Finding Your Ancestors in Courthouse Records

The details of our workshop scheduled for April 19, 2008, with Diane Rapaport have been added to our events website at http://www.maineroots.org/.

Court records offer a wealth of information for genealogists tracing their ancestors, but these valuable resources remain under-utilized. Learn how to find and use court records, from the 17th through the 20th centuries, in courthouses, archives, books, microfilm, and the latest digital/electronic sources. With this all-day workshop format we have a great opportunity to go into depth learning about these records. Maine Genealogical Society invites you to join us as Diane Rapaport leads us on a journey into the court records of our ancestors.

Diane Rapaport, a former trial lawyer, has made a new career as an award-winning author, speaker and publisher. She brings history to life with true stories from colonial New England, and she uses her legal training to help people find ancestors and trace regional history in underutilized court records. Her special interests include colonial New England, American legal history, and Scottish heritage. She is currently working on a historical novel about 17th-century New England and Scotland. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. Diane is the author of the highly acclaimed New England Court Records: A Research Guide for Genealogists and Historians (Quill Pen Press, 2006), winner of 2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards for excellence in independent publishing, from PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, first place for Best History Book and Best Reference Book, and finalist for Best New Voice (Nonfiction), as well as the 2007 Literary Award for Best Genealogical Resource from Connecticut Society of Genealogists. She is also the author of the recently released The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England (Commonwealth Editions, 2007). Readers of New England Ancestors, the quarterly publication of New England Historic Genealogical Society, will recognize Diane as author of the “Tales from the Courthouse” column which brings colonial history to life with true stories from court records.

Click here to download the workshop brochure.
Plan now to join us Saturday, April 19, 2008, at the Augusta Civic Center, Augusta, Maine.