Category Archives: Genealogical Education

GRIP 2019 Courses Announced

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It is hard to believe that the year is half over and I’m already looking ahead to my continuing education plans for 2019. In a little over a month, I will be attending the July week of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) in Pittsburgh (as opposed to the July week in Amherst, NY) coming up soon, taking the course “Women and Children First” with Judy Russell.

Looking ahead to future educational opportunities, I want to point out that GRIP’s 2019 courses have been announced and you can read about them on their blog.

Two weeks will be held in Pittsburgh at La Roche College, which is a lovely and inviting setting for a week of study. The weeks are June 23-28 and July 14-19, 2019. Mark your calendars!

GRIP is one of my favorites. I hope to see you there!

IGHR Scholarship Update: Lloyd Bockstruck

Genealogical Education,

A few days ago I encouraged future institute-goers to apply for a variety of scholarships to attend IGHR. You can see that post here. Last night we attended the conclusion banquet for the week where my friend and colleague Kelvin Meyers announced that the Dallas Genealogical Society would be setting up a scholarship in honor of Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck, a long-time faculty member of IGHR.

The details of the scholarship have not been announced yet. But they will be available through the Dallas Genealogical Society.

You can read Lloyd’s memorial and biography here.

Future IGHR Courses and Scholarships

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I am attending the Institute for Genealogical and Historical Research in Athens, Georgia this week. They have announced their future courses. You can see the courses planned through 2022 and plan your genealogical education plan accordingly. The courses for 2019 are as follows:

  • Course One: Methods & Sources – coordinator Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG
  • Course Two: Intermediate Genealogy & Historical Studies – coordinator Angela Packer McGhie, CG
  • Course Three: Advanced Methodology & Evidence Analysis – coordinator Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL
  • Course Four: Writing & Publishing for Genealogists – coordinator Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA
  • Course Five: Genetics for Genealogists: Beginning DNA – coordinator Patricia Lee Hobbs, CG
  • Course Six: Military Records 2 – coordinator Michael L. Strauss, AG
  • Course Seven: Tracing Your English Ancestors – coordinator Paul Milner, MDiv, FUGA
  • Course Eight: Land Records: Using Maps – coordinator Melinda Kashuba, PhD
  • Course Nine: Research in the South: Colonial States – coordinator J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA
  • Course Ten: Building an African American Research Toolbox – coordinator Timothy Pinnick, BS
  • Course Eleven: Virginia’s Land and Military Conflicts – coordinator Victor S. Dunn, CG
  • Course Twelve: DNA as Genealogical Evidence (Advanced) – coordinator Blaine Bettinger, PhD, JD
  • Course Thirteen: The Five Civilized Tribes – coordinator Anita Finger-Smith

There are also some amazing opportunities to help fund your education. IGHR scholarships can be viewed in full on their website, they are:

  • Ancestry ProGenealogists Scholarship
  • Birdie Monk Holsclaw Memorial Scholarship
  • HomePLACE IGHR Travel Scholarship
  • Jean Thomason Scholarship

Take advantage of these excellent educational opportunities and potential funding sources!

Audio Recordings from NGS 2018

Genealogical Education, Genealogy Conferences, , , ,

Audio recordings of many of the NGS lectures are available for sale and download at PlaybackNGS. There were many fantastic sessions, some I made it to, some I missed due to speaking or other obligations, and so I’m compiling my list right now.

7780-banner2If you couldn’t make it to NGS (or even if you did) this is a great way to hear some fantastic lectures.

I do have three lectures available if you are interested:

  • The Third Coast: How the Great Lakes Shaped America (W144)
  • Casting the Net: Denominational, Ethnic, and Specialized Newspapers (S443)
  • Using PERSI Like a Pro (S451)

I thought Grand Rapids, Michigan and this NGS conference was one of the best I’ve been to. The level of education, the exhibit hall, and the city offerings were fantastic.

Next year’s NGS is 8-11 May 2019 in St. Charles, Missouri. And 2020 will be 20-23 May in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mark your calendars!

BCG Putting Skills to Work 2018

Genealogical Education, Skill Building, , , , ,

I’ve been in Grand Rapids, Michigan since Tuesday when I attended the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) Education Fund’s “Putting Skills to Work” class. What an excellent day! The time was split between two classes.

Connie Lenzen’s class “Planning and Executing Reasonably Exhaustive Research: Or How to Ensure a Successful Hunt” discussed research questions and plans. I have to say that I was quickly reminded of what I should be doing everyday. I get so excited for the research that I forget to focus, slow down, and set forth a path for my search.

Tom Jones made us think about “Citing All Kinds of Online Sources.” This class focused only on sources you find online and really made us look at all of the layers that an online source might have. The original source, the microfilmed version, the scan of the microfilm, an original digitization in color, previously published or not, and so on. We worked through many example citations as a class and discussed each of the parts.

The level of interactive instruction that one gets at a BCG “Putting Skills to Work” class is incredible. If you are interested in certification, are already on the clock, or are already certified, it doesn’t matter. These classes are wonderful examples of hands-on, lecture with discussion with exercises, types of classes many of us enjoy and will benefit for our own continuing education.

The BCG Education Fund’s “Putting Skills to Work” occurs on the Tuesday before the National Genealogical Society Conference every year, so you will want to adjust your schedule accordingly. Next year’s schedule was announced at this years’ class, and will take place in St. Charles, Missouri on Tuesday May 7, 2019:

  • “Meeting Standards with Twenty-First Century Research Reports” with Melissa Johnson, CG
  • “Evidence Analysis: Theory, Practice, and the Real World” with Nancy A. Peters, CG, CGL

For more information on the BCG Education Fund, visit bcgedfund.org.

Irish Genealogy

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I have identified two lines in my family tree that are Irish. I am excited to learn how to do Irish research this fall (because I haven’t really started yet) at the British Institute in Salt Lake City. The institute is taking place 15 – 19 October 2018 at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah

On the topic of Irish research, this opportunity slid across my news feed recently: the Irish Genealogy Virtual Conference. You can read more about it here.

The schedule is as follows:

9:00 – Fintan Mullan presents Finding 17th Century Families in Ireland

10:15 – Gillian Hunt presents Using Church Records for Irish Genealogy Research

11:30 – Fiona Fitzsimons presents Finding Women in the Irish Records

12:30 – break

1:00 – Chris Paton presents Using Irish Land Records for Genealogy Research

2:15 – Maurice Gleeson presents Making Online Resources Work for You

The website states: The virtual conference starts at 9 am (Eastern) with presentations being delivered in pre-recorded webinar format. Presentations are made available in sequence. After one presentation ends, another becomes available. Also, the webinars are available for 72 hours to accommodate time zone differences.

At $79 CAD (about $64 US if my conversion is correct) for five presentations, this seems like an easy choice for me! If you are interested in learning more about Irish research, this sounds like a great conference that you can attend from home. For more information, visit their website: https://www.genealogyvic.com

(note: I am not affiliated with genealogyvic.com)

Tips for Learning to Read Old Handwriting

Genealogical Education, Skill Building, ,

In my work as a professional genealogist, I have to be able to read old handwriting. I know others struggle with this, and I have a couple of tips to share that really helped build my confidence when it comes to reading old handwriting.

My first tip and the best thing I can suggest is to take part in a volunteer indexing project. I signed up for the FamilySearch Indexing project the year it was released. I was onboard when the 1940 census was indexed in a matter of days, when the Civil War Pensions project was indexed, and for a whole host of state-organized projects through various state societies. After working on so many projects, I got really good at reading old and often messy handwriting.

Family Search indexing is not the only indexing game in town. There are indexing projects available through the National Archives and the DAR (if you are a member) as well. Here are those links:

My second tip is to get the book Reading Early American Handwriting by Kip Sperry. You can find it at Amazon or another online bookseller.

My last tip is to transcribe, transcribe, and transcribe. Any and all of your own research documents. Don’t have any? Go to FamilySearch and pick any record such as a deed or a will, and get started. If you choose to transcribe documents from a location where there is a local genealogical society that publishes a quarterly journal or other research publication, consider submitting your transcriptions to be published. Society journals are always looking for content. For more information about best practices for transcriptions, see chapter 16 of the book Professional Genealogy (edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills) titled “Transcripts and Abstracts.”

Truly the best way to get better at anything is to practice. I hope the above tips help you find your best way to practice and to also perhaps give back to the genealogical community at the same time.

The Best Education From Home Got Even Better!

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Check Out This Sale at Legacy Family Tree Webinars!

Even at FULL price ($49.95), a subscription to Legacy Family Tree Webinars is a complete steal! An annual subscription is less than $5 per month! That’s about one Starbucks latte! Through April 1st you can get an incredible deal: $20 off an annual subscription! This is no joke!

Legacy
Click on the yellow banner at the top of the screen to receive this fantastic deal.

If you aren’t familiar with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, now is your chance. With a subscription, you have access to well over 500 (and possibly over 600) excellent, inspiring, thought-provoking, and educational webinars for genealogists of all skill levels. I have presented two webinars already for Legacy and am scheduled to give another one this fall. I find the entire program, from speaker to audience member to be top-notch.

I feel so strongly about this being the best education your money can buy, I’m not even going to post any of my affiliate links.* You can click here to access the site: https://familytreewebinars.com/index.php

(*Affiliate links give me a small reward if you sign up after clicking through them. Though if you appreciate my blog content and are interested using my affiliate link to buy, it is at the bottom of every one of my pages in the black area. Just click that link and I will get credit if you sign up for a subscription. Thank you in advance!)

This Year’s Plans (2018)

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2018 Started with a BANG! I taught my first ever course at SLIG, co-coordinated with Kathryn Lake Hogan of Ontario, Canada. The course was “The Third Coast: Research in the Great Lakes Region.” It was a lot of fun and went very well. However, it was an intense process to prepare for such a large endeavor. Needless to say, I’m happy I did it and I’m equally happy that it’s done. And I will likely do it again in the future.

SLIG and a week of research at the FHL started this year for me, so I’m just now able to take a breath, take stock, and make plans for 2018 in terms of my speaking schedule and my own educational plans. My speaking schedule is light, which I chalk up to spending so much of my energy last year prepping for SLIG and not spending any time marketing myself or planning for 2018, with a few exceptions. I’m happy to have a bit of a break, however!

Here’s where I’m planning to be this coming year:

  • Beginning in April, I will be facilitating a discussion group on the topic of becoming a Certified Genealogist® hosted by Jill Morelli and the Seattle Genealogical Society. (For more information email: jkmorelli@gmail.com)
  • National Genealogical Society Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 2-5 where I am presenting: W144 “Third Coast: How the Great Lakes Shaped America”; S423 “Casting the Net: Denominational, Ethnic, and Specialized Newspaper Research”;  S456 “Using PERSI Like a Pro”
  • Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), Athens, Georgia, June 2-7 where I will be taking “Writing and Publishing for Genealogists” taught by Tom Jones
  • Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 22-27 where I will be taking “Women and Children First” by Judy G. Russell
  • International Society for British Genealogy and Family History (ISBGFH), Salt Lake City, Utah, October 15-19 where I will be taking “Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors” by Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt and my husband will be taking “Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond” with Paul Milner

There are some other items in the fall that are still materializing but this is what I have planned so far. I hope you make the investment to enhance your genealogical education plan with conferences and institutes. Nothing beats being in class with other genealogists!

And if your society is planning an all-day seminar, consider me for your speaker. I have a lot of topics to choose from. Check my Lecture Topics page for a complete list.

Legacy Webinars, 2017 Webinar Subscriber Summer Spectacular!

Genealogical Education

(Say that three times fast!)

I am a BIG fan of Legacy Webinars, for many reasons. First, they offer fantastic, high-quality, genealogical education, for a super low price! Second, I think they are very fair to their speakers and writers. As a past speaker and author of several Quick Guides, I feel very well taken care of. So, I’m happy to support something that supports me both in terms of education and as an educator.

Third… this is education you can get at home, wearing those bunny slippers (or in my case, sweatpants), at 3am when the repositories are closed! Or when sitting by your pool drinking adult beverages. However you like to do it! (I don’t judge.)

Below is the information from the news release. Please note that all of the links are to my affiliate account, another way that the folks at Legacy help support their supporters!

It’s our way of saying thank you to our webinar subscribers and inviting everyone else to preview these excellent classes!

This summer we will not only have new members-only content, we will also have full in-depth series to help you take your genealogy to a new level.

We’ll be sharing with you five new members-only series, released every two weeks, throughout the summer of 2017.

Here’s an overview of what you can expect:

Speaker

Series

Release Date

Melissa Barker

Researching in Archives (4 classes)

July 6th

Blaine Bettinger

DNA: A Closer Look (5 classes)

July 17th

Teri E. Flack  

Texas: The Lone Star State (5 classes)

July 31st

Amie Bowser Tennant

1790-1940 U.S. Census Uncovered (3 classes)

August 9th

Eric Basir    

Photo Restoration (6 classes)

August 14th

Craig Scott

Researching Revolutionary War Soldiers (5 classes)

August 28th

Researching in Archives (4 classes)

Archivist Melissa Barker is taking her professional expertise in the Houston County, Tennessee Archives and helping genealogists everywhere find hidden resources in archives, libraries and societies. 

Melissa’s 4 classes include:

  • Family Gatherings: Dragging Genealogy Information Out of Your Family
  • Using Archives to Fill the Gaps in Your Ancestor’s Timeline
  • Disaster Planning for the Genealogist, Safeguarding Your Genealogical Records
  • Scrap Paper and Orphan Documents in Archives

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: July 6, 2017

DNA: A Closer Look (5 classes)

DNA is a hot topic in genealogy but it can be a bit confusing to learn how it works. In this new series DNA expert Blaine Bettinger provides more tools to help you understand your DNA results

Blaine’s 5 classes include:

  • Avoiding Genetic Genealogy Pitfalls
  • DNA Frequently Asked Questions
  • Introduction to GEDmatch
  • Begging for Spit
  • Who Are You? Identifying Your Mysterious DNA Matches

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: July 17, 2017

Texas: The Lone Star State (5 classes)

Texas is the second largest state in the United States and has a rich history. Whether your ancestors settled there during the Republic of Texas or after statehood, Teri E. Flack will help you find details about their lives.

Teri’s classes include:

  • Fundamentals of Researching Texas
  • Finding Your Ancestors in the Republic of Texas
  • Researching Texas Land and Property Records
  • Researching Texas Probate and Estate Records
  • Texas Vital Records and their Substitutes

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: July 31, 2017

1790-1940 Census Uncovered (3 classes)

Amie’s 3 classes include:

  • 1790 – 1840 Census Secrets Uncovered
  • 1850-1900 U.S. Federal Census Secrets Revealed
  • 1910-1940 Federal Censuses and State Census Records to Fill the Gaps

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: August 9, 2017

Photo Restoration (6 classes)

You loved his class “Complete Photo Restoration in 4 Easy Steps” so we’ve brought Eric Basir back for an entire 6-part series on Photo Restoration. Learn how to make the most of your photos from scanning to editing and restoration.

Eric’s 5 classes include:

  • Scanning 101
  • Hassle Free Document Restoration
  • Bringing Faded Photos Back to Life
  • 25 Quick Photoshop Tips For Genealogists – Part one
  • 25 More Quick Photoshop Tips For Genealogists – Part two
  • Effective Image Placement

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: August 14, 2017

Researching Revolutionary War Soldiers (5 classes)

Craig Scott is one of the most sought after speakers on military research. In this series, Craig will help you navigate the extensive records created to document Revolutionary War soldiers.

Craig’s 5 classes include:

  • The Revolution, More than just the War
  • The Participants in the War
  • Records Create by the Revolutionary War During the War
  • Records Created by the Revolutionary War After the War​ (Pensions)
  • Records Created by the Revolutionary War After the War (Bounty Land)

Available to subscribers at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com: August 28, 2017

Not a member yet?

You still have time to sign up before the Subscriber Summer Spectacular starts!

In addition to the new summer series, you’ll have access to all 529 classes in the Legacy Webinar Library including all the handouts!

Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides genealogy education where-you-are through live and recorded online webinars and videos. Learn from the best instructors in genealogy including Thomas MacEntee, Judy Russell, J. Mark Lowe, Lisa Louise Cooke, Megan Smolenyak, Tom Jones, [Cari A. Taplin] and many more. Learn at your convenience. On-demand classes are available 24 hours a day! All you need is a computer or mobile device with an Internet connection.

Subscribe today and get access to this BONUS members-only webinar AND all of this:

  • All 529 classes in the library (734 hours of quality genealogy education)
  • 2,464 pages of instructors’ handouts
  • Chat logs from the live webinars
  • Additional 5% off anything at FamilyTreeWebinars.com
  • Chance for a bonus subscribers-only door prize during each live webinar
  • Additional members-only webinars

It’s just $49.95/year or $9.95/month. Subscribe today!

Legacy Family Tree Webinars is a real bargain! I sincerely hope you decide to join, even if you don’t click through using my links (I’ll never know!), especially if you love to learn better techniques for researching your ancestors!