Genealogical society monthly meetings begin Sept. 20

The Sussex County Genealogical Society is an organization dedicated to promoting genealogy and education to encourage and instruct in genealogical research. The scope of interest reaches far beyond Sussex County, and services provide good and useful information to those researching their ancestry.

SCGS has monthly membership meetings from September to May with informative and helpful presentations. The Education Committee holds multi-week spring and fall discussion groups. Two special-interest groups have grown from members’ suggestions: Genie Bytes (a computer search group) and (Brick) Wall Busters.

The upcoming schedule for general membership meetings is as follows:

On Saturday, Sept. 20, Jeanne Zimmerman, a volunteer at the Family History Center in Dover, will talk about some of the new features at www.familysearch.org, a free online search engine provided by the LDS church, as well as the best ways to search and what is available at Family History Centers.

In October, Michael Hait, a popular speaker and recognized genealogist, will present “Online Federal Resources for Genealogy.” Alan Lowe will talk in November about DNA, a very exciting way to expand genealogy research.

The Fall Discussion Group Series is informal. This session’s general topic is research in foreign countries. The schedule is as follows: Monday, Sept. 22, Eastern European research; Monday, Sept. 29, English and Irish research; Monday, Oct. 13, Canadian (emphasis on Ontario) research; Monday, Oct. 20, German research.

The general meetings take place at 10:20 a.m. on the third Saturday of each month at Rehoboth Beach Public Library. The discussion group meets from noon to 2 p.m., also at the Rehoboth library. Visitors are always welcome.

For more information on the Sussex County Genealogical Society and upcoming events, go to www.scgsdelaware.org.