The Rhode Island Genealogical Society's (RIGS) fall meeting will be held at Barrington Public Library and is open to members and the public.
Schedule of the Day & Speakers:
10 am - "Solving a Mayflower Dead End Problem" with Jeff Howe
A slideshow presentation that will reveal how Jeff solved a long-standing, unproven Rhode Island genealogical connection to the Mayflower. It has previously been well-studied but not accepted by the Mayflower community. It concerns the Block Island Mitchell family, and Experience Mitchell who married Jane Cooke, daughter of Francis Cooke.
11 am - "Rhode Island's Beginning: What They Didn't Teach Me in Seventh Grade" with Cherry Bamberg
Cherry's seventh-grade classes on RI history made it all sound so simple. Roger Williams, Anne Hutchison, John Clarke, Sameuel Gorton and their follwers were persecuted for their religious views in Massachusetts, went south, and bought land from the Native Americans. 25 years later they got a charter from Charles II that guaranteed full religious liberty. While these basic ideas are not untrue, they are very far from the whole truth. The events that led up to the Charter of 1663 are complicated, part of a political structure of New England that Cherry never learned in school.
Lunch - There will be a light lunch served by the Hospitality Committee for $5. Advanced reservations are requested, one week prior to the meeting. Contact Pat Chappell at 401.783-7006. You may also bring your own brown bag lunch.
After Lunch - "Saving Genealogical Stories" with John Stedman
The average genealogist compiles a list of ancestors and dates as far back in time as he or she can trace. When doing this research, many family stories, fact or fiction, come to light. What have you found, or been told about the lives of your early ancestors? What have you done to preserve these stories for future generations? This will be a discussion about what you can do with these, becasuse they are as much a part of your family history as that list of names and dates. This will be a presentaion of the types and sources of how these stories come to be, and where to preserve them. How do they relate to your family background, politically or historically? Whatever they are, they should be saved to become a part of your ancestral background.
2 pm - "The RIGS Story Hour"
Last spring at the annual meeting, everyone was asked to write down a story about one of their ancestors. It could be a short story or longer tale, but everyone has stories to tell about their ancestors and this will be the time to share. Please come with a story.
Free and open to all.
