‘Finding Family

In Academic Archives’

Professional researcher and writer Laura Prescott will be the guest speaker of Newtown Genealogy Club at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 14, at C.H. Booth Library.

Her topic will be “Treasures within the Ivory Tower: Finding Family in Academic Archives.”

Ms Prescott contends that academic institutions are great repositories of knowledge. Keeping track of students during their undergraduate years and throughout their lives is essential to the institution.

In addition to class lists, yearbooks, and academic files, there are alumni records documenting post graduate lives, photographs, correspondence and even dissertations. Ms Prescott’s presentation will guide attendees on where to look, using the most efficient techniques to help researchers find the information they seek.

Laura Prescott is a graduate of Dartmouth College with a BA in History. She worked for the New England Genealogical Society for seven years. She is also a past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Her specialties include the use of manuscripts in genealogical research, genealogy on the Internet, and merging history with genealogy.

Nonmembers are always welcome at Newtown Genealogy Club.

The club is open to anyone interested in genealogical research, and it supports the efforts of Cyrenius H. Booth Library in the area of genealogy and assists in the upkeep of the library’s genealogy room collection.

Meetings are the second Wednesday of each month, September through June, at the library, 25 Main Street in Newtown. For more information visit the website at rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctgcnc or call Harlan Jessup at 203-426-3981.

On April 11 the club will host a program by Toni McKeen, who will present “Cases that Made My Eyes Cross.”