Tina Beaird to speak at Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois meeting:

“Courthouse Finds” will be the topic of a presentation by genealogist Tina Beaird at the Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. Her presentation will begin at 2 p.m. at Temple Beth-El, 3610 Dundee Road, Northbrook, Ill.

Courthouses are great resources for personal family history. Probate files, chancery cases, land sales and lawsuits are just a few of the types of records one can find in local courthouse files. Tina will share tips and tricks for family researchers to identify and secure these records.

Tina Beaird is the owner of Tamarack Genealogy and is a genealogy and local history librarian at the Plainfield Public Library. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree with a specialization in archives/preservation from Dominican University. She has won multiple research and digitization grants to preserve and digitize historic documents and photographs.

Currently, she is a board director of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the Northern Illinois Historic League and the Illinois State Historic Records Advisory Board as well as a commissioner for the Illinois World War One Centennial Commission. Tina is also an active member of the Society of American Archivists and the American Library Association. She volunteers, as time permits, for Illinois history and genealogical societies.

Tina lectures at the national, state and local levels on topics including genealogical methodology, military records and archival preservation. She has offered assistance to researchers for over 15 years and occasionally still finds time to conduct her own family research, which she has been pursuing for over 20 years.

The JGSI meeting facilities at Temple Beth-El will open at 12:30 p.m. for those who want to use or borrow genealogy library materials, get help with genealogy websites or ask genealogical questions from genealogy expert volunteers before the main program begins at 2 p.m. For more information, see jgsi.org or phone 312-666-0100.

At each regular JGSI monthly meeting, its “help desk” operates from 12:30 to 1:55 p.m. Member volunteers access online databases and answer genealogical questions one-on-one for members and visitors as time allows.

The JGSI library has more than 800 volumes of interest to Jewish family historians. Many are available for borrowing by JGSI members for a limited time. All are available for perusing from 12:30 to 1:55 p.m. at each regular monthly meeting.