Jack Butler is an experienced speaker and former college instructor who can provide lectures, classes or workshops on any of the topics below for your next seminar or society meeting. Please email Jack to discuss your program needs. Here are some of his previous engagements.

Since the first multi-page American newspaper was published in Massachussetts in 1690, newspapers have not only been sources of the traditional dates sought by all genealogists, but they have also served to put our ancestors lives into context. They tell us not only when and where they were born, married and died, but they also provide us insight into how they lived. This lecture discusses, with examples from newspapers from around the country, what kind of information is provided and how to find it. Also discussed are sources for online images of early newspapers, newspapers on microfilm and other sources of early news.

The United States was born owning territory outside the 13 original states and the thirty two U. S. States that were carved out of that original excess land and the other territory gained over the years had Territorial governments before they became states. Territorial records are those records generated by the organization and settling of those 32 territories held by the U. S. prior to their eventually achieving statehood.

County court houses are repositories of records about your ancestors’ day-to-day business. Marriages, deeds, wills and estates, mortgages, civil and criminal court cases, taxes and even naturalizations were recorded at the county courthouse. Still, Court records remain one of the most underutilized genealogical resources available. The primary reasons for this are probably twofold: first, many researchers do not recognize what a wealth of information can be found in court records, and second, since court records are very rarely found in computer databases or even in published resources, they are more difficult to search. But the wealth of genealogical information available in the records of the county courts is just to great to pass up. This lecture includes a look at the various court records and what each can potentially contribute to your family history.

County court houses are repositories of records about your ancestors’ day-to-day business. Marriages, deeds, wills and estates, mortgages, civil and criminal court cases, taxes and even naturalizations were recorded at the county courthouse.This lecture provides a light survey of records available and provides a guide for preparing for and completing successful courthouse research.

When our founding fathers wrote the requirement for an enumeration of the American people every 10 years they had no idea that they would be creating the single largest group of records to be used by future genealogists, but that is exactly what they did. This lecture provides the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the census. It discusses Internet census searches and how to find your ancestors even when "the census taker missed them." It also describes what you will find on each census and points out valuable information that many researchers overlook. It alsos touches on common errors found in census records.

There were six major Indian wars in the southeastern U. S. that left genealogically significant records. Most of them lasted between one and two years, and one of them lasted more than seven years. This lecture briefly discusses each of the Indian wars and then uses examples to describe each of the record types generated by the wars. Where to find the records in online, microfilm, and print resources is also discussed.

Wills are wonderful resources, but the genealogist who walks away when they don't find their ancestor in the Will Book, might be missing something almost as good: estate probate records. This lecture will address where and how to find estate records, as well as the golden nuggets that can often be found in them.

This lecture uses live online research with names provided by the audience to demonstrate a variety of the better online genealogy sites and a range of tips for successful online searching. This lecture is easily expanded into two hours through a more in depth review of sites and search techniques.