Transcription Tuesday: Census Names

Whether you are just beginning your family history journey, you are a professional genealogist, or somewhere in between, learning the importance of Transcribing every document we discover in our research will greatly influence your success. Census records are one of those documents not to be skimmed through too quickly.   One of the first things we look for in a census record is the names. We want to find that family group listing everyone in the household. Sometimes this is easy. We search in our favourite database and there they are – just where we expected them to be. But what if they aren’t?  Maybe the census was taken before the birth of some of the children we expected to see. Some family members who were on the previous census are absent because they have died. Sadly, some children were born and died in the years between the last census and the next. Perhaps an older child has left the family home to seek employment opportunities, or they were married and have started their own family, either nearby in the same community or elsewhere.  A common reason for those elusive missing entries is not knowing how to find them. The biggest tip is to search for the most unique name in the family. Pricilla is going to be easier to find than Mary or Ann. Once found, check to see if her family members match your list of her siblings and parents. However, with unique names comes some creative spelling variations, so watch…

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Transcription Tuesday: Transcription Definition

As part of the online skill-building education at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies, new students, as well as professional genealogists, learn the importance of Transcribing every document they discover in their family research. Although it may take extra effort to make a transcription, the benefits will soon be apparent. How often have you left a document written in an older script for a few days, and when you returned to your research, you found that you needed to decipher the handwriting again? The first step is to make a copy of the original document and put it away. This is especially true for those of fragile materials. By using this copy to make a transcription, the text of a document can be worked on, while avoiding the wear and tear of the original document. Never write on an original; copies of documents can be marked with notes, highlighters, and notations for further examination and research, preserving the original document. First, let’s look at a definition. What is a Transcription? A transcription is a true, word-for-word rendering of a document with the original punctuation and spelling (i.e., an exact copy of the original, line by line, sentence by sentence, word by word, and letter by letter). All notes and marks on any page are copied as faithfully as possible in the presented formatting. It includes all spellings, capitalizations and punctuations as it was written. No corrections are made to spelling or capitalization. It includes the whole record—front and back, with…

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Celebrating Student Success

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies encourages family historians and researchers to expand their skills, not only for research, but in many areas. Our online courses cover a vast array of topics related to documenting our family history. We strive to assist our students in the development of new skills, while providing the knowledge and practical application for the material covered in their selected studies. We love to celebrate the achievements of our students and share their successes. Today, we want to share a testimonial from our student, Carol Walsh, in her own words as she shared her achievement with her fellow students: I would like to share with you a great thing that comes from these courses. After attending the Roots Tech conference earlier this year, one of the presenters talked about writing stories to share genealogical events with our younger family members. Having completed a segment of work on my Grandfather, I did just that…started to write a book around this event. I am so excited to share that this book has been published. Thank you for all the lessons learned through my experience in this program. This project all started from a couple of photographs, studying the elements in the photographs, investigative research, and bits of retained knowledge from family stories – put this all together. Not only does this book retain the story, but provides some insight into teamwork, dreams, boats, and dreams coming true. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the training…

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Writing Our Family Stories

Our Family History is filled with names, dates, places, and the discoveries of our families’ involvement in historical events. Most importantly, it is filled with STORIES! Stories that need to be recorded and preserved, and then shared, not only with our own family members, but also with others who may have similar connections, or just want to learn the history of their communities. Many of our stories involve the social history of our ancestors. They tell of countless everyday lives and the activities that they participated in, as they interacted within their neighbourhoods and family relationships. We uncover mysteries and heroism, courage and perseverance, tragedies and triumphs, love and loss – stories stranger than fiction, and stories we have never heard before, because they were never passed down. These stories are the real reason we continue researching – to find the why, and the where, and the how of our ancestors’ lives. We must find…. the rest of the story! We become the caretakers of those stories, and we have a responsibility to ensure they are preserved. They are our Heritage. At The National Institute for Genealogical Studies, it is our goal to provide genealogical-related educational materials to assist family historians and researchers to expand their skills, not only for research, but in many areas. Methodology is foundational; and knowing where to locate essential documents is absolutely vital. However, our online courses cover a vast array of other topics related to documenting our family history. One of those areas is…

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Keeping in Touch

Do you have a question about your courses or your research? Communication is so important in genealogy in order to keep abreast of constantly evolving information. 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 (see below). We want all of our students to enjoy their learning experience. Please do not worry or fret over your courses by yourself. We are here to help you! **** NOTE: Our social media accounts are NOT monitored regularly. If you need an answer quickly, please call us on the phone. We can be reached at 1-800-580-0165, ext. #1 (North America) or 1-416-861-0165. Please leave a message. If no one answers, we will call you back. #1 By email to The National Institute **** NOTE: When contacting us, please INCLUDE your FIRST & LAST NAME, and the full COURSE TITLE (including the COUNTRY, if it is a records course). It is also helpful if you include the module number and section that title you are referring 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 GIVE SPECIFIC DETAILS; i.e., provide the COURSE NAME, MODULE NUMBER, WEBSITE NAME, and URL. iii) exam@genealogicalstudies.com – questions pertaining to your course exam. #2 By email to a fellow student When you view a fellow student’s public assignment SUBMISSION/ANSWER, and you would like to contact them about something in…

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