MELINDA KUSHUBA, Speaker at Family History Day

It is a pleasure to introduce Melinda Kashuba who will be a speaker at Family History Day at the California State Archives.

Melinda Kashuba holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a popular lecturer and author of Walking with Your Ancestors: a Genealogist’s Guide to Using Maps and Geography (Family Tree Books, 2005) plus numerous articles in genealogical magazines and other publications. She performs genealogical research for clients and is a member of the National Genealogical Society, the Association of Professional Genealogists, California State Genealogical Alliance, and the Shasta County Genealogical Society.

Melinda possesses archival, library and courthouse research experience throughout California, Nevada, and Hawaii as well as at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, the Daughters of the American Revolution Library, and The Newberry Library in Chicago. Her expertise is in nineteenth and twentieth century American genealogical sources including, of course, maps. She lives with her family in Northern California.

Melinda Kashuda will be presenting two classes at Family History Day:

Using Military Maps in Genealogical Research
Did your ancestor serve in the military? Have you considered locating maps to help tell the story of his or her service? Did your ancestor own land where a famous battle was fought? Were your family members residing in the South during the Civil War but you are not sure of the location of their property? Chances are great that you can locate a map created by the military to help you answer many of these questions. The Civil War was the first major war that was documented thoroughly by military cartographers on both sides of the conflict. During and after the Civil War, newspapers and book publishers also created maps to help tell the story of particular battles. This lecture is designed to show you how to access maps both in print and online related to military-map making during times of war and peace.

Civil War Research
As a product of a “mixed marriage” between a Southern father descended from Confederates, and a Northern mother, descended from Union veterans, Melinda Kashuba grew up hearing a lot about the Civil War. Spend a quick forty minutes with her learning the basics of how to research a Union or Confederate ancestor. Several major online Civil War databases will be shown. Even if your ancestor did not serve, your Southern family may have made a claim against the U.S. government or had to swear an oath of allegiance to the federal government in order to reinstate their rights. The major lineage societies related to the Civil War and their requirements for membership will be briefly mentioned.