Starting Planning a Research Trip

By Shannon Combs-Bennett, Student When I started out on this genealogy path I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what it took to visit a research facility. Boy, was I wrong!  True, I knew how to use most search features on the computer, plus a card catalog, but there was so much more to a trip than I realized. I wish I knew about the course Planning a Research Trip Including Preparing for Salt Lake City  before I took my first major research trip. That is not to say that if you think you are an old hat at research  this course won’t be useful. Far from it. I am sure this blog post will prove to you that there is something for everyone in this course. My  first big research trip (away from home) was to the Allen County Library in Ft. Wayne, which was also at the same time as the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference that year. I was making it a comprehensive trip, since I am from Indiana, which meant that not only did I visit large and small repositories, family members, and dozens of cemeteries.  It was a great time, but it could have gone so much better. How do I know?  Well, I am still working on processing the data from that trip since I saved information in so many different ways and places. The first two modules of this course were fantastic in walking you through what to expect, how to prepare, and what to do when you get home from your trip.  All those things I didn’t really take time to think about before my first trip. Like how to transport my research home safe and sound. For my trip I was lucky enough to be able to stay with family. Many people when they take a research trip will not be so lucky.  It was a nice touch that our instructors talked about how to learn more on where to find good lodging, navigating a new place, and other details that may normally fall through the cracks. When I travel it is usually with my family and I try to do activities outside of research with them as well. However, one tip from the course that I thought important was to consider attending a local genealogical or historical society meeting. There you might meet someone who is familiar with…

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Did You Know??

In the genealogy world we need to communicate with each other to keep abreast of the constantly evolving research methods and resources. The same is true within The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. As a student of The National Institute, there are various ways you can communicate with us and your fellow students. Here are just a few: #1. By email to the National Institute When contacting us please provide your first and last name and the course title, including the country the course applies to. i) admin@genealogicalstudies.com – for general questions; ii) alert@genealogicalstudies.com – to advise us of broken links in your course materials and assignments–please be specific as to where problem is; iii) exam@genealogicalstudies.com – questions pertaining to your course exam. #2. Attend a Virtual Meeting VIRTUAL MEETINGS ARE THE BEST PLACE TO COMMUNICATE with an instructor and fellow students. Anyone can participate! You do not have to be registered in the course to attend. Watch for our emails outlining upcoming virtual meetings dates and times. Or visit our website at www.genealogicalstudies.com, click on Information in the top menu bar, and then Virtual Learning Room for the full schedule. #3. Follow this  Blog On the right hand side of the blog  you will see Subscribe to Blog via Email. In the text box, enter your email address and click on the Subscribe button. Once subscribed, you will receive an email each time we post an article. Each blog article includes a link to write a comment or share via social media. Look for these options at the end of each blog post. #4. Follow us on Twitter Once signed into your Twitter account, search for us on Twitter by our Twitter name @GeneaStudies. On our Twitter page, click on the Follow button to subscribe to our tweets. Not a member of Twitter? No problem, just go to Twitter and join. Membership is free. #5. Follow the National Institute on Facebook Find us on Facebook at and click on the Like button on the top right of our page. #6. Join a GenealogyWise Group  Not a member of GenealogyWise, the social network of The National Institute?  Just go to www.genealogywise.com and sign up. Here you will find  groups  for each of the National Institute’s country streams; i.e. American, Australian, Canadian, English, German, Irish, and Scottish, as well as Methodology, Librarianship, Alumni, and First Timer FAQs. #7. Consultation with an instructor…

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The Importance of Analysis and Skills Mentoring

By Shannon Combs-Bennett, Student If you are working towards a certificate at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies,  the Analysis and Skills Mentoring 1, 2, and 3 courses are required subjects. However, as you will read below, they are also great ways to test if your genealogy methodology and research skills are up to par. I wrote previously about Analysis and Skills Mentoring 1 in this blog post so you can get an idea about that course. This blog post takes a look at both Analysis and Skills Mentoring 2 and 3 because they have the same elements and each one builds upon the other. The main difference between Analysis and Skills Mentoring 1 and the other two courses is that Analysis and Skills Mentoring 2 and 3 require you to transcribe and abstract a document. This can be one of the more difficult assignments for students.  Many feel it is because everyone has a different style of how they transcribe or abstract.  And, while this may be aesthetically true for abstracts, a transcription is a true-to-life copy of the original.  That fact by itself means that if you adhere to the guidelines taught in the course you will be fine.  Abstractions are the ones that I feel can be more difficult.  To me, beyond deleting the boiler point information, it feels almost subjective as to what you should leave in or take out. Beyond the transcription and abstraction, your assignments  include a series of research questions that test the skills you should have learned through the intermediate level (AS 2) and advanced level (AS 3) courses.  I didn’t feel they were too difficult, as long as you take your time and read through everything.  In one instance I rushed through an assignment, but luckily I put it to the side and came back later to review my work before submitting.  There were a couple glaring errors which should have stood out to me the first time!  So big tip: read and the re-read your submissions. All three Analysis and Skills Mentoring courses have a National Genealogical Society Quarterly journal article to read and analyze.  A lot of the students I talked with thought the Analysis and Skills Mentoring 2 reading, Organizing Meager Evidence to Reveal Lineages: An Irish Example-Geddes of Tyrone by Dr. Thomas W Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, was a bit harder than the Analysis and Skills Mentoring 3 article,…

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Do you use Panoramio?

If you’ve taken the Google for the Wise Genealogist course you are probably familiar with the mapping/image website Panoramio. Panoramio was a great mapping website for finding images of places and events. Unfortunately, like many great Google products it is closing. Recently, Google sent out an email to those using Panoramio. It reads in part: Back in 2014, we announced our intention to retire Panoramio in order to invest our efforts into improving photo-sharing experiences directly inside Google Maps. In response to your feedback, we postponed these plans and worked to add features to Maps that better support the level of engagement that you have enjoyed with Panoramio. Today, with photo upload tools in Google Maps and our Local Guides program, we are providing easy options for you to share your photos with an active and growing community. As such, we’ve decided to now close down Panoramio. To make this transition easier, we’ll provide several options to continue sharing photos through other services. If you choose, you can also export all your data and take it somewhere else. So, what does this mean if you have an account on Panoramio? Panoramio will be closed in November so you can choose to close your account or if you do nothing and have a Google Account, all photos will be migrated to a Google Photo Archive. Make sure that if you have added photos to Panoramio you download them. Also, go to Panoramio to learn more about this closure. You should have also received an email from Google that explains the closure and other products that take the place of Panoramio.  

New Course: Australian Health Records

What’s new at The National Institute? The course Australian: Health Records! Written by Australian genealogist and author Shauna Hicks, this course looks at how health records can help with family history research. Records for general hospitals, maternity hospitals, asylums, sanatoriums and other health institutions will be looked at together with staff records. In addition, we will explore specific epidemics and medical treatments that our ancestors might have been familiar with. The first offering of this course starts September 5th. To register for this course, please see out website.