P.O. Box 144, Falmouth, MA 02541-0144 - Barnstable County
Copyright Falmouth Genealogical Society, Inc. 2026. All rights reserved.
For the Falmouth Public Library "Joy of Learning Series"
"Let's Do Genealogy!": presented by Tim Martin & Ralph Wadleigh
Four Thursday evenings Oct 2022:
- Oct. 6th : "Overview of Genealogy" - for Class #1: handout and slides and video.
- Oct. 13th : "Researching Sources" - for Class #2: slides and video.
- Oct. 27th : "Building a Family Tree - Applying to Lineage Societies" - Class #3: slides and video.
- Nov. 3rd : "Genetic Genealogy" - Class #4: slides and video.
Saturday, October 24, 2026 - 10:00AM EDT - (TBA)
Please note this meeting will be held on the fourth Saturday of October.
Hybrid Meeting with live presenter.
Saturday, September 12, 2026 - 10:00AM EDT
Please note this meeting will be held on the second Saturday of September.
Hybrid Meeting with Live Presenter
"Noble Volunteers, the British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution"
with author Don Hagist
Redcoats. For Americans, the word brings to mind the occupying army that attempted to crush the Revolutionary War. There was more to these soldiers than their red uniforms, but the individuals who formed the ranks are seldom described in any detail in historical literature, leaving unanswered questions. Who were these men? Why did they join the army? Where did they go when the war was over?
In Noble Volunteers: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution, Don N. Hagist brings life to these soldiers, describing the training, experiences, and outcomes of British soldiers who fought during the Revolution. Drawing on thousands of military records and other primary sources in British, American, and Canadian archives, and the writings of dozens of officers and soldiers, Noble Volunteers shows how a peacetime army responded to the onset of war, how professional soldiers adapted quickly and effectively to become tactically dominant, and what became of the thousands of career soldiers once the war was over.
In this historical tour de force, introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson, Hagist dispels long-held myths, revealing how remarkably diverse British soldiers were. They represented a variety of ages, nationalities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and many had joined the army as a peacetime career, only to find themselves fighting a war on another continent in often brutal conditions. Against the sweeping backdrop of the war, Hagist directs his focus on the small picture, illuminating the moments in an individual soldier’s life—those hours spent nursing a fever while standing sentry in the bitter cold, or writing a letter to a wife back home. What emerges from these vignettes is the understanding that while these were “common” soldiers, each soldier was completely unique, for, as Hagist writes, “There was no ‘typical’ British soldier.”
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Don N. Hagist is managing editor of Journal of the American Revolution. His historical studies focus on presenting an accurate picture of individual soldiers and their families, especially those of the British army who served in America. This research is done using exclusively primary sources, mostly from archives in North America and Europe. He was a consultant for the PBS documentary The American Revolution produced by Ken Burns and the Netflix series Turning Point: the American Experiment. He has written several recent books including Noble Volunteers: the British Soldiers who fought the American Revolution, The Revolution’s Last Men: The Soldiers behind the Photographs and the forthcoming Invisible Lives: British Soldiers’ Wives in the American Revolution. Don is an engineering consultant, and also writes for several well-known syndicated cartoonists. For more information, see his web site, donhagist.com
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NEXT MEETING:
Saturday, November 14, 2026 - 10:00AM EDT
Please note this meeting will be held on the second Saturday of November.
Hybrid Meeting with live presenter.
"The Particular Powers of Y-DNA Testing" with Tim Martin, FGS President
Unlike the more commonly tested autosomal DNA, Y-DNA is duplicated exactly from father to son, except roughly every few generations a single “SNP” mutation occurs which is passed on to all subsequent male descendants, thereby defining distinguishable male lineage branches through all time. This purely father to son lineage is referred to as the patrilineal line. This talk will focus on the particular power of Y-DNA testing to reach back in time and positively reveal patrilineal ancestors and their patrilineal descendants. Any two males taking a Big-Y test can determine an estimate of time to a common patrilineal ancestor.
We examine the case of Laurens Andriessen, a Danish immigrant, who arrived in New Amsterdam (present day Manhattan, New York) about 1654. Upon arrival, he took on the surname “Van Buskirk” and married a Dutch widow who bore him four sons. Y-DNA testing among 28 participating males and conventional genealogy for some of those tested has allowed us to determine who is and who is not a descendent of Laurens, as well as from which of the four sons many of the testers descend. Several paternal surprises are also revealed.
We also discuss the benefits of Y-DNA testers joining surname and haplo-groups to better collaborate with and learn from their Y-DNA matches.
FROM THE PAST:
Our Monthly Meetings are held at 10:00am at the Falmouth Public LibrarY
300 Main Street, Falmouth MA 02540
Downstairs in the hermann foundation room unless otherwise noted
TUESDAY AFTERNOON GENEALOGY ASSISTANCE EXPERTS - FREE!
Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 pm-4:00 pm at the Falmouth Public Library in the Lemke Reference Room. Falmouth Genealogical Society members assist anyone with their genealogical research. This is a free drop-in session with no appointment needed. FGS video about Library Sessions.