Webinar – The WPA Era: Free Records Boon from the Government with Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA [9 Apr 2025]

During tough economic times in the 1930s and 1940s, government programs put many people to work. The Works Progress/Work Projects Administration and the Historical Records Survey created a goldmine of material useful for today’s genealogists all across the U.S. WPA record transcriptions, courthouse and manuscript inventories, vital records indexes, city/county histories, and histories of businesses and families may exist for your ancestral locale. We will discuss many of those WPA creations, some of which you already use regularly, and where others may be found today. We will also discuss the online explosion of WPA materials.

Paula is an internationally recognized genealogical educator, researcher, and consultant focusing on unusual resources, manuscripts, methodology, and analyzing records. She also specializes in railroad research, the WPA, and Native American records. She has done extensive research at libraries, courthouses, libraries, state archives, historical societies, and various locations of the U.S. National Archives. She is a coordinator and instructor for the GRIP Genealogy Institute, has presented courses for several other institutes and academies, and continues presenting virtual seminars and webinars across the U.S. and in Canada. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Minnesota Genealogical Society, and the Association of Professional Genealogists.
She is descended from eight ancestral countries and has researched family connections across the U.S. and Canada, including her children’s connections to the Southeastern U.S. She currently has her own educational website and blog at http://genealogybypaula.com and is enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and continuing education.