On Wednesday, October 8, the next meeting of the Genealogy Club of Newtown will feature Certified Genealogist Lisa S. Gorrell (pictured) presenting a program entitled “Did Your Ancestor Attend Church? Researching in Religious Records.”

Church records can provide names, dates, and relationships to ancestors. Many of the records from churches and religious organizations predate civil records, which makes these records a rich source of information about our families. This presentation will cover baptism, marriage, burial, and membership records, and how to research a family member who had a religious occupation.

Lisa S. Gorrell is a professional genealogist who lives in California. She has researched her family history for more than 25 years. It was the birth of her daughters that began the journey connecting the past and the future generations. One trip to Sutro Library in San Francisco, where she found her grandfather’s family in the microfilm of the 1920 Census, got her hooked on genealogy research.

She has served on boards of several genealogical societies, and is currently the recording secretary of the Contra Costa County Historical Society, where she volunteers at their archives. She enjoys giving genealogy presentations and writing about her family on two blogs: “Mam-ma’s Southern Family” (Mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com) and “My Trails into the Past” mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com. She has written a three-generation family history about her husband’s Swedish ancestors.

Programs of the Genealogy Club of Newtown are co-sponsored by C.H. Booth Library. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month, September through June, and will continue via Zoom until further notice.

To receive a link to the meeting, send an e-mail by October 6 with name, address, and phone number to genclubnewtownct.secretary@gmail.com. An e-mail with a link to the meeting will be sent by October 8.

Those planning to participate are asked to sign in at 6:45 so that everyone will be admitted before the meeting starts at 7 pm. There will be a brief business meeting before the program begins.