**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Meeting via email.** 

The Tewksbury Genealogy Group, which meets the first Monday of every month, is open to everyone who's interested in genealogy. Each meeting -- which will take place via Zoom -- consists of a presentation from a guest speaker (typically a professional genealogist), followed by a period where members can briefly share their latest genealogy research, and then the library will share a genealogy resource its patrons can access for free. 

The presentation for the October 2021 meeting is "Irish Genealogy Before 1800" with Thomas Toohey. Most Irish-Americans who research their ancestors are happy when they can trace them back to the 19th Century. There are few easily available name specific records before that time. Irish researchers, on the other hand, know where their great-grandparents lived. They want to know where their name originated and why their ancestors moved to a new location. This presentation offers sources and a method for doing more extensive search. Toohey is a modern day Irish storyteller who has traveled to Ireland 19 times and collected hundreds of stories. He comes to this tradition naturally as his parents were great storytellers. In the last few years, Toohey has recorded his family stories in a five volume book called "Images of Other Lives." he was a teacher for 40 years, teaching at all levels from elementary school through graduate school as a public school teacher, adjunct professor and educational consultant. 

Register directly on Zoom HERE. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.