Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

15
Oct

Updating Your Education for Free

   Posted by: HystoryByts Tags: , , , , , , ,

Taking genealogy courses allow you to update what you already know, or learn new things. There are PLENTY of genealogy places that offer courses, so you need to review who’s giving the course, what the course subject is, does it require any prerequisites to take the course you want to take, is it online learning or at home learning, and – sometimes the most important part – how much it costs.

Anyone can get started in genealogy without needing any education. But we often find out that a course or two really enhances our knowledge. There are many paid sites where you can register for courses, but Genealogy.com offers FREE courses through their Online University. Their course offerings include Beginning Genealogy, Internet Genealogy, Tracing Immigrant Origins, and Researching with Genealogy.Com. They also have some fundamental articles on Getting Started on their site.

FamilySearch also offers free courses online. Their courses also range from beginner to advanced, and cover many topics from ethnic groups to international research. And their courses are offered in a variety of languages. Family Search is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As with any popular hobby, there’s always someone out there trying to do their best to lure you in to their website fraudulently. About.com offers a great page on “How to Identify & Avoid Genealogy Scams” which you should check out if you have any questions about the site or an email that you receive.

On a quick aside: thanks for the inquiries that have come personally. Having had some health issues the past few months has side-tracked my ability to post. I appreciate your concern and well wishes!

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22
Jan

Technology and Genealogy

   Posted by: HystoryByts Tags: , , , , ,

Technology can certainly help us with our research and organization! As a gadget addict, I can attest to having a lot of techno-baubles. I received an email with the question, “How much do you really think you’ll write about technology and not genealogy on your blog?” Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure that I can separate the two personally, as I use so much technology. But I do know that there’s LOTS to be written about. If you have something specific you’d like to know about, drop me a line or add a comment.

As supporting evidence, I’d like to introduce you to RootsTech, the family history and technology conference. This year, RootsTech is February 2-4 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. Yes, this year – it happens annually. There’s that much to learn about technology and genealogy.

There are two specific sides to RootsTech: developers and users. Developers come to share information about creating the gadgets and programs that may be of use to genealogists. Genealogists come to find out the latest methods of making our searches easier. Plus, as users, we have a opportunity to tell the developers what works, what doesn’t, and what wild wishes we’d like to see created. Both Ancestry and Familysearch organizations have multiple representatives on hand giving speeches, workshops, or just listening.

Some of the speakers will include:

  • D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS — Do I Trust the Cloud?
  • David Barney — Google’s Efforts to Improve Genealogy Research
  • Kory Meyerink — The Fifty Most Popular Genealogy Websites (Really!)

And if all that isn’t enough, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy runs starting today with educational tracks designed for the more advanced researcher. While too late to register now, you can look at the different class tracks offered this year. It runs through the 27th – just before RootsTech. So if you have a couple weeks free…

 

Rootstech

 

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