MFA Virtual Meeting 2026 March
Come join us online
We are planning an MFA 2026 meeting: Thursday March 19 at 6:30 PM Central Time
About the Meeting:
Great topics including:
- Meet & greet your MFA friends online!
- Send back to us other agenda items (ASAP)!
- We will send out more information later to those who send their request below.
Meeting Times:
Thursday March 19: 6:30 – 7:15 PM (Central Time)
Meeting Registration:
No Charge!
Next Steps:
- Request your Zoom Meeting link: email to Brent Bragg at bbragg6920@aol.com.
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- Brent will email invitation links to the Zoom meeting(s) to you
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- You will need to download and install a Zoom App to run on your computer or smart phone
- and create your own (free) Zoom account
- Typical Zoom Apps:
- Windows = Zoom Client for Meetings
- Mobile Apple App = iPhone and iPad (ZOOM Cloud Meetings)
- Mobile Android App = Google Play Store (ZOOM Cloud Meetings)
- Ready to attend the meeting?
- Open your invitation email and click the Zoom link in the email to go right to the meeting!
Meeting Results:
Attendees: Brent Bragg, Ken Pearman and Neal Middlebrook
Neal and Brent discuss plans for the Middlebrook Family Association’s upcoming seminar series, agreeing to start with a broad overview of the Caswell County
Brothers to attract wider interest before focusing on specific ancestor lines.
They decided to set an internal date first to organize content and test logistics, particularly for PowerPoint presentations via Zoom, before announcing a public
seminar date and conducting outreach through Facebook, newsletters, and member mailings.
Ken joins and shares his genealogical research challenges tracing his line back beyond 1850, prompting discussion of additional seminar topics including using
FamilySearch’s full-text search tool, AI for genealogy research, breaking through brick walls, and data backup strategies.
The group also proposes creating a bulletin board section on the MFA website for members to share research information, with Brent agreeing to draft an agenda for the internal planning meeting and Neal planning to contact Dave about website modifications.
Next Steps
- Brent:- Will draft an agenda and plan for the internal meeting logistics including Zoom setup and pull together an outline of the presentation for consideration by the board. He will send the internal meeting agenda to Neal by the second half of April.
- Neal- Will start drafting a power point on the Caswell County Brothers as the first seminar presentation.
- Neal: Once the seminar date is set will post seminar information on MFA Facebook multiple times.
- Neal:- Will Include a seminar announcement in the March newsletter.
- Neal:- Will ask Dave send seminar announcement through member mailing list.
- Neal:- Talk to Dave about adding a bulletin board section on the website for sharing information
- Neal:- Email Ken information on AI search techniques and how to verify accuracy.
- Brent – agreed to do a John Middlebrook b. 1754 PP seminar presentation.
- Leonard Middlebrooks- has also agreed to do PP at a later date.
Seminar Topics added
- Best practices for storing data and back-up.
- Determine how to share information among association members.
- A type of bulletin board on the MFA website might be helpful.
- How to use Full Text search and AI as a resource tool.
- How to break brick walls when the paper trail dries up. What are some tools and techniques that can be used.
- How to back up and safely store digital family research information, records and photos.
- Scanning and restoring family photos.