New Course: Eastern European Introduction

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is proud to announce a new course written by author and professional genealogist Lisa Alzo, Eastern European: Introduction to Research for North Americans. A vast number of immigrants came to North America from various areas in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unfortunately, in the past, those with Eastern European roots have been reticent to begin research on their immigrant ancestors due to perceived barriers of language, geography, and difficulty with accessing and understanding the records. The purpose of this course is to begin the teaching of genealogical concepts pertinent to Eastern European research. It introduces the basic concepts needed to succeed in Eastern European research, and begins to dispel the notion that Eastern European research is difficult. Actually, from a research perspective, it is much easier than it used to be thanks to a surge in interest, the Internet, and greater accessibility to archival records and other resources. To learn more about this course and to register see our website.

Societies and Immigrants

  By Shannon Combs-Bennett, Student I am a member of a fraternity. No, seriously.  While it may not be as impressive as some of the fraternal orders our ancestors were a part of I am super proud to be a member of a professional fraternity. Best part, these types of organizations keep records. Which is what the last module of the course US Immigration and Naturalization Records taught us. Module 6 was on the subject of ethnic sources, societies, and newspapers. Once again, I felt left out since it didn’t directly affect my personal story, but the information was very enthralling. I honestly had no idea about many of the sources discussed or the groups that were active in  different ethnic communities. In the future I am sure this information will help me with research into other people’s lineages. The majority of the chapter was about societies. I liked that our instructor broke them up by the type of society. The sections were: fraternal, ethnic, and charitable. While many people belong to several different types of societies, I thought it was important to note that there was not a standard way they all functioned. Each was formed for a different reason, with a different mission statement, and different entry rules. That being said I did not know so many of them kept such extensive records. The one I knew kept great records was the Free Masons. I have ancestors who were Free Masons and have worked on locating those records.…

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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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