Articles with Family History

Colonial Period Courses

Colonial Period Courses

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers online genealogical education for family history enthusiasts, genealogists and historians. Our courses are offered in Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced levels. You can register for courses individually, or receive a discount by choosing from a variety of packages. These are bundled either by specific theme or customized to your own interests. See the Full List of Packages here.  The Start Dates for courses are usually scheduled for the first Monday of the month, however, not all courses are available monthly. Be sure to check our Current Course Calendar for the dates when the courses of your choice are scheduled to open again. In our list of courses, there are four courses covering the Colonial period of the Eastern United States, focusing on the original Thirteen Colonies. These are valuable resources for anyone researching in this region and timeframe. Research: Mayflower Ancestors This course studies some of the very first settlers of Massachusetts. Learn how to properly document a descendant line by utilizing New England original and derivative records as well as sources specific to Mayflower research. Following their story and tracing each consecutive generation is a great way to recognize the 400+ years since their arrival in North America. Course Description for Research: Mayflower Ancestors Research: US Colonial New England Ancestors This course explores strategies for finding Colonial New England records while incorporating colonial town records, colonial census records, colonial land records and maps, the colonial wars, religious records, and court documents. Note: This is…

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Always Learning – Always Building Research Skills

In many places, June means that schools are winding down for another year and summer vacation is almost here! In other parts of the world, winter is looming closer every day. Our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies know that when it comes to genealogy, we are always learning, no matter which month is showing on the current calendar. There are always more courses on our wish list. Always Learning The list of topics for our genealogical studies should always include the places of origin for our ancestors; but researching our family history soon reaches much farther than just our ethnic origins. Our ancestors’ lives were more than the dates and places of the family’s births, marriages and deaths; it included historical events, and the hundreds of people they encountered along the way. Our goal is to learn as much as we can about their lives and the things which impacted their families. Always Building Research Skills How can we accomplish our genealogy goals? We must build our research skills. We simply do not know what we do not know. If we lack basic methodology skills, our research can take twice as long, repeating the same steps over again, and still have important elements missing, such as source citations or complete transcriptions of documents. When we are unaware of special record collections, we won’t know to access the information they contain. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers quality online education with over 230+ courses to choose from.…

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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…

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Ecclesiastical Marriage Banns

Religious Records are often among the first records we search for in our research projects. Many of the courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies cover various aspects of these vital records and give us a glimpse into the lives of our ancestors. (See this blog post about our Religious Records courses.) This week we continue our investigation of Marriage Banns in Module 2 of the Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2 course by examining the Ecclesiastical Marriage Banns for Sardo & Fontana. Ecclesiastical Marriage Banns – Melchiore Sardo & Giacoma Fontana Chiesa di San Nicolo, Trapani, Trapani province, Italy; “Matrimoni [marriage records, which included marriage banns], 1778”: no record number, 17 September 1778, ecclesiastical marriage banns for Melchiore Sardo and Giacoma Fontana; digitized images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed 4 Sep 2019). Translation – Ecclesiastical Marriage Banns – Melchiore Sardo & Giacoma Fontana Chiesa di San Nicolo, Trapani, Trapani province, Italy; “Matrimoni [marriage records, which included marriage banns], 1778”: no record number, 17 September 1778, ecclesiastical marriage banns for Melchiore Sardo and Giacoma Fontana; digitized images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed 4 Sep 2019). We can see that the 17th of September was the date of the request for marriage banns. The first bann was posted three days later, the second bann seven days after that, and the third bann only two days after the second bann. Thus fulfilling the requirement of three declarations. Both the bride and groom were living in the town of Trapani when their banns were posted. However, the bride was born…

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Marriage in the Roman Catholic Church

Religious Records cover a wide variety of documents. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers several courses covering this topic. (See this blog post about our Religious Records courses.) It is important to become familiar with the religious records relevant to the region and specific time period where you are researching. Records for the same denomination could be different depending on location and the local laws and regulations, even within the same country. As we continue to look at the Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2 course, we find that Marriage in the Roman Catholic Church is covered in Module 2. Here is a portion of what will be discussed. A 1564 decree made marriage in the Roman Catholic Church a sacrament. This was reinforced by Papal proclamation in 1595. The requirements for marriage, as dictated by the Council of Trent, were: Marriage was a sacrament and Church business Couples had to have parental consent, appear with parents/guardians Couples could not be forced into marriage, must have free choice Marriage must be performed in front of two witness Additionally, within parish marriage records, you will sometimes find registers for the Stato Libero (statement of free status) or Sponsati Contratti (marriage engagements/contracts). These records were for marriage engagements/contracts to be performed elsewhere, and for stating that the bride or groom was free to marry. The following is an example of this type of document. Statement of Free Status – Francesco d’Averzo & nine-year-old Michela Pizzolato, Catania, Italy Note: Italy has laws concerning privacy…

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