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Online Events
Attend lectures, courses, and author events from your home
Please note: All online programs are moving forward as scheduled—we look forward to seeing you online!
Note: The schedule below is subject to change.
UPCOMING EVENTS
November 2-23 | The Jews of Boston and America, 1840–1924 | ONLINE COURSE
November 3-17 | Introduction to Heraldry for Genealogists | ONLINE COURSE
November 15 | Discussing Adoption: Driving Positive Outcomes in the Search for Knowledge, Past and Present | ONLINE COURSE
November 18 | Where?: Understanding Boundaries and Jurisdictions | WEBINAR
December 1-15 | Researching Civil War Ancestors | ONLINE COURSE
December 2 | Julie Flavell with The Howe Dynasty | AUTHOR EVENT
December 7 | Writing History: An Extended Q&A with H. W. Brands | AUTHOR EVENT
December 9 | Stories from the Archives: Civil War Manuscripts | WEBINAR
December 10 | A Virtual Tour of Lobkowicz Palace and its Collections | WEBINAR
December 16 | Finding Royal Connections in Your Family Tree | WEBINAR
Online Course
The Yiddish of Yankeeland: The Jews of Boston and America, 1840–1924
Live broadcasts: November 2, 9, 16, and 23, 4:00 – 5:30 PM ET
Presented by Dr. Aaron Welt
Cost: $85
This course will explore the Jewish experience of Boston during the era of largescale Jewish immigration to the United States. Long serving as a city of refuge, Boston also emerged as an important hub in the Jewish diaspora to America. By the nineteenth century, Boston offered Jewish immigrants an urban landscape where they could create and build American Jewish culture, start their own businesses, and practice Judaism in the ways they desired. Along the way, Boston’s Jews interacted with the rich diversity of the city, coming into contact with groups they had rarely encountered in Europe; an inevitability in a metropolis with a deep Irish Catholic imprint. This course will consider the religious institutions that Boston’s Jews forged and sustained. We will also delve into New England Jewish artistic and cultural production, how Jews engaged with American politics in Boston, and what this city’s Jewish history can tell us about the general American Jewish experience in a period of diasporic resettlement.
This course includes four 90-minute classes; exclusive access to handouts and recordings of each presentation; and in-depth Q&A sessions with the instructors. This program will be hosted via Zoom. Access information will be sent to participants prior to the first broadcast.
Tuesday, November 2 4:00 PM ET
Class #1: Establishing a Community, 1840–1860
This week we will look into the origins of Boston’s Jewish community and its bedrock institutions. We will also explore general Boston history and compare the early Jewish experience in New England with that of other major urban centers, notably New York.
Tuesday, November 9, 4:00 PM ET
Class #2: Moyshe in New England’s City of Immigrants, 1860–1891
This week will focus on diasporic Jewish culture in Boston as the city became defined by the immigrant experience. We will spend time analyzing Yiddish culture in Boston, and how Jews presented themselves to native-born Americans as well as other immigrants and people of color. This week we will also consider the nativist backlash to Jewish arrival and Boston’s role in the eventual passage of immigration restriction in the early twentieth century.
Tuesday, November 16, 4:00 PM ET
Class #3: Jews and the Boston Machine, 1891–1914
In this week, we will explore Jewish politics in Boston and try to get a sense of how Jewish immigrants made sense of urban electoral politics during the era of largescale migration. In this class, we will pay particular attention to Jewish-Irish relations, on the level of politics and government, but also in people’s neighborhoods and tenement apartments. In this class we will also investigate the rise of Mayor James Michael Curley and his connection to the Jewish community of Boston.
Tuesday, November 23, 4:00 PM ETClass #4: Jewish Neighborhoods After Immigration: Dorchester and Roxbury, 1914–1924
In our final class, we will look at the Boston neighborhoods most associated with the American Jewish diaspora. We will explore the rich Jewish life that emerged in the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Roxbury in the early twentieth century. Finally, we will consider what these Jewish neighborhoods meant at the end of the era of mass migration, when the Boston’s nativists triumphed with Congressional passage of the immigrant quota system.
About the instructor: Aaron Welt is an assistant adjunct professor at Hunter College who teaches courses on American Jewish history. He received his PhD in history from New York University, and his research has been published in American Jewish History and The Journal of American Ethnic History. Currently, Dr. Welt is working on a book that explores the role of organized crime in the development of Jewish immigrant capitalism in early 20th-century New York.
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Online Course
Introduction to Heraldry for Genealogists
Live broadcasts: November 3, 10, and 17, 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
Presented by Joseph McMillan and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, FASG
Cost: $85
Heraldry is an ancient and compelling visual expression of personal and family identity. Heraldry can also be a useful lens through which to view or research family history.
In this three-week course, you will gain a systematic historical, visual, and textual introduction to heraldry and a coat of arms; a familiarity with the most important types of heraldic art, artifacts, and evidence coming from different heraldic traditions; and specific research tools and methods for evaluating heraldic evidence in the context of family history.
Instructors Joseph McMillan and Nathaniel Taylor are members of the Committee on Heraldry of NEHGS, a group of specialist staff and volunteers concerned with the study of heraldry since 1864.
This course includes three 90-minute classes; exclusive access to handouts and recordings of each presentation; and in-depth Q&A sessions with the instructors. This program will be hosted via Zoom. Access information will be sent to participants prior to the first broadcast.
Wednesday, November 3 6:00 PM ET
Class 1: What is Heraldry?
Heraldry is a unique traditional visual system of expressing personal and family identity. We will begin with the history, vocabulary, and fundamental visual building blocks of a coat of arms, including a special focus on the ways in which a coat of arms can signify genealogical relationships like marriage and descent.
Wednesday, November 10, 6:00 PM ET
Class 2: The Geography and Diversity of Heraldry
Heraldry evolved differently in different European cultures. In the United States, we are surrounded not only by British heraldry, our inheritance from the mother country of the Thirteen Colonies, but other heraldic traditions in our diverse colonial or more recent ancestry. We will survey and identify fundamental differences as well as shared elements between British, non-British, and uniquely American heraldry.
Wednesday, November 17, 6:00 PM ET
Class 3: Using a Coat of Arms in Genealogy
Is a coat of arms evidence for a particular ancestral connection? It depends! In this class you will learn to use different resources to assess the genealogical value of heraldry found in connection with genealogical research, as well as the steps to identify a coat of arms found “in the wild.”
NOTE: This copyrighted broadcast is the property of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society. Any rebroadcast without the express permission of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society is forbidden.
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Online Course
Discussing Adoption: Driving Positive Outcomes in the Search for Knowledge, Past and Present
Live Panel Discussion: November 15, 2021, 6:00 PM EDT
Access to recordings and materials starting November 8
An Online Conversation Course with lawyer Gregory Luce, genealogist Melanie McComb, and author Gabrielle Glaser
Moderator: TV Host and Author Bill Griffeth
Cost: $75
Over the past several decades, the dynamics of adoption and access to its critical records have shifted dramatically. Our society’s move toward greater openness and advances of DNA have changed the landscape for families and researchers. State by state, the laws are different: in some, secrecy still controls; in others, birth records are available to adoptees on request. Across the country, individuals are being reunited with their biological families.
This online conversation course brings together professionals from a variety of fields to discuss approaches to researching adoptions (both historical and current day), current and coming legislation, and new techniques for connecting with living family members and broadening your family tree. The panelists will also share instructive and inspiring stories, some of them personal, about the search for knowledge. Through a combination of instructive videos, educational resources, and a lively panel discussion, this unique course will give you the traction and tools you need to further your own research.
The live Q&A will be held on Zoom Video Conferencing. A link to the live session, recorded videos, bookstore voucher, and other materials will be sent to participants in early November.
Our panelists:
- Sharing strategies for a successful search, lawyer Gregory Luce will review individuals’ rights to adoption information, including their ancestors’ and their own critical records, and point to new opportunities and pending legislation.
- NEHGS Genealogist Melanie McComb will shine light on historical research of adoption and expose the nuts-and-bolts of how it’s most efficiently executed. She’ll provide insight on building out your family tree in the face of an adoption “road block.”
- Science Journalist and Author Gabrielle Glaser (American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption) will speak to big-picture cultural trends in adoption. She’ll share stories of families looking particularly at how others found success and personal satisfaction in their search.
- In addition to moderating, TV anchor and author Bill Griffeth will lend his personal insights on the topic gained through research for his coming book, Strangers No More, the sequel to his best-loved memoir The Stranger in My Genes.
This online seminar includes:
- Exclusive access to more than two hours' worth of instructive videos, plus downloaded slides, handouts, and other educational materials;
- 90-minute live conversation and Q&A with our panel of experts;
- Access to all course materials and unlimited replay of all videos
NOTE: This copyrighted broadcast is the property of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society. Any rebroadcast without the express permission of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society is forbidden.
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Webinar
Where?: Understanding Boundaries and Jurisdictions
Thursday, November 18, 3-4:00 p.m. ET
Presented by Hallie Borstel, Genealogist
Cost: FREE
Understanding where your ancestor is living at a given time can be a loaded question—and to answer it completely, you need to know the broader geo-political and historical context. And as records are most often arranged by place, the “where” becomes especially important for family historians. In this webinar, Genealogist Hallie Borstel will demonstrate how to research boundary changes and understand jurisdictional levels using maps, primary and secondary sources, and other records.
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Online Course
Researching Civil War Ancestors
Live broadcasts: December 1, 8, and 15, 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
Presented by David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist
Cost: $85
The American Civil War was a defining moment for our young country, changing its trajectory forever. Nearly 3 million Americans served, resulting in approximately 750,000 casualties: everyone living in America at that time was affected in some way by the events of 1861 to 1865 and its long aftermath. Whether your ancestor wore blue or grey, this three-week online course led by Chief Genealogist and military history expert, David Allen Lambert will explore the records, resources, and strategies for tracing Civil War veterans in your family tree.
This course includes three 90-minute classes; exclusive access to handouts and recordings of each presentation; and in-depth Q&A sessions with the instructor. This program will be hosted via Zoom. Access information will be sent to participants prior to the first broadcast.
Wednesday, December 1 6:00 PM ET
Class #1: Service Records: Union and Confederate
This first class will provide a brief history of the Civil War and its impact on each state, communities, and families. David Allen Lambert will then discuss how to determine if your ancestor served—looking for clues in the census, gravestones, family heirlooms, and more—and how to discover the details of his service, examining both Army and Navy records for the Union and Confederacy.
Wednesday, December 8, 6:00 PM ET
Class #2: Filling in the Gaps: Other Records and Resources
Now that you have verified that your ancestor served, it’s time to piece together the story of their service. Using a variety of sources including newspapers, photographs, probate records, and manuscripts, David Allen Lambert will demonstrate how to learn of the battles they served in, time spent as a prisoner of war, and the details of injuries they may have suffered.
Wednesday, December 15, 6:00 PM ET
Class #3: Post-War Records & Strategies
Following the end of the Civil War, several federal initiatives and organizations were created to support Civil War veterans. This final class will look at accessing pension files, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and United Confederate Veterans (UCV) records, and demonstrate several research strategies.
NOTE: This copyrighted broadcast is the property of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society. Any rebroadcast without the express permission of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society is forbidden.
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Author Event
Julie Flavell with The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain's Wars for America
Thursday, December 2, 1-2 p.m. ET
Moderator: Historian Mary Beth Norton
Cost: FREE
Many historians have documented the lives and exploits of Howe men including Richard Admiral Lord Howe and his younger brother British General Sir William Howe, victor in the Battle of Bunker Hill. But few have measured the influence of the Howe women including sister Caroline Howe, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and her savvy aunt Mary Herbert Countess Pembroke. Drawn from letters and correspondence, The Howe Dynasty sheds new light one of one of England’s most famous military families and forces us to reimagine the Revolutionary War. Don’t miss hearing about this unique and riveting narrative work and Julie Flavell’s discussion with the celebrated historian Mary Beth Norton.
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Author Event
Writing History: An Extended Q&A with H. W. Brands and Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution
Tuesday, December 7, 6-7:15 p.m. ET
Presented in partnership with Massachusetts Historical Society and Porter Square Books
Moderators: Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Catherine Allgor, Massachusetts Historical Society
Cost: $50
The best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist shares insights on his research and craft of writing history following a discussion of his new, page-turning narrative of the American Revolution.
In a fresh and dramatic recasting of the American Revolution, H. W. Brands reveals how the war was not simply a conflict between the American colonists and British redcoats. It was also a violent battle among neighbors, friends, and family members, affecting Ben Franklin and his relationship with his son; George Washington’s standing at the apex of Virginia society; and the lives and friendships of royal governors such as Thomas Hutchinson. Native Americans and the enslaved had daunting choices to make, too, as civil war broke out around them. Those committing sedition were ultimately remembered as heroes and Founding Fathers.
In this intimate Zoom meeting, the best-selling historian will share an illustrated presentation, join in a discussion, and answer your questions about his inspirations, research, and process behind writing his new book and other celebrated works of American history. Don’t miss this informative and inspiring literary event, which comes with a signed and personalized copy of Our First Civil War.
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Webinar
Stories from the Archives: Civil War Manuscripts
Thursday, December 9, 3-4:00 p.m. ET
Presented by Judy Lucey, Senior Archivist
Cost: FREE
UFrom 1861 to 1865, the American Civil War defined our country and everyone living in America was affected in some way by its events. This webinar will feature items from the time of the Civil War found in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections and the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS, including family correspondence, photos, diaries, and more. These archival collections represent both the Union and Confederacy sides, the concurrent slave trade, contemporary women’s voices, and the following era of Reconstruction. Each object has its unique place in history and family memory; join us to hear the stories behind these historical items.
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Webinar
A Virtual Tour of Lobkowicz Palace and its Collections
Friday, December 10, 1-2:15 p.m. ET
Presented by William Rudolf Lobkowicz
Moderated by Curt DiCamillo
Cost: $15
Once one of Bohemia’s most prominent noble families, the Lobkowiczes were forced to flee their homeland twice under both the Nazi and Communist regimes. Join William Rudolf Lobkowicz on a virtual tour through the Lobkowicz Palace Museum as he shares the story of his family’s return to their native country. Highlights from the Lobkowicz Collections include world-famous paintings by Breuegel, Canaletto and Velazquez, as well as hand-annotated manuscripts by Mozart and Beethoven.
Webinar
Finding Royal Connections in Your Family Tree
Thursday, December 16, 3-4:00 p.m. ET
Presented by Zachary J. Garceau, Researcher
Cost: FREE
So, you think you’re descended from royalty? You might be surprised to learn that a large number of Americans can claim descent from European nobility. In this webinar, Researcher Zachary J. Garceau will help you navigate some of the first steps in uncovering and proving your descent from British, French, and German royalty from the 10th through the 17th centuries. We will also look at several go-to published and online resources that can assist you along the way.
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Schedule a Private Webinar for your Group
Hire one of our experts to virtually present to your group on a subject of your choosing! Our custom webinars allow members of your group to hear and watch a presentation in real time, interact with a genealogical expert, type in questions and receive verbal responses, and have exclusive access to a recording of the presentation. Each custom webinar lasts one hour, and can serve a maximum of 500 individual registrants. Webinars may be scheduled for anytime between 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM eastern time Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; and 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM eastern time on Wednesdays.
To receive a quote and begin the booking process for a custom webinar, please complete our request form. Requests must be made at least 8 weeks prior to the intended event date. Questions? Contact: education@nehgs.org
FAQ
NEHGS webinars are FREE, live events that provide an overview of the resources, expertise, and educational opportunities available at NEHGS. Online Courses are paid, in-depth programs and offer more support material and greater access to the instructor(s). Our online education programs are open to anyone.
Anyone can register and attend our online programs.
Register for an event by clicking on the program title above or the “Register” link. After registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to join the live broadcast.
All information needed to join a live webinar is included in your confirmation email sent upon registration. You will receive the same information by email one day and one hour before the presentation. Note: Log on 5 to 10 minutes prior to the start time to download the Logmein Launcher.
All online programs are recorded for future viewing. Recorded webinars are posted to our Online Learning Center and may be viewed by anyone. Recordings of online courses are available only to registered participants of a given course.