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Michelle Tucker Chubenko – Piecing Together History: Using Maps and Directories to Rediscover Eastern European Towns
and
Spotlight Talk: Understanding Eastern European Geography: Borders, Peoples, and Histories

April 26, 2026 @ 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm EDT

– at New Art Center, Newton, MA (In-Person and Zoom Meeting)

*Parking Instructions for the New Art Center
The address is 61 Washington Park, Newtonville 02460.  The street runs from Harvard St to Walnut St opposite the Newton Senior Center.  Parking is available on both sides of Washington Park on the house sides, not along the center park.  
 
To access the New Art Center’s parking lot, use the address 56 Madison Ave, Newtonville in your GPS.  The driveway to the parking lot is next door to that address.  There are a few handicapped spaces near the Washington Park end of the lot.
 
Enter the building at the door with the ramp, closest to Washington Park.  

Both programs will be recorded and available for 3 months on the member’s page.

Main Program Description:
Our ancestors’ lives were more than the events of birth, marriage, and death. Information about the places where they lived isn’t always readily available. The presentation will demonstrate how to use published materials such as gazetteers, schematisms, directories and maps to pinpoint your ancestral town or village. Using examples from Central and Eastern Europe, Chubenko will also show you how to use the statistical data and incorporate visual details to create historical vignettes for these places.

Spotlight Program Description:
In this session, Chubenko will help you navigate the complex history of the shifting borders in Eastern Europe. You will learn how empires and key historical events from the 18th century through the Cold War shaped our ancestral landscape and you will receive practical tips for locating towns, interpreting multi-language records, and accessing relevant archives.

Speaker Bio:Michele Chubenko
Michelle Tucker Chubenko is an accredited Professional Genealogist and specializes in the Mid-Atlantic region and Eastern European research. She serves in leadership positions for the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS), and a Family History Group at the Ukrainian History and Education Center (Somerset, New Jersey). In 2023, she coordinated the institute course Researching Your Ancestry in the Crownland of Galicia, Austria-Hungary.

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hybrid

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