7424 Stevens Ridge Road
Lincoln, Nebraska 68516
USA

Phone: 402-421-8501

Email: gblankenau@msn.com

Specialties:

* Land records and how to use them
* German parish records
* Researching ancestors with common names
* Internet research
* Problem-solving techniques
* Researching the poor and obscure
* Dating and identifying 19th century photographs
* Nebraska genealogy

Lectures:

* Breaking through with Land Records
* Follow the Land -- Land Records II
* Introduction to German Parish Records
* Digging Deeper in German Parish Records
* Dating and Identifying Your 19th Century Photographs
* Keeping Up with the Smiths...and Joneses
* Rich Resources for Poor Ancestors
* Stories in Stone -- Cemetery Research
* Genealogy 101
* Genealogy 102
* Going Dutch in the Digital Age

Speaking Conditions:

* All topics delivered with PowerPoint
* AV Equipment needed (projector and screen for PowerPoint)
* May need microphone depending on size of audience
* Will develop lectures on specific topics
* Will travel
* Home housing not accepted
* Will provide hand-out masters for duplication

Previous Engagements:

October 2009 Dating and Identifying Your 19th Century Photographs, Eastridge Presbyterian Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
February 2010, Using Land Records, Platte Valley Kin Seekers and the Platte County Historical Society, Columbus, Nebraska
February 18, 2010, Getting Students Published, Nebraska Association for the Gifted State Conference, Omaha, Nebraska
September 2010, Platte Valley Kin Seekers, Columbus, Nebraska, Dating and Identifying your 18th Century Photos
October 2010, Featured Speaker, Iowa State Genealogical Conference, Des Moines, Iowa
October 2010, National Homestead Monument, Family History Month speaker
October 28, 2010, Featured Speaker, Cass County Historical Society annual meeting, Dating and Identifying your 18th Century Photos
November 2010, Using Land Records, Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society, Union College Auditorium, Lincoln, Nebraska
May 6-7, 2011, Main Speaker for the Nebraska State Genealogical Society Conference, in Nebraska City, Nebraska—Introduction to German Parish Records, Keeping up with the Joneses..and Smiths, Break Through Using Land Records, Rich Resources for Poor Ancestors, Dating and Identifying you 19th-Century Photographs
July 15-16, 2011—Main Speaker at Homestead National Monument two-day land records conferenceZ
September 17, 2011-Dating and Identifying your 19th-Century Photographs, Omaha Public Libraries
October 1, 2011 All-Day seminar, Genealogy 101 & 102 and consulting, Cass County Historical Museum, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
May 8, 2012, Stories in Stone, Cemetery Research, Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society, Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska.
August 18, 2012, Keeping up with the Smiths...and Joneses, Omaha Public Library, Main Branch, Omaha, Nebraska.

Bio:

Gail Blankenau is an experienced genealogist and photo historian who shares her research and advice in such well-known periodicals as the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Everton's Genealogical Helper, and Family Chronicle magazine. Genealogists who crave unique perspectives and a fresh point of view will find new inspiration and ideas in her engaging and high-energy presentations.

Lecture Descriptions:

If you have a drawer or box full of old family photos, Dating and Identifying Your 19th-Century Photos will bring your ancestral images into focus. Learn how to use power combinations of image type, fashions, photographers and your family tree to reveal the who, when and sometimes even the where in those intriguing faces.

Your research hitting any walls? It may be that you need to expand your quest to land records. In Break Through Using Land Records, Gail Blankenau will guide you through the different kinds of land records, and help you to prioritize and identify what she calls high-value targets. Blankenau relates that she has solved more brick walls using land records than any other method.

If you are stymied by your ancestors with common names, you will want to see, Keeping Up with the Joneses...and Smiths. Although these families present special problems, there are techniques you can use to zero in on your ancestor as an individual, no matter what his or her name was.

One of the most difficult problems in genealogy is researching our more obscure families--the ones who didn't hold office, avoided the city clerk and were generally so poor we assume they didn't leave a paper trail. In Rich Resources for Poor Ancestors, you'll glean tips on finding more about our less fortunate forebears.

For those with German ancestry, German parish records can be a veritable gold mine. In Introduction to German Parish Records, Gail Blankenau will walk you through finding the parish, common terminology, working with Gothic script, and a case study demonstrating the kind and quality of information you'll find. .

Publications:

Some Descendants of Nathaniel Mead of Greenwich, Connecticut, through his son Josiah Mead (ca. 1701-ca. 1771), New England Genealogical and Historical Register, Vol. 162, starting Jan 2009.
Rich Resources for Poor Ancestors, Family Chronicle, Moorshead Ltd., Canada. Nov/Dec 2008.
Using German Parish Records, Everton's Genealogical Helper, Logan UT, Everton Publishers, Jan 2009.
Signature Style, Family Chronicle, Moorshead Ltd., Canada, March/April 2009.
When the Irises Bloom, Family Chronicle, Moorshead Ltd., July/August 2009.
Keeping Up with the Smiths, Family Chronicle. Moorshead Ltd. Slated for future issue.
19th-Century Photos-How to Spot a Copy, Family Chronicle Nov/Dec 2009.
April Fools for Genealogists, Family Chronicle, March/April 2010.
Portraits from the Past, Internet Genealogy, April/May 2010.
Abraham Daniels Family Bible with annotations, Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3, Sep 2009, p. 161-162.
Sergeant John Smith of Rhode Island, with Descendants in Early Ohio, The Genealogist, Spring 2012.