Wisconsin State Genealogical Society (WSGS)

03/31/2026

Event Title - The History of Barn Quilts with Jim Leuenberger
Date of Event Tuesday April 28, 2026
Start Time 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location of Event:
Kress Family Branch - De Pere Library
Emil & Gail Fischer Room – lower level
333 N. Broadway De Pere, WI 54115
Presented by the Bay Area Genealogical Society
Description of Event
“The History of Barn Quilts” with Jim Leuenberger
Join the Bay Area Genealogical Society to learn about the brightly colored quilts on the barns throughout Shawano County. Jim Leuenberger will explain the history of the project he started in 2010.
Tuesday April 28, 2026
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Kress Family Branch - De Pere Library
Emil & Gail Fischer Room – lower level
333 N. Broadway De Pere, WI 54115

03/28/2026

Check out these photos from Gene-A-Rama in Marshfield!

03/28/2026

The WSGS is pleased to share that the recipient of the 2026 Virginia Irwin award is...Marion Howard! Congratulations!!

03/28/2026

Registration is now open for GeneaQuest 2026. Come join CAGGNI as we present our 7th biennial conference.
When: 18 Jul 2026 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM CDT
Where: Wojcik Conference Center at Harper College, Palatine, IL
• Early Bird Registration Deadline: Saturday, May 30, 2026
o Regular Registration Deadline: Saturday, June 27, 2026
o Tickets will not be sold at the door.

• Box lunch included with a sandwich (choice of turkey, ham, or veggie) served with a cookie, a bag of chips, and beverage service.
• All paid attendees will have access for one month to all recorded presentations.

• For more more information about the speakers, topics and schedule:

CAGGNI, the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group of Northern Illinois, holds a genealogy conference in even years. The event will be at NIU-Hoffman Estates.

03/27/2026

Free Zoom-Only Presentation by the Rock County Genealogical Society
LOYALIST LEGACIES: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Kate Penney-Howard is a lifelong family researcher who earned a Master of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and a pastor in Fort Wayne brings an enthusiastic and authoritative presentation style to this program. Not every colonist wanted independence... and one of them might be your ancestor. She'll explore how to identify and research Loyalist family members, understand their motivations, and follow their paths to Canada, England, or reconciliation with the new nation.
How to Attend: Anyone is invited to attend this free Zoom presentation on Tuesday, April 14 at 6:30 PM. This is a Zoom-only presentation and must be watched at the scheduled time. The Zoom link, passcode and audience handout can all be found at the RCGS website at: www.rcgswi.org/events--speakers.

The RCGS Speakers & Programs page provides information about dates, times, location (including map directions), speakers biographies for the Society's FREE program, seminar, workshop and field trip topics.

03/24/2026

The Green County Genealogical Society will present – “A Visit to WHS: Genealogy Collections and Services” by Rebecca Hopman.
The presentation is April 4 at 10 am in the Monroe Public Library community room on the second floor. The program is open to the public!


Ready to take a trip to the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS)? WHS holds one of the top five genealogical collections in the country, with materials from across the United States and Canada. Discover more about our extensive newspaper and family history collections, learn how to search our catalog and website to find materials on your family, and get details on how to plan for your visit. Even if you can’t make it to Wisconsin, you’ll find out how to get access to our collections so you can keep researching your ancestry!

Rebecca Hopman is the Genealogy Services Librarian at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where she helps people discover their family stories. She lectures on a variety of topics, including genealogy, oral history, and historical research. She has a BA in History, English, and German from Augustana College (IL), an MLIS in Archives & Records Management from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MA in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently serves as a board member for the Augustana Historical Society.

For any questions about the meeting or presentation, call Donna at 608-921-1537. The GCGS Research Center (located in the lower level of the Monroe Public Library is open to the public for research Tuesdays 10 am-3 pm. Other times available by appointment. The phone number is 608-328-7436 and the website is

Green County Genealogical Society is your resource center for Green County and surrounding counties

03/24/2026

Do you have a question about researching your family history? Or how the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) can help with your genealogy project? Join our very own genealogy experts to get answers and learn about how to use WHS collections and services for your family history research.

Ask Us Anything: A Genealogy Q&A With WHS Staff
Tuesday, April 7
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. CT

WHS holds one of the top five genealogical collections in the country, with materials from across the United States and Canada, including newspapers, family history books, court records, and more. Archivist Lee Grady and librarians Rebecca Hopman and Jill Fuller will answer questions from the audience and highlight their favorite tips and resources for family history research.

Don't wait! Registration closes on Sunday, April 5 at 11:59 p.m. CT.

03/11/2026

Gene-A-Rama is fast approaching! If you have not already registered but would like to attend, you can still attend, either in-person or virtually. But get those registrations in asap! Note that you must register through PayPal.

03/11/2026

If you can help us or know someone that can, please email us at wsgs@wsgs.org

Thank you.

03/10/2026

Date of Event: Friday 24 April 2026
Start Time: 1:00 PM Central - Member meeting precedes Program
Event Title: Fred Beckmann: from the Clark House to the Wisconsin House
Presenter Name: Reed Perkins
Description of Event: In this illustrated talk, historian and genealogist Reed Perkins will show how he combines genealogy with a wide variety of other historical sources to make informative, illustrated stories that serve as a great way to organize and share one’s ideas, and guide further research and discovery.
Reed Perkins has a life-long love of history and a passion for separating fact from legend. In 2006, he began focusing his research on a some of his Wisconsin ancestors and their stories. In 2012, he began an ongoing collaboration with the newly-formed Jonathan Clark House Museum in Mequon, Wisconsin, and shortly afterwards became the museum’s official historian, As Historian, Reed investigates and shares the family histories and activities of the Clarks, their relatives, neighbors and friends, and the day-to-day details of the world in which they lived. Since 2016, he has chronicled those stories in over 450 illustrated and annotated posts to his blog, Clark House Historian. Along the way, Reed has become unexpectedly well-informed on a number of more specialized topics including the first Erie Canal, early Great Lakes steamboat travel, the settlement of Lower Canada’s Eastern Townships, the California Gold Rush, army life at Forts Howard and Winnebago, and early federal and local road construction in Wisconsin Territory.
Reed was born and raised in the Land of Lincoln, and has had the good fortune to live and work there, and in other history-rich places such as Williamsburg, Virginia, and Amherst, Massachusetts. He now lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with his wife, Dr. Laura Rexroth.
Reed Perkins’ website: Clark House Historian https://jchmhistorian.com/
His blog postings incorporate primary and secondary sources, public-domain visual images, and links to other CHH blog posts and additional—sometimes obscure—sources, all to tell a more complete and interesting story of the life and times of our early Wisconsin pioneers.
The Jonathan Clark House website: https://jonathanclarkhouse.com/
IN PERSON Location: Milwaukee Central Public Library 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee, WI 1st floor Rotary Club of Milwaukee Community Room
ONLINE Registration: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IK-KZo7tRGOUKs5owQCKTw #/registration

The Jonathan Clark House Museum Historian's Blog

03/07/2026

If you happen to be attending RootsTech, stop by and say hi. I'm in the Family Tree Maker booth #119. Today is the last day.

President John with Bill Harvey from Omaha Nebraska.
John, our president, is ‘working” at the Family Tree Maker booth.
Bill is a past president of The Fellowship of Rotarian Genealogists. Both are long time attendees of Rootstech
Today is the last day of the conference in Salt Lake City.
Check it out! Free world class programs on-line. AI, what’s new in genealogy, sooo much to check out!

03/04/2026