DECATUR — Van Buren Regional Genealogical Society (VBRGS) will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, at Webster Memorial Library, 200 N. Phelps St., Decatur, in the community room.

The program for the meeting, titled “Navigating the 1890 Gap: Research with State Census Records,” presented by Kris Rzepczynski, Library of Michigan librarian, professional genealogist and lecturer, will be of special interest to all genealogists who have been missing family members from the 1890 Federal Census.

The original data for the 1890 census is no longer available because almost all the population schedules were damaged in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. in 1921.

The fire destroyed 25 percent of the materials and another 50 percent were damaged by smoke and water.

The surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order during the 1930s.

Currently Kris is the Michigan coordinator at the Library of Michigan and has worked at the library for more than 11 years. He holds a master’s degree in library and information science from Wayne State University, a master of arts degree in history from Western Michigan University and a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Michigan.

Kris is a past president of the Mid-Michigan Genealogical Society.

Preceding the general meeting from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., there will be a “Family History Essentials” series class, where Kris will talk briefly about the Library of Michigan, his role there and some of the resources available to genealogists. He will also spend a few minutes on some of his research successes.

All meetings of the genealogy society are free to the public and everyone is welcome to attend.