Articles by Angela Breidenbach

Angela Breidenbach, PLCGS, is the Executive Director at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. She's a multi-published author, speaker, and presenter. Find out more about her books at https://AngelaBreidenbach.com

Let’s Celebrate Canada 150!

It’s Canada’s 150th birthday and we are celebrating with a sale! Choose a 4 course package (limit one per student) and save $150.00. Choose ‘COURSE PACKAGE-4 COURSES‘ and use Code: 150pack4 at checkout. Choose any 4 courses from our list of over 200 courses. The per course cost: $37.50. Never have we offered such a low cost per course. OR Any one Canadian course (title of course starts with CANADIAN): 50% off with code: 50canadian at checkout. Courses include Canadian records in Census, Land, Vital Stats, Wills, Immigration, Migration, Military, Newspaper, Religious and Special Collections. Hurry! This sale ends soon. See our website.

New Course: German Compiled Sources

Our latest course for the German Certificate Program is German: Compiled Sources written by Kory Meyerink,  BS, MLS, AG, FUGA. German genealogical research should include a careful and detailed review of “compiled sources.” Compiled sources are simply defined as the findings of previous researchers. Today they exist as personal websites, online family trees, genealogical articles in periodicals, book-length family histories, genealogical compendia, and even as manuscript collections. What is surprising to most researchers is that these types of records exist for German families. What is perhaps even more unexpected is that there are millions of Germans and their families named in such records. Moreover, many are reasonably well-indexed, and not all that difficult to access, even for researchers who don’t read German well. This advanced level, 8-week course explores various compiled sources including Collections and Databases, Family Histories and Bibliographies, Lineage Books, Periodicals, Biographical and Local Sources. To learn more or register for the course, please see our website.

New Course: Australian Education Records

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is proud to announce the addition of a new course in our Australian Records Certificate program. Australian: Education Records written by professional genealogist Shauna Hicks explores the various kinds of education records available to the family history researcher. Education records can be a fascinating resource to add more detail and interest to our ancestor’s lives. The records may not always give us biographical information to take our family lines further back in time, but the records will tell us more about the lives they lived. Today’s education arrangements are quite different from those in the 18th and 19th centuries. For the purposes of this course, we will mostly be looking at educational records from 1788 through to 1950. We will explore education records which can include archival records, memorabilia, photographs, building plans, newspaper reports, published school histories and local histories. Archival records are those created by the school such as administrative files, correspondence files, building files, pupil admission registers, corporal punishment registers of teachers, photographs of buildings and pupils, building plans, sporting memorabilia and other records. Records explored will span primary school to adult education and will include students as well as staff. This advanced course begins March 6, 2017 and commences every two months. Register today!

Join Us at RootsTech 2017

  Are you at RootsTech? We are and we look forward to talking to you about what’s new at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. And of course we would never come to a conference without some gifts and prizes. So be sure to ask Louise about: 3 free courses: Social Media for the Wise Genealogist; Connecting Family: Online or Virtually; Google for the Wise Genealogist. 50% of any one course. 10% off any one course package. Talk to Louise at booth 1419 in the Expo Hall. Have a great time at RootsTech!

New Course: Forensic Genealogy

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is proud to announce our newest course, written by professional genealogist Cari Taplin CG, Forensic Genealogy. The field of forensic genealogy is a fast-growing field dealing with genealogical research that might have legal implications, such as heir searching or determining mineral rights. Families drift apart for many reasons: divorce, disagreement, migrations, remarriage, or others. Today’s genealogists and family historians have many reasons for reestablishing connections with lost relatives. We designed this course to help forensic researchers identify and contact living people. It will also take students through genealogical sources and documents, but with a focus on identifying living people, as well as some practical examples. Students will also learn about specific career subsets in forensic work. Forensic genealogy and the work necessary to identify and contact living people can be a rewarding field. This course will teach students some of the basic skills necessary to get started. This course begins on Monday, February 6 and is available every two months after that. Learn more on our website.