Articles with Skill Building

The Waiting is Finally Over
The Waiting is Finally Over

The Waiting is Finally Over

The hourglass has finally run its course leading up to our Second Announcement. Thank you for your patience. No more suspense, the details are now released.  A Special Announcement from The National Institute for Genealogical Studies: 20% DISCOUNT – words you like to hear… REGISTRATION FEE INCREASE… words I am sure you don’t want to hear.  December 2007 was the last time the registration fees were adjusted. Yes, you read that correctly, 14 years ago! Remember 2008? That’s when the economy was hit hard. We froze the fees in 2008, and although we have tried numerous times since to raise the fees, the timing simply was not right. Nearly two years ago, in March 2020, we were in the process of again starting the process and then… Covid hit. People were losing their jobs; again, we pulled back and left the fees where they were.  The time has come; it must be done. BUT it is not all bad news… We know that for some, this will be more difficult than for others. Here are some OPTIONS: 20% DISCOUNT on ALL registrations (includes individual courses and packages). Use CODE at checkout. (We had originally planned for a 10% discount, but it’s the time of the year to be jolly!) Note: CODE has now expired.Registrations must be received by midnight Eastern Time on Monday, December 20th. Register Packages to complete your program. Save substantially: the more courses in the package, the bigger the savings. (Not sure what you need to finish your program? Contact us.) Money is a little…

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Our Recent Professional Development Graduate

Our Recent Professional Development Graduate

Introducing our Graduate of the Professional Development Certificate between June 2019 and October 2021. What an impressive achievement! It took a lot of hard work, patience, and determination to reach your goal. It is time to celebrate the success of all our recent graduate. We are so very proud of you.  PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CERTIFICATE Lynn Reesor, PLCGS Warmest congratulations to our graduate, Lynn…  Our Team at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Graduate has completed all requirements for our Professional Development Certificate Follow us on Social Media: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. *Note: Please be aware our social media accounts are monitored regularly, but NOT 24/7. If you have any questions, please contact the office directly.  Contact information:1 (800) 580-0165 x1Website: www.GenealogicalStudies.comBlog: blog.GenealogicalStudies.com

Transcription Tuesday – Town Clerk

Transcription Tuesday – Town Clerk

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies encourages researchers to explore various types of historical documents as they pursue their family’s stories. Our research must reach beyond birth, marriage and death records. There are many more to discover!  As the scope of our research project widens, we must continue to develop our Transcription Skills, becoming more and more familiar with the handwriting used in the time frame of our research. We may eventually begin to recognize whose handwriting is used in an entry. To discover your ancestor’s signature on a document is exciting, but even more so when you discover more of their handwriting than just their name. Determining their occupation could lead to finding samples of their handwriting in other documents. A good example of this is to discover your ancestor was the Town Clerk. This could lead to revealing many records that he personally entered, including – his signature. There is a thrill to knowing that his hand wrote those words on that page. Township Records In Colonial New England, many towns kept Township Records. These are rich with genealogical information, with families often grouped together in the records. When the New England Planters came and settled in Nova Scotia in the 1760s, they established the same system of record keeping. The entries were recorded by the Town Clerk. The following death record was found as one of the “Selected Items” in the Township Records for New England Planters at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.   Nova Scotia Archives – Truro…

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Transcription Tuesday – Italian Handwriting

Transcription Tuesday – Italian Handwriting

On the first Monday of each month, the next rotation of our online courses begins. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers 230+ online courses on a wide variety of topics, providing genealogical education for those interested in beginning to research their family history, as well as professional genealogists.  One of the foundational research skills for our students to develop is Transcribing. For this reason, we have created a compulsory Basic Level course (Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting ) to equip all of our certificate students with this vital ability. However, all family history researchers, no matter what their level of expertise, should strive to acquire this core skill.  As we research our family history, many of us will eventually encounter immigrant ancestors. As we document their arrival, we gain clues for their country of origin. Many times, this will involve a change of language and introduce us to records in an unfamiliar country. Time needs to spent learning about what is available and where to find more information. It is recommended to consult the FamilySearch Wiki as a launching point. Choose your country of interest. We will be using Italy Genealogy for examples today.  One of the first challenges we are faced with is different languages, but also the handwriting that was used in various historical time periods, for specific record types, and even in locations or districts involved with their homeland. Be sure to study everything you can gather about the location where your research will be focused.  We have developed an essential…

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Transcription Tuesday – Scottish Handwriting

Transcription Tuesday – Scottish Handwriting

As you pursue your family history research, you will at some point, encounter difficult-to-read handwriting on a document of interest. Therefore, transcriptions should become a regular part of your research projects. Transcription Skills are developed by transcribing; there is no shortcut. Transcribing documents gives opportunity to make a clear and easy-to-read transcription for future reference and analysis. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers a variety of course topics for developing these skills through record groups from various countries. To become familiar with the handwriting of a certain time period, and in particular location, take some time to find out what script was being used. It may surprize some new researchers that not only were there different handwriting styles, but also scripts used only in certain settings. Finding these general rules will save a lot of time. Our Basic Level course: Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting is a great place to start to develop your Transcribing Skills. As you go deeper and further back in time, you will encounter unfamiliar text and handwriting scripts. Our Advanced Level course: Palaeography: Reading & Understanding Historical Documents will help you to meet these challenges and to eventually master the handwriting you will encounter in historical documents. If you have Scottish Research, you will need to spend time exploring this website: Scottish Hanwriting.com, hosted by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). It is an online resource that provides tutorials for palaeography in the Scottish documents you will need to access.  In our Scottish Records Certificate program, we have courses that will examine…

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