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This presentation is free but registration is required.
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.
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.
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
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.
This presentation will explore potentially overlooked sources of information, and the vulnerability of the records.
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.
This presentation is free but registration is required.