Presentations

Jessica Fontana has a M.S. in Extension Education, focused on Adult Education Methods and Instructional Design from Ohio State University. She has many years of experience in technical training development and leverages this experience to crafts engaging presentations perfect for your genealogical or historical society. Please email regarding a speaking engagement: jfontana@ancestralpath.net.

Enhancing your Research with Periodicals: PERSI and JSTOR

Length: 60 minutes

This class covers the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and JSTOR (a digital library of over 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources) as tools that can enhance your genealogy research. Journal articles and publications found through PERSI and JSTOR can add context to your family’s story. Learning to use these resources will give researchers access to materials they may not know existed. This class will discuss how to use PERSI, creating effective searches, and how to access publications found in PERSI. We will also look at using the JSTOR digital library and the periodicals that are available there.

Benjamin Cobb: from enslavement to landowner in Georgia

Length: 60 Minutes

How did Benjamin Cobb make his way from working as a drayman in Atlanta to become a landowner? Take a deep dive into a case study using church member lore, probate records, land deeds, tax lists, city directories, and records from the U.S. Southern Claims Commission to follow a man from enslavement to post-emancipation in Atlanta, Georgia and his family migration to Arkansas.

Finding My Way: Researching Your Ancestor in the City 

Length: 60 Minutes

This class will discuss bringing together genealogical sources to track people living in cities. We will combine details from census records, city directories, deeds, newspapers, and maps to illuminate your ancestor and their neighborhood FAN club. We will also look at other resources you should search for beyond these basics of urban research.

A Face in the Crowd: Using city directories, maps, and more to track people in the city

Length: 90 - 105 Minutes

This course discusses bringing together different genealogical sources to track people living in cities. We will talk about combining details found in census records, city directories, deeds, newspapers, and maps to illuminate your ancestors and their neighborhood FAN club. We will dig into how to get the most information out of city directories, deeds, and maps and how to coordinate the information from these sources and to troubleshoot when a historic place no longer exists. We will examine techniques of using address correlation and map/plot analysis to know your ancestor’s neighborhood. We will also look at additional sources like building permits and tax records. This class includes examples from St. Paul, Minnesota; Atlanta, Georgia; Ithaca, New York; and Massillon, Ohio; however, the techniques and sources discussed can apply to any metropolitan area in the U.S. This class is designed for learners with an intermediate to advanced level of genealogy experience.

  • “A very engaging speaker.”

  • “I appreciate the intentionality with selected examples.”

  • “So much covered the I’ll be referring to the syllabus information.”

  • “A wonderful speaker, very engaging, very knowledgable.”

Comments from Speaking Events:

Presentations Projects in Development

  • Fled across a corn field: a study in breaking down family myths to get to the real story

    This class follows a family from Van Buren County, Iowa, who have colorful stories about their matriarch escaping with only some of her children from her father-in-law in Virginia. This class will highlight using DNA and FAN methodology to identify Samuel Washington Spencer’s parents.

  • Making the Leap: following U.S. immigrant ancestors back to Hungary

    Hungarian research is complicated by country and district changed over time. This class will discuss how to gather U.S. records to help you make the jump to Hungary and then using Hungarian Civil records and Catholic and Reformed Church records to find your family. Case examples from Szabolcs, Veszprem, and Abauj-Torna counties.

  • Two Abraham Millers: untangling same-named people before 1850

    We will be examining building two family networks, evaluating locations, diving deep into land and tax records and ordering records from NARA to differentiate two men with the same name, whose sons also had the same name, who lived in the same county at the same time.