Tag: Indiana

Online Educational Resources for Every Genealogist Part 2

Tuesday, I posted about my first genealogy presentation for Twigs. It went very well even though I was a bit nervous! I posted the first part of my research findings involving free online tutorials and lessons and today I’m going to show what I found about online genealogy classes, courses, and lessons.

Online Genealogy Classes, Courses, and Lessons (unless otherwise stated, these cost money)

  • National Genealogy Society
    • Family History Skills: This is great for the beginner who would like to get started on some genealogy basics. It’s free for NGS members and not available to non-members (again, joining has some great benefits!) This course covers how to record information, how to find information, using online aids, and writing source citations.
    • American Genealogical Studies: If you’re familiar with NGS’s Home Study Course, this is what it’s become. This is all cloud based and because the assignments are graded, you will receive a certificate upon completion. At the moment, only the Basics and Guide to Documentation and Source Citation are currently available. In the past, this course has been great for those wishing to learn more about records: where to find them and when they exist. I took the Home Study Course and LOVED the ability to redo assignments and get feedback on them. If this is anything like the Home Study Course (which I would hope it would be) then I’d highly recommend it!
    • Continuing Genealogical Studies: There are two courses offered in the continuing genealogical studies tab – Civil War Research and Genetic Genealogy. Both are cloud based and have self-graded exams (so no certificate upon completion). I’ve been told these are wonderful and very informative!
    • PDF Courses: These are downloadable PDF files with self-graded exams (no certificate upon completion). They have three available: Introduction to Religious Records, Working with Deeds, and Using Federal Population Census Schedules in Genealogical Research.
  • Boston University
    • Genealogical Essentials: This is a four-week online course specifically for genealogy enthusiasts who wish for more formal training and are serious students. The cost is what you’d expect from a university but there can be deals (like the book cost included in the overall cost), not to mention being an NGS member gets you a discount.
    • Online Certificate in Genealogical Research: I took this course over the summer and discussed it here and really can’t sing it’s praises enough! I learned so much during those 15 weeks and enjoyed every moment! It is time constraining (20-30 hours of work a week) but so rewarding.
  • Brigham Young University Free Online Courses: All of these wonderful courses are FREE! BYU does offer a Family History degree and certificate (not online) but if you are only interested in a class or two, you can check a few out for free (these classes aren’t for credit though).
  • National Institute for Genealogical Studies: This online institute/courses offers classes for certificates in Genealogical Studies with specialization in various countries. It seems like an online university really, but specifically for genealogists. I haven’t heard from people who have taken the course but this did come up often in my research. It seems worth checking into!
  • ProGen: This is for those who wish to go the professional route, especially certification. I have been told this is a MUST for anyone considering certification, in fact. I’m on the waiting list currently and hope to get into a study group next year. The study group lasts for 19 months and goes through each chapter of Professional Genealogy. Each month’s assignment goes to the rest of your group and everyone critiques everyone’s work. I have heard wonderful reviews of this class and can’t wait to start!
  • University of Strathclyde: I heard of this through the National Genealogical Society’s conference in May. The university offers online courses in genealogy for those wishing to earn a diploma, certificate, or MSc (Masters? – I am not sure what the American equivalent would be but I believe it would be a Masters). The courses focus on British genealogy and you can earn a PG Certificate in Genealogical, Palaeographic, and Heraldic Studies. It sounds very interesting and I do want to look into this further.

Anyone else have any courses or classes you’d recommend? Any of you taken something I mentioned and wish to leave a comment about it?

On Monday I’ll discuss Institutes and Conferences! Stay tuned and enjoy your Thanksgiving if you’re celebrating it today!

Online Educational Sources for Every Genealogist Part 1

I have my first genealogy presentation today! I volunteered to do this for one of my genealogy groups, Twigs. It’s a spin-off group from my local genealogy society, the South Bend Area Genealogical Society. We meet once a month and discuss whatever topics we previously decided on. Then, one of our group does the research and brings the results to the group. I have a lot of fun in the group and I’m very excited to be able to give back tonight!

With that in mind, I also want to share my results with all of my online genealogy friends! I can’t cover everything in the hour I have for the presentation (because there is a lot!) so I’m just bringing you all what I’ll be talking about tonight. Feel free to leave a comment with anything that I missed!

My topics will cover:

  • Free Online Tutorials and Lessons
  • Online Genealogy Courses, Classes, and Lessons (these aren’t free unless stated as so)
  • Institutions and Conferences
  • Professional Genealogy Reading: Journals and Books
  • Genealogy Certification

So today I will start with the Free Online Tutorials and Lessons!

  1. Cyndi’s List: This is a well known genealogical site and I know there aren’t free online tutorials or lessons specifically ON the site, but there is information on where to find the free online tutorials and lessons. It’s one of my go-to places when looking for new information and I love how much can be found through the website.
  2. DearMyrtle: Besides Cydni’s List, this is probably the second genealogy related site I went to for more information. I absolutely love this website! Myrtle has been online since 1985 and has a lot of information on there for everyone including genealogy lessons and organization tips. Her YouTube channel is a wonderful resource to go to see her archived webinars as well. If you have the chance, you can also participate in her Monday’s with Myrt, which is done through Google+ and her website explains how to set that up so you’ll be prepared. Also, she has a wonderful GeneaWebinars Calendar where she has current information on upcoming webinars. She’s a wonderful resource to have as she keeps up with the online genealogy world wonderfully.
  3. Geneabloggers: This is another site that doesn’t necessarily have lessons and webinars for genealogists, BUT it is a great resource for those who wish to start blogging or read other genealogy bloggers. They are a wonderful community!
  4. Genealogy Gems: Lisa Louise Cooke is a pretty well-known genealogy podcaster. On her site she does offer a free e-newsletter and some of her podcasts and videos are also free. You can then have the option of trying out her videos/podcasts to see if it’s something you are interested in and are willing to pay the yearly fee.
  5. Family Tree DNA Webinars: For people who would love to learn more about DNA, this website has webinars (archived and upcoming listed) on DNA. Including autosomal (what they call Family Finder), Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA. It’s a great place for genealogists who wish to learn more about DNA.
  6.  National Genealogical Society: Although I highly recommend becoming a member of NGS to take advantage of everything they offer, there are some free offerings on their website. The linked page gives three items that NGS calls tutorials – getting started, querying for results, and professional genealogy. All pages are relatively quick to read but the information is sound.
  7. FamilySearch.org’s Learning Center:  FamilySearch.org also has a great wiki site but they also have this great learning center. These are webinars/classes/courses that can last from 5 minutes to over an hour. There is a lot of FREE information for people to learn about through this website.
  8. Illinois State Genealogical Society: Don’t be scared off by the name; you don’t need to have Illinois research in your family to find this site to be useful. Their webinars are free if you can watch them live (on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 8pm Central Time) and the information covers MANY genealogical items – like HeritageQuest, using Google Earth, Scandinavian Research, etc. If you want to see archived webinars, you would need to become a member.
  9. Friends of the National Archives-Southeast Region: This is another website that hosts free webinars if you can watch them live (2nd Tuesday of the month at 2pm Eastern Time) and once again, these cover many genealogical items of interest. If you wish to see the archived webinars, you would again need to be a member.

I realize there is a lot more out there than just these 10 but I only have one hour to cover a lot of information, plus, I wanted to make sure that these could be relevant to everyone. Did I miss anything you think is important under this category? Or do you want to add to anything I mentioned? Leave a comment! 🙂

New Volunteer Adventures and St. Joseph County Genealogy Events

471 volunteering

 

Doesn’t that look exciting! These amazing letters were found in the basement of the Mishawaka Library. The librarian in charge of the genealogy/history section sent me a message about volunteering with these as well as other items she recently pulled up from the basement. Today I dug in. It’s uncertain who donated the letters but they were all written by one man writing to his wife from 1943-1945. I believe he wrote nearly every day (as you can tell by the stacks of letters!) and every letter started with Darling (I find that sweet!) I can’t wait to get more into these letters and see what they have in them.

 

If you’re in or near the St. Joseph County, Indiana area, here are the genealogical events happening this week!

  • 24 November 2014 – Monday – 7-8:30pm – South Bend Area Genealogical Society meeting at Sunnyside Presbyterian Chuch (115 S. Frances St. South Bend, IN 46617) – the meeting will have a presentation titled “A Tale of Two Colonels” by John Hundley, a member of Sons of the American Revolution.
  • 25 November 2014 – Tuesday – 7-8:30pm – Twigs from the Tree of Life meeting at Christ the King Lutheran Church (17195 Cleveland Rd, South Bend, IN) – the meeting is titled “Online Educational Resources for Every Genealogist” and will be presented by me 🙂 It will be about online tutorials, lessons, classes, courses, lessons, institutes, and conferences that can be taken or registered for online.

 

If you are in the area, come join our groups!

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