# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Genealogy Workshop
- **Event Start and End Date**: Sat, 26 Sep, 2026 at 09:00 am (-04:00)
- **Event Description**: Join us for a day of genealogy fun! Learn how to research your long-lost family or to document your family tree for future generations. There will be speakers and hands-on learning throughout the session. 

Each registered person will receive a bag of goodies, along with drawings for door prizes. 

Lunch is also included in the registration.

Registration fee: $25

Contact Susan Parker at 423-869-6583 or by email susan.parker@lmunet.edu 

Schedule for Genealogy Workshop

9:00 – 9:45 – Dr. Michael Lynch – Finding Your Revolutionary War & Frontier Ancestors
Your family tree may include people who participated in some of the most dramatic events of America’s founding era. This session provides an overview of the pension records, manuscripts, books, and online resources that will help you reconstruct their experiences, with a special focus on the southern campaigns of the Revolutionary War and the eighteenth-century backcountry.
9:45 - 10:30 – Susan Parker, PhD Candidate - Where were the Women?
Finding the women in your family tree can be one of the most challenging parts of genealogical research, especially in Appalachia, where women often appear in records only as wives, widows, daughters, or mothers. This session explores practical strategies for bringing these often-overlooked ancestors back into view by looking beyond traditional census and marriage records to wills, probate files, deeds, court cases, guardianship records, church records, pension applications, newspapers, and the records of relatives and neighbors. Special attention will be given to Appalachian challenges such as changing county boundaries, migration through Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and surrounding areas, surname changes, and the importance of kinship and community networks. Participants will learn how small clues scattered across different records can be pieced together to answer the question: Where were the women?
10:30 - 10:45 – Break
10:45 – 11:30 – Dr. Katherine Pebworth – Breaking Down the Brick Walls
Do you have a genealogical brick wall? Wonder how to break it down? This presentation explains strategies for overcoming “brick walls” in genealogical research by looking beyond the direct family line and examining the FAN Club. It also emphasizes using a wide variety of records, including census records, land and court documents, wills, church records, military files, newspapers, passenger records, and manuscript collections. The presentation encourages researchers to build timelines, compare evidence, investigate collateral family members, cite sources, and look for patterns and connections. Overall, successful genealogy research is presented as a puzzle in which many pieces of evidence must be brought together to build and prove a family story.
11:30 - 12:30 – Lunch
12:30 – 1:15 – Alexandria Olsen and Olivia Coyne – Caring for Your Family Documents & Using the Museum & LMU Archives
Join archivists Olivia Coyne and Alexandria Olson for an introductory crash course in genealogy. This session includes where to begin, resources for your journey, and how to take care of your family's history. 

1:15 – 2:00 – Dr. Jonathan Smallwood – Reading the Object: What a Curator Sees That You Might Not
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln carried to Ford’s Theatre two pairs of spectacles in his pockets, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a lens polisher, a linen handkerchief, a sleeve button, and a leather wallet holding a Confederate five-dollar bill and several favorable newspaper clippings. Although the fact of his assassination usually overshadows these items, they do record the habits of a person which the written account may fail to include.
While family historians are trained to examine documents, objects usually come with an interpretation already attached. This can lead to them being seldom subjected to the kind of deep examination that a census record or a probate file would undergo. In this session, attendees will be taught the approach that museum curators employ when examining artifacts: a rigorous physical description, then deductions based on wear and the way the object has been handled, and only after that do they make speculations that can then be checked against the archival record. The real discipline is in the first step, where most of us tend to jump ahead to the family legend and miss important clues that only objects can tell.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/harrogate/genealogy-workshop/200030489296259
- **Event Categories**: workshops, art, fine-arts, theatre, kentucky-derby
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 35

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Harrogate
- **state**: TN
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 6965 Cumberland Gap Pkwy, Harrogate, TN, United States, Tennessee 37752
- **lat**: 36.58059
- **long**: -83.65668
- **full address**: 6965 Cumberland Gap Pkwy, Harrogate, TN, United States, Tennessee 37752

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Genealogy Workshop
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events5/banners/886aa2ee8f2ed167c0d0edf75b853f8281968bea28f7e6417664515f72ee3850-rimg-w960-h720-dc484828-gmir?v=1787792293

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Genealogy Workshop being held?
  - **A:** Genealogy Workshop takes place on Sat, 26 Sep, 2026 at 09:00 am to Sat, 26 Sep, 2026 at 09:00 am at 6965 Cumberland Gap Pkwy, Harrogate, TN, United States, Tennessee 37752.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Genealogy Workshop?
  - **A:** Genealogy Workshop is organized by Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Genealogy Workshop is ideal for curious learners, students, and skill-builders looking to gain hands-on knowledge and practical expertise in a focused, interactive setting. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Harrogate, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If Genealogy Workshop sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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