Announcing the GFO Open House 2026
March 15-21, 2026
- Join us for 20 free classes!
- The research room will be open every day throughout the event.
- Library tours are on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons.
- Beginning research help -- five sessions available every day (with no fee) for individual help from our research assistants in the library. Sign up at the reception desk or request a session at info@gfo.org.
- Most presentations are online via Zoom. All are free during Open House. Pre-registration is required -- follow the "register now" link.
All Open House events are free - a great chance to see what GFO is all about!
Please invite your friends.
We will post the schedule here as it develops!
GFO Open House 2026
Call for Presentations
March 2026 will mark the 79th anniversary of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon and its annual Open House. As in past years, this year’s Open House will feature a week of free presentations at GFO's regional genealogical library and online.
This year's Open House takes place March 15-21. Presentations are provided free of charge as a service to the genealogical community.
We invite speakers and groups to provide a presentation on any subject of genealogical interest. We are particularly interested in talks that highlight resources available in the Pacific Northwest, “getting-started” talks aimed at novices embarking on a new locale or ethnicity, and lectures on methodology.
Past topics:
- Presentations by GFO Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
- Beginning German/Polish/Irish Etc. Research
- Lineage Societies
- Researching in the Internet Archive
- City Directories
- Using the State Archives (OR and WA)
- Genealogy Software (e.g., RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker)
- Old Handwriting
- Military Bounty Lands, Other Land Records, and How to Plot Your Ancestry's Homestead
- Church Records
- Records of Enslaved Individuals
- Researching the History of Your House
- British Records and Where to Find Them
- Researching in Local Historical Societies
Please submit a proposed title and/or brief description to openhouse@gfo.org
