Family History – Fun and Foibles

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Come join us on 20 September 2022 at 7pm in the Community room at the Fernandina Beach Branch Library where Joel Warner will present his discussion topic of “Family History – Fun and Foibles.” This presentation by Joel Warner goes back to England and tackles some research problems from four different families.  During a review of each of these cases, we identify interesting flukes, errors and assumptions which took us down some wrong paths. We will also look at the corrective actions which solved some problems.  Some of the problems were quite difficult, some were much easier.  Some had stayed “on the books” for many years and some were recent.  We are able to see that one of our best tools as family history researchers is a healthy skepticism.  Our goals as family historians is not to put together what probably happened or what might have happened.  Our goal is to find, through reasonable exhaustive research, what did happen.  We cannot know everything, but by linking documents together we can can be reasonably certain of many things.

Warner’s goal in this presentation is to use real cases he has worked on to demonstrate how perseverance and luck will often help research solve problems.  Some may take patience as more and more records become available.  But there is great satisfaction with connecting yourself to the real lives of the real family members who contributed to what and who you are.

Joel Warner

Joel Warner has had interest in Family History since he was a boy.  This was due to his mother and grandparents working in the area and sharing stories of how his ancestors came to America, the problems they faced and what they left behind. He finds working with others to help them progress is enriching and fulfilling. He has lived in Jacksonville for about 30 years, finally landing there after living in California, Utah, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Maryland and Australia. He is a member of the Jacksonville Genealogy Society and the Southern Genealogy Exchange Society.  He has served on the planning committee of the North Florida Genealogy Conference for many years.