CO chapter 2025 Fall Seminar
The Colorado Chapter of Palatines to America is pleased to announce that Alex Tolksdorf has accepted our invitation to be the speaker at our Fall Seminar on 15th November 2025. Visit www.copalam.us for more details.
Alex’s Topics:
1. Maximizing Research Success in the Aroslen Archives
2. Eastern European Genealogy for Beginners
3. Tracing your Dutch Roots
4. How to Get your Family Engaged in your Research
The seminar will be a hybrid event.
A recording will be made available for 30 days to those who register.
In-person attendees who register by 27th October 2025 will be eligible for lunch with Alex,
There will be lots of door prizes for both in-person and virtual attendees.
About Alex:
Alexander Tolksdorf is a genealogist and speaker, specializing in German, Dutch, and Eastern European research. He began his personal journey in high school, inspired by a trip to Ellis Island and through a correspondence with his great uncle in Germany, who also was an active family historian. All four of his grandparents immigrated to the United States in the 1950s following the Second World War; as such, the majority of his research experience and focus is in European sources. Paternally, his family is German, primarily from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia, Posen, and East Prussia. Maternally, his family roots are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian. Thus far, Alex has uncovered and actively researches family lines in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Russia.
Through this work, he has become very comfortable with research in these counties; including overcoming the language barriers, lack of online record access, and lost or missing records. He relies on civil, church, and a plethora of other records for his research, and finds that all provide illumination and the tools to break down brick walls. Alex believes that standard records only tell part of the story, with the many additional forms of documentation providing color and texture to a family history.
Alex enjoys his work as a financial analyst at the Ford Motor Company, and is a former President of the Ford Genealogy Club. He is also active in the Ukrainian-American community of Metro Detroit, serving as a former treasurer of the Ukrainian Graduates of Detroit and Windsor, the treasurer and circulation manager of the Detroitski Novyny, the local community newspaper, the chairperson of the Supervisory Committee of the Ukrainian Self-reliance Michigan Federal Credit Union, and a board member of the Ukrainian American Archives and Museum. During his spare time when he is not researching, Alex enjoys walking and exercising with his wife, Katelyn, and their dog, as well as working on his car, a 2014 Ford Mustang GT. Alex is an Accredited Genealogist (AG®), credentialed by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen℠) for the Germany – East region.
Register electronically using PayPal at https://www.copalam.us/ on the seminar registration link.
Register by mail by completing the form available at https://www.copalam.us and mail it with your check payable to COPalAm
Colorado Palatines
P.O. Box 51186
Colorado Springs, CO 80949
