News

Sunny Jane Morton – “Finding And Using Obituaries More Effectively” 

Obituaries can help you reconstruct families and find missing relatives, whether you’re doing genealogy or building trees for DNA matches. Learn from actual case studies a full range of strategies for finding obituaries from different time periods. (This includes today: we’ll talk about finding online-only obituary content and understanding differences between original postings and aggregator websites.) Learn a trick for finding citations for unidentified news clippings. You’ve never seen obituary-finding treated with this kind of depth and detail!

Sunny Morton is an internationally known genealogy speaker and award-winning writer and editor who helps people discover their roots, preserve their stories, and deepen their identity in meaningful ways.

She is a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine (US) and the Editor of NGS Magazine. As past Editor of Ohio Genealogy News, she won an editing award from the National Genealogical Society. Morton has lectured at the Library of Congress, RootsTech, GRIP Genealogy Institute, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and conferences across the United States and internationally.

Morton was lead author of the critically acclaimed How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records and is recognized as a leading expert in using religious records for genealogy research. Her newest publication is Searching for Sisters: Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States.

Learn more about Sunny on her website https://www.sunnymorton.com

Elizabeth Williams Gomoll will be presenting; ”Where They Once Stood: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Place of Origin.”

Join us for a presentation by our own Merralee Retallick on “Introduction to AI”.

This program will cover the following:

▪ What is AI? Including basic terminology and a bit about where it’s been and where it’s going

▪ Overview of common AI tools and what they are best at

▪ Common Genealogical applications of AI

▪ Tips for getting the best results with AI

▪ Resources

As a child, Merralee was fascinated by cemeteries, not the death aspect of them, but trying to figure out what stories might be behind the dates, inscriptions, and symbols on headstones. When her mom married her stepfather, she got a wonderful third grandmother who introduced her to genealogy and Merralee knew right away that it was for her. Merralee is also a self-proclaimed geek with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a minor in computer science. As Artificial Intelligence became more mainstream, she became fascinated, curious, excited, and sometimes terrified by its prospects. Merralee is semi-retired, and when she isn’t working to apply AI while building a company with her two co-founders, she is trying to apply it to genealogy.

Sleeves-Up Genealogy In-Person Research Session 

Saturday, March 21, 2026 – 1 to 4 p.m.

Morley Library Genealogy Room, Painesville, Ohio

Join members of the Lake County Genealogical Society for an open research afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, March 21, 2026.  Whether you are just getting started tracking down your ancestors or need help tackling a research problem, the experience of Society members will be helpful.  We look forward to helping you discover your family history!

Dr. Deborah A. Abbott, PhD “Using City Directories in Genealogical Research”

In genealogy research City Directories are often used to track ancestors between the U.S. Federal Census years. They become especially important between 1880 to 1900 years due to the loss of the 1890 census records. Even though the residential listings are the most used part of the directory, there are many other ways to incorporate city directories into your genealogy research. This presentation will introduce you to the many sections of a city directory and how to use them along with residential listings and other sources. Learn not only how to trace your family through the years, but also about the city or rural community in which they lived, places where they worked, schools they may have attended, etc. Learn how to identify family migration patterns, which can add depth to your family history while providing research clues that may help solve brick walls.

Cleveland native, Deborah A. Abbott, PhD, is an active professional genealogist specializing in genealogical methodology, manuscript collections, and African American family research. She belongs to many local and national genealogical groups, is a frequent speaker around the country and author.  She is a familiar face to LCGS members and has inspired many of us to “dig deeper” and “follow the facts”.  We are honored to host her again!

CARLA CEGIELSKI  “Mastering the Art of Reading Old Handwriting: Strategies for Success.”

Even though we have access to nerdy apps that read and transcribe old handwriting on deeds and wills, it’s not 100% accurate so we still need to build deciphering skills.  Learning to read old handwriting can be time-consuming and requires patience. In this presentation, Carla will share several strategies for deciphering old handwriting.

BIO:  Carla Cegielski, a familiar face for LCGS, is a full-time family history researcher specializing in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia research. She has been providing professional research services to attorneys, historians, genealogists, hobbyists, and others since 2007. Carla is the author of the NGS course Reading Old Handwriting. She was also creator and coordinator of the 2021 Reading, Transcribing, and Abstracting Old Documents course at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP)

Even though we have access to nerdy apps that read and transcribe old handwriting on deeds and wills, it’s not 100% accurate so we still need to build deciphering skills.  Learning to read old handwriting can be time-consuming and requires patience. In this presentation, Carla will share several strategies for deciphering old handwriting.

BIO:  Carla Cegielski, a familiar face for LCGS, is a full-time family history researcher specializing in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia research. She has been providing professional research services to attorneys, historians, genealogists, hobbyists, and others since 2007. Carla is the author of the NGS course Reading Old Handwriting. She was also creator and coordinator of the 2021 Reading, Transcribing, and Abstracting Old Documents course at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP).

Thursday, January 29, 2026 – IN-PERSON New Officer Induction, Program and Luncheon

This meeting will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8751 Kirtland Rd (Rt. 306), Kirtland, OH 44094.   The business meeting will start at 10 a.m. followed by the induction of new officers and our monthly program after which a luncheon will be served.  The luncheon will be semi-catered by Mission BBQ who will provide the main dishes and we’ll supplement with some salads and desserts.  Please pre-register via email by Monday, January 26 and let us know if you are able to bring a salad or dessert – respond to lcgsohio@lcgsohio.org

John Tracy Cunningham will present the program  “FamilySearch 201 – Intermediate Topics.

While many of us enjoy using FamilySearch for research we could use it better.  This presentation will cover treatment of living persons, connecting your line to deceased ancestors already in the tree, changing person and relationship information, correcting data problems and using the Family Tree Validator; the Change Log; Notes, website locations for conducting research, and being a good FamilySearch citizen.   If you haven’t been on the website recently, take time before the program to reacquaint yourself with it to get the most out of the presentation.

John Tracy Cunningham is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the son of Tracy Cunningham Jr. and Eleanor Marie Walker, and is married to his dear Betty.  He was raised in small-town Southern Illinois, graduated in 1973 from the University of Illinois with a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and entered the United States Air Force as a second lieutenant.  23+ years later, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in Italy and became a defense contractor in Germany, retiring for good 11 years later, then being able to devote his time to his passion, family history.  He had walked into the county courthouse at age 13 and quickly discovered that all eight great-grandparents had died in that same county.  He hasn’t slowed down, but the research has become more difficult.  He enjoys science fiction, history, politico-military affairs, theology, languages, the sciences, and research into just about anything.

Kassidy Cobb – “Civil War Songs and Games .”

With the holidays looming, let’s relax and enjoy a light program and explore nineteenth century patriotic tunes, examining how they boosted morale and became musical successes. Kassidy will also detail another pastime that soldiers held dear –playing games. From checkers and chess to cards, there are lots of games that we still play today that were just as popular over 150 years ago. And there are even a few games many people might not have heard of before!

With a Bachelor of Science in History/Creative Writing Minor (Liberty University, 2024) and a love for the past that inspires her to pursue her Masters in History (Liberty University, 2026), Kassidy is serious about sharing history in authentic and relatable ways. Even Mike Wolfe (star of American Pickers) called Kassidy “energetic” about history. Recognized by Congress, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, DAR, SAR, DUVCW, and countless others for her efforts to promote the past, Kassidy has found that history isn’t just a career–it’s a way of life.

Diane Richard –  “Select State-Level Digitized Memory Platforms You Don’t Want to Miss!”

Many states now have so-called Memory or Digital Archives platforms, which contain a ton of material relevant to genealogists, whether original documents, historical context, images, and more, often covering from the state’s founding to now. In this webinar we’ll focus on these platforms for New England and the mid-Atlantic states, through which many of our Ohio ancestors migrated.  These are all FREE to access.  Additionally, many tips, tricks, and strategies for using these digital memory websites will be shared to make sure you squeeze all that is genealogically relevant out of these resources.

Diane L. Richard, MEng, MBA, is a professional genealogist and owner of Mosaic Research and Project Management (MosaicRPM). With over 35 years of experience, she researches client ancestors and shares her expertise through writing and speaking.   She is a prolific author, having written over 600 articles for Internet Genealogy and edited several genealogical publications, including Upfront with NGS and the North Carolina Genealogical Society journal. She is also an international speaker, presenting webinars and in-person programs on various genealogical topics.