The Solano County Genealogical Society will host a Zoom discussion titled “Genealogical Research with the Witkin State Law Library,” featuring speaker Elena Smith, starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 3.

The Witkin State Law Library is the law library of the California State Library, with a premier collection of legal materials.

Participants will learn how to mine legal resources for genealogical treasures that can provide rich details about an ancestor’s life. Did your ancestor commit a crime? Maybe they filed a lawsuit—or perhaps a law was enacted in their honor. Smith will discuss which records are available from the comfort of your home (or at your State Law Library) and which types of records are available elsewhere. She will then use several examples to explore how to use those resources to find information about ancestors.

Smith is a reference and outreach librarian for the Witkin State Law Library. In addition to two years of experience as a law librarian, she has more than a decade of experience helping patrons with their history and genealogy research in a wide variety of local libraries and archives. Her professional passions include historic California law and public access to legal resources.

To attend this presentation, send an email to scgs@scgsca.org no later than 4 p.m. Friday, May 2, and request an invitation. More information on events can be found on the society’s website at www.scgsca.org and its Facebook page.