Those who are fascinated by family history should make plans to attend Thursday night’s Covington County Historical Society meeting where genealogist Lisa Franklin will discuss using DNA to track one’s history.

Curtis Thomasson, The Star-News’ resident genealogy columnist, said over the years, the field has “exploded.”

“I think for one reason, it’s that people are so mobile today,” Thomasson said. “It’s prompted people to want to learn more about their roots, their heritage. Over the years, there have been many different courses to train people to research genealogy in various ways.

“Family history is a fascinating thing, and it’s motivated a whole generation to learn more about where they came from,” he said. “And with the addition of available resources, such as Ancestry.com and trackingyourroots.com, and now DNA, it’s really encouraged more people to get into genealogy.”

Franklin, a Texas resident, has served as a “find-a-grave” volunteer since 2005, focusing on photographing old, worn, and damaged tombstones to preserve the information for future generations.

Thursday, Franklin – who is the founder of trackingyourroots.com and someone whose family history runs through Covington County as her grandfather was born in River Falls – will give a Power Point presentation and hand out materials for helping one connect to cousins, making new discoveries of one’s ancestry, and will additionally share information for growing the family tree.

“I think it will be a wealth of information and give people a place to not only start their own research process, but also new information for those who are looking for new leads,” Thomasson said.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Dixon Room of the Andalusia Public Library.