Family History

Do you have a box or several albums of old family pictures that you are not quite sure what to do with? Do you have letters and maybe other documents from your grandparents or great grandparents that are important to you to preserve? Are there family stories that need to be written down for your grandchildren? Or perhaps you just want to find out more about your ancestors and are not sure where or how to begin.

See all
UMRA events.

The UMRA Family History Interest Group started in October 2020. The idea is to learn how others have researched their family history and what they have done with the important pieces of their family history.

During 2022-2023 the UMRA Family History Interest Group will continue to meet by Zoom on Wednesdays from 10 to 11 a.m. Our sessions will be:

October 19, 2022: Family History Tourism—traveling to places our ancestors came from. Kevina and Lee Munnich Jr. 

December 7, 2022: How to use your DNA analysis. John Anderson, Larry Rudnick, Craig Swan

February 15, 2023: Ways to engage family members in Family History. Jan Morlock, Donna Weispfenning

April 12, 2023: Current Family History—telling the stories of generations still living. Vicki Gaylord, Larry Rudnick

May 17, 2023: Family Stories. Jeanne Matross and then general Q and A with Lynn C. Anderson and Craig Swan

Please contact Lynn Anderson <[email protected]> or Craig Swan <[email protected]> to get on the email list for the FHIG.

Links to upcoming events, and resource handouts are below.  See all Family History events and recordings, both upcoming and past.


My Family History

Will Craig

Starting with a short family story from my Grandmother, I traced and documented the Civil War experiences of my great grandfather, George Swift.

More...

Lynn Anderson

My paternal grandfather Hildum Anselm Anderson was in France during the WWI and in France, Luxembourg, and Germany after WWI...

More...

John Anderson

Using information gathered from family members I have put together a document about my paternal grandfather's family consisting of names, spouse names, progeny and birth dates that includes more than a hundred persons.

More...

Ron Matross

I wanted to share with my descendants my memories of growing up on the edge of Yellowstone Park.

More...

Jim Lewis

My husband and I helped my mother write her autobiography.

More...

Karen LaBat

I have letters my father wrote to his parents during World War II. He served in the Cannon Company, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

More...

Gary Engstrand

My parents’ albums, dating from the early 1900s to the 1960s, were falling apart and the pages were yellowing. I put everything on acid-free paper/plastic so I could at least preserve the photos.

More...

Will Craig

…how I've organized photos for my family.

More...