The Society has many active Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that support Members with interests in special genealogical topics, as listed below. These groups generally meet on a monthly or quarterly schedule and have a planned program of interest to the SIG members. In addition, there are opportunities for discussion, questions, and sharing of information.
Volunteer Opportunities! We have several SIGs that are no longer active because they do not have a leader. These former SIGs include Methodology, Midwest, New York, Technology, Speakers, and Old Dominion (VA, WV, KY, and TN). If you are interested in becoming a SIG Leader for a group, please contact the SIG Coordinator or one of the Board members.
SIG COORDINATOR - Sarah Fleming (sigcoord@fxgs.org)
Active SIGs
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SIG Leader Needed
The African American Genealogy Special Interest Group will explore research areas unique to the African American community, including how using census records, Reconstruction and Freedman Bureau records, plantation records, slave schedules, and other record groups can reveal information about African American ancestors. There are no meetings scheduled at this time. Please contact Laura Wickstead at sophialaura@gmail.com if you would like to take the lead in continuing the group.
Meeting Time: TBD
Meeting Place: TBD
Upcoming Meetings: View African American SIG Events
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SIG Leader Needed
programs@fxgs.org
If you are new to genealogy, this is the group for you! At the Beginner’s SIG, you will work with genealogists and archivists who will teach you the basics, answer your questions, and set you on the path to research success.
Available Video Lessons (Members Only)
Meeting Time: 2nd Thursday of the month, at 10:30 AM
Meeting Place: Online Zoom Meetings
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Lee James Irwin, Sean Furniss, and Fran Millhouser, SIG Co-Leaders
Sean.Furniss@gmail.com
Are you done with the research? Have you begun to write? Come to the Writer’s SIG! Learn to create non-fiction genealogic narratives so compelling that your family will crave to read them. Learn to incorporate historical context, tell two stories simultaneously, place your protagonist in the center of the action, add suspense, inject drama, and use dialogue to move your story forward. Benefit from the critical review of your peers. Visit us and check it out.
Meeting Time: First Monday of the month (7:00 PM to 9:00 PM) - October - June
Meeting Place: Online Zoom Meetings
Upcoming Meetings: View Family History Writing SIG Events
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The Genetic Genealogy SIG (formerly the Surname Projects and Genetic Genealogy SIG) generally meets the first Wednesday of each month, October through June, at 7:00 PM in Classroom H108 at Kilmer Middle School. The focus of the Genetic Genealogy SIG is primarily on the process of DNA testing and applications of test results to the genealogy process, including:
- The identification/confirmation of relationships between two persons who are thought possibly to be genealogically related;
- The search for persons in various DNA databases to identify persons who likely are related through a common ancestor and thus facilitate the exchange of genealogical data, and;
- Use of DNA profiles as keys to ongoing anthropological studies to infer “deep ancestry,” such as possible migration paths of ancestors hundreds and thousands of years ago.
Meeting Time: First Wednesday of the month through the school year (October through June) at 7:00 PM
Meeting Place: Room H108, Kilmer Middle School, 8100 Wolf Trap Road, Vienna, VA
Upcoming Meetings: View Genetic Genealogy SIG Events
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The German SIG’s mission is to promote historical and genealogical research into the lineage and lives of our German-speaking ancestors. Our area of interest covers all German-speaking countries in Europe, both in today’s Germany and areas formerly part of the 1871 German Empire. We emphasize how to track your German-speaking immigrant ancestor backward through American sources and repositories as well as in European archives. We usually have a speaker and meet on the third Monday of each month from 10:00-12:00 except in December and the summer months.
Meeting Time: 3rd Monday of the month (unless it falls on a holiday) from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Meeting Place: Pohick Regional Library, 6450 Sydenstricker Rd, Burke, VA 22015
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Paul McFarland, SIG Leader
p7a2u4@verizon.net
Genealogists of varying experience meet to share their knowledge of Irish research and Irish history with other members; provide ideas or direction on how members could achieve successes; better understand why relatives left Ireland through the study of Irish history; locate family members the emigrant may have left behind through study of Irish records; encourage members participation in Irish research.
Meeting Time: 2nd Tuesday of the month, at 1:00 PM, October through May
Meeting Place: Pohick Regional Library, 6450 Sydenstricker Rd, Burke, VA 22015
Upcoming Meetings: View Irish Family SIG Events
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Don Coram, SIG Leader
coram_mirmirani@verizon.net
The Mid-Atlantic SIG covers the states of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia and New York City. To the extent of interest, the SIG will also temporarily cover Virginia and West Virginia in the absence of an Old Dominion SIG leader. SIG meetings will consist of interactive presentations by SIG members of their genealogical research, mostly related to the Mid-Atlantic region, but occasionally wandering further afield if our Mid-Atlantic research leads to other places. We also go on field trips to Mid-Atlantic research facilities.
Meeting Time: Normally 3rd Wednesday of the month, 1:00 - 3:00 PM. Occasionally, scheduling conflicts at the library require the SIG to meet on a different Wednesday.
Meeting Place: Conference Room A/B, City of Fairfax Regional Library, 10360 North Street, Fairfax, VA
Upcoming Meetings - View Mid-Atlantic SIG Events
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NEW ENGLAND STUDY GROUP SIG
Linda MacLachlan, SIG Leader
The special interest group for colonial New England genealogy will no longer meet on alternate months at the Mt. Vernon Genealogical Society Research Center and the McLean Family History Center. Instead, it will meet at whatever time you prefer to discuss colonial New England research with Linda MacLachlan. Just email her at ggggrandmac@gmail.com to make an appointment, or come to one of the Centers while she is staffing it:
- Linda is at the McLean Family History Center, 2034 Great Falls Street in Falls Church every Friday between 9:30 am and 1 pm.
- She is at the MVGS Research Center, 1500 Shenandoah Avenue in Alexandria on the 2nd or 3rd Wednesday of any month between 10 am and 2 pm.
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Janet Hall Werner, SIG Leader
SIG Leader Needed