The Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri participated in a national event Saturday to get area residents interested in their family history.
The Global Family Reunion is based in New York City, but satellite events were held all over the country. The Genealogy center had music, crafts and introductory steps for amateur genealogists to find out more about their ancestry.
Nicole Schlagel is one of the Genealogy Center's archivists. She says that one of the major goals of the Center is to make genealogy approachable for everyone.
"You don't have to have your whole family tree going back to the 1400s or whatever," Schlagel said. "If you want to just find something out about your great-grandmother, or maybe your great-great-grandmother, you can do that. There's no law that says you have to go further or do more than you want to.
The MGC has more than 200,000 print documents, stores of microfilm and subscriptions to online ancestry databases that patrons can access for free.
MGC program director Michelle Cotton says most people get the "genealogy bug" once they've started the process of hunting down their lineage.
"We get some people who are here almost every single day," Cotton said. "But most people who are starting out will come in for a few hours and usually turn up again later."
Cindy Barton came to the Genealogy Center for the first time during the Global Family Reunion. She says that she wanted to find out more about her grandparents now that her parents have passed away.
"My sisters have been asking questions [about our grandparents], and I can't answer them," Barton said. "I think it's going to be a good way to spend my summer, learning about them."
For information on classes and services at the Genealogy Center, you can check their website.
