June 4, 2013
People of the National Road
James K. Jeffrey
The National Road was the first major highway in the United States built by the federal government. Construction began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland on the road that would, by 1841, stretch more than 600 miles between Baltimore and Vandalia, Illinois. The National Road served as a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers. Did your family take this road west or stop along the way? Today, much of the old route is followed by U.S. highway 40.
 
James has been with the Denver Public Library since 1985 and genealogy collection specialist since 1988. He is a past recipient of the P. William Filby Award for Excellence in Genealogical Librarianship from the National Genealogical Society. He is past president of the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies and the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists. More recently, James will be the lead-off speaker at Librarians’ Day which precedes the NGS national conference in Las Vegas.


July 2, 2013
Maybe They Teleported: Finding Those Elusive Passenger Lists
Carol Stetser
Passenger lists are some of the most sought-after records by genealogists. Even non-genealogists are interested in finding out in which ships their ancestors “crossed the pond.” However, passenger lists can be very difficult to find due to name misspellings, poor handwriting and sloppy indexing. This presentation gives a brief history of what passenger lists can be found for what eras and details some techniques that help researchers find their passenger lists. It also gives some hints on going “beyond” passenger lists to add context to ancestors’ emigration stories in the form of newspaper articles, pictures and more.
 
Carol Stetser is an avid genealogist who has served in various capacities for the Larimer County Genealogical Society. In addition to researching her own family, Carol volunteers as the researcher for LCGS and volunteers online to help out-of-area researchers find records for their families. She also gives presentations on various aspects of genealogical research and writes “how-to” articles for “Fifty Plus Marketplace” newsletter. Recently, Carol participated in a series of genealogy television programs for Larimer County Genealogical Society. In addition, Carol is the secretary for the Swedish Genealogical Society of Colorado and is presently participating in a cemetery program for her local DAR chapter.