New Course: Personal Historian – Video Techniques

Are you a professional genealogist or a personal historian looking to add  video taped interviews to your services? Ready to enhance your current audio visual skills? Personal Historian: Video Techniques is the course you’ve been searching for! Personal Historian: Video Techniques  was written by Carol Cassidy,  a well-known expert in her field. Carol Cassidy has been using cameras and audio gear to record and share first-person life stories for almost 30 years. Her clients include PBS stations, the BBC, CNN, human rights groups and the United Nations. She has worked in 35 countries, often collecting first-person stories in war zones, refugee camps and disaster areas. Carol holds a master’s degree from New York University. She is the author of a book of first-person interviews collected in conjunction with a PBS documentary series she produced and directed. She is the recipient of ten competitive fellowships, including one from the American Film Institute, one from the PBS Producer’s Academy, two from the (US) National Endowment for the Arts and three from the (US) Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Carol has taught film and video making at institutions including UCLA Film School, the International Film and Television Workshops in Maine and Atlanta’s Image Film and Video Center. Personal Historian: Video Techniques is designed to introduce the basics of audio-video production for personal historians and genealogists, that is, people who want to use current digital audio and video tools to record, edit and share life stories. Audio-video productions encompass four phases of work: pre-production, production,…

Continue reading

More About the Course German: Civil Registration Records

By Michele Simmons Lewis, Student In the course German: Civil Registration Records, the first thing you will learn is what types of civil records the German-speaking countries generate and where you can find them. Finding them is not as easy as it sounds. Every local jurisdiction has its own Standesamt (civil registry office). You have to know exactly where your ancestor lived to find his/her records. Since I had already taken the German: Locating Places in Germany course this was familiar territory. German gazetteers like Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs will help you find the correct jurisdiction. Civil registration started early on, as early as 1792 in some places, so this is a great source for birth , marriage, and death certificates (Geburtsurkunden, Heiratsurkunden und Sterbeurkunden). In the second module of this course you learn what sort of information you can expect to find in these records. German civil records are fairly uniform across the different jurisdictions and contain a lot of genealogical data. Many Standesamts used typeset, fill-in-the blank forms which usually makes them easier to read than church records of the same time period. Many of Germany’s civil records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library (FHL). The FHL’s FamilySearch website is starting to upload some of these microfilms online as they are being digitized (check the Records collection for Germany). Don’t make the mistake of thinking that what you see on FamilySearch is all there is. You must also check the FamilySearch Catalog. You…

Continue reading

New Course: Business Skills: Marketing Your Services

Ask anyone who has tried their hand at running a small business. If you start it, they (clients) won’t necessarily come. Marketing is the way to get the word out about your business, so that potential clients or customers will find you. As with most professionals, you may prefer to spend your time and energy doing what you do best—whether that is writing books of families’ histories, making video-biographies, or capturing oral histories for a business history—but in order to find clients, you must give adequate attention to marketing. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is proud to announce a new course by Personal Historian Diane Dassow. Business Skills: Marketing Your Services is the latest course offering in the Professional Development Certificate to help you start and be successful in a genealogy business. In this course, we will present the basic methods and topics in marketing, geared toward a small business owner like a personal historian or professional genealogist. You can read more about the course on our website. The first offering of this 8-week course is April 2015. It is recommended that you have taken the course, Business Skills: Creating a Genealogy Business, or at least have written a business plan and started a business.

New Course- Research: British India Ancestors

Research: British India Ancestors is the newest course from The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Written by genealogist, writer, and historical researcher Emma Jolly, this course gives an introduction to researching ancestors in India, during the time of British involvement and rule. The course focuses mainly on British ancestors, but includes records that are relevant to other Europeans in India, as well as Anglo-Indians. Topics covered include: Module 1: East India Company & Beginnings of British Involvement in India 1857 Indian Mutiny India Office Records & direct rule from Britain Rise of Indian nationalism 1947 Independence Life (and records) from 1948 Module 2: Maps & Place Names Changing Borders of ‘British India’ Princely States & other areas beyond direct British control Variants in spelling & place name changes Travel to & from India: changes over time Suez Canal Passenger Lists Ship Records Module 3: Vital Events, Church Records & Probate Online Indexes Digital Books Church records (Anglican & non-Anglican) Civil registration Transcription Forms Baptism Record Marriage Record Burial Record Christianity in India Schools & orphanages Cemeteries Probate in India Probate pre-1727 Probate in the UK Module 4: Armed Forces & Merchant Seaman East India Company’s Armies Cadet Papers Other Records of Officers Printed Books Hodson’s Index Soldiers and NCOs Soldiers in the British Army who served in India Indian Army Officers British Army Other Ranks Indian Navy & Royal Indian Marine/Navy East India Company Naval Service East Indiamen EIC Mercantile Marine Bengal Marine Bengal Pilot Service 1669-1948 Bombay Marine 1613-1830 Indian…

Continue reading

Finishing Up US Land Records

By Shannon Combs Bennett, Student Believe it or not I was surprised by what I learned in the US Land Records course.  Yes, I knew it was a record set that I was not extremely familiar with, but the amount I didn’t know was surprising to me.  It seems just looking at maps and going to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) website is not enough to learn this information! Through my posts I just touched on the information taught in  the course.  It was really just the tip of the iceberg.  The ideas for further research on my own family using these land records are swirling around my head.  Now, I just need to find the time. I am very curious to see if I can find homesteaders anywhere in my family tree simply for the potentially large genealogical payout.  Yes, I am still hoping, with fingers and toes crossed, for those mysterious origins for some of my family members.  You know, the ones who just seemed to spring off the page fully formed with no origin.