Grammar, Writing, and Writing Groups

By Shannon Combs Bennett, Student Alright, Module 1 of the course Writing for Genealogy: Articles, Blogs, Research Reports and so much more spoke to me. Remember how I confessed I am not a grammar person and spelling eludes me in the introduction post to this course? Well, yeah, guess what Module 1 covered? Yep, all that fun stuff. Oh, and education. Specifically education on writing. WIN! Our instructor subtly chastised those of us with poor grammar and who are spelling challenged. Yeah, I know it’s important, but for some reason my scientific mind just won’t let that stuff penetrate. It’s like my brain sees the rules coming toward it and an invisible field pops up bouncing it back and a blank confused stare comes across my face. I will endeavor to be better, and stop bothering friends to edit my work. Well, I will try to not do it so often. How about that? I was excited to see the large number of resources listed for further education. Pages in fact on so many topics that will help you write better. Currently I am trying to locate some of them either through the library or on sale. You can never have too many books. In addition to books there were also websites you can take to help with your writing education. I looked a few of them up and there was some really good websites listed. One that is mentioned that I have some experience with is Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair…

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Practice Your German Language Skills

Michele Simmons Lewis, Student I have a tip for anyone working through the German courses. If you want some real life practice reading German documents I highly recommend that you volunteer as an indexer for FamilySearch. Not only will you be giving back to the genealogy community you will be putting what you are learning in the German courses into use and you will get feedback on how well you did.   Don’t know what Indexing is?  Here is some general information: The Family History Library is digitizing their microfilm. They need volunteers to index the images to make them more user friendly for researchers. You will download a small indexing program to your computer (FamilySearch will be switching over to a web-based indexing system soon). You can see what the program looks like and how it works HERE. You will need to watch/read all of the training materials You can then select a batch and off you go! “But I am worried that I won’t be able to read the handwriting and I will make a mistake!” All batches are indexed by TWO indexes. If the indexers disagree on anything the entire batch goes to an arbitrator who will decide There are batches for beginner, intermediate and advanced indexers If you ever pick up a batch and it looks too difficult you can throw it back into the queue and pick up a different one If there is something on a batch you need help with you can “share”…

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Beginning My Next Course: Writing for Genealogy

By Shannon Bennett, Student Until a few years ago I didn’t think of myself as a writer. Lab reports, I could write those, they were methodical and easy. Or at least I thought so. Too many times through my education I was told that I didn’t have “it” for writing. Mainly the “it” referred to the rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The bane of my primary school years were all those rules that made my head hurt. However, give me a good creative writing assignment and I was off. In fact in 9th and 11th grade I placed in school-wide writing competitions that didn’t necessarily care about the intricacies of the English language, but focused on the content of the prose. Now that I am researching and documenting my family history I write more and more each day. With the increase in my writing came a knowledge that writing for the purposes of genealogy was a whole new ball game for me. What in the world was I in for? At the time I read genealogy magazines and journals looking at them like they were a foreign language. Blogs on every topic were available, and I quickly fell into writing my own. My writing evolved and took on a life of its own. But, was there more to it than what I was already doing?  I honestly didn’t know. Which is why I am here. This course, Writing for Genealogy: Articles, Blogs, Research Reports and so much more ,…

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Learning More About the German Language

by Michele Simmons Lewis, Student I just completed my third National Institute for Genealogical Studies German course, German: The Language . I was looking forward to this one because I was wondering what the course could teach me considering that I am a native German. I was in for a few surprises. According to the course description found online, the course  covers the classification of German words, fundamentals of German grammar for family historians, and basic spelling conventions. The description states “One does not need to become fluent in the German language to be a good genealogist in German records. This course introduces the key information needed about the German language so researchers can be successful in reading German. Pronunciation of and writing in German is not generally necessary for genealogical research.” This course begins by teaching the basic language structure and essential German genealogy vocabulary, and then you translate excerpts from actual documents. There are 16 translation assignments but before you start having palpitations, each assignment is pretty short. After you translate each section you will then get to see the translation from the instructor. You can put all of these together to make your own translation guide for each type of document to refer back to. One thing that you learn very quickly is that once you know the basic root words you will recognize a lot of words in the documents. For example, any word that contains Geburt has something to do with a birth. I bought…

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10 Things I Think You Should Know About Google

By Shannon Bennett, Student One of the courses offered to potential students from The National Institute is Google for the Wise Genealogist . I signed up for this course at a local genealogy seminar, but many of you might have registered for it at any of the big conferences where The National Institute has a booth.  It is a good course that gives the student a basic run down on using Google for genealogy and, since the website changes frequently, is updated annually. To stray away from my normal blog post method of a series of posts taking you through all the modules, I thought we would do it a bit differently this time.  Today, you are getting 10 things I think you should know about Google.  All of which you will learn more about through this course. Without further ado, and in no particular order, the 10 items! 1. Maps:  Okay, I know lots of you use Google Maps to plan routes for trips or to look up addresses, but there is so much more you can do with them!  Have you ever thought about mapping out a person’s migration across the US or the world?  Or how about using street view to see if the old family home is still there? 2. Alerts:  Google Alerts are a great way to let the Internet do the work for you. Simply create an alert for a names, phrase, or location and let Google work its magic. When it finds what…

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