History Center Offers Presentation on AncestryDNA

The Polk County History Center will host a program at 10 a.m. Aug. 31 about using Ancestry DNA for genealogical research.

The workshop will be lead by Drew Smith, an associate librarian at the University of South Florida Tampa Library and the 2016 winner of the Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship, presented by the National Genealogical Society.

According to Smith, AncestryDNA continues to add new tools to help with matching other testers, categorizing the matches into groups and discovering the right relationships. His presentation will focus on the use of the latest AncestryDNA tools to identify relatives near and distant.

Smith is past president of the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa and has served on the boards of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Florida State Genealogical Society. He is author of the book, "Social Networking for Genealogists, Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher," and co-author of the book, "Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques." He also has written extensively for a number of genealogical print and online magazines.

The Center's Historical and Genealogical Library has a limited number of computers available for research after the presentation, so attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptops.

Call 863-534-4604 to reserve a seat. The Center is located at 100 E. Main St. in Bartow. Wheelchair access is available on the east side of the building at the Central Avenue entrance and additional parking is available in the Oaks parking lot at the corner of East Parker Street and South Central Avenue.