2019 Spring Seminar – Michael D. Lacopo, D.V.M.

April 13, 2019

Michael D. Lacopo, D.V.M.
A Method to our Madness: Sound Methodology for Successful Research

Meet Michael D. Lacopo, D.V.M.

Dr. Michael D. Lacopo, DVM was born and raised in northern Indiana into a family always willing to tell tall tales. Intrigued by his maternal family’s claim to be kinfolk of Abraham Lincoln, and his paternal family’s stories of murder and mayhem, he took to genealogical research in 1980 to substantiate these family stories.

It was by combing libraries, archives, cemeteries and courthouses as a teenager that Michael gained the skills needed to become a keen researcher. His first major research challenge was finding his adopted mother’s birthparents in 1982. You can read about this engaging adventure (and its plot twists) at his blog: Roots4U.blogspot.com.

While honing his research skills as a budding genealogist, Michael completed his doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1991. Michael treats his genealogical research as he would medicine – carefully, methodically and completely. It was in 2013 that he retired from medicine to pursue genealogical research full-time as a profession.

Michael’s national lecturing began at the 2004 National Genealogical Society’s conference, and has continued with local, state, national, and international speaking engagements. Michael also contributes articles to numerous periodicals, as well as helping many people in their quests to locate their relatives – both living and dead.

Michael’s numerous interests and strengths include Mennonite, German, and Swiss research, especially as it pertains to the 18th century immigration to America. He makes frequent trips throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, chasing ancestors in primary repositories. He also devotes a considerable amount of time to European research, being proficient in reading German script.

In addition to his story-telling and educational blog, Michael can be found at Roots4U.com, and for more up-to-date lecture and research information at Facebook.

Sessions

• Session 1: Deconstructing Your Family Tree: Re-evaluating the Evidence:
  When the information passed on from researcher to researcher doesn’t add up, it’s time to tear down the walls and rebuild anew. This methodology lecture shows how erroneous conclusions can sneak into our research uncontested. This lecture is especially pertinent today with so many internet family trees that get cut and pasted into our own research.
• Session 2: “She came from nowhere…” – A case study approach to a difficult genealogical problem:
  This lecture illustrates the joys and pitfalls of Virginia research as well as employing a problem-solving approach utilizing social history, female research and family analysis to identify the parents of Elizabeth Stith, the ancestor from nowhere. One need not have Virginia ancestors to see the Genealogical Proof Standard at work.
• Session 3: Methods for identifying the German origins of American immigrants:
  If all you know from conventional records is “Germany” as a place of origin, then this lecture will help you mine other resources to locate where in Germany your ancestor came from.
• Session 4: Incorporating social history into your research
  Family history should be more than names and dates. What motivated our ancestors? Why did they migrate? Who did they interact with? How do social customs of another era affect our research? Social history and its bearing on genealogical research will be covered, and a must-read bibliography for serious researchers will be discussed.