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As part of executing its educational mission year-round, MGC offers programs on open records and other topics of interest to genealogists 4 to 5 times a year. To avoid conflicting with regularly scheduled meetings of other societies and organizations, M:O.R.E. presentations will occur during the 5th week of a month.  

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Click here to see the presentations of those speakers who have allowed us to record their talks and make them available to everyone.

 

The presentations are free, but registration is required.

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An Evening with

Sara E. Campbell

Secrets of My Vault:  "What's in My Vault: Confessions of a DPW Engineer"

 

Thursday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 PM ET via Zoom

 

This presentation is free but registration is required. Click here to register.

Tired of getting the cold shoulder from the Town Clerk when searching for genealogical records? It may be time to visit the Department of Public Works. 

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Sara began her job in Greenfield City Hall in 2011, and she soon lost herself in the DPW vault. Decades of original records were the domain of some of the city's longest-serving employees. Organizing the records to make them more readily available before those individuals retired was one of her goals. 

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Do you know if your ancestors were municipal employees, or served on boards or commissions? Mining annual reports of municipal departments and boards can yield valuable historic data. Understanding which records are preserved, and who knows how 

Sara Campbell in the Greenfield DPW Vault about 2012

to find them is an important skill to develop. Your ancestors' name may be found on all kinds of records relating to their home address. When did public utilities come to their neighborhood? How did that impact their lives? They may have had public works projects pass near their land or through it.

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This presentation will explore potentially overlooked sources of information, and the vulnerability of the records.

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The discovery of Married Women's Business Certificates on file with the City Clerk began her research of historic women's businesses, and the publication of her recent book, "Did Grandma Have a Filling Station?" with her research partner, Shari Strahan.

Previous M:O.R.E. Presentations

  • Jill Marie Snyder: Dear Mary, Dear Luther:  A Courtship in Letters (29 Feb. 2024)

  • Anne Hanson, Buried Secrets:  Looking for Frank and Ida (30 Jan. 2024)

  • John D. Warner: Archivist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (30 Nov. 2023)

  • Kate Kelley, Meet the Photo Angel (30 Nov. 2022)

  • Kenvi Phillips, PhD: Sounds like Sounds Like Family:  The Oral Tradition in Researching Family History (29 Sept. 2022)

  • Paul Joseph Fronczak: The Foundling, True Identity (31 Jan. 2022)

  • David J. Silverman: This Land Is Their Land (30 Nov. 2021)

  • Nicka Sewell-Smith: The Trask 500 (30 Sept. 2021)

  • John D. Warner: Archivist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (30 June 2021)

  • Amy Whorf McGuiggan: Finding Emma (31 March 2021)

  • Brooke Schreier Ganz: Reclaim the Records (27 Jan. 2021)

  • Judy Bambrough-Billingsley: Too Brown to Keep (29 Oct. 2020)

Recorded M:O.R.E. Presentations

We are grateful to these presenters who allowed us to record their talks and make them available to you.

Recorded Presentations
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