New Genealogy Courses from The National Institute for Genealogical Studies

Looking to learn more about genealogy research? Need some new skills? The National Institute for Genealogical Studies has over 200 genealogy courses and new ones starting all the time. There’s nothing like looking forward to a new month of genealogy courses and this month we have quite a few new ones you’ll want to register for. New courses begin today, Monday, February 2, 2015. But there’s still time to register.

Writing the Genealogist’s Memoir

As a genealogy researcher for your family, you can enhance the results of your work, as well as realize personal satisfaction and value, by creating a memoir to enlighten those who read it. Your memoir can tell them about the story behind your research: your inspiration, motivation and/or interest in genealogy; your process; “aha” moments; roadblocks and disappointments; and successes. The professional genealogist or personal historian can also offer a service to help clients create such a companion piece for their family trees or histories.

This course written by Personal Historian Diane Dassow will explore the importance and value of memoir, a method for accomplishing one, and special issues to consider. Exercises will offer practical application of the material and opportunities to work on writing your memoir. The course will focus on writing as a method but will explore other options, such as audio and video, as well.

To learn more about this course, check out our website.

DNA: Introduction to Genetic Genealogy

This course written by Diahan Southard is a comprehensive introduction to genetic genealogy. The basics of DNA and genetic inheritance are explained in detail. The three main test types, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (YDNA), and autosomal DNA (atDNA) are explored as they relate to genealogy. This includes an overview of laboratory procedures for each kind of test, data interpretation techniques, database searching, match interpretation, and case studies for the three kinds of DNA testing. This course will include comparisons of tools and companies, as well as the genetic stories of famous people.

To  register for this course, click here.

Skill-Building: Evidence Analysis

Taking the time to study a wide variety of case studies and proof arguments/summaries can expand your knowledge of methodology, evidence and analysis, sources, citation formats, cultural mores, immigration patterns, as well as  many other things. It will make you a better genealogist by expanding your knowledge beyond the subset of genealogy that you normally work in.

As an example, someone working in Canadian research on a daily basis can learn much from a case study on Irish research and vice versa. Amongst other things, they can learn methodology, new sources of evidence, how to analyze evidence, and even gain geographical and cultural knowledge!

Read more about this course here.

And that’s not all. In case you didn’t hear we have other new courses that started this year including:

Skill-Building: Nuts & Bolts of Reporting

Research: FamilySearch Resources

Italian: Language and Location

Australian: Newspapers and Biographies