If it’s too early to carve your jack ‘o lantern this Saturday, consider working on your genealogy at one of two genealogy events which take place this coming Saturday. Or both! It might be hard to choose which one to attend, but they’re both being held at the Denver Public Library. How convenient!

The Black Genealogy Search Group is hosting guest speaker Reginald Washington in the lower conference level of DPL, celebrating their 8th Annual Heritage Festival. Reginal Washington is an archivist from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. He’s lecturing on Freedmen’s Bureau records, but don’t let that one specific ethnic-based lecture deter you, because I’m sure he’ll take a question or two from the audience, and his National Archives knowledge is broad. In the afternoon, Lisa Arnold, from Ancestry, will have a session about African-American records on Ancestry, plus “Getting The Most from Your Ancestry Collection.” Don’t let this Ancestry opportunity pass you by! The event begins at 9 AM.

Upstairs in the Gates Conference Room on the Fifth Floor, the Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England Family History Society will have, beginning at 1 PM, a program called “Accents and Dialects of the British Isles” where native speakers from each area will speak in their dialects. They’re going to read the same paragraph, each in his or her own dialect, demonstrating the differences. Discussion will take place about the difference between accent and dialect. This sounds like a terrific afternoon, and if you’re hungry, light refreshments will be served to stave off your afternoon slump.