Presented by Robert Cameron Weir on 20 Mar 2025.

Dive into the world of NotebookLM, Google’s “personal AI-based research assistant,” and discover how it can supercharge your genealogical research. Imagine having an assistant that not only organizes your notes, books, journal articles, and original records but also helps you make connections and draw insights from them. In this session, we’ll explore how to maximize the productivity boost from NotebookLM, turning complex data into clear stories and actionable discoveries. Whether you’re managing stacks of family records or sifting through historical documents, NotebookLM could be the tool that transforms your research journey.

Robert Cameron Weir is a genealogical researcher, lecturer, and author who lives in Dover, New Hampshire. He specializes in hard problems related to New England genealogy, from 1620 to the present. He is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and is the Publications Director for the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.

Presented by Jenny Hansen on 15 May 2025.

The majority of ancestral Scandinavians shared a small number of given names and surnames. Following ancestors without becoming mixed up in the patronymic pot can be a challenge. This class will provide guidance for focusing on your ancestor and eliminating other possible family lines. We will discuss methodology specific to Scandinavian research to enable your success.

Jenny Hansen has a bachelor’s degree in Family History and Genealogy. She earned the Accredited Genealogist® credential in Danish research in 1999, and she completed the requirements for the Accredited Genealogist Lecturer™ designation in 2023. She is currently a free-lance researcher and instructor, specializing in all things Scandinavia. She also serves as a commissioner for The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Her hobbies include reading, finding old churches and cemeteries, and doing anything outdoors with her family. She blogs at www.MyFavoriteAncestor.com.

Presented by Diane Richard on 19 Jun 2025.

The Digital Library on American Slavery is composed of 3 main projects -- slave petitions, runaway slave advertisements, and bills of sale. Slave petitions cover all southern states and include county and state-level petitions. Runaway slave advertisements and bills of sale have an NC focus. Once these concepts are introduced (runaway slave advertisements and bills of sale), similar projects for other southern states (and beyond – don’t forget, not just the South or US enslaved individuals) will be discussed. Recent years have seen an explosion in the records that researchers can easily access to pursue their formerly enslaved or FPOC ancestors.

Diane L Richard, MEng & MBA, Mosaic Research and Project Management (MosaicRPM), www.mosaicrpm.com, has been doing genealogy research since 1987 and in 2024, celebrates her 20th anniversary of professionally researching client ancestors while also channeling the “inner teacher” in her by sharing her knowledge via the written and spoken word.
She regularly contributed to Internet Genealogy (2006-2023) as an author, writing a regular Net Notes column and authoring over 500 articles. From 2010-2017, Diane edited Upfront with NGS, the National Genealogical Society’s blog, and published over 2000 posts. She spent a decade as editor of Wake Treasures, the journal of the Wake County Genealogical Society, and since 2016, she has been the editor of the North Carolina Genealogical Society (NCGS) journal.