The Down-Low on Abstracting

By Shannon Bennett, Student   This next section, Modules 3 and 4,  of the course Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting  was a close-up look at creating an abstract. For those of you who do not know what an abstract is, the instructor defines it as “an abbreviation of the original content in a document.” Simply put, it is the bones of the document with all the superfluous information taken away. The instructor provided tips throughout the module to help you with your abstractions. One that I particularly liked was to count the names from the document and make sure you have the same number of names in your final abstract. Names, dates, places, and other pertinent information should not be deleted. At times you will need to quote large sections from the document, like with a land record.  Sometimes it can be a bit challenging to figure out what is important and what is not, until you get the hang of it. Part of me thinks this is where practice makes perfect. In this course, you will get a lot of practice from a variety of sources. Module 4 was only practice. I have said it before, abstractions and transcriptions are a bit of an art form, which once again comes with lots and lots of practice. How many of you have letters or documents that need this treatment?  Bet your house is full of practice items just waiting for you. I was pretty comfortable with abstraction before I came…

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Do you Really Know Transcribing?

By Shannon Bennett, Student   Well, this course didn’t dally around; it jumped straight into the nuts and bolts of creating a good transcription. While several of the courses I previously wrote about did touch on the basics of transcription, Modules 1 and 2 of Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting  provides an intense introduction to the process. Yes, I have already created transcriptions, but as I stated in a prior post, the early ones were bad, in some cases, very bad. Transcriptions are an art form you need to learn and I know I am still developing those skills. Practice makes perfect though, and the more you read handwritten documents the better you get at creating transcriptions. I particularly liked where the instructor walked us through various ways to use our word processing software, allowing our transcriptions to be more true to form. While several of these tricks I knew about there were several that I didn’t. Or, at least I had never given much thought to it. For instance, and I feel like a dolt that I didn’t think of this before, you can turn off the spell/grammar checker as well as the auto-capitalization features of your software. The worst part of typing a transcription is the way it will automatically fix “bad” spelling and auto capitalize words on new lines. If you have not created a transcription you may not understand why this would be a problem but I assure you it can be. Since transcriptions are true…

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New Course Announced: Research African American Ancestors

Researching African American  genealogy can be difficult but it is not impossible. The new National Institute for Genealogical Studies course Research: African American Ancestors focuses on three aspects of genealogical research and how these relate specifically to researching African Americans: research skill, knowledge of records, and understanding of historical context. The course is organized into reverse chronological eras, beginning with the twentieth century and moving through the late nineteenth century and Reconstruction, the Civil War era, and the antebellum (pre-Civil War) period. In each lesson, case studies and assignments demonstrate and test the skills being developed. Research: African American Ancestors written by genealogist and author Michael Hait, CG  begins on Monday, July 7th. Use coupon code Take25AA for 25% off. Hurry! Offer ends July 14th.

Next Course: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting

By Shannon Bennett, Student The next required course I am taking for the National Institute is Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting. If you have followed my journey so far you might be able to guess what my reaction to this course is going to be. Of course, it was pure excitement! Seriously, even though these may be tedious activities to do, and the least fun of all the possible genealogy chores, they are important skills for successful research. Practice makes perfect, both in the world at large and in genealogy. Every year I can see my skills improve, and I am interested to see how this course will add to my experience. It will hopefully fill any holes that I still have in these three related areas. After looking through the course table of contents I was excited to see practical exercises. Once again, practice makes perfect and these practical lessons will help with that. Every time I have to read, analyze, and dissect a period handwritten document the sharper my skills are. I kind of hope there are a few unusual ones thrown in there because it is the weird ones that make you really work. Even if they are a record type that I might not personally go try and find it would still be interesting to work through them. I also looked through the suggested reading list. Thankfully I have all of the books on my shelf already.  I was excited to see Reading Early American Handwriting…

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Finishing Up Demystifying Culture and Folklore

By Shannon Bennett, Student     Whoa, what a course. It made me think. It made me analyze my family connections. Most of all it showed me how great of a story my family narrative is! Amazing stuff, and I am so happy that I registered for it. For those of you who are still not convinced, I am not sure there is much else I could say to sway you.  However, I will do my best. The rest of you who like stories and putting pieces of information together in new ways need to take this course.  Need reasons? Okay, here are a few. This course makes you think about your family in ways that traditional genealogy may not. While you may have thought, in a roundabout way, about what your ancestors lives may have been like, I bet you didn’t do it like we learned in this class.  Did you ever think about various influences that could affect their decisions? Or how about the cultural cues or biases they had and how that effected their American born children? My upbringing certainly influenced the ways I raise my children just like the way my parents were raised influenced my childhood.  Going through the stories again and again, listening to different perspectives, and looking at the family through the documents it was easy to see how and why this happened. The immigrant ancestor was still present in many ways; they were still affecting in subtle ways how their descendants behaved…

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