Furthering Your Genealogical Education (Updated 11/19 - originally posted Dec 2017)

Online Genealogy Education

Here's a short list of places to go on the internet for Genealogy Education.  This list is not the end all-be all list of offerings, however it does showcase the most popular places to get additional training.

National Institute of Genealogical studies

• $2850 (2018 Prices-for a 40 course package) 40 courses beginner, intermediate and advanced courses after completion you are awarded Postnomial Designation PLCGS (Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies)
• Multiple courses specializing in several countries
•         • American Records
•         • Australian Records
•         • Canadian Records
•         • English Records
•         • German Records
•         • Irish Records
•         • Librarianship
•         • Methodology
•         • Professional Development
•         • Scottish Records

NGS -yearly membership $70, some courses are offered to non members at a higher price, prices listed are for members

•  Family History Skills 
• free as a ngs member 

•  These 2 courses can be bundled for $75, or purchased separately at $45 each
• American Genealogical Studies: The Basics 
• Getting Started
• Create A Research Plan
• Home Sources
• Family Traditions and Connecting with Others 
•  American Genealogical Studies: Guide to Documentation & Source Citation 
• Introduction to Documentation
• Basic Citation Principles
• Applying Basic Citation Principles
• American Genealogical Studies: Beyond the Basics $175
• Module 1 – Evidence Analysis
• Module 2 – The Library: A Research Repository
• Module 3 – The Federal Population Schedules
• Module 4 – FamilySearch.org
•  American Genealogical Studies: Branching Out  $175
• Module 6 – Cemeteries, Tombstones, and Funeral Homes
• Module 7 – Religious Records
• Module 8 – Newspaper Research
• Module 9 – Research in the Courthouse-Probate Records
• Module 10 – Research in the Courthouse-Deeds
• Continuing Genealogical Studies $45 (*** is $60)
• ***Genetic Genealogy: Autosomal DNA ***
• African American Roots: A Historical Perspective 
• Researching 17th and 18th Century German Ancestors
• Federal Land Records
• Effective Use of Deeds
• Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestors 
• War of 1812 Records
• Researching Your World War I Ancestors 
• Introduction to Civil War Research 

Boston University

• Genealogical Principles (Essentials course)   

• $995     7 week course consisting of 4 modules.

• Genealogical Research (Certification course)  

• $2695  15 week course consisting of 5 modules

Universal Class 

• Genealogy 101--13 lessons 28 exams 9 hours of time .9 CEUs
• $50 no certificate /
• $75 with CEU certificate

Future Learn  offered by University of Strathclyde Glasgow

• Free- no certificate  
• $99 to upgrade for certificate

Ancestry Academy free classes with paid membership to ancestry

Family Tree Magazine

• various classes range in price from $29.99-$199.99

Salt Lake City Community College  

• 2015-2016 cost was $350, website hasn't been updated courses may not be available.

Brigham Young University - Idaho

AAS  

Certificate 

DNA Central- online DNA learning

• $9.99 a month
• $99 a year

Genealogy Guys Learn online learning

• $99 a year

UNDERUSED WEBSITES: Family search Wiki

Underused Website Series: Family Search Wiki

The Family Search Wiki (FS Wiki)is a goldmine of information.  It has a page for just about every city, county, state, country, across the globe.

Like wikipedia, we can all sign up to add info to the wiki pages, but where the FS wiki is different is that the info we (GQ Public) submit is monitored and vetted for accuracy by LDS missionaries and LDS members like Peggy Clemens Lauritzen aka Miss Peggy. So, it's way better than Wikipedia, and the FS Wiki is all about genealogy research and history of the areas.

State Page: KANSAS

If you start at the state page, you get info on the state, when it became a state, how to find records for that state, even a big button that says online records (for that state). How about STEP by STEP instructions on how to search that state?  It's in the wiki!!!

Kansas county map

There is a map of the state, with LINKED counties, so you can then go to the county page and find detailed info on that particular county. Now if you're not sure where the county is on the county map, don't fret, under the county map is a list (Alphabetically no less) of not only EVERY CURRENT COUNTY, but a list of the extinct, renamed, or ceded counties for each state. 

Each state page could have hundreds of links to other pages...talk about a rabbit hole!

County Page: BARTON

 Each county page has some history about the county, how it was named, when it was formed, even the address and phone number of the county court house.  We all know what we can do when we find an address or phone number right?  Road trip, or at least call to see what they have available for public searches.

County record Dates

The best kept secret on the county page is the "Known beginning dates for major records"  This helps anyone researching an area to know when ht records were available.  For example If I'm looking for a birth record from 1884, in Barton County, Kansas--I can go to the wiki, and see when the records for births were available, and there were no birth records prior to 1892, and the state didn't require birth records until 1911, and it wasn't mandated until 1917.  With a quick trip to the Wiki, I have just saved myself HOURS and HOURS of searching for birth records in Barton County Kansas, for 1884, and I don't need to bother any face book groups either, because I now know, they don't exist.  I can focus my research on church records for birth and baptisms, or maybe  a bible record, but there are no birth records.

The county page will also tell you when the county was formed, and what county it was formed from, so if I'm looking for a record in Barton County before 1867, I would have to look in Marion County, as Barton was created in Feb 1867 from Marion county.

There are cities, towns, townships, unincorporated communities, most with links to that location's wiki page.

There's a resources section that gives you links to websites online, (more underused websites) to find specific records.

City Page: Great Bend

Each city page, gives demographics about the city, history,  GPS coordinates, as well as notable people from there.


I'll close for now, as this has gotten quite long, and I've only reviewed one state, one county and one city page, from the USA, and I haven't even started talking about other country's wiki pages, or the other 1000's of categories in the FS Wiki.


So go check it out, its FREE, and you may find info about a location you didn't know, or better yet, you'll break down that brick wall, because you'll find the correct county to search, because that county didn't even exist during the time frame you're searching...

Happy Hunting

(images were used with permission from Family Search - Danielle Batson)

Genealogy Societies (UPDATED from May 2017)

A one stop list of genealogical societies

This post will be a work in progress.  I'll be adding links to the State genealogy societies, Historical societies as well as the societies that are not tied to any particular state.


If you want me to add one not listed, send me an email or message on Face book.

State Genealogy Societies 

Alabama		Illinois		Montana		Rhode Island
Alaska		Indiana		Nebraska		South Carolina
Arizona		Iowa		Nevada		South Dakota
Arkansas		Kansas		New Hampshire		Texas
California		Kentucky		New Jersey		Tennessee
Colorado		Louisiana		New Mexico		Utah
Connecticut		Maine		New York		Vermont
Delaware		Maryland		North Carolina		Virginia
DC		Massachusetts		North Dakota		Washington
Florida		Michigan		Ohio		West Virginia
Georgia		Minnesota		Oklahoma		Wisconsin
Hawaii		Mississippi		Oregon		Wyoming
Idaho		Missouri		Pennsylvania

State Historical Societies

Alabama		Illinois		Montana		Rhode Island
Alaska		Indiana		Nebraska		South Carolina
Arizona		Iowa		Nevada		South Dakota
Arkansas		Kansas		New Hampshire		Texas
California		Kentucky		New Jersey		Tennessee
Colorado		Louisiana		New Mexico		Utah
Connecticut		Maine		New York		Vermont
Delaware		Maryland		North Carolina		Virginia
DC		Massachusetts		North Dakota		Washington
Florida		Michigan		Ohio		West Virginia
Georgia		Minnesota		Oklahoma		Wisconsin
Hawaii		Mississippi		Oregon		Wyoming
Idaho		Missouri		Pennsylvania

Training / Certification

APG - Association of Professional Genealogists

BCG - Board for Certification of Genealogists

FGS - Federation of Genealogical Societies

GRIP - Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh

ICAPGen- International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists

IGHR - Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research

NIGS - National Institute for Genealogical Studies  Multiple levels of certification, multiple countries ProGen Study Groups SLIG - Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy BYU - I -Brigham Young University- Idaho Associates certificate

BU - Boston University  Genealogical Principles (7 week course)   Genealogical Research (15 week course)

Other Societies

NGS - National Genealogy Society

NEHGS - New England Historic Genealogical Society

Germanic Genealogy Society

Polish Genealogical Society of America

Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International

Irish Genealogical Society International

The Scottish Association of Family History Societies

Italian Genealogical Group

Italian Genealogical Society of America

American-French Genealogical Society

• American-Canadian Genealogical Society

UNDERUSED WEBSITES: DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY of AMERICA

Underused Website Series: Digital Public Library of America

The Digital public library of America has a wealth of information with a click of your mouse.

As of the writing of this blog the main page says "Discover 34,425,540 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States" 

Over 34 MILLION records, FREE, at your finger tips, in your pjs, drinking wine, morning, noon and night!!!

They even have a family research section (which is what we will focus on here)

Photos 

162,609 results for family photo

DPLA Photos 

Here's a clip of some of the photos found on DPLA.  There is a link in the description which takes you to a page with detailed information about the photo, (think citation)

Family Bibles 

2,753 results for "family bible"

There's a family bible section with images from old family bibles.  How cool is that??

Correspondence  

3,485 results for Civil War AND family letter

Imagine fining a letter your ancestor wrote back home 

Local Maps

75,920 results for county OR town OR city AND map

Looking for Sanborn fire maps--they are here. Old city maps, topo maps, flood maps, 

Year books 

22,777 results for school yearbook

Don't have a subscription to Ancestry to see the yearbooks, try DPLA

Military Records (includes Photographs and Service records)  

15,027 results for soldier* OR regiment AND military

Civil war photographs

103,641 results for "enlistment card" OR "draft card" OR "military service record"

A variety of military documents

Oral Histories

34,510 results for "oral history" interview

Various oral histories from all over 

Family History and Genealogy books

350,466 results for genealogy

tons of books to peruse about genealogy (family histories, phone book listings, wills, more photos, cemeteries)

 And I even found a video library with videos on using DPLA for family research, making gifs and a sundry of other videos.

 We have just scratched the surface of this website.  I can see me spending hours and hours just scrolling thru the vast amounts of reference material and information on this site.... and its FREE!!  Book mark the website DP.LA (yes thats the website address)

Dont forget to read the Terms of Service 

Happy Hunting!!

P.S.  just did a search for Newspapers in the regular search box (not on the family search tab)  and here's what came up over 1 MILLION newspapers!!!

1,020,362 results for newspapers

File Organization from a Scattered Mind's Point of View

How did I Start?

After writing this blog post over 3 years ago, I thought I'd share how my system has been set up and how it is working.

I opted to set up my files by file type

My Files list

I love my system, it is simple and easy to find any record.

 

• the list of folders (no additional folders "nested" inside each other)
• a simple naming convention, and I utilize the metadata in file explorer (I use windows, but apple has a file explorer too) 

file naming convention and tags

I love that the metadata (tags) are searchable in file explorer, so I can search for a year (1872) and I will get all files with 1872 in the file name or in the metadata tags.

I created a few videos about tags, on you tube.

Win 7

Win 10 part 1

Win 10 part 2

I have tried other systems and could never remember how the system worked, and had to keep going in to see how things were filed, named, and what folder to put each file in, based on the person's name.

Happy Hunting!!!

***************************************************

(Originally posted back in 2015)

How do I Start? 

After reading others blogs and comments on Facebook about sorting and organizing one's files (both electronically and paper copies) I'm still trying to sort it out in my mind!  See I'm so organized, I feel & look disorganized....at least that is and has been my excuse.

What I've seen and heard is

• Sort by Family name
• Sort by Person
• Sort by Family group
• Sort by document type
• Sort by year

My problem I see the pros and cons of all the systems.....Aggh calgon take me away!!! 

So as usual, I know what I don't want, but not sure of what I want. And what I don't want is a lot of nested folders inside folders inside folders.....So is my answer to make a list of what I don't want, and eliminate those systems that have/enable those qualities and then pick from the rest?  Or do I use the capabilities of the pc (paper has no capabilities, it just lays in a file folder) and use shortcuts to place links into the electronic filing system where it needs to go?

Decisions, Decisions!?!?!?!

After careful thought and dreaming about the system I want....(does any one else do this?) I believe I have a beginning plan....

Paper files by type (Federal Census, marriage, death, birth, christening, land, probate, etc)

Reasoning: less files, and easy to find a file when needed.

Computer files: originals filed like paper files, shortcuts filed in folders by family name, then given name

Folder Smith

      Sub folder John

      Sub folder Mary