By Paige Lambert

After Lisa Chaftin’s dad passed away a few years ago, all she was left with was his old photos and stories of their ancestors.

Rather than trying to piece it together on her own, she instead looked to professional help that originated not from a website or a firm, but from her local library.

Chaftin was one of many who took part in the Dripping Springs Community Library’s Genealogy Workshop for Beginners Feb. 6. The over-capacity workshop taught ways to easily – and cheaply – discover a family’s past.

Wimberley residents Cindy Foreman and Beverly Herring began the interactive genealogy group last year. Foreman said her love of genealogy began when she picked up scrapbooking.

“I got back into scrapbooking and thought, ‘who are these people?’” Foreman said. “I graduated from pictures, to genealogy, to teaching, and that’s what I really enjoy.”

But there wasn’t a forum for interactive teaching in Hays County. Herring said other genealogy classes were mainly like lectures where people didn’t get to practice what was taught.

“If you do it while you’re thinking about it, it’s much easier to go home and do it yourself,” Herring said. “It’s a thing where they are going to learn it on their computer while they are doing it.”

Attention toward the group has snowballed over the past few months. The ladies have taught free classes in San Marcos, Kyle and all over Hays County.

Foreman said they touched on topics such as record keeping, finding records, DNA testing, and doing all of it without paid services such as Ancestry.com.

“Those little flapping leaves that they advertise on TV, those may be good ideas or they may be bad ideas,” Foreman said. “We want them to do their genealogy correctly.”

The Dripping Springs workshop was the first of three, with the second already filling up with reservations. The first workshop focused on basic computer skills before jumping into complicated websites.

“Everyone has a different level of computer skills, the more mature you are the less skill,” Foreman said. “It’s easier for people like us who are in business and are on the computer all the time.”

The ladies gave each participant a USB flash drive containing the lessons and resources they use. From there, attendees can go back or prepare for the next session.

Each session delves into free sites such as findagrave.com and myheritage.com and how to verify records.

While the group serves as a teaching mechanism, it’s also an informal way to meet people with similar interests.

Foreman said she and Herring became fast friends after meeting at a genealogical session. 

“You start developing friendships oftentimes it develops into everything,” Foreman said. “It’s another way of connecting people beyond Facebook.”

Most people who attend the session are grandparents who want to pass along their family history, Herring said.

Chaftin’s kids aren’t interested in their family history yet, but she said she wants to have it collected, just in case.

“I see an old photograph of a family member of mine, and I go, ‘I want to know who they are, what they were about and where they were living,’” Chaftin said. “Some day I hope they will look at photos I’ve saved and think the same thing.”