Click here to access our events calendar!
Click this link to register for any of the following programs or our Movie Matinees
or call the library.
One-on-One Genealogy Sessions
Trying to get started on your family tree or looking for some tools to help with research? Are you stuck trying to find an ancestor? Well, we have two genealogy buffs Sam Morrisey and John Dwyer, who can sit with you one-on-one for a ½ hour session. Call now to reserve a spot.
THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
March 19, 2020
April 16, 2020, May 21, 2020, June 18, 2020
HALF HOUR SESSIONS
10:00-10:30, 10:30-11:00, 11:00-11:30, 11:30-12:00
2:00-2:30, 2:30-3:00, 3:00-3:30, 3:30-4:00
Just bring your ancestry information and your laptop/digital device. If you do not have a laptop/digital device that’s ok too. We will have one available. Sam Morrisey has been doing genealogy research for 20 years and is a member of the Judea Chapter of the DAR. John Dwyer learned genealogy from his mother. He started research with his own family tree and has moved on to help others.
Book Talk & Signing with Author & Historian Tom Shachtman
Thursday, February 27 @ 6:30 pm 
Historian & Author Tom Shachtman will offer a visual presentation & signing on his most recent publication, The Founding Fortunes. The Founding Fortunes reveals the ways in which a dozen notable Revolutionaries deeply affected the finances and birth of the new country while making and losing their fortunes and provides a riveting history of economic patriotism that still resonates today. In addition to nuanced views of the well-known wealthy financiers such as Robert Morris and John Hancock, and of the less wealthy but influential Alexander Hamilton, The Founding Fortunes offers insight into the contributions of those often overlooked by popular history: Henry Laurens, the plantation owner who replaced Hancock as President of Congress; pioneering businessmen William Bingham, Jeremiah Wadsworth, and Stephen Girard; privateer magnate Elias Hasket Derby; and Hamilton’s successors at Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, Jr. and Albert Gallatin. The Founders dealt with tariffs, taxes on the wealthy, the national debt, regional disparities, the census as it affected finances, and how much of what America needs should be manufactured at home in ways that remain startlingly relevant and insightful.
TOM SHACHTMAN has written or co-authored more than 35 books, as well as documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and BBC, and has taught at New York University and lectured at Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He is a former chairman of The Writers Room in Manhattan, a trustee of the Connecticut Humanities Council, and an occasional columnist for the Lakeville Journal.
DNA &Your Family Tree
Thursday, March 5 @ 6:30 pm 
Have you heard about DNA testing for genealogy but you’re not sure what it can do for you? DNA is a powerful tool to confirm lineage for those who know their family history. For those who don’t, it can be life changing. Join us as Professional Genealogist, Jennifer Zinck, President of the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council discusses the different types of DNA tests and how they might help you to knock down tough brick walls and connect branches of your family tree. Learn about the most popular tools and techniques used in genealogy and explore challenges and successes in the modern world of genealogy. Jennifer will even share a case history as it relates to Washington, CT.
Jennifer Zinck is a Professional Genealogist who specializes in Connecticut research and DNA evidence for genealogy. Jennifer is currently serving her third term as the President of the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council. She is an instructor in the Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate Program. Jennifer enjoys sharing her passion for family history with all ages.
Book Discussion
Tuesday, March 10 @ 6:30 pm 
Washington Environmental Council board members, Karen Silk, Terri Tibbatts and Monique Gil Rogers, will lead a book discussion on the New York Times bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells. It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. Join Karen, Terri & Monique as they delve into The Uninhabitable Earth an “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post). It is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s.
Copies of the book available at the circulation desk four weeks prior to the program.
Book Talk & Signing w/ Beatriz Williams
Tuesday, March 24 @ 6:30 pm
Beatriz Williams, New York Times Best Selling Author, will deliver a talk and signing on her two recent historical fiction publications, The Wicked Redhead and All The Ways We Said Goodbye.
In The Wicked Redhead, the much anticipated sequel to The Wicked City, the dazzling Ginger Kelly brings her mesmerizing voice and indomitable spirit to another Jazz Age tale of rum-runners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia. All the Ways We Said Goodbye is the latest collaborative novel from the writing team of Beatriz Williams, Karen White & Laura Willig, It connects three extraordinary women across the First World War, the Second World War, and the 1960’s, as each finds refuge at the legendary Ritz Paris.
Beatriz Williams is a New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before she turned her attention to writing novels that combine her passion for history with an obsessive devotion to voice and characterization. Beatriz’s books have won numerous awards, have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the world.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Beatriz now lives near the Connecticut shore with her husband and four children.
Books will be available for sale and signing at the event, courtesy of Hickory Stick Bookstore.
All programs are free and open to the public, but registration is requested.
Please call 860-868-7586 for further information or visit www.gunnlibrary.org
The Gunn Memorial Library is located at
5 Wykeham Road at Route 47 on the Green, in Washington, CT.
