Presenter: Dr. Katharine O'Connell, North Coast Genealogy
Forensic genealogists do family research related to the law.  Some work with police departments, others locate family members for the military.  Still others help adoptees find their birth families or locate family members listed in wills.  Some of their work involves DNA, but most often they solve cases using records you might be familiar with, like birth certificates and newspapers.
Dr. O’Connell will discuss how she uses her people locating skills to find missing and unknown heirs and tell you about the field of forensic genealogy.   You’ll come away with a new understanding for how genealogy can be used in a legal setting and go over a sample case she worked on, which involved an understanding of laws in 12 states and over 200 documents as evidence.  Starting with a will from 1906, she used a combination of newspapers, baptismal records, and censuses to provide a court-level report proving the living family members for her attorney client. She will show you how you can use a similar combination of records in your own research.

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