanie McComb, Genealogist, assists library visitors, both on-site and online, with their family history research. She also provides lectures on a variety of genealogical topics. Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Oswego. Her areas of research interest include Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Prince Edward Island, Québec, and Ireland, and she is experienced in DNA, genealogical technology and social media, Jewish genealogy, and military records.

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Register for Linked Descendants: African American Genealogy Prior to 1870

Date & Time:
April 8, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Linked Descendants:  African American Genealogy Prior to 1870
Join us for a workshop with Sharon Leslie Morgan, renowned genealogist and founder of Our Black Ancestry, as we delve into African American ancestry before abolition.  Researching African American families prior to the 1870 Census is a challenge that may be overcome by finding linked descendants – or the white families who enslaved most of the Black population.  Learn new research techniques and use genealogy as a tool for confronting slavery and heal. 

Sharon Leslie Morgan is a writer and genealogist. She is the founder of Our Black Ancestry, an online community dedicated to providing resources for African American genealogical research, preserving historic materials and properties, and promoting healing of wounds that are the legacy of slavery.

Morgan is the co-author of Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade. She is also a contributor to Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race & Reconciliation, and The Little Book of Racial Healing: Coming to the Table for Truth-Telling, Liberation, and Transformation.  In 2019, Morgan received the prestigious James Dent Walker Award from the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society. 

A staunch advocate of racial justice, Morgan has taken STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) training at Eastern Mennonite University and is actively involved with Coming to the Table, an organization that promotes linkages between descendants of people who were enslaved and descendants of the families that enslaved them for the purpose of healing from the trauma of slavery.

Genealogy and Local History Workshops at the Cambridge Public Library

Please join us for virtual Lunchtime Lectures from the Cambridge Room, happening every Thursday from 12-1 pm.  Click on the links below for more information and to register.

April 1: Who’s Little Joe:  Photo Detecting 101

April 8: Linked Descendants:  African American Genealogy Prior to 1870

April 29: The Forgotten Irish of Mount Auburn Catholic Cemetery

May 6: Preserve Your Family Treasures

May 13: American Treasures from the Cambridge Public Library’s Archives and Special Collections

May 20: Buns, Beards, Bodices and Bustles:  Understanding Ancestors Through Clothing

June 3:  Getting Started in Irish Family Research

June 10:  Interview Techniques to Tell Your Family’s History

June 17:  Healing the Historical Trauma of Slavery through Genealogical Research

Alice North Towne Lincoln: Boston’s Selfless Advocate for the Poor – Video, Book, and More

Thank you to Bill McEvoy and Corinne Elicone for joining us for our fourth Lunchtime Lectures from the Cambridge Room. We had a wonderful turnout of enthusiastic people eager to learn more about the wonderful life and work of Alice North Towne Lincoln.

The video presentation of Alice North Towne Lincoln, narrated by Corrine Elicone, is available for you to watch at your leisure. You can download Bill McEvoy’s book, Alice North Towne Lincoln: Boston’s Selfless Advocate for the Poor, for free from Mount Auburn Cemetery’s website.

Lastly, please watch Corrine Elicone’s Quarantine Island and Alice Lincoln from her popular series, Stay Home Sweet Auburn. This short piece is filmed in front of Lincoln’s grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Register for Alice North Towne Lincoln: Boston’s Selfless Advocate for the Poor

Date & Time:
March 18, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Alice North Towne Lincoln:  Boston’s Selfless Advocate for the Poor
Join us for Women’s History Month as we uncover the story of Alice North Towne Lincoln – one of Boston’s great 19th Century philanthropists who has been forgotten by history.  Lincoln’s life work was to help the urban poor.  She advocated for tenement housing reform and worked to close Rainsford Island – the little-known Boston Harbor Island that served as an off-shore repository for the city’s unwanted.  Lincoln also advocated against animal cruelty and was an early vocal proponent of cremation. 

Corrine Elicone is the Events and Outreach Coordinator at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, where she works with cemetery professionals, mortuary students, as well as historians, botanists, anthropologists, artists, and many others organizing events.  She has also served as the Cemetery’s first female crematory operator.

Bill McEvoy, Jr. is a US Army Veteran and retired Massachusetts District Court Magistrate.  Since his retirement in 2009, McEvoy has conducted large-scale cemetery research projects, including several at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery as well as a four-year study on the Catholic Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown.  His most recent work uncovering the story of Rainsford Island, an off-shore hospital for Boston’s unwanted, led him to write about Alice North Towne Lincoln, who was instrumental in shutting down the island.

Alice North Towne Lincoln:  Boston’s Selfless Advocate for the Poor by William McEvoy, Jr. is available to download for free.

Register for Finding Women in the Archives

Date & Time:
March 11, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Finding Women in the Archives
Women make up 50% of your ancestry, yet their lives, experiences, and even complete names are all too often forgotten by written history.  Although often overlooked in official records, throughout time women have been the keepers of family and personal history.  When they survive, diaries, letters, account books, family bibles, samplers, organization records, and more can reveal more about a women’s daily life than any government document. Genealogist Ann Lawthers will discuss how these unique records and manuscripts can be used to piece together a family story and how digging in the archives can hit genealogical gold.

Ann Lawthers, Genealogist, assists visitors to the American Ancestors Research Center, both in the building and online, with their family history research.  She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard School of Public Health, with Masters and Doctoral degrees in Health Policy.  With a long-term interest in history and family research, Ann Lectures frequently on behalf of American Ancestors.  Areas of particular interest include New England and New York, the Mid-Atlantic states, the southern colonies, Ireland, and migration patterns.

Register for Finding Women in the Archives

Date & Time:
March 11, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Finding Women in the Archives
Women make up 50% of your ancestry, yet their lives, experiences, and even complete names are all too often forgotten by written history.  Although often overlooked in official records, throughout time women have been the keepers of family and personal history.  When they survive, diaries, letters, account books, family bibles, samplers, organization records, and more can reveal more about a women’s daily life than any government document. Genealogist Ann Lawthers will discuss how these unique records and manuscripts can be used to piece together a family story and how digging in the archives can hit genealogical gold.

Ann Lawthers, Genealogist, assists visitors to the American Ancestors Research Center, both in the building and online, with their family history research.  She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard School of Public Health, with Masters and Doctoral degrees in Health Policy.  With a long-term interest in history and family research, Ann Lectures frequently on behalf of American Ancestors.  Areas of particular interest include New England and New York, the Mid-Atlantic states, the southern colonies, Ireland, and migration patterns.

New Workshops on Photo Detecting Added to Lunchtime Lectures

Join us for two workshops presented by Maureen Taylor, an internationally recognized expert on historic photograph identification, photo preservation and family history research. 

Who’s Little Joe:  Photo Detecting 101 
Do you have unidentified people in your family photo albums?  Do you have a shoebox full of photographs of people you don’t know?  Join Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, to discover who’s who in your family pictures.  Learn 10 easy steps for naming the unidentified in your photo albums.  This interactive lecture will help you discover new identity and connections in your family history.

Date & Time:
April 1, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Buns, Beards, Bodices and Bustles: Understanding Ancestors Through Clothing
Ancestral fashions and the industry that produced them left behind a fascinating legacy of images and information.  Join Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, to discover genealogical clues by looking closely at the clothing and accessories your ancestors wore.  Come with your questions and learn the basics of photo detecting through the lens of fashion. 

Date & Time:
April 15, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Rainsford Island: A Boston Harbor Island Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism – Video, Book, and More

Thank you to Bill McEvoy and Robin Hazard Ray for joining us for our first Lunchtime Lectures from the Cambridge Room. We had a wonderful turnout of enthusiastic people eager to learn more about the devastating history of Rainsford Island.

For more information, please watch the video presentation narrated by Bill McEvoy. You can download Rainsford Island: A Boston Harbor Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism for free from Mount Auburn Cemetery’s website.

Lastly, read about Bill McEvoy’s efforts to document the history of Rainsford Island that appeared on the front page of the March 8, 2020 edition of the Boston Globe, “Newton Veteran Documents Neglected Rainsford Island Graves of 1,700 of Boston’s Unwanted.”

Register for Cambridge by Map

Date & Time:
March 4, 2021
12:00pm – 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE

Cambridge by Map
How old is the Cambridge Public Library? What was Cambridge like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? How has the city changed, and how has it stayed the same? Join the Leventhal Map Center on a virtual walk through historic Cambridge.  Using Atlascope, a tool for exploring urban maps in metropolitan Boston, the Map Center’s Public Engagement & Interpretation Coordinator Rachel Mead will take us on a trip into Cambridge historical geography.  Learn  how the city has changed over time, and discover how to research the history of your own house and neighborhood.  This event will be broadcast online at the Leventhal Map Center’s YouTube Live and Facebook Live channels.