Genealogy training kicks into high gear in the Tampa area this month with topics ranging from the Civil War to the Internet. Here are your choices for February and beyond:

Confederacy. If your genealogical interests include learning more about the Civil War, this month's meeting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Chapter 113, will appeal to you.

The meeting will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Steak and Ale, 204 N. West Shore Blvd., Tampa (next to WestShore Plaza). Anne Brown of the Brooksville chapter will present the program: "Columbus, Georgia, the Final Stand of the Confederacy." For reservations, call Gail Crosby at (813) 758-5738.

Immigration. The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay will offer a two-part educational seminar, "2008 Guide to Immigration Research: Finding Your Grandma's Immigration Record," led by Emil Isaacson.

Genealogy Club plans tombstone talk

The Genealogy Club of Osceola County will meet at 2 p.m. Sunday in the meeting room of Hart Memorial Library on Dakin Street in Kissimmee. Joanne Vary Schwandes will speak on her observations and investigations of gravestones.

Volunteers from the club will be at the Hart Memorial Library in Kissimmee from 10 to 11 a.m. every Tuesday and from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursdays to answer questions about family research.

The Genealogy Club meets at 2 p.m. the first Sunday of the month at Hart Memorial Library.

Because of an obituary

When Oprah Winfrey calls you on your cell phone, you know it has to be good news.

It was for Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. about three years ago when he was trying to get the talk show mogul to participate in his PBS documentary "African American Lives." Gates' buddy, music legend Quincy Jones, was already on board, having become interested in genealogy after watching "Roots." But Jones was hesitant to ask his friend Winfrey to also allow Gates to research her genes through DNA.

So Jones gave Winfrey's secret mailing address to Gates, and he wrote her a letter. About a week later she called.

"She said, 'I'd be honored to do your series,' " said Gates, who was in Fort Wayne on Thursday evening as part of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne's Omnibus Lecture Series.