Topics in Social History: Our Ancestor's 20th Century Lives

Social history examines the lived experiences of everyday people, uncovering how societal forces shaped their lives. In this course, we will focus on one pivotal dimension of our family histories: the 20th century. The social, cultural, and economic currents of our ancestors’ time profoundly influenced their lives. While genealogical records and documents provide invaluable insights, they capture only part of the story. To truly understand the world our ancestors inhabited, we must delve into the events, challenges, and changes that shaped their experiences. This course explores life in the 20th century through the lens of individual and family experiences, addressing themes such as adoption, economic hardship, unemployment, violence, labor, and more. Students will examine how broader societal trends—like shifts in family structures, occupational roles, and community dynamics—impacted everyday life. Through lectures, case studies, and guided research, participants will learn to find historical records, uncover the nuances of their ancestors’ lives, and build a complete understanding of family histories. By the end of the course, students will have gained a deeper appreciation of 20th-century history and the tools to enrich their genealogical research.

Day 1

Everyday Lives in Context: Social History Sources for 20th-Century Genealogy, Part 1

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture introduces the principles and practices of social history as they relate to genealogical research in the 20th century. Emphasizing the importance of situating individuals and families within their broader social, cultural, and economic contexts, the session explores how major historical developments. We will discuss the types of sources that illuminate these experiences, including census records, newspapers, city directories, oral histories, employment and union records, military and wartime documentation, school and institutional records, and material culture. Students will learn how to interpret these sources not just for factual data, but as windows into the everyday lives. This foundational lecture sets the stage for more in-depth study and practical application in uncovering and understanding the social history of 20th-century ancestors that we will explore in this course.

Everyday Lives in Context: Social History Sources for 20th-Century Genealogy, Part 2

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

Snapshots in Time: Using Photo Collections to Tell 20th Century Stories

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture explores the power of photographs as historical documents and storytelling tools in 20th century social history. We will examine how personal, institutional, and press photo collections can illuminate everyday life, cultural change, and major historical events. Students will learn how to analyze photographs for context, bias, and meaning, and how to incorporate visual sources into broader historical narratives.

Genealogy “U”:  Hidden Treasures in Academic Libraries

Instructor: Lisa Oberg

Academic library collections include books, journals, maps, newspapers, special collections, and databases that can make heading back to school well worth your time!

Day 2

Beyond Names and Dates: Using AI to Explore Your Ancestors’ Communities Part 1

Instructor: Diana Elder, AG, AGL

Learn how to research the places your ancestors lived in the 20th century and use AI tools to uncover their social story. This class teaches you to set clear research goals and create timelines that connect family events to local developments. Discover how AI can help you find sources such as local newspapers, maps, and community records that reveal everyday life in your ancestors’ neighborhoods and towns. You’ll learn to ask AI effective questions about historical contexts and evaluate the information it provides. By combining traditional place-based research with AI assistance, you’ll go beyond basic records to build a richer understanding of how your ancestors experienced their communities.

Beyond Names and Dates: Using AI to Explore Your Ancestors’ Communities Part 2

Instructor: Diana Elder, AG, AGL

Photobooths and Everyday Life in the 20th Century

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture delves into the cultural and historical significance of photobooths as both a popular form of personal expression and a valuable resource for researchers. From their debut in the 1920s through their mid-century heyday, photobooths offered ordinary people an affordable and spontaneous way to capture moments of daily life. We will explore the technological evolution of photobooths and their use across generations for everything from fun to formality—including ID photos, romantic keepsakes, and documentation during wartime. We will also discuss how these intimate, often overlooked images can enrich genealogical narratives and serve as artifacts of the broader social history of the 20th century.

Enduring the Crash: Family Survival from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression

Instructor: Katherine R. Willson

From Wall Street crashes to breadlines, this session explores the cascading events of the Panics of 1901 and 1907 and the Great Depression. The economic turbulence disrupted jobs and wages, strained access to housing and food, and separated families out of necessity. We’ll discuss research strategies and record sets that document our ancestors’ experiences of hardship and resilience during the financial turmoil of early 20th century America.

Day 3

Genealogy and the Politics of ‘Better Breeding’: An Introduction to Eugenics in 20th-Century America

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega

This lecture introduces students to the history of the American eugenics movement and its unsettling intersections with genealogy, public health, and state policy in the 20th century. We will examine how eugenic ideologies—promoting the idea of improving society through controlled reproduction—shaped records, institutions, and family narratives. Topics include “Fitter Family” contests at state fairs, compulsory sterilization laws, the institutionalization of those deemed “unfit,” and the role of birth certificates and family histories in tracking hereditary “fitness.” The session highlights how genealogical tools were co-opted to support eugenic goals and how these ideas impacted marginalized communities, including immigrants, the poor, people with disabilities, and communities of color. This lecture challenges genealogists to confront the legacy of eugenics and consider the responsibilities of documenting the past.

Sealed Histories: Tracing the Evolution of Adoption in 20th Century America

Instructor: Kristi L. Sexton, MS

Adoption practices in the 20th century reshaped American families—and left genealogists with unique challenges. This session traces the historical evolution of adoption in the United States, from informal placements and orphan trains to the era of sealed records and agency adoptions. We’ll explore the shifting social attitudes toward illegitimacy, confidentiality, and kinship, and how they impacted the creation—and concealment—of family ties. Attendees will gain insight into how adoption laws varied by state, the emergence of transracial and international adoptions, and the rise of the adoptee rights movement. Understanding this complex history is key to interpreting adoption-related records and building accurate, ethical family trees.

From Sauerkraut to Liberty Cabbage, Anti-German Activities During WWI

Instructor: Lisa Oberg

When the U.S. entered World War I, suspicions soon turned to Americans whose roots were connected to the countries in the Central Powers, including Germany and Austria. Germans have been established in the United States from the earliest days of the colonies and were the largest minority group in the U.S. at the time of the 1910 census. World War I changed that, and the effect on German culture and language was significant. The Espionage Act of 1917 saw neighbors turn on neighbors to report unAmerican activities, the establishment of alien registration, and campaigns to eradicate anything with German origins… including sauerkraut!

The Link Between America’s Anti-Immigration Sentiment, Prohibition, the Mafia, and the U.S. Border Patrol

Instructor: Katherine R. Willson

Discover how early 20th century fears about immigrants fueled sweeping changes to America’s laws, borders, and black markets. This session connects the dots between anti-German sentiment after World War I, the rise of Prohibition, the growth of organized crime, and the transformation of U.S. border agencies from revenue collection to maintaining border control.

Day 4

Votes for All: Expanding Suffrage in 20th-Century America

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture explores the long and intersecting struggles for voting rights in 20th-century America, focusing on the movements that sought to extend the franchise to women, African Americans, and Native Americans. Beginning with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, we will examine how the women’s suffrage movement achieved a major milestone while also reflecting racial and class divisions. The presentation then turns to the persistent efforts of African Americans to overcome voter suppression, disenfranchisement, and violence, culminating in the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We will also trace the lesser-known but critical story of Native American suffrage. By examining the fight for suffrage through multiple lenses, this session equips students to understand how access to the vote was contested, won, and still remains a vital part of our genealogical and historical record.

Uprooted: Genealogy and the Social History of the Dust Bowl

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture examines the Dust Bowl as a case study in social disruption, migration, and resilience, offering students tools to trace and contextualize ancestors affected by this environmental and economic catastrophe of the 1930s. We will explore the geographic scope of the Dust Bowl, its causes, and its profound impact on rural families—particularly in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Special attention will be given to the mass internal migration it triggered, including the “Okie” diaspora to California and other western states. Students will be introduced to key genealogical and social history sources such as agricultural census schedules, land records, WPA narratives, relief and resettlement agency records, school and church registers, and photographic collections like those of the Farm Security Administration. By situating family stories within the larger context of environmental hardship and federal response, this session helps genealogists reconstruct the experiences of those who endured and adapted during one of America’s most iconic periods of struggle and change.

The Story of Newspaper Cooking Schools in 20th-Century America

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture explores the world of newspaper cooking schools—an innovative blend of education, advertising, and community engagement that flourished across the United States in the early to mid-20th century. Sponsored by newspapers and food companies, these schools brought professional home economists—charismatic women educators—into public auditoriums to teach cooking, nutrition, and modern domestic skills to local women. Students will learn how to trace cooking school events in historical newspapers, explore the careers of the women who led them, and use these sources to better understand the everyday lives of female ancestors and their communities. This session highlights how food, media, and marketing intersected to create a uniquely American phenomenon—and how these ephemeral events left lasting imprints in both public records and private family memory.

Built by Hand: Tracing Ancestors Through the WPA and New Deal America

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture explores the history and legacy of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of the most ambitious and far-reaching programs of the New Deal era. Created in 1935 to combat the widespread unemployment of the Great Depression, the WPA provided jobs to millions of Americans in public works, the arts, historical preservation, and education. Students will learn how to locate and use the diverse records generated by the WPA, including employment records, project files, oral histories, and documentation from programs like the Federal Writers’ Project, Historical Records Survey, and Federal Art Project. We will discuss how ancestors may have participated in WPA initiatives—as laborers, writers, artists, or beneficiaries of local infrastructure projects—and how to trace their involvement.

Day 5

From The Church to The Park: The Rise of the Memorial Park and Changing Death Practices in the 20th Century

Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR

This lecture traces the evolution of burial landscapes in the 20th century, focusing on the emergence of the memorial park and its departure from traditional cemetery design. We will explore the origins of the memorial park movement—its aesthetics, philosophies, and the social values it reflected—including the shift toward uniformity, perpetual care, and serene, park-like settings. Students will examine how these changes paralleled broader transformations in attitudes toward death, mourning, and remembrance in modern society. Topics will include the decline of elaborate Victorian mourning customs, the rise of cremation, and the commercialization of funeral services

Howard Lowe of Polk County, Minnesota: A Case Study.

Instructor: Gary Ball-Kilbourne, MDiv, PhD, CG, CGL

Student Presentations