Arkansas Family History Association 609 Colynwood Sherwood, Arkansas 72120 501-835-7502 http://www.rootsweb.com/~arfha roots@myfamily.org _____________________________________________________ "Growing Arkansas family histories one branch at a time." February 4, 2000 For Immediate Release Contact: Tracey Converse roots@myfamily.org 501-835-7502 ARKANSAS' LARGEST FAMILY HISTORY ORGANIZATION OFFERS GENEALOGY CLASSES Little Rock-The Arkansas Family History Association recently announced a lecture series featuring national and regional speakers on how to trace your family tree. According to April 1999 issue of Time Magazine, family history research is one of the leading subject on the Internet. With the advent of the Internet, AFHA founder Desmond Walls Allen says, "Reconnecting distant family relations is now easier than before. Many folks find when they get on mailing lists that they have a distant cousin also researching the family." "Our website alone had 20,000 hits last month. Our staff of nationwide volunteers have done over 200 genealogy lookups in the last month." Designed to offer free membership and online lookups to people with Internet access, AFHA has grown to the largest genealogical organization in the state with over 1000 members worldwide. During just the first three weeks of this year, the AFHA Internet Mailing list saw over 700 messages posted about Arkansas history. "The phenomenal growth shows an incredible interest of the people of Arkansas to learn about their families past," said Allen. Education is a major goal of this organization. With monthly meetings held at the Central Arkansas Library's Main Branch, AFHA hopes to educate more people in the fine art of research. Tickets to the classes are $12 in advance and $10 for members. The class runs from 2-5 pm at the Main Library in Little Rock at 100 Rock Street. Monies raised will be used to support the Richard C. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library. The February 20 meeting will feature regional lecturer Tracey Converse. Her topic will be "Surfing the Web for Cousins." She will provide insight into how to find your family information on the web. What search engines to use and how to share your information with others. Converse is also the web master for the Central Arkansas Library System and has been on the web for 5 years and researching her family history since 1983. Additional classes are slated for March 17, April 15, May 14, June 11 and July 30. Topics will include Newspaper Research, Beginning Genealogy, Civil War Records, and Native American Research. Founding member of the Arkansas Family History Association!! http://www.rootsweb.com/~arfha ********************* FREE Genealogy Forms Online!!! http://www.ancestrycorner.com We Specialize in ARKANSAS books! ****************************************** Listowner of: the GRS E-Zine, GenTips, GenChat, GenSwap ************************************************ Webmaster of the Central Arkansas Library System http://www.cals.lib.ar.us *************************************************************