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Exploring Irish Connections to Prohibition and Property

Description

In Partnership with The Irish Ancestral Research Association
Saturday, March 7 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM, with time for research until 5:00 PM
American Ancestors Research Center, 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston
Cost: $20, includes breakfast and research time

Join American Ancestors and TIARA (The Irish Ancestral Research Association) for an Irish family history seminar! Learn about Boston during the time of prohibition and some key Irish players: namely the Gustin Gang and politician Martin Lomasney. Then cross the pond and learn how Irish estate records can shed light on both your tenant and land-owning ancestors. Participants are invited to stay and do research following the program.

AGENDA:

9:30 AM – Check-in and breakfast refreshments

10:00 AM - The City of Scofflaws: Boston During Prohibition, Presented by Stephanie Schorow
The word “Prohibition” conjures up images of speakeasies, gangsters, flappers, and bathtub gin. The actual legacy of the national Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, is far more complicated. Stephanie Schorow has researched the impact of Prohibition on Boston for her book, Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits, and uncovered tangled tales of “bars” set up in South Boston kitchens, bootleggers like the Gustin Gang, and shrewd politicians like Martin Lomasney, the teetotaler boss of Ward Eight who nevertheless inspired Boston’s most famous cocktail. Schorow’s illustrated talk will transport her audience back to 1920s Boston, a not-so-dry time in the city’s history.

11:00 AM - Irish Estate Records, Presented by Rhonda R. McClure
Irish estate records date from the 17th and 18th century and can provide important information about your tenant and land-holding ancestors. With few digitized or indexed, and in no central location, they can be tricky to locate. Learn what you might find in estate records and how to track them down.

About our Speakers:

Stephanie Schorow is a long-time Boston-area writer and journalist and the author or co-author of seven nonfiction books, including: Inside the Combat Zone, The Crime of the Century, Boston on Fire, The Cocoanut Grove Fire, Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits, The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums & Hideouts and East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Islands. Schorow has worked as an editor and reporter for the Boston Herald, The Associated Press and numerous other publications. She currently writes freelance stories for The Boston Globe, and other outlets. She teaches professional writing and other courses at local colleges and community centers. See www.stephanieschorow.com.

Rhonda R. McClure, Senior Genealogist at American Ancestors, is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer specializing in New England and celebrity research as well as computerized genealogy; is compiler of more than 120 celebrity family trees; has been a contributing editor for Heritage Quest Magazine, Biography magazine, and was a contributor to The History Channel Magazine and American History Magazine. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, now in its second edition, Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors, and Digitizing Your Family History. Her areas of expertise include Immigration and naturalization, Late 19th and early 20th Century urban research, Missionaries (primarily in association with the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions), State Department Federal Records, New England, Mid-West, Southern, German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and New Brunswick research as well as Internet research, genealogical software (FTM, RootsMagic, TMG, Reunion), digital peripherals, and uses both Mac and Windows machines.

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