Events

Upcoming meeting dates and topics:

17 November - 10 AM, "Unusual Places to Find Births and Naturalizations" presented by Debra Dudek.

Saturday, November 19 – 10:00 AM until Noon
The British Interest Group of Wisconsin & Illinois welcomes Debra Dudek as speaker at our Saturday, November 19 meeting from 10 am until noon. Debra’s program, will be presented BOTH in person at the Community Church, 5714 Broadway in Richmond, Illinois AND virtual via Zoom (live).  Visitors as well as members are always welcome!

Please join us for Debra’s November presentation entitled “Unusual Places to Find Births and Naturalizations”. Widen your search for birth dates and locations as well as naturalizations from a variety of underutilized resources such as military rosters, consulate applications, voter registrations, cancelled passports, frakturs and much more. This presentation focuses on both digital and physical resources, so bring your research checklist and see if these resources can help you fill in the gaps in your family tree.

Register in advance for this meeting today.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Where and when we meet:

BIGWILL’s meetings are held at:

The Community Church
5714 Broadway St. (two blocks west of U.S. Route 12)
Richmond, Illinois


Our intention is to have our programs be presented BOTH in person AND on the web (live) for the foreseeable future.

10 am - 12 pm on the third Saturday of the months of:

  • January
  • March
  • May
  • July
  • September
  • November.

Visitors as well as members are always welcome.



What would you like to hear about? What would you like to talk about?

BIGWILL is always on the lookout for program ideas, and Sandra Braid is our chief scout. Have you taken a trip to England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man? If so, consider giving a presentation to BIGWILL about what you saw and did. Have you heard a good talk at some other society’s meeting which was related to British Isles research? Or do you just know a topic you’d like to learn more about, even if you don’t know who could give a presentation on the topic? If your answer is “Yes” to any of these questions, help put Sandra hot on the trail of another BIGWILL meeting topic. You can contact her by e-mail or in person at almost any BIGWILL meeting. You can make a difference!


Want to be reminded of what programs BIGWILL has had in the past?

Click here to view a listing of all programs from its very beginning through mid-2012.