The Indiana State Library will host the annual Indiana Genealogy and Local History Fair in downtown Indianapolis. Admission is free and open to the general public. This year’s theme is “Sacrificing and Shaping the Future,” commemorating the Centennial of the Great War and examining military resources and history.

Over 30 organizations and exhibitors will be in attendance.  Visit the tables in the exhibition hall to collect information from genealogical and local history organizations, and shop the commercial vendors.

Highly acclaimed, internationally known speakers and genealogy consultants, Kathleen Brandt and Katherine R. Willson, will present.

Kathleen Brandt, an international genealogy consultant, speaker and writer has more than 10 years of experience as a professional genealogist and is a licensed private investigator. Her clients include NBC Who Do You Think You Are? Seasons 2010-2011; PBS Finding Your Roots, with Henry Louis Gates, 2012; and she appeared on the History Channel’s How the States Got Their Shapes, 2012. She has extensive experience in international and nationwide documentation retrieval, free-colored research, military record reconstructions, and tracing slaves, as well as Italian, Irish, Swedish, and German records. As a freelance writer, her genealogy articles have been published online through Archives.com and AARP magazine, and on the a3Genealogy blog where she provides educational and informational articles on history, genealogy and research methodology. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).  Kathleen will speak on “Finding Your Revolutionary War Soldier” and “Finding the Elusive Civil War Ancestor.”

Katherine R. Willson of Ann Arbor, MI is a highly acclaimed and nationally-known public speaker.  She gives keynote addresses & conference presentations (including ICAPGen 2014, RootsTech 2015, RootsTech 2016), facilitates workshops & seminars, and conducts training on many varied topics within genealogy.  An Army Reserve wife of 20+ years, Katherine supports military families as a member of the Cadre of Speakers for the Dept. of Defense’s Yellow Ribbon Reintegration. Katherine will speak to us about “Military Record Research”: How can you determine which major conflict your ancestor might have served in?  Which records may have been generated during that time, and where are they held?  We’ll learn about the various places we might look to determine whether an ancestor served in the military and what we might expect to find in his or her military records. Katherine will also hold a 30 minute open forum Question and Answer session following lunch.