Nancy Guzelian sharing an old photograph (Photo: Kenneth Martin)
WATERTOWN (Armenian Weekly)—The first Armenian Genealogy Conference was held at the Armenian Cultural and Educational Center (ACEC), in Watertown, Mass., on the weekend of April 9-10. More than 300 people attended the two-day conference. Some came from as far as Vancouver, Canada, while two participants flew in from Great Britain.
The program began Saturday with a welcome by the three conference organizers, Tracy Rivest Keeney, Mark Arslan, and George Aghjayan.
Keeney, creator of the Armenian Genealogy Facebook page, led the first presentation, covering the sources most commonly available to genealogists in the United States. She used real cases in highlighting the valuable information that can be gleaned from the sources. Her talk supplied an important foundation, especially for those just beginning their family tree research.
The next presenter, Arslan, provided background on his family research and its evolution to become the Armenian Immigration Project. Initially devoted to immigrants from Keghi, the website has become an extensive database for all immigrants to the United States. Arslan gave examples of the ways to search the databases as well as to link individuals to various records. He also explained how others can help in transcribing records.
Steve Kurkjian and Janet Andreopoulos speaking on how DNA can play a role in Armenian family research (Photo: Kenneth Martin)
Vahe Tachjian, director of Houshamadyan, spoke of the project’s aim to “reconstruct Ottoman Armenian town and village life.â€
