The Tulare
County Library has designated October as Family History Month in the Visalia
Library Branch.
The month-long series of events begin when author Terry Ommen speaks as part of the
Friends of the Library Author Series on Saturday, October 4th at 7 p.m. This conversation, about Terry’s latest book, Wild Tulare County: Outlaws, Rogues, and Rebels, will highlight the
trials and tribulations of past Tulare County families. Since every family has their own rogues and
rebels, this will be a fitting start to the month-long spotlight on families
and history.
Ever wondered how to take care of those fragile pieces of
family history? Archivist Christopher
Livingston, MLIS, will speak on “Preserving Family Memories: not just Fruits
and Vegetables” on Tuesday, October 14th at 5 p.m. Mr. Livingston is the archivist for
California State University, Bakersfield. He worked for Kern County as head of their genealogy and local history
department before joining Cal State. His expertise, which comes from
years of working with fragile documents and materials, will benefit those
attending the lecture. Mr. Livingston’s talk will cover basic preservation
techniques for important family documents and photographs that tell a family’s
history. There will be time after the presentation for questions from the
audience.
On Wednesday,
October 15th at 6:30, the Mystery Readers Group will be reading A Rule Against Murder by Louise
Penny. This, the fourth book in the enormously popular Chief Inspector
Armand Gamache series, features the detective and his wife on a long weekend to
celebrate their anniversary. But, even in an idyllic location, a family
reunion leads to a death and Gamache’s powers of detection are called upon to
solve the death in this Agatha and Anthony award-winning series.
A session
called “The Cheapskate’s Guide to Absolute Beginning Genealogy” will be held on
Tuesday, October 21st at noon. Considered to be one of the top two
hobbies in the United States (along with gardening), this very basic
introductory class will show how to begin finding those elusive ancestors and
how to start family research. Attendees will work with the basic paper
forms to start their search, so this class will be friendly to all ages and
skill levels.
On Tuesday,
October 28th at 1 p.m., there will be a tour of the Annie Mitchell History
Room. This
room, named in honor of Tulare County historian Annie R. Mitchell, contains
documents, maps, books, genealogies, pictures, census records and important
county records relating to the history of Tulare County. Small
groups will be able to see first-hand what Ms. Mitchell’s commitment to
preservation has created for patrons of the History Room.
The final
event of the month will celebrate Dia De Los Muertos on Friday, October 31st at
3 p.m. In continuing with the theme of family history, this event is
designed to honor family ancestors by remembering them and their contributions
to our lives. A family-centric afternoon of crafts (with glitter!) will
complete this event, so please stop by the library before heading out for Trick
or Treat fun!
All events are free and no
reservations are required.
