Michael Ports to address Genealogical Society - April 16

Amelia Island Genealogical Society

Press Releasee

Submitted by Rob Portegies-Zwart

Program Chair, AIGS

April 15, 2019 1:00 p.m.

The Amelia Island Genealogical Society will hold its regular monthly meeting at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at the Community Room of the Fernandina Beach Public Library, 25 N 4th St.

Michael Ports will present Franklin Robert Thomas: A Case Study in Climbing Over Southern Brick Walls. Ports will demonstrate how he uncovered the life of Franklin Robert Thomas: finding parents and determining his date of birth; documenting his flight to Texas, Confederate service and return home; homesteading in Indian Territory and hunting buffalo; and his death and burial.

Michael Ports is a practicing civil engineer with more than 48 years of professional service. The genealogical bug bit him hard when he was in graduate school. Since then he has been working to trace all of his ancestral lines as far back as possible. He has published more than 100 articles in genealogical journals and magazines, mostly on his own lines; 5 comprehensive genealogies available online; and more than 50 books of transcribed original records.

Public welcome.