Lives In Context

Genealogy is so much more than names, dates, and locations. Family history can come alive when the lives of those named ancestors are put into the full context of their times and places. This brand new course will use a variety of case studies to focus on methods to add depth, breadth, and richness to our family stories by examining economic, ethnic, legal, religious, social, and other contexts impacting our ancestors.

Day 1: Putting Lives In Context

Instructor: Judy Russell, JD CG CGL FUGA

Bills, Balances & Bandages: Everyday Records with Hidden Stories 

Names and dates don’t tell a life story. If we want more than a skeleton of our ancestors’ lives, we have to dig deeper. That means looking beyond the usual records and going to the people who documented their world—doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, bankers, and storekeepers. These folks kept the receipts, wrote the notes, and filed the paperwork that holds the real human details. Their records give us the color, the texture, the why behind the what. This is where family history starts being real.

Ink & Insight: Newspapers as Narrative Gold

Newspapers are the whispered breath of a town, the pulse of a people captured in ink and paper. They carry the voices our ancestors heard, the scandals they gossiped about, the triumphs they cheered, the sorrows they mourned. In every column and headline, we can see not just events, but emotions—not just facts, but the spirit of a time. To truly walk in our ancestors’ footsteps, to hear the rhythm of their days and the dreams of their nights, we need to into the papers they lived by. There, their world waits—noisy, messy, glorious, and real.

Manuscripts: Letters, Ledgers, Diaries & Dust 

Nothing brings family history to life like manuscripts. Holding a document crafted by an ancestor is a thrill—and even more powerful when it gives voice to those missing from the official record. Even if our own families left no writings behind, we can still uncover the letters, diaries, and everyday writings of their neighbors, friends, and communities—offering vivid glimpses into the world our ancestors lived in and the stories they never got to tell.

Day 2: Issei, Nisei, Sansei: Japanese Immigrants and Their U.S. Descendants 

Instructor: Linda Harms Okazaki

Japanese Immigration to the U.S. 

Japanese began to emigrate to the U.S. and the territory of Hawai’i soon after the Chinese Exclusion Act was created, though some did arrive earlier. Laws and events in the U.S. and Japan impacted the immigration experience, including who could or could not travel, and when or whether they could emigrate. Immigration documents and laws will be examined to better understand the Japanese immigration experience from the earliest days through the 1950s.

Blending the Old with the New 

Japanese immigrants and their descendants established lives in the U.S. and Hawai’i, sharing their traditions and customs while also integratng Western traditions. This lecture will examine their lives, their successes, and their hardships, through education, employment, marriage, religion, and racist exclusionary tactics.

Incarceration and Internment During WWII 

World War II was the defining moment of the 20th-century Japanese American experience on the West Coast. More than 125,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry were detained in various facilities around the country. The details of their experiences have been documented in federal records and manuscript collections.

Weaving the Threads of Evidence to Tell a Multigenerational Story: A Case Study

Sansuke Nii immigrated from Japan to Mexico in 1907, eventually settling in Placer County, California. The story of his life, his Hawaiian-born wife, and the lives of his descendants can be recreated using federal records, manuscripts, photos, and oral history.

Day 3: Adding Depth to the Departed: The Stories at the End of the Story

Instructor: Judy Russell, JD CG CGL FUGA

Not Just Old Age: Tracing Truth in the Cause of Death 

It’s not just when and where an ancestor died. Death is part of the human experience, and we need to move beyond dates and places to tell the real story behind an ancestor’s death. We’ll learn how digging into causes of death—and the social, medical, and historical forces behind them—can transform dry facts into rich, human stories and bring ancestors’ lives into sharper, more meaningful focus.

Final Verdict: Coroners’ Records in Family History 

From medieval England to today, sudden death has demanded a reckoning. Often, it was the local coroner—a farmer, shopkeeper, or tavern-keeper, with no special training—who stood between mystery and truth, picking through the wreckage of a life cut short, searching for answers. The records coroners and their juries left behind—raw, human, and often heartbreaking—can open windows into our family histories that no ordinary death certificate ever could.

When Tragedy Strikes: Epidemics and Disasters 

Plagues, storms, fires, and floods—disasters left deep marks on the lives of those who came before us. In this session, we’ll explore how to find the echoes of these events in historical records and family lore. By tracing the path of calamity through our ancestors’ lives, we can add rich, emotional depth to our family history, incorporating the powerful context of loss, resilience and survival.

The Grim Reaper and the Robertsons: A Case Study 

From sunken ships to the Spanish flu, from infant mortality to drowning, the story of one Southern family is one that can’t be told without carefully considering all the ways the Grim Reaper came to call. 

Day 4: Researching Enslaved African Americans in the Antebellum Period

Instructor: LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD LLM CG CGL FASG

Historical Background 

Genealogy standards for researching contemplate the consideration of historical context, a factor that has heightened significance when researching enslaved ancestors due to the dearth of direct evidence of relationships or identities. The first lecture in this session will provide an overview of historical developments that resulted in the creation of records of particular relevance to those of African descent with roots in the antebellum period. 

Strategies for Using The Records of Slavery 

In addition to highlighting selected records of particular use to those of African descent with roots in the antebellum period, this session will cover strategies for researching in this area and the utility of these records.

DNA Basics

Reasonably exhaustive research in non-genetic sources is necessary to obtain enough documentary evidence to run meaningful DNA tests that could reveal conflicting or supporting evidence. This session will review decision points involved in planning DNA tests and integrating the results into a proof argument regarding enslaved ancestors.

Parents for Isaac Garrett : A Case Study 

The Isaac Garrett Case Study (“Parents for Isaac Garrett of Laurens County, South Carolina: DNA Corroborates Oral Tradition,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 108 (June 2020): 85-112) won the NGSQ Award for excellence in 2021. This session will set forth the case for Isaac’s relationship to an enslaved couple named Samuel and Nancy Garrett, based primarily on indirect and DNA evidence.

Day 5: Rogues, Rascals & Rapscallions

Instructor: Judy Russell, JD CG CGL FUGA

Crime, Punishment, and Paper Trails 

Beyond just dates and places of incarceration, criminal records can open an extraordinary window into an ancestor’s life. In this session, we’ll chase ancestors through every gritty step of the criminal process — arrest, trial, lockup, parole. Lawbreakers didn’t just break rules — they made records, tons of them. And for a genealogist, there’s no better treasure than a life lived loudly on paper.

Deadbeats, Drunks, and Defaulters 

Every family has them—the debtors and deadbeats of the past. All of them left behind a rich paper trail. This session dives into the overlooked world of ancestors who struggled to pay their dues, showing how lawsuits, debtor prisons, and financial woes can reveal deeply human stories and add unexpected texture and context to your family history.

Breaking Ties: Divorce, Desertion, and Disappearing Acts 

Sometimes the biggest gaps in a family story aren’t caused by death, but by desertion or divorce. In this session, we’ll dig into the rich, revealing records left behind when marriages broke apart. We’ll focus on using often-overlooked resources of divorce and deservtion to add color, drama, and crucial context to our family history, keeping in mind that behind every runaway spouse or bitter divorce lies a story begging to be told.

That Rascal George: A Case Study 

He lied, he cheated, he fought, he may even have killed. And he also fathered, farmed, paid taxes and defended. The life of George Washington Cottrell of Texas is a case study of a rogue, rascal and rapscallion.