The Grandma Told Me session will give students and members of the Charleston community a chance to learn more about their ancestries on Monday at 4 p.m. in the Computer Teaching Lab of Booth Library.

According to Eastern’s website, free internet sources are used at the Grandma Told Me sessions to find records of ancestors’ lives in order to discover who family members were and what they did in the past.

Grandma Told Me is great for people just starting their ancestry search because the online sources are free and hands-on help is available at Booth Library, according to Eastern’s website.

Booth Library retiree Lois Dickenson said Grandma Told Me usually consists of 3-4 sessions and is offered periodically through the Academy of Extended Learning, with another session being offered in Feb. of 2019.

The Grandma Told Me session on Monday will be the last one of the semester, and Dickenson said it will wrap up the rest of the sessions and answer any last questions.

Dickenson said the purpose of the Grandma Told Me workshop is to help attendees discover facts about their ancestries and improve their understanding of their families’ histories.

“(Grandma Told Me) is just to enrich someone’s life. It’s kind of an interesting way to enter into the history of the United States. Lots of grandmothers were interested with sharing with their grandkids (these stories),” she said. “You get history through high school, but you kind of get the generic version of it. So, (Grandma Told Me) relates history to your family.”

During the first two sessions of the Grandma Told Me workshops, attendees start with looking up basic facts, which is done through the free Family Search website because that is where genealogy research starts, Dickenson said.

After the initial search, Dickenson said she educates the group about good research techniques, how to build a strong case of proof about one’s ancestry and how to interpret government documents.

Finally, the task of finding documents that are not digitized on the internet is something Dickenson discusses with the attendees, and this will be the main focus of the final session on Monday, she said.

Dickenson said Grandma Told Me is a good guide for beginners researching their ancestries because, by the end of the sessions, attendees can have a basic understanding of their families’ histories.

“(There are) all kinds of records that people accumulate throughout their lives,” she said. “So, how do you find them? What do you have to do to access those records?”

Even though beginning a genealogy search may seem like a daunting task, Dickenson said it is totally possible with a little guidance.

“(All the public records) are there; you just have to look for them,” she said.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].