The Florida Genealogical Society (Tampa) is pleased to announce its program for Saturday, April 3, 2010, at 10:30 AM in the auditorium of the John F. Germany Library at 900 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa, Florida.
Terry and Jim Willard will present a program titled “Beginner's Genealogy” that serves as a great introduction to tracing your family tree and is a terrific refresher for those who have been working on their family history for some time.
Terry and Jim have pursued active careers in education, teaching since 1969 and teaching students from the ages of 5 to 95. Terry holds a B.A., M.A., and C.A.S. in French from the University of Maine. Jim has a B.S. In History, M.Ed., and C.A.S. in Secondary Counseling from the University of Maine. Terry taught French language and culture classes at the high school level (26 years) and to adults (since 1995) at the Sarasota County Adult and Community Education Program. Jim has 26 years of service at the middle and high school level and since 1995 at the Sarasota County Adult and Community Education Program. In Sarasota, Terry taught French language and culture classes as well as team-taught with Jim various genealogy, computer, and eBay classes. Jim taught many levels of computer literacy classes, digital camera classes, and scanner classes. They continue to do workshops for Adult Education in Sarasota. Since 2004 they have also been teaching the same variety of classes for The Villages Lifelong Learning College in The Villages, Florida.
From 1995-2000, Terry and Jim served as co-hosts for the popular PBS Television series Ancestors, traveling around the country conducting workshops and promoting the series from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, CA, and from Dallas, TX, to Portland, ME. They co-authored (along with Jane Wilson) the book, ANCESTORS: A Beginner’s Guide to Family History and Genealogy, which accompanied the series. They also wrote the teacher’s guide that helped teachers and students benefit from viewing the series.
Since then they have conducted workshops and spoken at genealogy conferences throughout Florida, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, and each of the New England states. They have published over 40 articles in Ancestry Magazine, are beta testers for Family Tree Maker, write reviews of the recent publications at Ancestry.com, and write a monthly genealogy column for The Villages Daily Sun. They accompany a group of adult students to Salt Lake City for a research trip annually.
