Eastside Genealogical Society has a new Special Interest Group (SIG), an Artificial Intelligence SIG which meets on the third Tuesday of most months at 2PM.
The purpose of it is to learn together about using AI to help with our genealogy, encourage each other, and share information, tips, and resources.
Topics for discussion this month: Creating Effective AI Prompts Which AI tools work best for different tasks?
EGS is planning a field trip to Heritage Quest Research Library (HQRL) in Puyallup, WA. The First 10 EGS members to sign up will be free – all others will need to pay the $15 day use fee.
Details:
Thursday, May 21, 2026, in place of May EGS Lunch Bunch
Meet at FamilySearch Center, 10675 NE 20th Street, Bellevue
8:45 AM—Gathering time—for carpooling
$15 day charge for library usage for non-members of HQRL
$40 to join HQRL (Individual), then day usage fee included for a year
FamilySearch Affiliate Library
Extensive library of books and resources; some available for purchase at huge discounts
Bring a lunch, or buy a lunch nearby (bakery and café in same complex)
RSVP to Kimberly Nichols—let her know if you will be meeting us there or carpooling
Those carpooling will return to Bellevue mid-afternoon
Date: May 16, 2026 (Saturday) Time: 1:30 PM (PT) Topic: Staying Behind in Italy during the Age of Mass Migration – Everyday Life for Our Ancestors in Italy Presenter: Victoria Calabrese
Description: This presentation will discuss daily life in Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the period of mass emigration. The presentation will include information about home life, economics, society, gender roles, the emigration process, and what life was like for those who remained behind. This presentation gives a fuller perspective of the migration process, including not just those who migrated, but including those who never migrated, showing how their lives were affected just as much as those migrating.
Presenter: Victoria Calabrese Victoria Calabrese received her Ph.D. in modern European history from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Her research focuses on modern Italian history, gender, migration, and nation building. Her book, Italian Women in Basilicata: Staying Behind but Moving Forward during the Age of Mass Emigration, 1876–1914, was published by Lexington Books in 2022. The book examines women in the southern Italian region of Basilicata and the many ways their lives changed when their husbands emigrated. In addition to the women who remained behind, she has written articles on honor and infanticide, and on traveling child musicians. Victoria is an avid genealogist, focusing on southern Italian genealogy research. She is currently an adjunct professor at Lehman College, teaching courses in early modern and modern European history.
Eastside Genealogical Society German Interest Group
Presenter: Dana Palmer, CG®, CGL®
Dana specializes in Midwestern research, lineage society applications, and publishing family books.
In addition to her client work, she is part of the Mayflower Silver Books team, and lectures at RootsTech and the National Genealogical Society (NGS) conferences.
Her book Ultimate Guide to Mastering Family Search was released in print and digitally in November 2025.
When: Friday, 5th of June, 2026 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Discussion will show how analyzing church records, obituaries, cemetery and other records led to the discovery of the unknown father and his origins in Germany. This is a great example of using cluster research to find elusive ancestors.
On the third Thursday of most months, from 11:30 to 1:00, we meet in a reserved room in the church across from the FamilySearch Center, at 10675 NE 20th Street, Bellevue. Bring lunch from home or buy food at a nearby local location.
Use the FamilySearch Center Library with databases either available only by subscription or unavailable online. Bring your laptop. The library is open until 6:00 PM. No reservation required.
Our speaker: Paula Williams Thursday, May 14, 2026 Networking and announcements at 6:30 PM PT; program at 7:00 PM PT Registration is required for this meeting.
About our speaker: Paula has been researching for more than two decades in primarily southern US states and has been using DNA to solve problems for more than a decade. She’s a board member of the Virginia Genealogical Society and of the Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia (GRIVA) and is the facilitator for the latter’s DNA Special Interest Group. Paula taught and has lectured widely. She also serves as the Virtual Tech Coordinator for the GRIP Genealogy Institute.
About our program: Online trees, record hints, DNA predictions, and ethnicity estimates are often shunned, but can still provide valuable clues for our research and lead us to newly available record sets. We’ll discuss ways to evaluate the hints and determine which to use and which to lose!
Get genealogy help at the Bellevue Library Computer Lab 1111 110th Avenue NE Bellevue, WA 98004 We are available to help on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of most months. No registration is required. Get in-person assistance with…
Eastside Genealogical Society German Interest Group
Presenter: Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz
Julie is a genealogist, writer, and speaker with nearly 30 years of experience in researching her family’s origins in Poland, Germany, the U.S., and Canada.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the State University of New York in Buffalo and a master’s degree in endocrinology from the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves as President of the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State (PGSNYS) and has previously served as Vice-President for the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium, Inc, and Secretary of the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts (PGSMA). Her articles have been published in the newsletters of a number of genealogical societies, and she is the author of a genealogy blog, From Shepherds and Shoemakers
When:Friday, 1st of May, 2026 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
After a brief overview of Poland’s changing borders and their impact on the languages in which historical records were created, Julie will explain the process of identifying one’s ancestral village and illustrate the use of gazetteers to determine the parish and civil registry offices. She will introduce key websites for locating historical records online and offline, with an emphasis on sites that offer indexed records and digital images. Julie will suggest strategies to help you get around the language barrier, and demonstrate how you can trace your Polish ancestry from the comfort of your own home.
