Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your 2016 Genealogy Education Plans

It's another great assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1) What are your genealogy education plans for 2016?  Local society meetings or seminars?  Regional or national conferences?  Weeklong institutes?  Genealogy cruises?  Podcasts?  YouTube Videos?  Webinars or Hangouts On Air?  Magazines?  Websites?  Blogs?

2)  How much time do you invest in Genealogy Education?  Why do you do it?

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here are my answers:

1. My 2016 genealogy education plan is:

a. Attend Institutes.

• Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG).  This is already completed. I attended the course “Advanced Genealogical Methods” with Thomas W. Jones. It was a very rigorous class but very rewarding. I knew there would be homework, so made no effort to research at the Family History Library in the evenings of the class and instead worked on the homework. Completing the homework really helped solidify the ideas and techniques he taught in the class. I highly recommend it. The schedule for 2017 was announced at the banquet and will be posted to their website soon. (P.S. I arrived early the week before to get in my researching fix at the Family History Library).

• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP). I would like to take Judy G. Russell’s class “Women and Children First! Research Methods for the Hidden Members of the Family.”

b. Online Classes.

• Legacy Family Tree webinars, usually on Wednesday.  Many classes about specific record groups or ethnic study.

• Various genealogy society webinars given by Illinois Genealogical Society, Southern California Genealogical Society, and others.

• Virtual Institute Of Genealogy Research (VIGR) might have some offerings this year that will be useful.

c. Other online education.

• Study groups with DearMyrtle.  She has several opportunities during the week including Mondays With Myrt, Wacky Wednesday, and special topic workshops. I have been a panelist on several of the previous study groups where we take a specific topic, explore it in depth, and talk about it.

• Bootcamps created by Thomas MacEntee at Hack Genealogy. I attended two Bootcamps previously and will take “Scrivener II: Beyond the Basics” this coming Saturday.

d. Local and regional society activities. 

• I will attend most of the meetings of the Contra Costa County Society and the Sacramento German Genealogical Society meetings. I will attend classes and teach classes at the California Genealogical Society.   

• Once a year seminars given by other local societies will also be an attraction.

e. Classes and presentations.

• I am part of the joint Contra Costa County Genealogical Society and Concord Family History Center intermediate genealogy class called “Beyond the Basics” class, a 6 week course continuing where we left off with our introduction class.

• I will also be giving presentations throughout the year to several local genealogy societies.

f.  Self-study.

• I also read several publications, such as the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, and follow many blogs. I probably spend about 25-30% of my time on education, counting the time spent learning about new resources and localities of places where my ancestors lived.

Education is important. I spend time in organized classes taught by experts in the field and I spent time with self-study, focusing on what I need for personal research.

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