Happy Holidays To You!

  How about taking a moment to treat yourself to a gift? Now’s the time to get a deal on that course you have been wanting to take or that course package you need for your certificate.   Our gift to you, from now until the end of December, choose one of the following: 20% off one single package of your choice (Savings of up to $650) 50% off one single course of your choice (Savings of up to $80) To claim your discount use the following codes at checkout: Holiday20 for one single package of your choice Holiday50 for one single course of your choice   Hurry! Like 2015, this offer ends at midnight on December 31st.

Passports and the Immigrant

By Shannon Combs-Bennett, Student Ok, I am chugging right along through the US Immigration and Naturalization Records course and modules 3 and 4 were very cool.  Module 4 was a lot of new material for me, particularly since I have not spent a lot of time learning about Canadian border crossings. No one in my family (that I have found) ever came through Canada. My husband however is a different story. His great-grandparents nearly starved to death (according to his mother) trying to farm in Alberta from 1920-1922 before going on to Washington state to settle. While that was very interesting I was fascinated to read about the US passport regulations.  Nowadays we take it for granted that if you want to leave the country you need to get a passport.  It is a very simple process, and they are handy forms of government identification.  I did not realize  that this was not the law until 1941. Personally, I think passport applications are an underused resource for genealogists and should be used a heck of a lot more. Especially if you know your ancestor traveled a lot, either for fun or for business.  I learned this last year when I helped a friend start her genealogy journey.  Her great-grandfather traveled back and forth to Central America for work and the information on his application actually broke down a huge brick wall on where her family came from. She learned that his father was born in Scotland and what his name…

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Immigrant Origins

  By Shannon Combs-Bennett, Student Oh Module 2, you are my savior! Yes, in this module we delved into strategies for locating those pesky immigrant ancestor’s origins. Now, did it personally help me? No, not yet. I do hold out hope though that this module laid the groundwork for successful future research. Frequently, it may be said that  these courses pack a lot of information into a short amount of pages. I felt it was particularly helpful that this module was broken into 3 sections: Only the country of origin is known Only the county, district, or region of origin in known Specific place of origin  is known Seeing as all of my family fall into section 1, I studied the other sections for that day when I have a break through! In each section the instructor walked us through how to work with the information we have. He talked about clues we could use to find more information. Also listing many resources to research to determine if there are any hidden gems out there. There is even discussion on using foreign record sets when applicable. Unfortunately, you have to know the place name for your ancestor before that is a viable option in most cases. In section 2 PERSI was brought up.  PERSI, or the Periodical Source Index, is a great tool and I was excited to see it brought up in this course.  If you have never heard of PERSI, the  Family Search wiki has a great entry on…

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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…

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New Course: Organizing a One-Place Study

The newest addition to our Professional Development Certificate is here! Organizing a One-Place Study begins December 7th. One-place studies are the study of the people in a community within the context of the place they live. Unlike a local history, which focuses on the past as described by residents, a one-place (or community) study uses a statistical approach and resources often used by family historians. Because a one-place study brings family and local history together, various analysis methods can be used to reconstruct the community and gain an insight into the lives of the people who have walked the streets, ploughed the fields, worked and worshipped in a place. This course will suggest ways in which this could be done. This course will examine the sources of information available to researchers, how to access them (on- and off-line) and the fascinating details which can be uncovered. Read more about Organizing a One-Place Study on our website.