The Butler Center offers a beginner’s genealogy class the second Monday of every month, taught by Rhonda Stewart, the Butler Center’s local history and genealogy expert. Participants will learn how to use online databases and city directories, as well as how to archive family documents. Jump-start your genealogy research with this fun and creative way to learn about the past.

Register for Finding Family Facts

Due to ongoing public health concerns, Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) has suspended all programs and outreach at this time.

The CALS Butler Center offers a monthly beginner’s oral history workshop taught by Benji de la Piedra, oral historian and author. Participants will learn how to

• think about questions, stories, memories, and dialogue like oral historians do;
• prepare for and conduct oral history interviews with the technology they have available to them (including phone and video chat); and
• imagine and pursue possible outcomes of the interviewing process.

This course is open to all.

Beyond the traditional records that yield essential names, dates, and places, you can often get a better understanding of your ancestors from some of the lesser-used records that don’t rise to the surface in a general search. From almshouse and agricultural schedules and fraternal and ethnic collections to a vast assortment of military records, great details can be found in the billions of records at Ancestry.com. This presentation highlights some of the best and most unusual collections, how to find them,