Are You Descended From Rebels or Yankees?

Local genealogist Harlan Jessup will be showing people how to research their own genealogy to discover where their families stood in the war that pit brother against brother.

Jessup will be presenting “Rebel or Yankee: Finding Your Civil War Ancestors” at the Brookfield Library on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. The presentation will focus on locating and using service records, pension, census and burial records, and published unit and personal histories.

The talk will be illustrated with examples from two of Jessup’s great, great uncles — one who fought for the Union and one for the Confederacy — and with local examples from Brookfield and Danbury.

A resident of Newtown, Jessup has a special interest in Connecticut and nearby areas of Massachusetts and New York. He edits the Connecticut Ancestry journal, and maintains the genealogy and local history collection at Newtown’s C. H. Booth Library. He is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and of the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council.

Register for this free program online or by calling 203-775-6241.

Photo: Harlan Jessup via his Facebook page.