I’m not sure where the first few weeks of the year have gone! I meant to post information about these two institute courses that I am teaching in, sooner than now… I guess I’m better late than never, right?

I’ll be teaching in two courses at IGHR this Spring, registration is open now, so sign up soon if you would like to join us! Both courses are being held once per week for a number of weeks, instead of like a firehose for one full week.

Genetics for Genealogists: Fundamentals of DNA

This course is coordinated by Pattie Hobbs and includes myself and Kimberly Powell as instructors. We are teaching the basics, the fundamentals, and the course is set at a beginner DNA level but students should be familiar with genealogical concepts. I will be teaching about the power of pedigrees when analyzing your DNA, DNA clustering, and will provide a hands-on workshop on the Leeds Method.

Registration ends on February 14, 2026. Click here for more details: https://ighr.gagensociety.org/dna/

Repository Research: From Website to Doorway

My colleague, Cyndi Ingle, of Cyndi’s List, put this course together. The way you begin research today is different than when we started before and during the early stages of the Internet. When I began my genealogy journey, I wrote letters, went to libraries and courthouses, and visited cemeteries myself. Today, some 26 years after my beginnings, we start very differently. We should be combing through everything that is available online and from home, before we head to the repositories. That’s what this course is about. How do we begin, now that so much is available online? This course is aimed at new genealogists and those of us who have been doing this a while but may not know what is available online because it grew so quickly! In this course I’ll be teaching on building a locality guide with a focus on repositories, hiring help from afar, and genealogical “grit.”

Registration closes on 12 February 2026. Click here for more details: https://ighr.gagensociety.org/repositories/

For general details about IGHR, visit: https://ighr.gagensociety.org

I am excited and I hope to see you there!