38th Annual MTGS Genealogical Seminar with Chuck Sherrill and J. Mark Lowe, FUGA Celebrating America's 250th Birthday with Genealogy

Saturday, September 19, 2026 9:00 am - 3:30 pm Central Time Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, and online via Zoom

We are thrilled to welcome back Chuck Sherrill as one of our guest Speakers for this year's Seminar. He is a well-known speaker on Tennessee topics, and is the former State Librarian & Archivist.

We are also thrilled to welcome back J. Mark Lowe, FUGA as another of our guest Speakers for this year's Seminar. He is a well-known professional genealogist, author and
teacher who researches primarily in original records and manuscripts throughout the South.

This year we have four great sessions lined up for you:

• Following the Trails That Built America - Roads, Rivers and Early Transportation (Lowe)
  • Examine buffalo traces, wagon roads, rivers and the early commerce routes that tied colonies together economically and culturally - setting the state for unified colonies, the Revolution and national identity.
    
    
• I Never Thought of Looking There (Sherrill)
  • Learn about little-known Tennessee records where your ancestors may be hiding. Genealogists in the digital age get in the rut of depending on the large online services and may neglect many smaller but very good indexes, databases and microfilmed sources. This lecture will focus on records readily available online or at the State Library & Archives.
    
    
• Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: Using Records to Reconstruct Lives in Early America (Lowe)
  • By focusing on court, tax, land and other community records, we may reveal the lives of everyday people who experienced the Colonies and Early Statehood not as founders, but as farmers, laborers, women, enslaved people, and neighbors.
    
    
• Genealogical Research in Manuscript Records (Sherrill)
  • Manuscript collections containing material about your ancestors could be deposited in a library or archives anywhere in the country. Learn how to use WorldCat to search for manuscripts material, and how to gain access once you discover a potentially useful collection. We will also discuss how to do a deep dive into manuscript finding aids at libraries and archives; in order to find the surname you are seeking in folder titles hidden in larger collections. This lecture is designed for the intermediate or advanced genealogist.