The 18th century was a transformative and foundational period for Massachusetts: continued colonial conflicts, movement westward, revolution, the abolition of slavery, and ultimately statehood. This session will look at just some of the many records of the era—pre and post American independence—including military records, tax lists, census records, newspapers, city directories, and more.

Melanie McComb, Senior Genealogist, assists library visitors, both on-site and online, with their family history research. She is an international lecturer who teaches on a variety of topics. Melanie holds a B.S. degree from the State University of New York at Oswego. She previously served as the social media coordinator for the NextGen Genealogy Network, a non-profit that creates a community for younger genealogists, where she managed the Facebook and Twitter accounts. She continues her interest in helping younger genealogists get involved at American Ancestors by assisting with educational programs from local schools, scout groups, and universities. Her areas of expertise include Irish genealogy, DNA, Atlantic Canada, Jewish genealogy, and military records.

 "Finding Fred Magee: Hunting my French-Canadian Ancestors -- Learning to deal with

Drouin and poor handwriting"

"Actually, we knew where to find Fred (my 2G-grandfather), after 1880. But we didn’t know where he was born, where he lived before entering the US, why he emigrated, what the rest of his family looked like, where the lost cousins were hidden, or even his proper given name. And we had only a very few family stories. This is a typical problem & case study in family history. Along the way we'll touch on: some linguistic & cultural understanding of surnames, DNA match analysis, use of French-Canadian resources (both familiar and not), and the bane of necronyms. In retrospect, what should I have known?"