The Massachusetts Genealogical Council is coming to Lowell! The group will hold its 2020 seminar, Origins & Destinations, at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5, 2020. Registration is open to anyone and you may register for one or both days at this link.

There is a significant Lowell presence among presenters: I will give the luncheon address on Saturday. My topic will be Failure as Opportunity: The Birth, Decline and Revival of Lowell, Massachusetts; Tony Sampas will give a presentation on Genealogical Resources at the UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History; and Lowell National Historical Park rangers Emily Donovan and Allison Horrocks will do presentations on the Mill Girls of Lowell.

While many other areas will be covered, a number of sessions will be related to the 400^th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival at Plymouth.

Here are the presentations to be given on each day of the seminar:

Saturday, April 4, 2020

• Mayflower Migration by Robert Charles Anderson
• Ongoing Scholarship & Published Materials for Mayflower Research by Christopher C. Child
• Uncovering Mayflower Connections through DNA by Christopher Child
• Two Worlds, One Family (African American Genealogy) by Ariana R. Fiorello-Omotosho
• Seeing Like the State: Massachusetts Government Records and Genealogical Resources by Catherine Gaggioli
• Genealogy Resources at the Phillips Library by Jennifer Hornsby
• Opa! It’s All Greek to Me! By Kathleen Kaldis
• Impact of Canon Law on French Canadian Genealogy by Denise Picard Lindgren

Sunday, April 5, 2020

• Using Old Maps in Your Genealogy Research by Sara Campbell
• Introduction to Jewish Genealogy by Carol Clingan
• Mill Girl at Lunch by Emily Donovan
• Adniamo! Finding Your Italian Family by Margaret R. Fortier
• DNA Painter and Chromosome Mapping by Pamela Guye Holland
• Mapping Irish Locations Online by Pamela Guye Holland
• Mill Girl Presentation by Allison Horrocks
• Advanced Probate Research by Michael Leclerc
• Resources at the National Archives (UK) by Michael Leclerc
• Sharing Your Family History with Multimedia by Michael Leclerc
• Writing about Special Concerns by Michael Leclerc
• Mining for Gold in Federal Records by Linda B. MacIver
• Adding Spreadsheets to Your Genealogy Toolbox by Susan M. O’Connor
• Figuring out your Portuguese-American Roots by Sonia Pacheco