Experienced family historians ready to take on the online records of six European regions can learn research techniques at free Lackawanna Historical Society workshops.
Called the Genealogy Forum European Tour, it is aimed at those who can already pinpoint their first ancestor to come to the United States and at least roughly where they came from. “You have done all the American research you can,” first, said Barbara Spellman Shuta, one of the organizers.
The first workshop, aimed at online Irish and Scots-Irish records, is Saturday, April 12. Later sessions, also on Saturdays, will cover Poland, Italy, the Carpatho-Rusyn region, Germany and England and Wales. The regions were chosen because so many in Lackawanna County have roots there.
“It’s overwhelming,” Spellman Shuta said. “So we try to parcel it out, so they know where they need to look, based on what they are trying to find.”
Spellman Shuta, one of the presenters, is a retired Scranton High School teacher who has spent decades on her own mostly Irish family history and led many workshops.
Organizers of the Lackawanna Historical Society workshops: Tom Price, Barbara Spellman Shuta, center; and Kate Bohan. (Lackawanna Historical Society)
Cleric and lay delegates of the Polish National Church from Northeast Pennsylvania assemble at the Lackawanna Railroad Station prior to the Aug. 2, 1954, departure for Buffalo, N.Y., to attend the church’s ninth general synod.
TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES
Members of the Young Men’s Society of Resurrection and the Cathedral Youth Club participated in St. Stanislaus Polish National Cathedral’s annual patriotic and religious service honoring George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Bishop Francis Hodur in March 1974. (Times-Tribune Archives)
Archbishop Daniel Zelinsky leads a prayer service marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Whitehall Township. (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
St. Mary’s Traditional Ukranian Dancer Max Covoto leaps into the air as he performs The Zaporozhetz or The Sword Dance for the large crowd in attendance for Myasopusna on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025 at the Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Church Hall in Nanticoke. Dave Scherbenco / Contributing Photographer
Scranton officials and members of the Irish American Association of Lackawanna County raised the Irish flag above city hall. Participating in the flag raising event were, from left, Thom Welby, district office director for state Rep. Bridget M. Kosierowski, Council President Gerald Smurl, Irish American Association President Tim Kelly, Allen Shoen, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and city solicitor and
St. Patrick’s Parade President Thomas Gilbride. (Submitted)
Based on past workshops, Spellman Shuta predicts the biggest response from Polish Americans. That’s because the shifting borders of the Polish region over the centuries are a challenge to genealogists. The Polish workshop is May 10.
Another area with shifting political boundaries, the Carpatho-Rusyn region in the foothills and valleys of the Carpathian Mountains, will be researched July 12. That could be Belarusian, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Austrian-Hungarian heritage.
Inconsistent spellings of names is another barrier, although Spellman Shuta shoots down myths about U.S. immigration officials changing names, either on purpose or by mistake. “It never happened,” she said. “Names were never changed at Ellis Island,” in New York City, or other ports.
The workshops will cover what genealogists call the “big four,” FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. It will also take the search directly to the online records of foreign governments, churches and other institutions.
A key topic: how to get the most information for free and how much the rest might reasonably cost.
Each workshop is from 10 a.m. to noon.
The schedule is:
Ireland and the Scots-Irish: April 12, at the Lackawanna County Children’s Library community room, 520 Vine St., Scranton.
Poland: May 10, at the North Pocono Library, Moscow.
Italy: June 14, at Carbondale City Hall.
Carpatho-Rusyn records: July 12, at Scranton’s Albright Memorial Library.
Germany: Sometime in August, at the Valley Community Library, Peckville.
England and Wales: Sept.13, at the Abington Community Library, Clarks Summit.
Advance registration is required. Contact the Lackawanna Historical Society at 570-344-3841 or email lackawannahistory@gmail.com.