OK – 16th Annual Cherokee Ancestry Conference Friday June 10-11

 2016 06 10-11 Cherokee Ancestry Conference
Discover ways to learn about your family’s ancestors by attending the Sixteenth Annual Cherokee Ancestry Conference on Friday, June 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, June 11, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Registration is at 8:45am and sessions start at 9:30am each day. Lunch is on your own. The conference will be held in the Osiyo Room, in the same building as the Restaurant of the Cherokees/Cherokee Nation Gift Shop Building, Tahlequah, OK, capital of the Cherokee Nation. The location is a part of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex on Hwy 62.

Speakers include Jerry L. Clark, Cherokee citizen, retired Archivist, United States National Archives, volunteer genealogist, Gene Norris, genealogist and Ashley Thirsty-Vann, Cherokee citizen, associate genealogist, all associated with the Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. All three speakers are noted authors and historians in regards to genealogy with a combined experience of nearly three quarters of a century in the field of Cherokee ancestry research.

Some of the topics that will be discussed include Friday presentations in regards to DNA and its effect on genealogy, a history of the orphanages of the Cherokee Nation previous to statehood, resources available in your local area for Cherokee ancestry research as well as a beginning genealogy session and concluding on Saturday with what various new Cherokee Nation records which have become digitized and now available online.

Conference attendees will each receive a free Cherokee Heritage Center tote. Each attendee is invited to a research session at the Cherokee Family Research center in the Cherokee Heritage Center museum on Friday evening where they will have an opportunity to meet the speakers. The conference will conclude Saturday with an additional question and answer session with the Saturday speakers. Door prizes will also be given between sessions.

Pre-registration fees are $60 for CNHS members and $75 for non-members. Post-registration fees are $70 for CNHS members and $85 for non-members, pre-registration deadline is June 3, 2015.