Courses

December Memories

Ready or not, December is upon us. Many people are happy to see the end of 2020 coming! It has definitely been a challenging year for many. At the National Institute, we have been continuing to offer quality online education with over 230 courses to choose from. The first Monday of the month means another rotation of courses will be starting on December 7th. December is also a time for Remembering Family Traditions. The Holidays are filled with a combination of memories of past celebrations and opportunities to create new ones. Our 2020 holiday plans will certainly be different than in past years, but perhaps, it is a unique opportunity to really examine our usual traditions and explore how they established their place in our own family. How have they changed from one generation to the next? Have you shared your holiday memories with younger generations? Have you asked the older generations about their childhood traditions and memories? This is the perfect time to initiate those conversations. The bonus is – if you do this in a virtual format, you will have the opportunity to record their memories in their own voices. What a precious family keepsake! It is a time for Preserving Family Origins. Many holiday traditions originate from our countries of origin. Watch for traditional holiday foods made only for this time of year. Special family recipes are pulled out and prepared with love. Grandma’s recipe carries on the family tradition, but it carries memories with it as well, not only for the tastes and smells, but also of the person who prepared it many years ago. They are not forgotten, especially when sharing with younger generations, so they know why we continue the tradition. Share those stories. Record those stories. Document their origins. Search out how they became your family’s tradition. You may discover parts of the story you have forgotten, but when a sibling or a cousin relays their memory and “the rest of the story” may be revealed. Look at photographs of past celebrations. So many stories are triggered by old photos, sparking memories and reminiscing with family members. These times are so important and pull the generations together. Investigate how your ancestors celebrated the holidays in their time, especially the immigrant ancestors. How was it different “in the old country”? Did they bring traditions with them, or did they embrace new traditions? Most families…

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Presentations Come and Go, but You Always Remember Your First

One of the truly valuable courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is our Lecturing Skills Including Preparation course. This course focuses on the skills needed to present genealogical-related lectures to a variety of audiences. It is a “hands on” course where the student will develop all aspects of the lecturing process including the proposal and biographical sketch; marketing; syllabus material; creating lecture slides; and much more. Linda Debe is one of our most recent students who has completed this course, and she shares her experience below. Presentations Come and Go, but You Always Remember Your First by Linda Debe, Student  On Saturday, Nov 14, 2020, I presented my first official webinar to fellow students, colleagues, friends, and family. This presentation was part of the National Institute’s course: Lecturing Skills Including Preparation. First, I had to decide on a lecture topic. I started my list, but none of the topics really gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. Adding to the topic dilemma, I only had 30 minutes to present, so it had to be interesting yet explained in the allotted time. A friend suggested, “Talk about what you love… maps.” With that, I decided to do an introductory presentation on Google My Maps. I have watched many presentations explaining Google Earth Pro, but not as many on My Maps. Once I had the presentation topic, I needed to decide on a title. I decided on “Google My Maps: Visualizing Your Ancestors’ Lives.”  It was to the point, yet kind of catchy. I have used Google My Maps for about a year, and I really like “seeing” my ancestors on a map as I track them from their origins and immigration into the United States to their migration across the country as they lived their lives. I can add photos of my ancestors, their homes, tombstones, or any other photo I have, to that location, to help bring it to life. For example, it’s great to find your family in the 1880 US Census, but what if you added that census record to a pin in the exact location the family lived on your map?  How cool would that be? Another nice thing about this app is you can color code your pins (places on your map). You can even change the pin icon, so it’s not the boring default balloon pin, but maybe a house, cow, hospital, castle, or piece of…

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Demystifying Culture and Folklore

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies’ course Demystifying Culture and Folklore encourages students to explore their primary cultures (race, ethnicity, nationality) and their subcultures (religion, family, occupations, etc.), to determine how these have influenced their ancestors’ generation, and how they have been influenced by the intergenerational folklore passed down from their ancestors. Check out these past Blog Posts to read more about how this course helps us to discover elements of our own primary ancestral cultures, and perhaps start to recognize and understand ways folklore and subcultures have influenced and shaped our families today. Part 1: Demystifying Culture and Folklore: Intro  Each component of Demystifying Culture and Folklore, will stimulate the need for deeper investigation to pursue “the rest of the story” to verify what was revealed. Part 2: Our Primary Cultures  As you work through the course, you will discover which cultures have influenced your family and identify the elements that have survived and are being perpetuated to the next generations. Pieces begin to fit together to reveal how race, ethnicity and nationality are uniquely interwoven in your family. Part 3: Our Immigrant Ancestors’ Culture  Our Immigrant Ancestors faced many challenges and their original root cultures traveled with them, embedded in their very being and preserved within the traditions they practiced. Their responses are often reflecting their culture’s beliefs. Part 4: Cultural Assimilation  Cultural Assimilation was challenging for our ancestors as they either embraced their new culture or struggled to maintain their folkways in the midst of conflicting social or occupational settings. The Demystifying Culture & Folklore course explores how your family embraced their new culture, or how they struggled to adapt. The final outcome from completing this course will be a richer understanding of our family and the lives of our ancestors – Demystifying its unique Culture and the Folklore that has been passed down the generations. Visit our website for a complete list of online courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Follow us on Social Media: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. Contact information: 1 (800) 580-0165 Email: admin@GenealogicalStudies.com Website: www.GenealogicalStudies.com Blog: blog.GenealogicalStudies.com LEADERS IN ONLINE GENEALOGY EDUCATION

Business Skills Courses

Are you interested in developing Business Skills to take your genealogical research to the next level? The International Institute of Genealogical Studies offers a Business Skills Package that includes 18 courses to give students a good understanding of how to start and manage a genealogical business. Business Skills Courses – The Foundation – 4 courses Business Skills: Creating a Business Business Skills: Business Administration Business Skills: Establishing & Promoting Your Website Business Skills: Marketing Your Services & Products These four courses form the basic foundation to increase the skills needed for a successful business. The step-by-step process ensures you have covered all the requirements. From set up, to day-to-day management, to finding your online distinction, to letting the world know of your existence, your mandatory business practices will be covered. Business Skills Courses – Finding Your Niche – 2 courses Business Skills: Career Development: Choosing a Niche – Part 1 Business Skills: Career Development: Choosing a Niche – Part 2 An integral part of your Career Development involves Choosing a Niche. These two courses feature excellent suggestions for possible business opportunities available to genealogists. Course materials and assignments allow you to examine the requirements relating to a variety of research themes. After analyzing these results, you will easily see how you can draw from your own unique skill set to enhance your genealogical research strategies for your clients. Business Skills Package – Researcher Essentials – 12 additional courses Creating Genealogy Programs for Adults & the Younger Generation Demystifying Culture & Folklore Forensic Genealogy Genealogy Ethical Guidelines & Standards Genealogy Society Creation & Management Lecturing Skills Including Preparation Organising a One-Name Study Organising a One-Place Study Personal Historian: Telling the Stories Photography: Clues Pictures Hold, Editing, Digitizing and Various Projects Research: House & Farm Histories Writing for Genealogy: Articles, Blogs, Research Reports and so much more The remaining twelve courses in the Business Skills Package each focuses on a specific aspect of research or expertise applicable to many genealogists. Some of these subjects will expand on topics that were suggested in the two Niche courses. Whether taken individually or as part of this package, these in-depth courses instruct students in the prerequisites required to enter each area of a particular field with a genealogical emphasis. Genealogists currently have countless career options beyond simply completing client research projects. Explore your options as you investigate to see which program will suit your needs as…

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Follow us on Pinterest

Do you use Pinterest? It is a free social media website where you can create a collection of visual bookmarks on whatever topic you are interested in. This quickly became very popular, but…. Did you know that it is NOT just for Recipes and Crafts? You can actually use it for Genealogy! It can become a useful online tool. The International Institute of Genealogical Studies has a Pinterest account and you can follow us HERE. As you are researching online, you visit many websites while working on your research projects – how can you organize and keep track of them? Where can you keep them all in one place and have access to them wherever you are? In our Social Media Tools for the Wise Genealogist course, you will learn that Pinterest is a visual bookmarking website. It allows you to create “Boards” for various topics, which are like Bulletin Boards. You can “Pin” various website bookmarks to the appropriate topical board to be referenced later. These pins capture an image from that webpage and display it inside the board, along with a short description. The URL is linked so that when the image is clicked, that website will open. Boards are created with a title, which reflects your research topics and are usually displayed alphabetically. Inside your board, choose one of the pins with an image that best expresses what that board is about and save it to be displayed as the “cover” of that board. This provides a quick visual prompt as to what each board is about and builds a virtual library of your bookmarks. Pinterest Research Tips 1. When you pin all the websites you used for a specific genealogy project to one designated board, it is a great way to check back for all of the URL sources for your bibliography or reference materials.  2. When discussing a genealogy topic and you want to share a great resource site or database, you can quickly access it through the Pinterest app and share it on the spot. The International Institute of Genealogical Studies has created boards with links to many of our courses, packages and programs. For those who are visual learners, this is a way to quickly get an overview of what is being offered. New Boards and Pins will continue to be added until all of our courses are covered. Click on the course pins…

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