Boston Public Library releases Local and Family History Lecture Series fall schedule

Boston Public Library's Local & Family History Lecture Series returns this month, offering information about the history of Boston and its diverse neighborhoods along with tips and guides for those beginning their own genealogical research. The complete September through December schedule can be viewed or downloaded online. The series offers a wide range of topics, from the Cocoanut Grove Fire to the history of Marshmallow Fluff’s production in Massachusetts:

• Eve LaPlante discusses how Puritans viewed women’s power and women’s bodies, in this life and in the afterlife in “Monstrous Births, Powerful Midwives: The Battle Over Women’s Bodies in 17th-Century Boston” on Wednesday, September 13, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• Steven Edson and Dan Gilman share their knowledge to help you preserve your family’s history before it’s lost or forgotten. Discover how to scan and restore old photographs, transfer paper to digital formats, convert old film to video, record interviews with relatives, and learn best practices for editing, storytelling, and sharing your family’s memories on Wednesday, September 20, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• Margaret Newell, author and vice chair of the History Department at Ohio State University, explores the stories of Indians enslaved by English colonists in New England and shows how they influenced New England society in crucial ways, including by exposing their captors to Native religion, foods, and technology and fighting for citizenship in cases that had implications for all enslaved peoples in 18th-century America. Wednesday, October 4, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• Lisa Berenson, director of Educational Programming and Development at the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts, discusses an ambitious initiative to transform and restore a former Jewish mortuary chapel in East Boston into a state-of-the-art exhibit hall on the history of immigration in the Boston area. Wednesday, October 25, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• David Allen Lambert, chief genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, shows you how, despite challenges, you can start reconstructing your ancestor’s service history using draft registration cards and enlistments, the U.S. census, discharge papers, unit histories, and several other resources on Wednesday, November 8, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• Rosalyn Delores Elder, author, registered architect, and cofounder of Jamaicaway Books, explores sites in towns across the commonwealth that document the contributions of African Americans to our state’s history on Wednesday, November 15, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.
• Stephanie Schorow, author of six books including The Cocoanut Grove Fire and Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits, explores the worst nightclub fire in U.S. history in its 75^th anniversary year, in which 492 people perished on Tuesday, November 28, at 6 p.m. in Rabb Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.

• Marshmallow Fluff was invented in Somerville and has been manufactured in Lynn since the 1950s. In celebration of Marshmallow Fluff’s centennial, Mimi Graney, author of Fluff: The Sticky Sweet Story of an American Icon, presents a fascinating narrative of Boston’s forgotten candy industry on Wednesday, December 6, at 6 p.m. in the Commonwealth Salon at the Central Library in Copley Square, located at 700 Boylston Street.

Boston Public Library has a Central Library, twenty-four branches, map center, business library, and a website filled with digital content and services. Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library has pioneered public library service in America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. Each year, the Boston Public Library hosts thousands of programs and serves millions of people. All of its programs and exhibitions are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning. To learn more, visit bpl.org.