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• IGSI Hybrid Webinar: Old Records, New Tools: An Introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) for Genealogists (Webinar - live & online)

  • When
    16 May 2026
  •  
    10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    A hybrid presentation on Zoom - LIVE audience at the MGC

  Old Records, New Tools: An Introduction to Artificial
  Intelligence (AI) for Genealogists

  Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 10:30 am-12:00 pm

  An IGSI hybrid event  - LIVE audience at the Minnesota Genealogy Center in Mendota Heights

  

  
  

  Presented by
  Mary Wickersham and Gigi Hickey

  
  

  Curious about AI but not sure where to start—or whether it's even relevant to tracing your ancestors? Our speakers will show you how today's AI tools can help you with brick walls, faded documents, and mysterious townlands that every family historian knows too well. We'll walk through real examples (many drawn from Irish records) demonstrating how AI can help you decipher difficult handwriting, suggest research strategies when you're stuck, make sense of unfamiliar placenames, and even draft those tricky notes to distant cousins.

  No tech background required—just bring your curiosity. You'll leave with practical techniques you can try immediately, a better sense of what AI does well (and where it still needs a human eye), and maybe a few new leads on that elusive great-great-grandmother from County Cork.

  Please join our live audience at the Minnesota Genealogy Center, linger for a box lunch and mingle with the speakers, then explore the Irish Collection at the Hoffman Research Library until 4 pm.

  Cost: $15 for IGSI members (Discount Code sent to members via email and posted on member-only webpage link); $20 for non-members. If you register for the live event, you will have the option of ordering a box lunch for the session.

  REGISTER HERE: https://igsi.regfox.com/igsi-hybrid-webinar-2026-may

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• A Baker's Dozen: Easy Ways to Begin Writing Your Family History

  • When
    18 May 2026
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom, no registration required

  A Baker's Dozen: Easy Ways to Begin Writing Your Family History
  Monday May 18, 2026  at 6:30 pm CST via Zoom
  

  Anyone can write! Learn a "baker's dozen" of ways to get your family history in print without a lot of strain. It’s not as daunting a task as you might think. We’ll cover ways to get family involved without mentioning the word genealogy!

  Visuals will demonstrate the "Baker’s Dozen" method and other help in both print and online formats. Whether you are already a seasoned writer or you've never written anything at all, this webinar will give great insight and inspiration. Our speaker is Paula Stuart-Warren, Certified Genealogist®, who is an internationally recognized genealogical educator, researcher, and consultant. 

  The speaker is Paula Stuart-Warren, Certified Genealogist®, FMGS, FUGA, an internationally recognized genealogical educator, researcher, consultant, and instructor for GRIP Genealogy Institute and the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research. She has her own educational website and blog at http://genealogybypaula.com

  This event is provided free of charge by the National Danish-American Genealogical Society and is open to the public. No need to register, simply click on the Zoom link at the start of the program. For more information on our Danish genealogy group, to learn about our unique newsletter-journal, and to see other upcoming events, please visit our website at: https://danishgenealogy.org/ 
  
  

  Zoom link:
  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88268432625

  
  

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• Five Common Errors That Derail Research

  • When
    23 May 2026
  •  
    1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    Hybrid on Zoom, with a live audience at the Minnesota Genealogy Center

  
  Marie Mattson, CG®, 

  Description:
  

  This program will show how common errors in our research can prevent us from breaking down our brick walls. A research tool called “cluster research” will be explained. 

  Speaker:
  

  Marie Mattson, CG®, lives in Northern Wisconsin, but has early Minnesota and New England roots. She has published articles include NYG&B Record, Western Pennsylvania Quarterly, Minnesota Genealogist/Generations, and Past Tracks (Arizona). In 2025 she presented two sessions for the New York Family History Conference, and webinars for the Seattle Genealogical Society and the Finnish Genealogy Group of Minnesota.

  Location:
  In person at the MGS Mississippi Room and via Zoom on your own device.

  Cost:
  The event is free and oipen to all MGS members

  More information will be available later in May

  Show details
• Why Andrew Peterson Settled in Minnesota and How His Diaries Influenced Vilhelm Moberg

  • When
    30 May 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom and MGC Mississippi Room

  Wendy Biorn - Why Andrew Peterson Settled in Minnesota and How His Diaries Influenced Vilhelm Moberg
  

  This presentation traces Andrew Peterson’s journey to Minnesota and the discovery of his diaries by Vilhelm Moberg, which later informed his classic novel The Emigrants.

  About 2010, the Carver County Historical Society inherited a property once owned by Swedish immigrant Andrew Peterson.  Peterson immigrated from Ydre Sweden in 1850.  First arriving in Iowa, he moved to Minnesota in 1854 and homesteaded near Waconia, MN.  Here, he spent the next 45 years working to find a winter hardy apple tree.  Peterson died in 1898 and that may have been the end of his story if it wasn’t for Swedish author Wilhelm Moberg, who found Peterson’s diaries and used them as one of several primary sources for his Emigrant series books.  Those books were made into a movie, a Broadway show with music by ABBA and a short run TV series. Today, the farm is open to the public for tours and events.  Ms. Petersen Biorn will be presenting about Peterson’s journey from Sweden to the US and Moberg’s books which will forever keep Peterson’s story alive.

  Wendy Petersen Biorn proudly grew up on a farm in SW Minnesota.  She has several degrees including one in radio broadcasting from Brown Institute, an AA from North Hennepin Community College, a BA in Business Administration/Marketing from Augsburg University, and a Masters in Public and Nonprofit Administration for Metro State University.  She started her career at the Minnesota Historical Society’s Oliver Kelley Farm where she worked as an interpreter for 10 years and where they still use programs she wrote. For the last 19 years she has been the Executive Director of the Carver County Historical Society.  She is the co-author of Two Wars on the Frontier, a nationally award-winning book about Swedish immigrant AJ Carlson and his time fighting in the Civil War and US Dakota War.

  Free for members; $10 registration for non-members.  More information at www.sgsmn.org

  
  

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