Articles with Online Education

Focused for Success

Focused for Success

August is upon us and our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies are preparing for the next round of courses beginning on August 2nd. You still have a few days to join them. Check out the complete list of our 230+ courses here. There is so much more to discover! Registering for our online courses allows you to pursue your genealogical education in a format that is adaptable to your schedule and availability. Courses have a start date and a deadline for completion; however, you can set your own pace for coursework within that timeframe. Courses can be scheduled together or spaced apart. This allows you to complete courses individually or towards a certificate program based on the work load you can carry at that time. We have full-time students as well as students who are employed full-time and working on their courses at the same time. Most certificate programs require 40 courses to be completed – how long you take is up to you. Focused for Success Be aware that independent study takes discipline and focus! The definition of “Focused” (Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/focused. Accessed 01 Aug 2021) gives us some guidelines. It requires us to have our mind fixed on our education goals and not scattered in many directions. When our efforts are concentrated on a specific research stream, we will gain a comprehensive and thorough overview of each topic through the course materials. In other words, we need to be actively engaged – the opposite of…

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How Are Your 2021 Goals?

Can you believe that we are passed the halfway mark for 2021? The Winter Season will be settling in for those who are in the Southern Hemisphere. Summer Vacations and Lazy Days are ahead for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere – Except for some of our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies! They will be opening their July online genealogy courses to maximize their time and seize the opportunity to advance their genealogy educational prospects. How are You Doing with Your 2021 Goals? Remember those genealogy goals you made back in January 2021? It’s time to stop and look back over the last six months and see what you have accomplished. Have you completed some of them? Are some goals still “a work in progress”? Or maybe you looked at the list and were surprized by some goals that you had forgotten about. Goals are important to keep us on task. They define our plan of action and help us to use our time efficiently. They must also be practical. Goals that are too big and require a long-term commitment should be broken down into doable chunks. This will give us a sense of accomplishment as we can cross them off our checklist! Evaluate Your Education Plan We must also take time to evaluate, not only what has been completed, but what is still incomplete. Make a plan for the second half of 2021: monthly, quarterly (3 months) and to the end of the year (6…

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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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