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…

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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…

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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.

We Want You! For the FGS Conference

Would you like to attend the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference August 31-September 3, 2016? We’re looking for students who would like to help in our Exhibit Hall booth in exchange for a conference registration (a $250 value). Requirements? Assist with answering questions between presentations. All you need is a friendly, outgoing personality and your passion for genealogy education! Interested? Email us at admin@genealogicalstudies.com

Are You Going? The Great Canadian Genealogy Summit

21-23 OCTOBER 2016 | Courtyard by Marriott Brampton  Derived out of a passion for family history, three Canadian genealogists banded together to develop a conference structure which has a mission to promote Canadian genealogists by providing them a platform to showcase their talents as well as share their knowledge and passion for genealogy with others. Those three Canadian genealogists are: Christine Woodcock of Genealogy Tours of Scotland.   Kathryn Lake Hogan of Looking4Ancestors, and Dominion Genealogist, UELAC.   Mike Quackenbush, professional genealogist specializing in English and Canadian research. The summit will feature five research tracks of interest to Canadian family history researchers: Canadian, English, Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian. Other options include a pre-summit day at the Archives of Ontario and a Loyalist workshop with the Dominion Genealogist of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada. Opening Keynote Speaker is Jennifer Debruin, author of the soon to be published book Daughter of Conflict.  With deep ancestral roots in New France/Quebec, Upper Canada/Ontario, and colonial America, Jennifer is interested in exploring the human story within this rich history. Combining her passion and experience in writing, education, history, and genealogy, she writes fact-based historical fiction. In addition to Christine, Kathryn and Mike, session speakers will feature:   Ruth Blair, PLCGS of Blair Archival Research. Ruth is a Canadian professional genealogist specializing in Irish research.   Louise St. Denis, PLCGS is the Director of the National Institute for Genealogical Research. Louise is home-grown French-Canadian and specializes in genealogical methodology and French-Canadian research. Closing Keynote Speaker is The Armchair Genealogist. Lynn is a popular…

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